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Original poster

Vendors deluding themselves!

61 replies

NorthernLurker · 01/04/2008 13:57

Title says it all really - some people are totally out to lunch when it comes to setting the price aren't they? I've just seen a house on rightmove new onto the market. There is a house on the same development which has been on the market for a year I think. Not sold despite the vendor offering to pay the higher rate of stamp duty. The new on the market house looks to be very similar - but is on the market for 8000 more - with no stamp duty offered! How in the world do they think they are ever going to achieve anything close?

OP posts:
Youcannotbeserious · 01/04/2008 16:01

Mumbles - where do you live???

A house opposite ours was on the market at £1.9M and that's just sold but, to be fair, it's pretty big.........

Original poster
NorthernLurker · 01/04/2008 16:09

that £100 thing is scary! We are fixing for five years. When that ends our youngest child will be at school and our childcare costs much reduced. We won't have started paying for uni by then either so as I could work full time I feel confident we can afford our proposed mortgage come what may. If we were going for a two year fix I don't think I could sleep at night!

OP posts:
sparkleymummy · 01/04/2008 16:12

Our house has just sold for £415k. House two doors down the road was on for £499k. Its just dropped to "offers over £450k". Its smaller than ours downstairs, no third reception room, no conservatory, single garage as opposed to double and a garden half the size of ours. Plus it isn't done up inside and has awful windows which need replacing. Its ridiculously priced (having said that I shall be gutted if they get that price and it turns out we went in too low!).

We had ours valued by the agent they are using and he valued ours at £499 too. Four other agents valued it at £400. Its the agents deluding the vendors to try to keep the boom going. If an agent tells you your house is worth a certain amount then you have expectations and its hard then to adjust your thinking.

We saw a house at the weekend which has dropped its price by £90k.

Original poster
NorthernLurker · 01/04/2008 16:14

Just thought of another house actually - on at 499 950 originally, then swapped agents, then swapped agents again and price went UP to 550 000 then change of agents again and price down to 485 000. Still isn't sold - having been on the market for more than a year!

OP posts:
cushioncover · 01/04/2008 16:16

Fizzy, I live oop north too (Wilmslow) and the 4bed we are trying to buy was on for 765. We've paid 740. Not all cheap as chips up here you know!

claricebeansmum · 01/04/2008 16:17

NorthernLurker - a house down our road has just done that. Massively overpriced - dropped price - now with new agent at orginal massive price.

Are they thinking that people who saw it with one agent wont spot what has happened when it moved to another agent? Bizarre

claricebeansmum · 01/04/2008 16:19

Cushion - I live down south and have been looking at houses in Cheshire. No we are not trading in for a detached house with paddocks. We're trading one Victorian semi for another. The cheap up North thing does not seem to ring true! as I thought I would be able to buy a mansion or small Georgian rectory...

Blu · 01/04/2008 16:21

'Our estate agent tells us that PRICES have not dropped, its just that buyers are making lower offers'

There is a certian sense in that though - if buyers are hoping to make the message of doom into a self-fulfilling prophesy, they may be offering v low offers - which are not being accepted - hecne things staying on the market.

A house just along from us was on the market for about a week - now has a 'sold' sign up - and it was advertised at 20% more then we paid for ours a year ago, even though it has 1 less bedroom and i less bathroom, and is in a very 'needs modernising' condition. On the other hand a big posh beautifully done-up house with a big garden, just round the corner, has been on the market for over a year and the price has dropped by £100k!! Still not selling!

noddyholder · 01/04/2008 16:25

An asking price is just that and nothing more.There is only one price and that is what the banks will lend and the buyer will pay.I don't think people can talk a crash into happening although negative sentiment does hasten the inevitable

clam · 01/04/2008 16:33

And there are lots of saddos like me, who nose about all the time on-line to see what's for sale, for what price. There was a link on another thread here yesterday for the property snake site which lists all the drops in asking price for houses in various regions. Very interesting but am not techie enough to post the link.

cushioncover · 01/04/2008 16:35

Clarice, are youmoving my end of Cheshire? It's fab up here, I wish we'ddone it years ago. It was a bit stressful last Sept when our original purchase fell through but being in rented has at least given us the 'chain-free' edge in the market. Good luck.

NH, you are right about the price thing. We hoped to get more off considering we're chain free and the level of the market we're buying at but they had two offers on the same day and 3more second viewings books for the w/e (it had only been on 2wks but was priced to sell hence our desperation to exchange quickly) So the old saying 'its worth what someone is prepared to pay for it' was true in our case.

Original poster
NorthernLurker · 01/04/2008 16:35

this is it

OP posts:
WowOoo · 01/04/2008 16:36

We just sold our house for £2000 less than asking price. Very reasonable. Have to say am still in shock as thought it would be on market for ages. We had lots of offers and just took the highest one, completed last week.

noddyholder · 01/04/2008 16:39

Unfortunately rightmove and lots of other agents have made it impossible to get most of teh data for property snake easily and so the site never took off as it should!they were obviously threatened by it.

sparkleymummy · 01/04/2008 16:42

It is all about putting the property on at the right price. Ours sold within a week and we only dropped 4k. We'd expected to have to drop at least 20k. If however we'd followed the advice of the other agent we'd have been on for £80k more and probably still wouldn't have sold.

wannaBe · 01/04/2008 16:48

A friend of mine has her 3 bed detached on the market for £220k when most other three beds around here are on for about £190k. The house she wants to buy is £240k and she seriously can't see how a 4 bed house should be worth any more than £20k than a 3 bed one.

But the reason why her house is so over priced is because a new agency in town who only charge £800 fee as opposed to a percentage are overpricing all the houses on their books. but the catch is that you pay £400 up front and the rest on completion, so they make their money regardless.

clam · 01/04/2008 16:50

What's the right price, though? We had a 40K range when having valuations recently. Maybe people are aiming high, thinking that they can then take offers 10% below and achieve in reality what the lowest agent suggested as a start. As someone said before, if you go low and sell very quickly, you're then left wondering if you could have got more. Is even more galling if the house next door in a right mess sells for more than yours.

expatinscotland · 01/04/2008 16:54

it's only worth what someone is willing and able to pay for it.

sparkleymummy · 01/04/2008 16:55

Our view was that it was better to be reaslistic and sell quickly before a crash than overprice thinking you can then drop. If nothing else you run the risk of not even getting anyone through the door if you overprice.

Having said that we know a couple who are separating and are desperate to sell quickly so they've put their house on at a very low price and still can't get anyone in to view.

noddyholder · 01/04/2008 16:56

This will all soon become irrelevant as this seller pricing their own property is what has created some of this mess.Over the next few years prices will come back according to affordability and mortgages.No one in their right mind would take on a huge mortgage now Even Gordon brown admits we are in for a rough ride

cushioncover · 01/04/2008 17:01

Well, as I said, we're just about to take on a huge mortgage. But, we're in it for the long haul (10-15yrs). We've calculated that we can afford the repayments unless rates go above 12% and so think it's ok if house worth 150 less next year as long as worth more in 10years IYKWIM.
Really, really, don't want to be in rented much longer (been renting since Sept)

claricebeansmum · 01/04/2008 17:03

Cushion - we'll be more towards Chester. Am looking forward to it - very exciting!

noddyholder · 01/04/2008 17:08

Agree re renting We have been renting since september too and after a lovely family home its awful which is why we a re a nation of buyers

sparkleymummy · 01/04/2008 17:15

Oh don't say that. DH has just persuaded me to rent for a year rather than mortgage ourselves to the max to buy our forever house.

noddyholder · 01/04/2008 17:21

It is worth it sparkley just a bit horrible if you are used to a lovely home which i was Although it has taught me to appreciate my things and not take it for granted I am really excited about having my own house again whenever that may be