Anyone else had viewings today?

[Chanel05]

I had 4 viewings today.

First time buyer, couple that have sold to a first time buyer, a first time buyer and a couple that aren't yet back on the market but they had sold and their sale had fallen through.

Anyone else had viewings today? How did they go?

I think it is good to remember that the agent just wants your house sold. There is an element of wanting the most if they are on a % fee but I think something is better than nothing so dropping the price after two weeks and two viewings is borderline bullying.

Someone just posted for help in selling theirs and I was gutted when not the area for me as it would have been great to find it is where I wanted to be right price. Still feel like we should have a sell your house topic!

Annoyingly we got great feedback from one of them, but they ghosted the agent ever since!

It's such a tricky balance, isn't it. Our lowest we'd accept could go a little bit lower if it had to, but ideally we want to keep some cash out when putting our next deposit down just for our own peace of mind! The next bracket down on Rightmove after the one they're trying to move us to now is literally our 100% absolute lowest and £35k below our original valuation.

Happy news our end - we've sold! 13 days on the market and 5 viewings.

That's amazing @Chanel05 !!

So we offered £220k on a guide price of 235-260 which has been declined and said the vendor needs minimum of 240k to enable their onward purchase.

So now we need to go back with our best and final offer.

We wanted to offer maximum 235k but we also really want this house! But it's going to need a lot spent on it. Not sure what to do as we really want it!!

Any suggestions?

Congratulations @Chanel05 no more insane tidying for you!

Did you get close to the asking price in the end?

@cloppyklip if it is your dream house then I always think there's money to be made in the future to do things. I'd personally offer 235k and say that it was your best and final.

@Twiglets1 we got 15k under asking, which we were hoping for / expecting. House was up for £400k. We sold last year for £395k but appreciated that the market had changed this year.

Hi, I was talking to you on another thread 😀

It was always unlikely they would accept 220k tbh. I would go back with 235k and say that is your final offer considering it needs a lot of work doing to it in your opinion to bring it up to the standard you are looking for.

I wouldn't go up to 240k unless there are other people also bidding. Otherwise you are bidding against yourself. They can't consider 235k unfair considering it is at the bottom of their own range.

To get 385k on a house listed at 400k is really good in this market. Buyers want to feel like they have negotiated a discount because there is so much in the media about the stagnant housing market.

That’s brilliant @Chanel05 super happy for you and fingers crossed all smooth sailing from here

from posts on this thread, seems like market a bit livelier than end of last year perhaps?

our second viewing last week wanted to make an offer but then realised that their house might not sell for as much as they might want so are considering their options. Very frustrating.

Two more viewings booked for this weekend. Onwards and upwards - but the constant tidying/cleaning and decluttering can surely not go on forever without selling?!

How has everyone got on? We had a viewing yesterday from FTBs, I got my hopes up but sounds like they've viewed every house within a five mile radius in the last year, and have no idea what they're actually looking for. Lots of talk of looking for somewhere to add value, but then also complaining about the results of surveys and the cost of building work. Four hours of cleaning for nowt!

Still no more viewings here, unfortunately! Our estate agent has said the first time buyers who would usually snap up our house just don't exist at the moment due to rates 😢

Yeah same here. Our move isn't essential, we just fell in love with another place so decided to make the jump. Feels like that jump might not be happening if there are no FTBers about.

Congrats! Have you gone through exchange yet?

I would offer 230k max. Say thats the best you can do. In this market sellers need to take a bite too. I highly doubt 235k is their min to move. A lot of EA lie through their teeth.

Ditto. We're very very keen to move but no external forces (divorce, job loss, school admissions etc) are making it essential. And financially it makes no sense for us to take anything more than maybe 6% off our asking price as our valuation already took the market into account.

It feels like a big game of chicken for those in our situation at the moment, seeing who can hold their nerve the longest between first time buyers and sellers.

FTB are holding out or offering very low because of rates and reading that 10% below is reasonable. But the desire to stop renting, get on the ladder and the possibility of house prices rising again as rates drop might make them cave.

We're on the ladder, our mortgage is very affordable for us and our house is adequate for our needs. But we do really want to move and have our eye on a few houses that we'd be sad to miss out on which might make us cave.

@cupcakesarelife that is what we offered Wednesday and despite chasing the EA who said they couldn't get hold of the seller we have been left in the dark with no answer! So rude! We were about to up our offer but then our buyers pulled out so we're back to square 1 anyway! 🙄

Yes, true @BarbaricPeach , it does all feel a bit wild west at the moment. I'm sick of cleaning for viewings and we've decluttered stuff to my father in laws place thinking it would be a quick sell and now I'm finding I don't have the right shoes for a business meeting etc, but on the bright side we're steadily working our way through the list of DIY jobs we'd put off for a while. At least if we do end up staying the house is ship shape!

That's annoying @cloppyklip , you'd at least expect a response. Sorry to hear your buyers have folded.

How annoying, buyers defo have cold feet and it’s understandable. Interest rates are too high and you really have to love a house to pay those high monthly payments. Your Sellers dont sound serious, tbf. How rude indeed! Hopefully something better will come along

Hmm I dont think it’s a game at all. Interest rates are genuinely high and a lot sellers live in 2021 la la land. Buyers are worried about negative equity, so they should. If your house isnt selling, it’s the price, not because of games. There are 60 million people in the country and not one person wants to buy the house… that says a lot. It’s the price. It’s the market. It’s people wanting decent homes for the price, not paying silly money for nothing.

I was going to say similar to what @cupcakesarelife has already said.
It isn't a game of chicken at all. It's the fact the prices are too high for buyers, especially FTB, to be able to afford them. The cost of all basics (including mortgage costs which don't even feature in CPI data!) has risen much more than most people's take home salaries. It's very simple.

You may think that you have taken the market into account but, if you haven't had interest, then you have been mistaken about the state of the market.
A minority of sellers will get lucky and a minority are genuinely pricing at realistic levels or accepting significant discounts but transaction numbers are way down compared to the average. Even those who do accept offers are more likely to have buyers pulling out or reducing offers later in the process at the moment.

How annoying to be ghosted. At least you have had interest so you have a good chance of having more.

Agree to disagree, I guess. I don't think it's always the price, and I'm pretty certain it's not the price in our case since we've only been on the market 3 weeks. Other houses that are identical to ours (recent new build so literally the same, not similar) have sold at higher prices than ours in the past month. The issue is that the pool of buyers is small enough that they're not popping up very often. We can sweeten it by dropping a bit, but if the buyers literally don't exist then it's just going to take longer.

Of course any house would sell if you put it on low enough. But that's not the same as saying any house that doesn't sell within a month is overpriced.

I do know a lot of first time buyers who do see it how I said. They're playing chicken waiting to see if rates/prices drop, but they're very aware that they are risking having spent months longer renting only for prices to barely drop or increase again if rates improve.

Same! Our house is being thoroughly decluttered and I'm slowly working through all these minor improvements or deep cleans I never bother with usually! My house has never looked as lovely as it has since we tidied it up for the photos.

We've had 2 viewings in just under 3 weeks now.

We don't 'have' to sell either really but we are downsizing and paying the mortgage off so that I can retire because of ill health. We need to get a certain number in order to buy on, otherwise we might as well stay here for another 12 months.

Our house is on for £275, the very lowest we could go to is £260. I think I'm going to ask the EA to reduce to £265 tomorrow and see what they say.