If anyone is looking for a 2 bed flat in Worthing...

[TeddyBeans]

Here's ours 🤣

Feel free to critique the listing, we had a fluke viewing the day after it went live and radio silence since... Would love to sell, the kids need their own rooms and we desperately want a garden

What has really happened is that the price of debt started returning to more historically normal levels, it was the cheap debt that was the problem not the return to normality. The present situation is a different level though, this is 1970`s level crisis.

We're trying to remortgage the flat before the interest rate hikes up (thank you for that, asstrumpet) so that's taken priority right now. DP also changed from dividends to PAYE for 3 months as his brother told him it would be easier but the mortgage broker asked for 3 payslips and last year's P60 which showed the switch in payment method so it's caused more problems than it's avoided. This whole thing is becoming a giant pain in the ass

Awww, that's a lovely, smart, well presented flat @TeddyBeans Looks quite spacious too. Not a bad price either. I know someone who just paid £250K for a small-ish 2 bed flat in Shrewsbury, (Shropshire,) but Shrewsbury is a rather posh and sought after area... Well much of it is anyway.... (And I don't know what your area is like...) But that's not even in the south, so your flat is a good buy. I hope you sell it soon. Maybe someone on here will see it!

@Zov thank you! 😘 I had hoped mn would work its magic and find me a buyer but alas, it is currently not to be

Yes, they seem to have overlooked that the main fallout from all this is going to be much higher inflation/rates, the very thing that the PTB have been trying to avoid! Very strange.

Some depressing news today, 3 of the 4 houses we were hoping to look at/possibly move to have now been sold STC 😭 there's a chance they'll come back but it's so sad as they would have all been perfect for us in their own ways. The last one has sold and come back twice since Christmas so not sure what the issue is with that one...

Still no joy with the flat. Agent hasn't called yet so will get DP on it tomorrow/Friday

Why wait for DP to chase? Why not give them a call today yourself? A non-responsive agent is a red flag to me. I once waited for an EA to get back with an update (I didn't want to appear to be needy or demanding). After 3 weeks I called only to find that our buyer had just ghosted us. I binned the agent and put the property back on at a higher price just to ensure said buyer wouldn't come back!

Purely as he has more opportunities during the day to call. By the time I'm done with work (I can't use my phone during the day) and the aftermath, they're shutting up shop. He didn't get a chance today so I will call tomorrow as I have Fridays off but didn't want to wait until the end of the week if I didn't have to

The reality of the market will catch them out, the number of EA"s going bust is quite high now, they need to accept that we are in a new reality.

https://www.investing.com/rates-bonds/uk-10-year-bond-yield-streaming-chart

Well colour me unimpressed. I called this afternoon and was told our agent has just gone out to an appointment and he'll pass on a message to call me back and I've not heard anything since. Mum life has meant I haven't been able to chase it up but that's pretty poor imo

The issue with SSTC is usually lender"s down-valuing the property? (Valuing for market is a much better term though I think)

You have to laugh. Lender says, "You should pay less". Borrower says, "How can I pay more than it's worth?"

So dp managed to get through to the agent this morning. She's assured us the market is just slow and everyone wants 3 bed houses so the flat market in general is very slow.

We've had the wording changed to offers in the region of (it's the only thing dp was willing to agree to at the moment) as it gives more of an impression that we're willing to negotiate I think. He forgot to ask her to add the dimensions to the floor plan so I'm going to pop her an email to see if she can do that. She can be speedy when she wants to be, the OIRO is already live on Rightmove

You’re willing to negotiate but you’re not willing to negotiate to sell for the price that it should be on sale for (£220k). Your EA is being economical with the truth - plenty of people still want flats but only synthetic right price. Additionally more and people are aware of the problems with the dreaded leasehold tenure.

Has your DH been rightmoving lately? Your flat just doesn’t stand out in the sea of other two bedders. This is what you should think about - what is it about my two bedroom flat that makes it special at that (quite high) price point? A hell of a lot has changed in the market since your next door flat sold for £241k, it’s a totally different landscape.

Greed.

Yes, this mindset has been going on for quite a while, just shows how well people were brainwashed into thinking that basic properties were worth big bucks.

Mortgage rates are going up, the best thing sellers can do is to look at the local wage for their area and use a mortgage calculator to calculate monthly mortgage costs for their type of buyer, then they have to price to sell accordingly, at a level where people can afford the mortgage payments otherwise there will be no views. The difference between this crisis and the Truss crisis is that with the Truss crisis the UK government could control/contain it by rolling back announced policy until the bond market was happy, they can"t do that this time, the UK is now at the mercy of global events.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/general/mortgage-rates-soar-and-deals-pulled-in-worst-crisis-since-truss/ar-AA1Ym7Qi

Bit harsh.

I'm working on him, he dug his heels in when we bought this place and made the process harder than it needed to be. He can be frustrating but generally he sees sense after a little while

Floor plan is up with dimensions on! That's one thing off the to do list at least

I see there's two other flats up for sale in your block and they're also selling for £240k. It's good you have the advantage of being on the top floor, but a cynically minded potential buyer like me would think there's something wrong with the block or the area just outside the block.

There are 5 of them up for sale over all 3 blocks. The agent did say that it happens in waves with flats. They have years where loads get put up together and sold and other years where maybe only one or two get listed/sold.

The lady downstairs to us is selling because she finds the service fee too much, the ground floor one at the back of our block are planning on relocating to Devon, the lady that has hers up for 220 wanted a quick sale for whatever reason and I don't know anything about the fifth one. AFAIK we're the only ones wanting to upside but obviously we can't give out that information to any potential viewers

To sell a flat in 2026 it needs to be drastically reduced and a bargain.
Ours was in the SE with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and on Rightmove for over 2 years. Previous sold prices in our block were showing as 330K which we tried to get with no interest. On year 3 we dropped gradually and at 265K it went immediately and we have just completed and moved.
It will only get worse for flats. If you are really serious about moving you need to take a loss . I think yours would sell at 195K.

I think lower, but this is sensible advice, you got out just before the bond market crisis which is heading for the UK.

We won't be able to afford anything like what we need for 195 so it would be pointless trying to move for that kind of price. We have a good flat, it serves us well. We're not going to move out of area/to a tiny house with a postage stamp garden for the sake of it.

I've talked to dp about trying for a btl mortgage on this place to release equity and give us the deposit to be able to move on but he's not keen so if we need to stay here until the market picks up then so be it. The kids need their own spaces but we'd just have to make it work until we can sell at a price that gives us what we need