Page 2 | So frustrated with the market

Omgwtafisthat · 2023-07-29T18:13:46+00:00

Stuff still being priced as if it’s 2022! Stuff needing so much work, but work is so so expensive. we’ve been under offer for ages but just can’t find anything! Sorry for the rant but please tell me something will happen soon! if our buyer drops out we will not achieve the same price again but it seems that nothing onwards is being priced all that realistically! looked at one today which the EA described as ‘quirky’ but they still wanted a fortune for it! Ahhh!

Original poster

Omgwtafisthat · 30/07/2023 05:15

@VeniVidiWeeWee no I don’t feel bad if I’m offering them what I think it’s worth and if no one else wants to buy it!

OP posts:

Twiglets1 · 30/07/2023 05:34

Omgwtafisthat · 30/07/2023 05:15

@VeniVidiWeeWee no I don’t feel bad if I’m offering them what I think it’s worth and if no one else wants to buy it!

The trouble with the strategy of waiting for a house to come up that is priced very low because no one wants to buy it is that in all likelihood, you won’t want to buy it either.
Surprise, surprise- people with nice houses in good areas are not desperate to sell. There may be a smaller pool of Buyers right now but there is also a smaller pool of Sellers as it’s not the optimal time to buy or sell. So you still get the situation where the owners of the most attractive properties know they can achieve a decent price, though it may take longer than in a rising market.

Original poster

Omgwtafisthat · 30/07/2023 05:53

@Twiglets1 yes a perfect house came on a couple of months ago, and we couldn’t offer full asking but offered 50k more than what the exact same house next door sold for in 2022. The sellers didn’t need to sell and so they didn’t. Ours was the best offer but wasn’t in line with their expectations so they pulled it.

OP posts:

Twiglets1 · 30/07/2023 05:57

Omgwtafisthat · 30/07/2023 05:53

@Twiglets1 yes a perfect house came on a couple of months ago, and we couldn’t offer full asking but offered 50k more than what the exact same house next door sold for in 2022. The sellers didn’t need to sell and so they didn’t. Ours was the best offer but wasn’t in line with their expectations so they pulled it.

There seem to be a lot of unmotivated Sellers out there right now. It must be so frustrating as a Buyer.

Marchitectmummy · 30/07/2023 06:19

If people are offering 100k under asking price then that's what you do.

Original poster

Omgwtafisthat · 30/07/2023 10:34

So friends of ours (and the EA told me separately) that a house that was on for 650 they got for 550 and the EA told me that another house that was on for 600 has just gone for 500. So in % terms thats 15-16% off.

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Twiglets1 · 30/07/2023 10:40

Why can’t you get find houses to buy with 15/16% reductions then, @Omgwtafisthat ?

Maybe the houses offering big reductions aren’t the sort that most people want to buy 🤷🏼‍♀️

Original poster

Omgwtafisthat · 30/07/2023 11:22

@Twiglets1 in these two instances these are people that have to sell, because of probate or they can no longer afford their mortgage repayments after the rate rises.

the ones we have seen have also been in a bad way (older person or landlord) but they are not yet prepared to accept such discounts. The one which was a beautiful house, we offered 5% under asking, which as I say, because they didn’t need to sell, they didn’t get the price they wanted and stayed put.

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Paperairplane · 30/07/2023 12:13

Things will start popping up more and more as people roll off their mortgage deals.

Twiglets1 · 30/07/2023 12:14

Probate properties are normally in need of lots of work to update them.

Shame the Sellers didn’t accept 5% under on the beautiful house you saw. Bet their EA was secretly annoyed as that was a good offer.

RudsyFarmer · 30/07/2023 12:20

This has been going on for around 18 months to 2 years i think. We just gave up. We had a buyer but could find no proceedable house. You might be better just extending where you live currently.

Huge supply issues on family houses that most people want to buy.

MintJulia · 30/07/2023 12:35

That's so stressful op, I had to move in early 2011, after the global crash and there was nothing coming onto the market.

I wanted a 3 bed with garden but ended up offering £85k below asking price on a 4 bed because I was desperate to get ds on a primary school list.

It went right down to the wire. We moved on the Friday and my lease was up (and my landlord had given me notice to quit) the following Monday.

Horrible.

Postapocalypticcowgirl · 30/07/2023 12:46

Locally to me it feels a bit like there are 2 or even 3 different markets. At the lower end of the market, there are definitely landlords selling up their buy to let houses and flats, which is slowly pushing prices down at that end, but I'd say at the higher end, desirable houses are still selling for a lot of money! And land is still really expensive.

There's also the thing of air bnbs in certain costal towns and villages pushing some people to move to previously less desirable towns, so nice, good sized properties in these towns are actually going up in value! Not by a lot, but they're definitely worth more than they have ever been!

Things are definitely less insane than just post covid, but I think there's a lot of things going on at once around here - it's not as simple as interest rates high, so prices come down, it depends on the supply and demand for that particular house and that particular town, a lot.

It is also worth bearing in mind that even if mortgage rates are 5-6%, that's not what most people are paying (yet) - if you fixed on 3% 6 months ago, you're good. If you're still on your 2 year fix from last year, you're good. So buyers have less budget, but sellers maybe aren't under that much pressure to sell. I think over the winter, more and more people will be paying higher rates and they may have more of an impact then.

Permanentlyfrazzled · 30/07/2023 12:50

monpetitlapin · 29/07/2023 20:32

@SlowlyLosing the one I viewed today has been on since about January, they dropped it by £50k recently, but was originally priced well over what I've seen better houses selling at last year. Unfortunately nothing seems to be coming on the market so I think it will sell soon. There are a steady supply of 2-bed houses and flats coming up around here with "no onward chain" as landlords are quitting in droves, but it's just so hard to find family-sized homes right now at any price point.

Realistically, if we don't get the terrible 3-bedroom house, we're going to have to buy a 2-bed (for a family of four) and be very cramped while we wait this out.

Where abouts are you looking? There's a real lack of stock for 3 beds and 4 beds around here too. Think a lot of family's are just staying put.

Gettingonabitnow · 30/07/2023 12:53

So you want to achieve the ‘same price’ for your house, which I imagine is a good one, but want the rest of the market to cool? 🤔

Twiglets1 · 30/07/2023 12:59

Postapocalypticcowgirl · 30/07/2023 12:46

Locally to me it feels a bit like there are 2 or even 3 different markets. At the lower end of the market, there are definitely landlords selling up their buy to let houses and flats, which is slowly pushing prices down at that end, but I'd say at the higher end, desirable houses are still selling for a lot of money! And land is still really expensive.

There's also the thing of air bnbs in certain costal towns and villages pushing some people to move to previously less desirable towns, so nice, good sized properties in these towns are actually going up in value! Not by a lot, but they're definitely worth more than they have ever been!

Things are definitely less insane than just post covid, but I think there's a lot of things going on at once around here - it's not as simple as interest rates high, so prices come down, it depends on the supply and demand for that particular house and that particular town, a lot.

It is also worth bearing in mind that even if mortgage rates are 5-6%, that's not what most people are paying (yet) - if you fixed on 3% 6 months ago, you're good. If you're still on your 2 year fix from last year, you're good. So buyers have less budget, but sellers maybe aren't under that much pressure to sell. I think over the winter, more and more people will be paying higher rates and they may have more of an impact then.

I agree the property market is way more nuanced than a simple equation of interest rates high = prices come down.

Also that many sellers aren’t under much pressure to sell. And that there is no one single “property market” but a series of them depending on which town/type of property. If people want to buy or sell at the moment they have to become experts in their particular market.

thelinkisdead · 30/07/2023 13:14

Where I am there are tons of smaller family homes but a real lack of choice when you’re looking to upsize into a larger 3/4 bed house. Most options are priced as turnkey but need updating or just have terrible terrible fixtures & fittings and very few prices are reflective of the cost of building work now. There are quite a few which aren’t selling simply because the cost of modernising them etc would take you into negative equity. We moved a few weeks ago and were very lucky with the house we bought, but Rightmove is showing almost no other options than the ones on there since January!

Permanentlyfrazzled · 30/07/2023 13:19

We were recently in the same boat. It does seem that prices are coming down as people become more realistic. We have noticed two camps though, those that really need to move and are pricing realistically, and those that are just testing the water who will just stay put if they don't get the price that meets their expectations.

We are back on the market a 4th time (nothing to do with the house, just stung by Truss and mortgage rates, and one awful cash buyer who gazundered us - twice!) We've achieved asking price or there abouts three times in the past 9 months, but we've reduced this time by £45K as we recognise that the market has changed...and we really need to move! It seems others haven't reduced as much as we have though and we are worried about affording any onward purchase...

Original poster

Omgwtafisthat · 30/07/2023 13:25

@Gettingonabitnow no absolutely not we accepted 5% under asking - cash buyer - ripped his arm off. However if we had to sell again now, I know we wouldn’t achieve that same price.

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watersprites · 30/07/2023 13:32

Tbf you've sold for more than you would get now so...

watersprites · 30/07/2023 13:37

Where I am it's quite a disjointed market, there are clearly people needing to sell & pricing for that & then there are others who are ambitious. However I've seen a few ambitious ones go because there is still a market out there.

rosiebl · 30/07/2023 14:10

Trust me, doesn't get any better when you do finally find one and make an offer. Both in our sale and purchase, the mortgage valuation down-valued the houses. Curre

rosiebl · 30/07/2023 14:13

Current market is crazy.

Gettingonabitnow · 30/07/2023 14:40

Omgwtafisthat · 30/07/2023 13:25

@Gettingonabitnow no absolutely not we accepted 5% under asking - cash buyer - ripped his arm off. However if we had to sell again now, I know we wouldn’t achieve that same price.

Good luck with it, it’s such a stressful time, we did it two years ago x

LibertyLily · 30/07/2023 14:47

We're not on the market yet, but because we're planning to move back closer to family from a cheaper to a more expensive part of the UK I've already started scoping out what we might be able to buy.

I saw one - almost perfect, other than it was non-standard construction which is ok for us as we'd be buying mortgage-free - house in the right location but couldn't believe it was on for well in excess of double the price paid 7 years ago.

I could understand if it had been subject to renovations - our own house has doubled in value in 5 years but we've spent £150k doing virtually everything except extending.

This one however had actually declined in condition and looked to be owned by hoarders. The once beautiful garden is now an overgrown, weedy dump, paint was visibly peeling in the EA pics and both kitchen and bathrooms looked to be disintegrating. We're looking for a project so expect things like that - but not at top dollar in a falling market!

Last week I noticed they'd slashed the price by £150k and today it's marked as SSTC - I guess they realised they were being greedy previously....

Generally speaking much of what I'm seeing appear to be probate properties but also an increase in what are obviously HMOs/tenanted houses being sold by landlords.

We'll be looking to buy quirky/characterful and there's very little of that about right now.