No viewings

[Ellena646]

Hi, we have been on the market for four weeks and not had one viewing. The agent just keeps repeating "It's August, very quiet" on a loop, although we are now in September. Just wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same thing. Not sure if it's the agent, the market, the price... Never been on the market and had zero viewings in the first month before...

Can you imagine how vibrant small businesses and the general economy would be if people didn’t have to spend so much money buying a house? How much more money the government would be able to gather in taxes as the money changed hands?

I'd rather spend my cash on big TVs, holidays cars and leather trousers that spend a fortune on housing.

Some people seem to think it's a good idea for housing to take up a stupidly large proportion of your income though.

@HellsBalls and that is why people in places like Germany often have more disposable income on similar incomes. They are not forever house moving and often still rent big 3 and 4 bed central flats at sensible money - even when comfortably off- instead they will buy or long term lease a holiday flat in Turkey, Majorca , Greece etc

Not sure why you keep quoting me @Susanap, having asked me to stop quoting you.

A bit of balance to show that other metrics report fairly widespread falls and to give buyers/ sellers more information about what is really going on in their area is a good thing.

Good for you @XVGN on both counts. The quality of pretty much all the mainstream media reporting in this country is very low. Frankly, if you want accurate information from knowledgeable people, you can't rely on the BBC or most other mainstream sources now. It's all so politically driven.

I also agree that it is a good thing if prices fall back slowly so that younger generations have a chance to have secure homes in the future. The way the system is set up at present, not just referring to the housing sphere, it really is designed to fail.

Exactly. The proof is in the pudding. If multiple houses are not selling and being reduced, the conclusion is an obvious one.

Exactly. This is indeed one of the problems caused by such high property prices. There are many others.

@rainingsnoring I agree- I'm not sure what skin the other poster has in the game in a determination to try and keep people holding out for asking prices when in some cases they need to sell as quickly as possible etc- are they a director for Savills or something?? Personally I think for most it would be a good thing if property prices fell a bit all round - only people it doesn't benefit of course are those who own houses 'not to live in' are selling off an inheritance or those going into care homes etc or moving in with relatives. If you sell for less but can buy for less then that actually gets a stagnant market moving amongst the actual 'home owners ' who buy homes to actually live in and have finite amounts they can pay or raise finance on

I don't always agree with Twiglets but agree with the advice here.

Lots of small reductions looks bad.
If you price realistically in the new year, you won't even need to worry about the remortgage unless you are very unlucky. Having said that, it's always good to take the advice of a whole market mortgage broker and crunch the numbers properly to see which makes most financial sense. I expect rates to fall further in the shorter term.

Totally agree. I'm not even going to try to speculate about the motivation of that other poster!

Why would you expect the post to be deleted? You are just expressing your views and it's interesting to read how some other people think. So long as you are not rude and do not misquote me, then I'm fine.

Rattled? No. I just refuse to let the BBC mislead people without shouting about it. I'm surprised that you are ok with them doing that. The issue the BBC have is that there are loads of different housing indices and they have tied their colours to the mast of Nationwide and Halifax, and sometimes RM. These were poor choices for the reasons indicated. If they started quoting all the others like Zoopla and HMRC then they will be saying different things every other day and providing a useless news service.

Have you seen the Zoopla index today? It too is up. It's a more sensible figure (flatfish 0.7%) presumably because it is more comprehensive than Nationwide. There are some interesting stats about how many people accept at least 5% off their initial price (37%).

www.hometrack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/HPI-Sep-2024-HT.pdf

A moving market is good and listing a house for 5% over what you want to achieve is a good move as then you will achieve very close to the amount you have in mind. So not much loss involved for sellers amd prices are staying at the same level this way.
As Ellena646 has proved, you don’t need to drop your house by 15 to 20% as some other posters are encouraging sellers to do.

Sometimes you do have to wait it out as you could otherwise panic drop and then it is much harder to increase your price at a later date and you risk outpricing yourself in the current market if you don’t manage to sell whilst it’s quiet and the market starts to move again.

I am certainly not an estate agent! If you read my previous posts I am actually completely the opposite. I don’t rate estate agents!
I have no agenda whatsoever, unlike yourselves.
I am a genuine seller who came on here before I sold to read the general opinion of others. I saw a pattern of certain posters on here and it felt like their mission was to create panic between sellers for their own gain. Which I don’t agree with so am giving the other side.

The fact that a few of you got together to contact the BBC because they dared put some positivity out there with stats speaks volumes about your motives!

rainingsnoring Quote:….’Frankly, if you want accurate information from knowledgeable people, you can't rely on the BBC or most other mainstream sources now’

As opposed to listening to your knowledge? So you have more knowledge than the ONS?

As painful as this may be for some, the stats don’t lie! The latest ONS figures show improvement overall so the BBC is just one source of many and many more to come by the latest data online. Are you going to email all of them too to add a negative spin for your own agendas?

I enjoy a big TV, nice holidays, car and a lovely house ☺️

Pass on the leather trousers though!

Don’t worry @Susanap no one seriously thinks you’re an EA or a director at Savills. It’s all just words and if you get wound up you are more likely to say something that could get your posts deleted.

To me you are obviously a regular poster that holds some views others on this forum don’t like, as do I.

We’re not expecting sellers to hold out for the asking price so I don’t know why @Crikeyalmighty said that. We are just in agreement that there’s no reason to jump straight to big reductions after a few weeks on the market. The market really isn’t that bad in most areas.

@Susanap I most certainly haven't contacted the BBC ! I'm just interested why you think a slightly falling market isn't maybe a good thing for a lot of buyers , I do think it's an individual thing , I certainly think like my father in law if it's put on at 10% 'over ' what he realistically expected to get and has achieved 92% of asking price it's no big deal in his situation. He wanted to sell quickly. If he hadn't had viewings or offers within a month he would have asked the EA to reduce by 5% immediately -

My own view is if you are getting viewings and offers but not the sale , then sitting it out for months may make no difference, it's a combination of price , location and maybe what else similar is on the market at the same time and at what price

If you are getting none- then give it 6 weeks, after that it's down to the fact it's not an in demand property at this time at the price you want and the only way of testing this is to lower price or take it off and give it 6 months -

As I said before though there are a lot of sellers who list not needing to sell- and hence they will sell 'if' the price is right- they are annoying to buy off too as then frequently realise they can't find anything else they like, at the right price!!

The BBC quote I made was not directed at anyone in particular, I was just generalising. Only one poster has openly admitted to this. I doubt very much anyone else would as it puts them in a bad light and just reinforces what I have been saying all along.

Ok, I'll bite. Why does it put me in a bad light? I think that it's better for the BBC to be accurate than inaccurate.

The BBC were accurate with the stats they quoted. they didn’t lie. And the ONS and multiple other sources back this data.

My point is I merely wanted to add a positive post on here as not everyone on here is a buyer waiting for a housing crash so they can cash in. Some sellers may have high mortgages, in negative equity who have maybe even lost their jobs! Who know what others situation is? I don’t think it’s morally right to gain financially off others misery by pushing agendas on forums which receive millions of hits daily.

IMO It does come across like the posters who emailed the BBC will pull out any stop in the book to push their agenda whilst encouraging sellers, in an empathetic manner, to take massive hits off their hard earned cash by dropping their prices. (To be fair this is directed more at other posters than you as I have agreed with some of your points)
I am just putting my point across as you all are.

The BBC misled people into thinking that prices had increased by X% overall because they were not disclosing the limitations of the reported data. They agreed to fix that. Problem solved.

Unfortunately price increases are deemed positive for some (you and others) but very negative for others. No position is going to satisfy everyone. Looking at the earnings to house price ratios it's clear that the needle has moved too far in one direction and should now move in the other.

I really hate to tell you this but house price increases are not "hard earned". They have resulted by luck (excluding those who modernised dilapidated homes). I would be embarrassed to tell my children that the growth in my house price was hard earned. They would quickly put me right!

I have never said I want prices to increase, ever. I said I do not agree that sellers should be reducing their prices by 15 to 20% and I disagree with other people encouraging this who are doing it for their own financial agendas.

Okay, let me put this another way.

To the posters on here who are encouraging sellers to take massive hits off their house prices I have a question;

Would you be on here pushing your agendas, If your offspring were trying to sell their house right now, and have just lost their job, have a high mortgage, are in negative equity or any of the above?

This question just highlights that not everyone trying to sell right now is making a gain.

If you check my posts I typically tell people to ignore anybody who says decrease your price from X to Y, or increase your offer from A to B, because none of us know if the price has been appropriately set to begin with. If the price has been over-inflated then it will probably not sell unless it gets dropped significantly.

There will always be casualties in a functioning economy. You can never make everyone whole. You can only hope to improve the lives of most people. And if that means my house falls in value then I'm fine with that.

Yes I know you have said this hence my point that my last post was more so aimed at other posters.

I have to say I completely disagree with your point that properties were not hard earned.

This may be the case for yourself and for some boomers who could afford to buy a house large enough for a family to grow into and have stayed put earning a small fortune.

This was not the same for everyone. In my case, for example, when we started out, we could not afford a large house as our wages were too low. We purchased the smallest house we could afford which needed a complete refurbishment. We couldn’t afford builders so we had to do the work ourselves, whilst holding down jobs, working overtime and refurbishing the house at the weekends.
Some weeks, we couldn’t even afford petrol for my car to get to work, so I had to go and beg my mum for money!
We then sold this property and moved to a slightly larger one, again having to refurbish it because we couldn’t afford one that wasn’t and we couldn’t afford builders.
We did this 3 times! Not through wanting to but we had no choice as our family grew larger and we had to accommodate them all.

So take it from me it was very hard earned! Whilst going to work every day, working overtime, refurbishing the house evenings and weekends whilst running a family also!

Not all first time buyers today are in the same position also. My children will start with a small property and work their way up whilst also holding down full-time jobs.

Where as there was a first time buyer on here the other day asking whether they should buy their first house with a £500.000 mortgage or £1,000.000 mortgage!
If they opt for the lower mortgage, as they sensibly should, they will
be left with a sizeable amount of disposible income.

Everyone’s situation is different.

'As painful as this may be for some, the stats don’t lie!'

This genuinely is painful now. Have you really never heard the saying 'there's lies, damn lies and statistics?' Hopefully the meaning is obvious enough.

I've already linked to Otta property and Acadata earlier in the thread. They also show HPI statistics you know, they've just weighted the slightly differently or provided raw data.
Zoopla have also just published their HPI which is similar to the Acadata one, with small falls in the South, especially London and small rises in Scotland and further North.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GY-kr6ZWYAA_3GV?format=jpg&name=medium

I've never suggested that my knowledge is superior. Please stop trying to put words into my mouth repeatedly and making accusations which have resulted in your posts getting deleted. I have said that I don't trust the mainstream media and with good reason.

@XVGN you are absolutely correct that older people have not earned their house price rises. They were just born at the right time. No one is entitled to ever rising house prices.

@Susanap you have clearly gone in for heavyweight serial renovating- that's different - my FIL has gained £230,000 in 13 years all for the price of new windows, a new door and about £4K of work on the garden- that isn't hard won - he would be the first to say that . Maybe about £22,000 in total max

I’m not ‘older’ yet so I wasn’t born at the right time, maybe the older generation have benefited but not all sellers are ‘older’

Gosh you are making me feel like I’m under oath and you are objecting to my every post!
There are posts on here aimed at me that I could have had removed but I believe in freedom of speech and balanced views so would rather posters read everyone’s opinions on the topic and not just the ones that put me in a good light. Stop censoring my posts and implying I am attacking you. TBH I haven’t read half your posts anyway, I mostly skip them and go onto the next one!

Yes, Zoopla have released their figures today and the market is on the increase.
Land registry figures are the same as are stats from the ONS quoting a 2.2% increase on house price sales up from last year.
Today headlines: ‘Mortgage hope for Brits as BoE chief says interest rate cuts could be 'more aggressive'.

Not all stats come from mainstream Media.
No point even going on really, let’s see what happens with the market in the future, as it stands the figures are out there for all to see.

I am currently selling my asset and downsizing to help my offspring get on the property ladder. I’m not comfortably sitting on my asset and then coming on here expecting sellers to reduce THEIR house prices by 20% so they can fund my offspring’s future!

I will wait for you to get this one censored too! 🤦🏼‍♀️