Why do some people not accept they have overpriced their house?

[oatmilkchocolate]

There is a semi-detached near me that has been on the market for at least 18 months, maybe two years. The owners keep changing estate estates but never reducing the price.

There's no mystery why its not selling. Its priced the same as detached houses in the local area, and its semi-detached. A really nice detached house just up the road sold recently for 15k less than this one is on the market for. And it had two bathrooms and this only has one. And this house is a unusual design where the ground floor is a garage and utility room, which has the washing machine and dryer in, and you have to go up a flight of stairs to get to the house itself, which starts on the first floor. Which is obviously going to put some people (quite a few) off.

I don't get why the owners aren't grasping that they have just significantly overpriced. Why not just look at what other prices in their area are selling for and reach the obvious conclusion?!

That's not actually true though. Prices have been slowly falling for 2.5 yrs in most places. It's variable but detached, larger homes, especially in the South have fallen significantly. Smaller houses in some areas have held their price better. Those that need a long of work have generally fallen more, now that work costs a lot more. So these sort of people that assume that the market will rise to meet their expectations, are in no hurry, etc, may end up being very disappointed because they may receive less for their house, much less in real terms.

There’s a house near us (new build ish-2017) that has been on and off the market since 2022. We viewed it but it was definitely overpriced but it’s still there having just come back on for a 5th time! It’s a lovely house but it needs 40k knocking off it at least. Theres planning agreed for behind it now too so I don’t hold out much hope for it

@rainingsnoring indeed- my 85 year old FIL house was on at £600k - he sold in first week for £550k because he knew full well it wasn't worth £600k as it needed maybe £40k on it to be up to it for most people's tastes - and he couldn't hang on for months as wanted to move, on the other side of it he bought one at £404,000 that had been in for £440k - had only been on 6 weeks , probate sale and I suspect they knew that £440 was rather 'ambitious'

They get angry because they want a house but can't afford to buy one, so when they see something significantly overpriced they get mad as they see the encouragement of higher prices as stopping them getting what they want.

There isn't much more to it than that.

Personally I don't see anyone marketing at a significant price higher than I am willing to pay as participating in the market. I don't care what they are doing one way or another.

I respect some people want to find out what the market is willing to pay and prefer to start high and bring the price down to where there are takers. Makes sense to me.

Not true! I have bought and sold at a higher (but realistic!) price than the house I linked to in the past few months, and I have another (probate) house to sell this year, which I will also price realistically.

I just find it very puzzling, and like the OP of this thread I wonder what is going through the minds of people who stay on the market for months or years at inflated prices. I would assume that if you put your house on the market you actually want to sell it, but if you significantly overprice it then that is unlikely to happen.

It is annoying as a buyer if you see a property that is interesting but the sellers won't accept a reasonable offer, but then you just move on to the next one.

Not so sure, on first impressions it looks okay, but I can see many issues with it. There's been roofing problems. The back windows have been botched in/replaced - totally out of character. It's an end of terrace so probably external wall issues and other roofing complications given the shape. Also heat loss. The bathroom and kitchen aren't special. The rooms aren't that nice at the rear...

When we wer looking my wife & I viewed a spectacularly awful house, it looked like Mrs had left with the furniture leaving Mr sitting on old car seats and a cement mixer in the middle of the garden.

The EA asked us what we thought of it afterwards as she clearly needed to get them to sort the property before it would sell

@JohnofWessex we looked at a house where the couple were mid divorce and had a massive Barney whilst we were there- it just gave me 'bad vibes'

One of the problems is that when people price unrealistically, it encourages other people to also price too high, because they think oh look that one in my road is on for X so mine must be worth similar. Even if they price lower, it's still impacted by the unrealistic ones. In my area there are properties which have been on the market coming up to two years.

TBF I know and am related to many men that live like this by happy choice... most didn't have a 'Mrs' to begin with.

Its just what happens when you leave men of my ilk (lets call the 'redneck engineers') to their own devices.

Live in scrapyards with furniture built out of old tyres, 'vintage' tool parts and tree stumps etc... are 'high fashion' to some don't you know lol.

There is a house where I used to live 20% higher ptice listed than others. It's bern on and off for 2 years and a bit. Always abput 20% more but not in any better state than others.
When they did this others upped prices. So yes, pp is right. It encourages sellers around to do this. Otyers have seen the light and went back yo normal ptice because they actually want to sell and at normal price it flies off the market within weeks

I think it comes down to how badly the vendor needs to move/sell, combined with a belief that interest rates will return to the 2%.

I have no idea why, but your final sentence made me cackle. 😆

I find it odd when people buy a house, do nothing to it, then try to flog on for significantly more 2-3 years later

Prices havent jumped that much. In fact they are dropping

Indeed. We have just bought a house that the seller had owned for 3 years. We ended up paying £20k less than they did 3 years ago.

There’s one near me, reduced price 2 years ago and not altered since still for sale now. Madness

Exactly. I've seen quite a few of these where the asking prices are 15%+ more than the price in 2022, which was the market peak. Conversely, I have also seen a few bought 21/22 where the owners have marketed at a realistic price or reduced to slightly under what they bought for.
I my general area, there have been a lot of large houses at the higher end of the market with far too high asking prices (20-30% overvalued) sitting on the market on and off for 2-3 years with small, slow reductions. I can't think of a single one that has sold. There is one that has been on and off for 3 years and even reduced the asking price by nearly 30% and still didn't sell because the initial asking price was ridiculous. Several were taken off the market at the end of last year and I expect they will come back on over the next few months, hoping for the 'Spring bounce'.

…Maybe I am being overly pessimistic, but I doubt that there will be many areas that enjoy a ‘spring bounce’ this year, even with the push to get in before stamp duty.
There are just too many potential financial variables on the horizon.
However, things may miraculously change, and good luck to all trying to get a move together.