Is anyone on the market but having zero interest?

[rootsandwings89]

We put our house on the market a month ago and only had 1 viewing so far :( our estate agent says the market is very nervous and nothing is moving …. Anyone else in the same boat?

Good advice.

Watching this thread with interest. We want to downsize and were planning to sign up with an agent that gave us a mid-range valuation. I decided to put the house on Facebook first, not Marketplace but just listed it on for sale groups with the basic info. We had 2 viewings and 2 offers almost immediately and when taking into account the lack of EA fee we were only a few k off asking price. Buyers had been looking for a year but kept missing out. It’s taken us 8 weeks to find anywhere we like and the minute we do, we find our buyers sale has fallen through!

We have given them two weeks to get a buyer or at least a good prospect of one. They’ll be cash buyers so we want to stick with them if possible to avoid the lender valuation issue. Plus I can’t face the thought of tidying the house for photos and viewings, going on the market and paying an EA fee 😩

As a buyer, something that’s really pissing me off is the use of AI in listings. The ‘virtual staging’ does my head in. I don’t mind if they have a photo of the room as it is and then the next photo is a virtual staging one, but some listings are just full of AI photos. I know it’s superficial stuff they’re changing but it gives you an impression that the property has been looked after in a way that isn’t realistic. We then go and view it and the disappointment makes us think it isn’t worth what we originally thought. We viewed one that had been virtually staged, when we got there we opened the door to an overwhelming smell and were faced with piles of bin bags and cat shit everywhere. Unsurprisingly that house remains unsold even after price reductions.

They will still get an independent valuation though, if they are smart? The AI thing is just ridiculous, people eventually have to see the reality if they are interested in the house.

Possibly, although they didn’t mention it. Just talked about the usual survey. They know we won’t budge on price (or at least not until we’ve tested the market first).

The market in most areas is "difficult" I believe.

I live somewhere where houses usually sell very quickly (good commute to London but near two national parks) and things are still selling at the asking prices or around that mark, but taking much much longer to sell. I think there are less buyers around due to the political uncertainty & mortgage rates. My opinion is those who don’t need to move at the moment, are staying put for now to see what happens in the next year or so.

We seem to have a 2 tier market in my area. A few homes have sold quickly if priced at around 2020 levels. Loads of others sitting on the market without any interest because they aren't priced correctly. Sometimes they make small meaningless reductions, sometimes they withdraw from the market having decided to stay put - and occasionally one gets lucky. Its likely to get worse before it gets better imo

On the other hand I feel like things are picking up now compared with when this thread started in April. A lot of ‘sold’ signs around me and surely at least a proportion of those will go through. Maybe people are pricing more realistically now.

Yes I've noticed things have definitely picked up in the area we're looking in just this last week - several houses have gone under offer. Not sure yet whether it's the same where we currently live, but fingers crossed.

Will be interesting to see actual sold prices on Rightmove for April, when they eventually get round to putting them up. On houseprices.io most showing as a 5% drop.

Mortgage rates have been dropping, but the Japan situation may not allow that to continue? UK is basically caught in the middle.

Easy to check with one of the price tracking apps.

When the bank of England make a statement like this - that there won't be any interest rate drops this year - it probably means they are doing thier best not to raise them already.
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-15947105/Interest-rate-cut-table-says-Andrew-Bailey-Bank-England-expected-rates-3-75-rest-year.html

Yes, saw that, they are basically biting their hands trying not to raise, that statement is pretty strong considering their usual market soothing caution.

Zoopla and Houseprices io published May sold prices.

The flat I was looked at but considered hugely overpriced, labelling sellers delusional, sold with 50K (10%) discount - close to the previous sold price.
So I was right about the price but wrong to not put a reasonable offer.
I think it answers the question "should I make an offer below asking, or just wait".

I think 10% fall in prices sounds right and definitely always worth putting in a reasonable or even cheeky offer below asking. We reduced ours by 10% (though I think it was slightly overpriced initially- estate agents fault) we finally accepted an offer which is 13% below what it was on for last September.

@Delatron I wouldn't even call it a fall as noone ever paid the price they were asking for in that building.
That's why I was thinking they are either in no rush to sell or unreasonable, so no point in talking to them.

What year was the previous sold price?

4 years ago, but there's plenty of properties sold in that building before and after to use as reference.

So, not all people get offended by low offer, some just want to sell.

The more people get that you are not due a large mark up just for having held the property for a few years the better, you can actually make a loss.

It looks likley now that we will be on a steady pace of interest rate rises for a couple of years. This is going to cause a lot of issues if the markets are right :/

But if you put it into context, interest rates were 5.25% and reduced to 3.75% - then the war with Iran broke out which caused oil prices to rise.

the Bank of England couldn't have predicted that, so their forecasts could change either up or down depending on the global economy, inflation, uk economic growth and employment figures, hopefully Andy Burnham will make a better job of the economy than the last lot did.

@daisychain01 ”hopefully Andy Burnham will make a better job of the economy than the last lot did.”

Dream on. He’s a patsy for the far left within the party. We are going back to class war.

What do you mean by 'going back to class war'? That's been going on for decades already, steadily getting worse. It's hardly a new thing!

I doubt Burnham will be much different/any better but we will need to wait and see.

@DrySherry -I know I've said this before but I suspect interest rates to fall in the short term 6-18 months or so but longer term I think they will be far higher than in the last 18 years or so, v possibly considerably higher than they are currently. I also think the BOE projections are always wrong!

I'm looking to buy later on in the year. A third of the properties I had saved in RM just got removed from the market these last view weeks - presumably people not getting the offers they wanted/ being advised to remove and relist by their agents