No viewing on our house in two weeks!

[Nataliemcm9]

I know the current market isn’t great, but we have had our house up for sale coming up to two weeks and not one single view. I’m starting to think maybe it’s up for too much? But we don’t want to reduce it yet. Is anyone else have the same issue with selling their home at the moment?

Well OK, if they didnt read HPC (and take it seriously) they were not being warned, many people didnt want to know anyway, they thought their house would just keep going up in value (although I think the long term historical average base rate is 7%?)

I live in greater Manchester and generally £250k is v cheap for a 3 bed. In my area it would be over £300k.. £100k min a bedroom.
But if it was only worth £150k in 2018 then then jump is too big. Look. At what the competition is for your area..what are the roads / schools like etc

That is since 2008, when lets face it some very reckless economic moves were mad by governments around the world, go back before then and those houses were much cheaper, that is the economy we are returning to.

I save the ads on my RM/ Zoopla accounts

@NeedTheSeaside

We're exactly the same position- we've been on the market since Easter, have accepted an offer which was just over 10% less than our original asking price.
We reduced our asking price several weeks in.

Now looking for the elusive affordable 3 bed semi in SE London and there's a lot of properties which do not seem to have reduced price over the last few months.

Whereas our affordability/buying power has been significantly reduced compared with back at Easter.

Interest rate rises, taking a reduction on our home coupled with stubborn sellers...makes me wonder if we'll actually be able to buy anything round here.

We saw a great house the other week, been on the market on/off since summer 2022, current asking price is the same as it was back in January! (Rightmove sleuthing)

It's put us off as it makes us realise that the owners are v unlikely to accept any offers, let alone 10% knocked off like we've accepted on ours.

Something has to give, to get things moving again!

The 'houses find their prices' is true.

If you put your house on at a high rate - no one will view - over time you will drop - people will be put off your house has been on the market forever...

If you put it on at the lower end - lots of people will look and you only need a couple of people to bid to get the price up a little.

I was told the best time to market a house is Christmas day - loads of people trapped in houses with new tech.. either 'this house is too big I want to downsize'.. or 'we have no space.. lets move' ..

If you have been on the market for 6 months with no viewings - I would go off the market- assess the 'real value' - go to a new estate agent - relist with a much lower asking price.. and hope for the best.

If you can wait for Christmas do!

My advice would be to try an offer 10% below if that’s what you think it’s worth. We got our current house for 10% below the EA valuation and that was a few years ago in a significantly better market. The Seller was very motivated though.

The owners of this property may have received low ish offers since it has been on the market but not accepted them so far. Nevertheless, another offer 10% below asking may be the one that finally convinces them that they won’t get that close to the asking price. When we sold my Dads flat in London last year we got multiple low offers which helped us understand that we needed to reduce our expectations to get a Sale.

It’s hard as a Seller because you trust EAs to value your property correctly. But they do routinely over value in order to win the business. In a Sellers market that strategy sometimes works out but it’s not a good strategy now.

Hmmm not sure about the Christmas Day thing. I know Rightmove gets a record number of hits each year on Christmas Day or Boxing Day but personally I think that’s more to do with people being bored at home. Whether or not those hits translates into Sales 3/4 months later I’m less convinced.

Traditionally the best time to market a house has always been the Spring when it’s a bit warmer & lighter and gardens are looking better than in Winter.

Just the market atm.

Every day there are articles in the press re. house prices falling, so many people are watching and waiting to see how the market adjusts to the COL increase and the rise in interest rates.

It is true, people will often put off moving until spring, so they move in summer, very few people want to move around Christmas time. Few houses sell in August due to school hols.

We downsized and relocated, over two years ago, it was a very different market then.

Good luck to all on the thread that are wanting to move, it’s a very stressful process, but worth it in the end.

If you are selling for 67% more than it was worth in 2018 then surely it’s the price unless you have made massive improvements? We bought earlier this year and paid just under 20% more than when it last sold in 2018. To be honest if we were to try to sell now we would probably have to sell for 5% less to get a quick sale, a lot has changed in just a few months. We possibly got it cheaper than if we had been looking in spring 2022 as everything was going to bidding wars round here then.

Have you had loads of wok done since 2018?

I agree it's the price. I just sold my two bed terrace in Greater Manchester for £143,000 and bought it for £122,000 in 2016. We made a small profit. We did make improvements such as putting in gas central heating, bamboo flooring, and damp treatment.

Looking at Rightmove, there are so many unrealistic sellers refusing to adjust to the market.

Estate agent advised to sell at 150K, but we wanted a quick sale, so put it on for offers over 140K.

It must the be the price. Those saying similar, change EA etc unless your agent has done nothing then it’s the price. It’s hard in Manchester as area varies widely- 3 bed semi in Chorlton would be £400k + but in moss side/Gorton a third of that.
I think you need to look at what you can afford it the house is significantly reduced to what reflects the market.

Bad EA. Most EA employees have no experience of selling in a buyers market, whatsoever. See if you can get an EA who will show you their TwentyEA stats. All EA's can access their local stats for free. If your EA won't share them then you can read that as you will.

3 viewings since May. Dropped 25k. Have a viewing at 10.30 this morning and have been up since 5 trying to showcase someone's dream house🤣
The EA really had to badger the viewer to come round so I'm not hopeful as he probably only agreed to come to get the EA off his back☹️

"So OP, there's a YouTube show called UK Property Markets Stats Show. It's hosted by a guy who is a statistician, using data from EA back end software."

Just a quick point of order @KievLoverTwo. He really isn't a statistician. He just uses data from the TwentyEA insights package. I had an interesting conversation with him about using averages. He didn't realise that there were many kinds like Median, Arithmetic Mean, Geometric Mean (the one ONS uses). We agreed that the prices he shows are largely irrelevant to EA's. They're more interested in direction of travel.

End of August probably isn't a time when you're going to get lots of viewings, but I'd say if you don't get anything in the next two weeks it is probably the price.

A lot of people will look at that 2018 price and wonder what has been done to add £100k of value. It'll put people off even if that's what other similar properties are on for. Unless you've done significant work (extra bedroom?) I think people will see it as unjustified.

I'm not near you but around me a lot of people are dropping their prices and I have seen some places that have been sitting on the market since April, slowly dropping their prices £10k at a time. Equally, I'd say places that are priced sensibly are selling still.

In terms of new places that are coming on the market, prices are definitely dropping, too.

I think give it another two weeks and then I would probably look seriously at the price. It is getting harder and harder for people to get the mortgages they need, and around here you definitely have some landlords selling up, so there's less demand and more supply. I think it's better to do one big drop than lots of little drops, so I'd consider a significant drop if no viewings before the end of September?

Watch out for the HPC bots talking to each other on this thread, OP!

But yes, it probably is the price. If you’re brave enough to put it on here, you’ll get gold information and MNHQ will take the post down once you have enough feedback.

The differences between the Median, Mode & Mean averages are taught in bottom set GCSE maths.
Really feel that people like @KievLoverTwo are putting too much faith in this guy. He’s mainly someone who is telling people what they want to hear- a certain group of people that is - and making money from YouTube hits by recycling readily available information in an accessible way.

He's just reading off stats from EA's - there's not a lot to get into a discussion about.

The stats are what they are. I believe them, e.g. number of new listings, number of fall thru's, etc. You just have to avoid cringing every time he says "boys and girls".

Actually, I think you are perhaps confusing him with someone else?

@GotMooMilk I think area is also key. DP has some friends that live in an area of Greater Manchester where average earnings tend to be on the lower end. No one really moves there because there's no public transport and it feels isolated. Prices have gone up there in recent years because prices everywhere in Greater Manchester have increased. So even though local wages haven't really increased, because of more equity and low interest rates people have been able to borrow more and cause prices to rise. It's been its own bubble with people selling to their neighbours, doing house swaps, etc.

Now that interest rates have gone up and the amount people can afford to borrow is much more closely tied to actual earnings they area is dropping fast. If someone lives in an area that is on the up and attracting people on Central Manchester salaries then the market might fall less/more slowly. But if you live in an area that doesn't really attract outsiders you need to take a critical look at the average wage and what people living there can actually afford now.

Confusing Kiev with someone else or Charlie?

Totally agree with this.
It's a question of unable rather than unwilling in the majority of cases.

It still seems that a lot of sellers don't understand this or think that, if they wait and wait, someone will be happy to pay. Some sellers might be lucky but the most will not sell. Reducing by tiny amounts doesn't help either as several potential buyers have already said.

To be honest though if every buyer is ‘unwilling’ to pay the asking price then it won’t sell…even if they can afford it. So it still comes down to price 🤷🏼‍♀️