When To Drop House Price?

[BraOffPjsOn]

We’ve been on the market, which is completely dead around us, for almost 2 months. The estate agent called the other day to discuss dropping the price (from the price they’d estimated in the first place).
I don’t mind dropping it 10k but at the moment there is nothing we like and want to offer on anyway. Also, if dropping still doesn’t get us a buyer we wouldn’t be able to drop anymore and would just take the house off the market as we wouldn’t be able to get the kind of house we are selling for in the first place.

A friend of a friend, who’s an estate agent, said nothing is moving here at the moment and they’re not expecting it to get better until after Christmas!

Kind of wishing we’d waited until next spring now.

Any advice about what to do would be greatly appreciated.

2 months is well past the point you should have dropped the price, its usually around 5 weeks if you haven't received an offer. At 2 months your ad will be stale and many won't even look at it.

I think the main issue is your not a motivated seller, you don't actually have a need, urge or plan to sell (no goal house, no desperate need to move, urgency to up/downsize etc...). It might be best to take it off the market just because of that. If you do sell but theres no where you want to go then you'll just mess the buyer around.

We can refer to the experts - RICS. Their latest monthly report says:

"Buyer demand and agreed sales measures fall back into negative territory
House prices edge lower at the national level
Sales activity now expected to remain flat in the near-term"

I think we've seen the last of the interest rate cuts for a while. Its looking possible they might have to start ticking up again. Add to that the enormous number of mortgages are still to come off the low rate fixed that we used to have and it looks pretty bleak imo

But also, lot of people have made the transition now from the very low fixed rate mortgages they were on to higher ones starting with a 3 or 4 and that didn't bring about the crash you expected so I don't see what will bring about significant changes over the next 12 months.

Even Rightmove have reported monthly falls in initial asking prices (ie the most positive of metrics) now. The ONS have reduced all their previous figures going back 50 years earlier this year and continue to revise every month downwards regularly. They then measure the new month against the downwardly revised ones so what they say should be disregarded. I think they have been told to make everything look as positive as possible by the Labour government.
Overall, the chief problem is the economy and rising unemployment, as I have said far too many times on here! People simply can't afford to pay more and more.

People who used to predict a house price crash used to scoff at changes in Rightmove asking prices saying that proves nothing. Suddenly they are relevant because they are falling?

Maybe people are just becoming more realistic now as the stagnation has been going on for a while… committed sellers should be getting the message and acting accordingly.

Are you referring to Moving Home with Charlie @Twiglets1. You do know that I'm a different person right?
The point which I was making is that even RM are admitting that the market isn't doing well and are telling sellers to price more realistically.

I'm referring to the fact that you mentioned him relentlessly on MN and his crazy expectations of house prices falling 35% between 2022 -2025, and wouldn't hear a bad word said against him. Most months in that time Rightmove asking prices rose and at the time you rubbished that metric and questioned why anyone would take asking prices seriously.

So I'm surprised now to see you quoting the fact that Rightmove asking prices have fallen this month as if that's something to be taken seriously.

What I do recall is telling you that you seem obsessed with the bloke as you mentioned him more than anyone else! Clearly things haven't changed! 😂

What I probably said about the RM figures is pointed out the general metric is pretty rubbish as the continue to only look at initial asking prices, at a time where there are so many reductions all of their own website and most properties weren't selling at all, ie they made things look far more positive than they were in reality. For the third time, even RM are now reporting falls even in initial asking prices.

No one was more obsessed by him than you as you were the one bringing his name into multiple threads.

If you've forgotten agreeing with him in his expectations of a 35% fall in house prices by 2025 then that's funny. There are people even on this thread that will definitely remember what you were saying at the time.

Anyway, carry on as you were ... talking about how Rightmove initial asking prices are the most positive of metrics 😂

Thanks all it’s really interesting. We would like to upsize - we aren’t desperately needing to as it’s extra living space we’d like rather than bedrooms etc and a bigger garden.

We went to look at a house today which needs everything doing but could be lovely for the right price - I think the person who said people are pricing not taking into account work costs nowadays was right.

The estate agent today said they always recommend if it’s not sold in 3 weeks to drop the price but also said they’d only sold 11 houses this month whereas last august it was 25 so things are slow.

If it wasn’t for the size of our garden I’d probably just convert the garage!

It's a real shame that you can't move on @Twiglets1
I recommended him a number of times as helpful to FTBs. I stand by that particular recommendation.

If you can find any occasion where I said that I specifically agreed with his expectations of a 35% fall by 2025, please feel free to link. Otherwise, please stop making things up and move on with your life.

Can't be bothered. You know you agreed with his expectations & I know it.

Now you distance yourself from them, haha.

Back to the thread!

Well what a surprise @Twiglets1. You can't link to anything because I didn't make those remarks. Please stop making things up. I know that having the humility to admit your mistake will be beyond you!

Was that your own estate agent that made those remarks @BraOffPjsOn or the estate agent showing you around the house today? It sounds as if you think the property you viewed is priced too high considering the amount of work that is required. That's definitely a general theme since 2022, when the cost of work and materials shot up. Will you wait or consider a much lower offer, taking the work into account?

It's just that I can't be bothered. Actually you may have just made me feel motivated. But I won't distract from OPs thread any more.

Maybe I'll start a new thread just for you tomorrow @rainingsnoring

It was the other estate agent for the house we viewed.

I don’t know - we haven’t got a buyer yet and it could be a lovely house but I didn’t fall in love with it so happy to wait and see if it drops.

We spoke to another estate agent this morning about a house they’re just put on and she was chatting away and said at the moment you can offer 20-30k less on houses!
I feel like even the estate agents don’t know what to do!

You are going about this the wrong way and it will cost you.

You should sell your house (get it under offer) before you look at others so that you achieve max - then start looking as an under offer purchaser in a strong position to negotiate the best price off your next house.

This takes all the emotion out of it and stops you doing something impulsive like letting yours go for peanuts because you have found something you have fallen in love with and on which you are tempted to over offer to secure it.

Summer is a shocking time to list a property everyone is focused on holidays. When people return from holiday, decide to sell and then get photos etc done - you will see a bump in new properties online in late Sept. Do not reduce until then - so you can see what the comparable asking prices are this next round of house selling - you might already be under priced.

More importantly what are comparable sold prices for your property over the past year?

It does sound as if they have no idea how to value properties currently!
I do agree with the last poster that the correct order of things would be to sell your own house first and then you can ponder making offers. As it's late August, you could wait until the first week or two of September but I would then reduce by a decent amount if you haven't had further interest. I would do your best to research what is selling and see if you can get an approximate idea what these properties are selling for. Once you are under offer, you are then in a strong position to be able to negotiate hard if very little is selling in your area.