How to sell your property in a cooling market - Drop the price quick - The Times

carolt

http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article4477335.ece

A seller gives advice to others:

"...Three months on, the market is now ice cold. In our area - euphemistically called the Nightingale Triangle by the estate agent trade - there are about 30 houses like ours on sale at a similar price. Between January and May 31 this year total sales of four-bed terraced houses in our area were...none.

...It doesn't matter how lovely your home is; few people are confident they can get the mortgage.....Agents report that multitudes of potential buyers are “unprocedurable” because so much of the nation has given up on buying and selling houses. When we went to look at houses in Buckinghamshire, our lack of an offer made us “unprocedurable”. For us, the way to remedy this was to drop the price. And drop it again.

..... Dropping your price works only if you drop it before everyone with a similar property follows suit, a sensation not unlike walking off a cliff with your eyes shut - you know the result is going to be a nasty cold shock, but you don't know how cold or how much of a shock. And here you need a dialogue with the estate agent, because you are must drop low enough for buyers to know the price will still be competitive when they come to put their money on the table.

Now we are finally under offer. Our buyers have got an absolute bargain. But in this market, they won't have it any other way. They have got to be secure in the knowledge that they are buying something that will weather whatever the credit crunch throws at them over the next year....."

ginvzt

Nice comment:

Everyone should drop their price 25%. That would get prices down to a level where banks are willing to lend. Everyone saves in interest payments and stamp duty. Estate agents get to keep their jobs.

The market demands lower prices so lower them!

Now, who is going to post this article to all the vendors out there who put their house on the market in first months of this year at the prices of last summer and haven't even approached a thought of cutting the price?

sympatex

Me, i'll start my paper round now! i've seen some big falls in asking prices in my area but sales that have actually gone through and been processed don't show any falls. Mind you there has only been 6 in the entire post code this month. 32 in 3months.

ginvzt

6 in one postcode in one month???? I am looking the nice areas to buy, but there seems to be no sales at all this year!!!! (oh, forgive me - just checked again, 2 sales in the whole estate since the beginning of the year!!!!)

carolt

Yes, I get sent the 'sold' prices from my area by a couple of sites. For the last few months, they've been resorting to sending me sold prices from 2007! I think no more than 1 property a month selling in my postcode; that's shared between about 10 estate agents. Ouch.

morg_monster

one of the areas I keep an eye on in Property Bee usually has 2-3 bed terraced or semi houses going on for about 280-300k, they are hanging around for ages before finally dropping the price, continue ad nauseum... Someone put their 3 bed semi up for sale on july 28th, for a really good price (230k), it was in good condition, nice garden, etc, close to station, great family home, and it was snapped up within 5 days. the vendors must be dead chuffed; they prob got full asking price too. I hope the other sellers in the area take note (bet they won't, though!)

dougs

hmmmmm. This is the same newspaper that is running another article that seems to suggest that house prices will not drop any lower. You'd think they'd check that they don't run conflicting reports in the same paper :rolleyes:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1090285

Sir_Humphrey

That part of Balham/Clapham/Tooting is ridiculously over-priced (even for London) and so far has resisted big price falls. The area is quite nice but not prime by any means, and prices at their current levels are just daft. Areas just one stop away on the train (albeit without tube) are much cheaper.

My brother rents a room in a nice HMO there for about £430-ish a month.

Only a matter of time IMO.

carolt

dougs wrote: »

hmmmmm. This is the same newspaper that is running another article that seems to suggest that house prices will not drop any lower. You'd think they'd check that they don't run conflicting reports in the same paper :rolleyes:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1090285

You mean the article headed:
Property market grinds to a halt amid mortgage drought

that states:

" At the same time, the survey also finds that numbers of new buyer inquiries rose last month, while expectations of future numbers of sales among surveyors also climbed amid signs of sellers cutting asking prices."

The two articles agree - once sellers accept lower prices, then the property market can hope to start moving again.

carolt

Sir_Humphrey wrote: »

That part of Balham/Clapham/Tooting is ridiculously over-priced (even for London) and so far has resisted big price falls. The area is quite nice but not prime by any means, and prices at their current levels are just daft. Areas just one stop away on the train (albeit without tube) are much cheaper.

My brother rents a room in a nice HMO there for about £430-ish a month.

Only a matter of time IMO.

Agree - Balham is really not a very nice area, contrary to the writer's views. I'm with him in that I'd much rather buy in 'leafy Buckinghamshire' too.

snoopy78

carolt wrote: »

Agree - Balham is really not a very nice area, contrary to the writer's views. I'm with him in that I'd much rather buy in 'leafy Buckinghamshire' too.

Balham is one of the best areas of London, amazing transport links great bars and huge amounts of different places to eat. With tooting down the road for asain food and markets and Clapham up the road for everything else, Northern line so easy into central London. For what you get in Balham it is no where near as over priced as the prime locations.

If you are going out of London then I think Surrey over Buckinghamshire every time. Guildford is one of those places that has everything you need and Kingston or Surbiton are cool too.

If we are talking about ideals I'd rather live in Didsbury (Manchester) best place in the UK, but jobs are in London.