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...

She did, She may have an offer but she listened to the scaremongering and negativity online and has now dropped it so low she has now outpriced herself in the current market. She now has to wait in the hope that sellers drop their prices to accommodate her low offer.

Lowering the price was the right thing to do as I'd had no viewings for weeks until I did. I have not "out priced myself in the current market"; there just isn't very much on the market, and the owners of the house that I like are holding out for full asking price, which it turned out worked out in my favour as I have now offered on one in the same road (same house, nicer condition) for £15,000 less and it was accepted this morning. I haven't considered the feedback on here to be "scaremongering" or "negativity" but well-informed and very supportive.

Congratulations on having your offer accepted! 🎉

Congratulations! £15,000 is a small drop and the amount buyers should be expecting to drop a house by.

Well done. I'm glad that your pragmatic approach has been validated. Good luck with the move.

It has worked out for the OP which is great news and hopefully it will go to exchange. 👏 😊 unfortunately though, as per OP’s previous posts, most sellers in her area and in most areas aren’t desperate and aren’t budging on price 🤷‍♀️ so it’s small pickings for buyers looking for such huge drops..

This is one of the reasons many sales are falling through and are being pulled off the market, desperate sellers are panic dropping their prices. Once they realise they are outpriced in the current market and that other sellers aren’t playing ball they panic again and pull out of the sale completely costing buyers thousands of pounds. Not to mention wasting buyers time and also the fact that they would have missed out on other properties. Very frustrating for buyers.

Both seller and buyer need to be happy with the price as they are otherwise selling begrudgingly and there is more chance of sellers and buyers pulling out before exchange.

Mind you as long as the market is moving this will entice buyers to offer as they will see ones like the OP’s house has sold and the huge hit the OP has taken won’t show on land registry for months.

Congratulations @Ellena646! That sounds like a v good result for you. It sounds as if these sellers have a pragmatic and sensible approach as you do yourself.

Agreed, her sellers have been very sensible. The sellers of the house she is now buying was listed at only £15.000 below the price of the first house she wanted. Not 10% nor 15% below as some are suggesting drops should be. More like 3% below. Even if she offered lower than the actual listed selling price this will not show up on stats or land registry for months so won’t affect the current house prices.

At least the OP’s seller has proved that huge price drops in listed prices are not necessary to sell.

@Ellena646 that's really good news- as an example I'm about to start looking with my father in law who sold in August ( he is selling before buying and will be staying in temporary for a few months)

There's 2,bungalows on same street for sale in area he's interested in- both are 3 bed, same amount of garden, both have garages- one is in mint Nick looking at it - recent ish kitchen, lovely modern wet room , nice decor, neutral carpets- looks 'of today' - one looks like something from 1978 - needs work, even for an 84 year old with lesser standards of 'modern decor' - the mint one is £42,000 cheaper! There is often no logic in what people ask for.

We are looking for our youngest DC. We're heavily using the Property Log extension for Chrome so that we can easily see the price per square foot on Rightmove, along with the sale history. Obviously beware of errors in the square footage shown as they sometimes include things like loft rooms and garages that shouldn't be included.

oh wow ! you've found and offered on somewhere.

fingers tightly crossed for you.

Ye

Yes I have used this also. Very handy although previous actual sales prices will only show up once land registry has updated these and these can take months and months.

Sorry, in this case I meant the sale price history since it's been on RM, e.g. listed at £200K in April, reduced to 180K in June, etc

I don't think anything has been proved at all: I had to make a big price drop to get viewings, and my seller did not. That is the definition of illogical. There is a human factor in all of this, which is that we all have different motivations for moving, different equity amounts and timelines... it's really quite complex and don't think my story should be held up as proof of anything, except that lowering the price of my house did get me a buyer, and I am grateful for the encouragement on this forum to do that.

Yes, they often include garden offices and sheds in that too... bizarre. Square footage goes out of the window in some cities, where premium roads (near good schools and stations) seem to demand their own price tags...

I completely agree with what you are saying here and is exactly been my point all along.

Every seller has their own issues with regards the price they need to sell at. Encouraging sellers to drop their listed price by 10-15% by some posters on here does not suit every seller and could possibly leave them in negative equity. I appreciate sellers in a hurry to sell or desperate may choose to drop the price like you have but if they don’t, like your seller, then maybe they should not drop the price to suggested levels on here or pull it off the market and relist after the dust has settled once we know the outcome of the budget.

The market may well improve and sellers can save themselves a small fortune or avoid going into negative equity because of paying attention to online speculation and hysteria.

You seemed in a hurry to get a quick sale @Ellena646 & did so as you listed in August & agreed a price by September. To achieve that you were willing to reduce the price significantly which was a successful strategy.

Naturally not all sellers are in such a hurry hence some sellers aren’t willing to reduce the price by 10% or more & won’t consider it unless their property remains unsold for several months or longer.

@Ellena646 I agree- my father in law wants out of where he is asap - and at 85 didn't want to be hanging around doing viewings for months-and he will be buying at maybe £100k less than he has sold out so has a lot of flexibility - also in his case the house was put on at 10% more than he expected to get - and the offer is 9% below asking. Individual circumstances are hugely variable - plenty of sellers are 'flippers' too - only stay in places a few years and are only really selling to realise profit as they are so used to an 'upward' market -

Agreed, It has worked out well for @Ellena646 and her seller if they get to the point of exchange.

My first attempt to sell this year fell through just before exchange of contracts after over a 3 month wait. It was so distressing for the whole chain and cost us a small fortune! Not saying this will happen to the OP however, it can happen and it does.

My only concern about sellers panic dropping their prices so soon is if the worst case scenario does happen, the seller would have committed to selling their house for a lower price (as not great increasing your listed price after a drop!) and you then have to find another seller willing to sell to you for the price you are looking to pay. If prices increase slowly, you may well be outpriced in the current market.

I hope this doesn’t happen to @Ellena646 but I’m just giving an example of what could go wrong if sellers drop their price too soon if they take the wrong advice.

I understand what you are saying @Susanap and agree with a lot of your points. It's a minefield buying and selling, even without all the differing opinions we see on social media.

I think overall the best advice is for buyers and sellers to do loads of research themselves into their local property market so they can be as sure as they can be that they are not buying/selling too high or too low for their local area.

It wasn't so much that I was in a hurry it was more that I had been on the market for six (maybe seven?) weeks without one single viewing, and I wondered if it was a sign that something was off (hence I came on here and asked for advice). It was no coincidence that when I lowered it, I got viewings one of which lead to an offer. Or maybe it was, who knows?

Fair enough the lack of viewings was concerning and I would have reduced the price too, though only by 5%

I agree and think this was one of my reservations at the outset. Outside of this current market, it has always been the case that it's kind of smoke and mirrors, and relies on a lot of luck and chance alongside some market (and forum!) research.

I am sorry that happened to you, that is so frustrating. My buyer is chain-free in rented and I am buying from someone who is moving away for work and would go into rented, hopefully with such a short chain it will hold together, but you can never predict. Until exchange I don't do a thing: no packing, no room designing, no Pinterest boards... except for solicitors paperwork I try to act like it's not going to happen because I have been let down so much by chains over the years...