Anyone just listing and want to join a support thread?

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We are going onto the market over the next few days, photos taken yesterday. We’re in a new build which we reserved in 2020 (completed 2021). Valuations were slightly disappointing but have gone with agents’ advice and listed at £375k.

Our motivation for moving is to apply for DD’s school next September so we are on a 12 month countdown.

Feeling a huge mix of nerves, excitement and impatience.

You say "£50k-£100k less than it's worth"..... but a house is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. They don't have intrinsic values, really. Yes, you can wait and hope that someone offers more, but in the current climate that wait might be a very long one.

I don't think anyone is expecting people to "slash" prices and bankrupt themselves (unless very desperate to move) but I see far too many people saying they can't possibly accept less than asking price, or they can't reduce the price because it was worth x two years ago, or next door sold for ££ last year, or they need x in order to buy the next house (forgetting that the next house has also been on the market for 6 months, and there's a deal to be had).

Also a bad idea in this climate is finding something to buy, falling in love with it, then setting the price of your current property based on what you need in order to buy the new one! There have been a couple on this thread.... just doesn't work in a buyer's market.

Either way, it's a shitshow. Annoying for us, as retirement plans are on hold... will have to see just how low we need to go.

Yes, but there are enough people who post 'just reduce the price' as the only reason (and solution for) a property might not be selling at a certain price point.
That really is no more useful to a seller either.

I'm not saying prices don't ever go down but I do think when that poster says on almost every post to drop the house price massively and just get the next property to do the same is missing the reality that the house you want to purchase won't massively drop their price just because you did. Proportionate realistic price reductions are not unreasonable but you're never going to drop your house price by £100k if you have a £225k house and it went on the market a month ago and you know that similar houses have sold for similar prices in the last few months. You might drop £10-£15k if you're in a particular rush to sell quick for whatever reason.
It's the blind advice to drop your house price by insane amounts by that poster being given out constantly that gets on people's nerves.

I’d like to join!

We had been dithering about selling for months, downsize to reduce outgoings. I saw a post on a
local facebook group asking for a house that matched ours. They came round next day, offered asking and that was that. They then lost their buyer, so we decided to go on the market and have been on Rightmove about 4weeks. A couple of viewings that went well but nothing concrete yet.

One thing I struggle with is appointing an EA. I cannot bear the thought of paying them £10k+ to do not a lot. In the 8 weeks or so that we were proceedable buyers we viewed properties with numerous local agents and they were all crap. Little knowledge , couldn’t answer questions and did nothing to try and ‘sell’ to us. We weren’t impressed with any of them. So we got a load of valuations, went for the middle one and then instructed an online agent to literally just put the house on the portals. We decluttered, redecorated and took photos on a sunny day! So 🤞

Not many other houses near us that are similar enough so it’s hard to make comparisons. Still hoping our original buyers sell theirs (theirs is half the price of ours so hopefully they have more luck). Really hoping September picks up as it’s been disappointing for us so far.

Buyers at the moment can afford to be very choosy, and can cherry-pick the very best. If there are any drawbacks to your house (location, odd rooms etc) they will simply look elsewhere. There are plenty of things you cannot change about your house, but the one thing you can change is the price, to make it more interesting.

In our case we've knocked £50k off after zero (and I mean zero) interest for several weeks. A £10k reduction would have been meaningless, in my opinion. And now we have a succession of viewers. It has told us that our house never really was worth the price we set it at....well, not in the current climate.

It does feel a bit galling to pay that sum to an EA, doesn't it? Ours has been quite good so far, did some quite stunning photos and a marketing booklet and has done all the viewings. It's a local agent, as we live in the sort of village where local contacts come in very useful, as people often want to remain in the area. And I'm hoping they will add value when it comes to holding a chain together (well, that's the hope).

Anyway, good luck!

If you dropped the house value by £50k how much was it listed for originally. If it's a high value property £50k might be a realistic reduction. But for lower value properties, it would be an insane drop

If no one is interested in buying their house they can either drop the price or stay living in the house, that is the choice on offer, the flats are obviously going to fall in price as well as they can"t stay expensive if everything else is falling! Flats are already in price collapse mode anyway.

Agree. We went from £850k to £800k. Not "high high value" (around here, at least!) but certainly not low either.

Worth noting, when we sold our previous house, in 2008 (as the market tanked), we started at £325k and eventually sold for £250k after 7 months on the market. It felt like a kick in the teeth. But then we bagged our current place for £440k when it was originally listed at £550k, so we were no worse off. Yes, 2008-2009 was a proper financial crisis, and things aren't anything like as bad as it was then, but I guess it means I'm not afraid of a price adjustment if it means we get moving.

Anyway, second viewing today - they seemed pretty keen, but we're one of a "shortlist" (of course) and they don't feel like they need to rush to a decision. Cash buyers! I made it clear to them that we'd happily move into rented if we couldn't find anything to buy in the right timeframe, as we wouldn't jeopardise the sale if they wanted to be speedy.

The only realistic reduction is one that finds a buyer, price rises were insane, it is only to be expected that there will be large price cuts on the way down, you can"t go from near zero interest rates to more normal rates (base rate is still ridiculously low) and expect house prices not to have to adjust by a lot.

Things are worse than 2008 if you are trying to sell a house or borrow for a house, the banker bailout then was a massive gift for people selling and people buying with mortgage debt, the problem is that by keeping rates too low for too long they have encouraged millions of people to borrow too much and led people to believe that their house is worth much more than it actually is, the global economic/geopolitical climate now means they can"t repeat a bailout of that size again with zero rates, people with recent mortgage debt and people trying to sell are now caught in a rising rate environment that is the complete opposite of the reaction to the 2008 crisis.

I could definitely find a buyer in a day if I reduce it down to 50p. Doesn't mean I will or make it a realistic price for a house and certainly doesn't mean the next house will do the same when I want to purchase

It's finding that sweet spot, isn't it? A price where you will attract buyers (assuming you want to crack on with a sale and not be stuck for months)....yet not sell yourself short. But attracting buyers is so much harder when they have a vast choice, so price is one aspect you can control to make your house stand out.

I think we're all saying the same thing - realistic price reductions!

Yes I think you are saying the same thing as me but @KeepPumping does seem to think everyone should cut their prices massively as they do on every thread and jumps in on every thread about house sales to just drop the price by massive amounts regardless of if it isn't that overpriced will happily say a £20k reduction on a £200k house will do nothing to attract buyers you need to drop far more, nobody needs to buy a house cause they're already in one etc. it just gets tedious and detracts from the threads original purpose

@sbplanet exactly. Plus letting it out is work as I manage the bookings but have to pay someone to do the changeover as I don’t live near it. A friend who has a holiday let says the difference between breaking even and profit is usually down to the fact she does the changeover (and doesn’t factor in her time doing this).

Hello, I have some EA’s coming round on Monday. Do you have any tips about what ask re their services/marketing/prices etc?
One of them said the appointment would take an hour which has alarmed me as it seems like a long time.
I am getting the ball rolling on selling after a separation, I still live with my ex and he is dragging his feet on selling, so will have to tread carefully.
Any advice or support gratefully received.

Oooh did the one who said it would take an hour have JR as initials? We had one appraisal that took an hour. They did a presentation with lots of gumph about their position in the estate agent hierarchy and what their stats showed about their success rate, valuations and sales in your local area. Somewhat OTT but they did photos, plans and videos included in their fee. In the end we went with someone else who did similar but at a better fee percentage.
You can negotiate quite a few points on the contract, we decided we'd like an 8 week contract that has a 28 day (concurrent) cancellation period.
Some charge extra for AML checks, some include EPCs, so you have to check what's 'extra' when comparing.
Its so long since we bought/sold that I was out of the loop so I asked ChatGPT what to look out for, what was acceptable, what was a no-no in the Terms & Conditions contract. Very useful, but do check the 'facts' it tells you against other searches, it does get things wrong.

No it was a local firm. Thank you for the advice. I think I need to do some prep.

50p? Not sure that is relevant really, no one needs to do that, but lots of people need to do 25k, 50k, 100k reductions to get interest, they will still get a lot more than 50p, especially if they bought years ago.

Some people are but unfortunately lots of people believed that their house was a store of wealth, like a bank account.

A house can be a store of wealth, it’s just wealth that can be hard to realise (it’s illiquid) and, like all investments, can go up or down. The mistake many people have made is to believe their house is worth far more than it is.

Little update here . The offer I had at full asking has 12 viewings on theirs today .
Meanwhile I had a viewing Thursday , they returned last night . They seemed to love the property and sold theirs a month ago. A really nice young couple .
They had a couple more to view today but said they were ‘nothing like as nice as mine ‘ and that the agents pictures didn’t do mine justice.
I think they’ll offer , really hope so but will wait and see on Monday . Keep your fingers crossed for me 🙏🏻

If you buy with cash you are gambling that the price doesn"t fall below what you paid, AND that you can find a buyer when you need to release funds, if you buy with mortgage debt you are gambling that the price doesn"t fall, that you can find a buyer when needed AND risking paying interest on losses! None of that sounds like a good definition of "wealth" or " store of wealth" to me. I agree with the "Illiquid" definition, once the downturn starts (started now) sellers struggle because new buyers don"t want to be caught in negative equity, all that made it seem like "wealth" was a global wave of cheap mortgage debt, total illusion and fantasy really.

This is meant to be a thread about sellers just listing and giving support. Why don't you start a thread about house prices and you can give your advice as much as you like?

Wow, @Changedforsafety you are doing well.

Slow progress here... the couple who came for a second viewing on Wednesday have come back to say they are buying elsewhere. Two viewings on Friday, but one was an elderly chap with a stick, who could barely manage our stairs (which are steep... I keep reminding the agents to factor this in). The second lot were a younger family who were very interested in the "annex potential" but we've not heard back. No other viewings booked.