Anyone else dealing with a partner who thinks house is worth more than it is?

[movingonoout]

If so, have you had success in convincing them to lower their expectations? Or was it just a case of waiting weeks and months for them to see that asking price offers didn't come flooding in? We got a lot of initial viewings (12 in the first week), but week 2 has tailed off to just a couple and no offers or requests for further viewings. Our house is in good condition, we've done some big jobs like replacing the roof, boiler, kitchen, bathroom, landscaping, but it's by no means a high end finished house and it's in a pretty average, but fairly popular area. It's a bog standard FTB / small family semi.

The first person to view did put in what I considered to be a reasonable initial offer of just over 90% of asking price (FTB with MIP). DP didn't want to negotiate as he felt it was a lowball offer and we can get better. We're in contract with the Estate Agent for 20 weeks, so the thought of potentially another 18 weeks of having to keep the house viewing ready is filling me with dread.

I think in the current market selling for around 95% of asking price is probably pretty reasonable for most areas, curious to know what others think?

They have dried up in all the other months too so not sure what difference this makes?

Show him PropertyLog and watch the price drops as they happen, doing that for a while gives you a feel for the market.

Nothing is selling here at all ATM

Getting an offer 10% under is really how just about everything does sell round here. The asking price is really a false price - you know it will only actually sell for 10% under.

As for putting in an offer when you aren't under offer yourself? All the estate agents here will tell you to jog on and wake up. Most won't let you view unless you have a offer in principle.

10% isn"t enough off in this market.

I’m currently under offer at 3% under asking price. It’s a popular area and I priced realistically. 10% isn’t some kind of catch-all for all situations at the moment. I had an offer at 6% under as well and the estate agents just rejected on my behalf as they thought he was a time-waster.

OP, I’d always counter-offer rather than reject. Counter with a bit higher than you actually want.

No matter how many viewings you have stacked up, if someone comes in with an offer, at least consider it and make a counter offer if necessary. You need to be decisive - "bird in the hand", an offer is like gold dust in such a challenging market. All the other viewers are just that, viewers, not people you are sure will make an offer.

your DH is magnifying the stress, his expectations are very unrealistic and you're basically using up all your prospective buyers. Your EA will have a database of people they can contact who want your type of property in your area. Once they've been exhausted, you will find things really slow down, until any new people register with the EA and/or find you on Right Move, then it will be dribs and drabs.

Remind him how many viewings you've had that didn't result in an offer, and that you could have secured a buyer by now by working with the one person who made an offer worth considering.

You're not thinking logically. There's a simple solution to this. Tell him he now has to prepare the home for each viewing in order to maximise offers.

Joking aside, open up Area360 (google it) and check comparative values, action and trends. And use houseprices.io as well.

We agreed our recent purchase at 10% under asking which was a reduced price already. If we'd gone in at the original asking price it would have been 23% under. We also agreed a 3% reduction with our buyer.
It not a hot market right now, so there are deals to be done, but all sellers have to show willingness for this to happen

Why don't you tell him the house can stay on the market forever as far as you're concerned but you're not cleaning and tidying it for viewings any more with immediate effect.

Remind him how many viewings you've had that didn't result in an offer, and that you could have secured a buyer by now by working with the one person who made an offer worth considering.

This is what I've told him. Having so many viewings in the first weekend was ideal really. Lots of motivated buyers saw it, they knew we had lots of viewings booked in, so if they were keen they'd be getting in fast with second viewing requests and offers. Only getting two offers, pretty clearly shows where our market is. If lots of people wanted to buy it, then more people would have put in even low offers. He told me I'm being impatient and shouldn't expect to sell a house in a week. I actually think 16 viewings is probably about average before accepting an offer. It's just all ours happened in the first week, whereas others may have to wait a few weeks to get that number of viewings.

I'm so stressed by the process that I don't want to move now. I wish we weren't in this 20 week contract. He won't help to prepare the house for viewings, I'll spend my day off tomorrow trying to get the house and garden sorted for the one viewing we have on Saturday.

He's really stubborn, so I'm not sure continuing to try to talk to him will achieve anything. I think I just need to wait until if/when we get another offer. Hopefully the EA won't make me feel rushed into accepting or declining the next one, I expect it's normal to take a day to think it over. Reassuring to know my thinking seems to be along the right lines, I've done a lot of research on the process which I don't think my DP has.

Good move, property price delusion is a disease, it really is.

Get him to listen to the Moving Home With Charlie podcast. You should have accepted the offer or at least counter-offered. 90% is not remotely lowball in this market.

Aaah it's hard OP, I think as well, quire often you accept an offer (day at 93%) and then there's a survey, or a mortgage valuation or something and more gets chipped away. I find house selling quite soul destroying as your imagined price dwindles! It night just take him a bit of time for the realisation to dawn. I would say, when there's another offer, even if it's low, counter with a specific price- it keeps the dialogue going and gives a flavour for how far people might go (even if you don't end up agreeing a deal). I'd potentially (if you get further down the line of the 20 weeks) just ask a couple more agents - because hearing from several people that it'll only make 225 might land a bit more firmly.
I'd also pull data for him - newspaper articles, national statistics - they're constantly explaining the market is worsening and house prices declining. So whatever on the road has sold, yours will be less, that's the direction of travel.
Can you also explain to him that in your position this is actually great news!? House prices go in percentages. If you accept a 95% offer on your home, you're accepting roughly 10-12k off the asking price. However, if you offer/buy a 500k house at 95% asking price, you're getting a much more impressive 25k discount. So it's worth remembering that upsizing in this kind of market is good, so long as you don't think about the offer on your house too personally, and remember you'll get it off the house you buy.

If he's not getting it, just take a breath and a step away, he will get there eventually, it might be a bit painful but better he gets there in his own time. If you force it, you'll have a husband in 10 years time still bitter about being "robbed" on the house sale....!

I have had to really work with my DP to get him to understand how slow the market is currently and also that a low offer is not a personal affront!

I would go back to the agents and ask them what happened to the offer. That’s their job. If they haven’t got this right now, you need to be absolutely sure that they’re going to get it right in the future.

ok now you’ve had 16 viewers that’s excellent. The offer is the only one you got out of 16. If someone wanted to offer a low amount and loved the house they would have. Even it it meant going to best and final. So you only got one offer. That tells you everything. I suggest you accept it and then you can put offers in elsewhere. Or take it off the market now and try again in sept or Jan.

Why take it off the market now?

Why on earth are you doing all the hard work? If he wants to piss about he needs to feel the consequences. He should be sorting it not you. He's taking the piss.

@movingonoout my SIL had 92 viewings over a 12 month period before she got the offer she wanted. Finally sold last June but missed out on multiple properties she loved over the sake of few grand and is now renting and burning through money.

@movingonoout your counter-offer should have been £225k and then they come back with £220k. Sold!

I feel sorry for you @movingonoout.
Your DP sounds delusional and, frankly, rather unpleasant. Is he always 'the boss'?! He wants to sell the house, apparently more than you, but expects to put in zero effort and wants to place all responsibility for researching the market/cleaning&tidying/arranging viewings/liaising with the agents on you. He also doesn't want to negotiate with potential buyers because their offer is a 'lowball' offer but thinks it is reasonable to put in an offer on your onward purchase at 10% below asking when you aren't even under offer!

If he won't listen to any sort of reason, stop doing the cleaning/tidying and ask him to take over dealing with the EA from now on. If he genuinely wants to sell and buy, he needs to be made to take some responsibility at least.

Because now the initial push is over and summer holidays are here it will be sporadic viewings which the op has said she doesn’t want.

you tend to get the best amount of interest just after launch - or in Jan when everyone wants a change

My MiL is like this. They put their house on the market a few years ago, but despite the surveyor suggesting a price, my MiL insists its worth more and will not budge, she also will not make any changes to make it easier to sell, she says that's for buyers to do, for example they have a double cubicle shower instead of a bath but trying to sell a small 4-bed family home with no bath is nigh-on impossible. We tried to tell her that most families especially those with young children expect a bath and will push the price down if they are going to have to fork out to change the bathroom. She will not hear of it and they ended up staying put and taking the house off the market. We will probably inherit it and God knows how long it will take us to sell it.

Oh how I feel you OP!!!! My partner was very similar!! We are in Scotland so “offers over” very much applies.

He was expecting crazy offers for his house but when we were offering he was nipping on that “the house isn’t worth that” eventually after losing out on multiple properties we finally had an offer accepted recently but it took a few sore losses and missing out on houses we loved before he came to terms with just how much over asking we needed to go. I had to keep reminding him about what a brat he was being about the offers he got - definitely a cut off his nose in spite of his face 😂

Bit late now but you have lost the rush of purchasers looking at new listings in your price range. Hopefully your ideal purchaser will materialise. If your home is priced competitively then it shouldn't be too long. A house is only worth what someone is prepared to pay. In any market a reasonable price is negotiable.

Update: I actually came up to 96% of asking and they asked me to come up further, so I folded. They said they are keeping my offer on the table but I guess I will get back on the search

Always counter! I don’t understand the agents but I would have countered £225 and expected them to meet you in the middle at £220. Not going back with a counter and they had nothing to work against so left it. Yes you may eventually get a higher offer, but often the first offer is the best one