To those selling in these difficult times

davsidipp

joshiesaunt what part of the south east are you? im in the south of london bordering kent and was curious how property is selling as want to put ours on the market soon.45 grand seems a big drop but i do think some houses are well overpriced at the moment.

mishmash

Well OH has a viewing booked today. I had a chat with the builder (who we are considering part exing for a new build with). He has asked his accountant to look at the figures and will get back to me with a firm offer on Monday, so we will look at that and make our minds up.

I had a chat with my EA yesterday, They are a very (usually) busy, he said that they were really struggling as vendors were expecting too high prices for their houses and the market was stuck. I asked if I should look to reduce mine and he said not, it is already cheap and had lots of interest. He said that they had been told not to advise vendors to offer 5% deposit gifted as this is no longer being accepted by lenders making the market stick further.

I told him about the possibility of part ex, I thought this would spur them on a bit as they would not get commission. He actually said it may be a good idea for us in our position, given we have 2 houses to sell and did not think the deal proposed was wildly off the mark. He did say he would chase up a recent viewer who they had not been able to get hold of.

Good luck hope your viewings and things all go well, the only upside to all of this is that my house has never been cleaner or more tidy lol.

Mish

oilit

spoke to an estate agent this week in the cotswolds, his view is that if the property doesnt sell in the 1st month, it wont, so the sellers need to be realistic and drop the price or take it off the market.

I know a builder who has had not one viewing on a new house which has been on market for 6 weeks. Had an open day and 6 people turned up - still no offers (and he has dropped the price by 80k !)

If you have to sell its ugly...

Nikki

Had a viewing today which we had to do ourselves. Really nice people and were looking at our house as a genuine possiblity, not like other viewers we've had. The viewing was positive, but it could well be another 'lovely but not for us'. I don't get my hopes up any more.

joshiesaunt

Hi all
glad to hear things moving for you davesnave (and pawpurrs too?)
davsiddips - not sure of the protocol on naming area we live in as fairly new to this site - did this in a previous post and it was deleted! hopefully I can say that it is in the borough of greenwich. where are you (vaguely?)

Am having crap weekend - received call at 5.25pm friday afternoon from my EA saying get hold of your solicitor quickly as the other party are ready to exchange NOW (at slightly reduced offer of £319,250 from £320,000 agreed to take into account survey costs £1,500 - ageed to split in half). As I was talking to her there was another call coming in on my mobile which turned out to be from my solicitor saying 'sorry cant get hold of you, trying to confirm new price for exchange, leaving office, speak to you monday'. Phoned office immediately (5.31pm by this time) and of course clicked to answerphone. The reason this was awful was that our prospective buyers parents had turned up at the estate agents an hour previously saying that they were concerned about their son (our buyer) going into negative equity and think I should drop another £1,500 off the price to pay for all of the things that the survey picked up needed doing. My first reaction was 'its none of their business' but EA revealed that they have provided the deposit and maybe guaranteeing mortgage. My big anxiety now is that they will work on their son all weekend to either pull out or ask to drop a large amount. What do you think? should I just take the extra £££'s off if they ask or should I call their bluff and say re-marketing (or taking it off the market altogether and toughing this whole period out which is what I feel like doing but dont want to cut off my nose to spite my face iyswim)
why oh why could'nt their solicitor have called my solicitor or our EA an hour earlier and I'd be sooo happy now!

pawpurrs

Oh Josie! I dont know I would wanna tell them to stick it, but equally starting again and prob getting a lower price doesnt appeal, depends if you want to take the risk.
No not going well here, my buyer pulled out earlier in the week, I have had some viewings but no offers yet.

joshiesaunt

thanks pawpurrs
do you desperately need to sell or do you have other options? we could tough it out but really want the option to get out of london now we have a child approaching school age - if it all goes pear then feel like we will be tied in until this market stabilises (another 5 yrs plus?) and the area we want to move to has in my opinion over-inflated rental rates so dont really want to rent our house out here and rent there iyswim.

Optimisticpair

Davesnave wrote: »

Yes, we're in the middle of something.

Good luck. I've got my fingers crossed for you.

Davesnave

joshiesaunt wrote: »

Hi all
glad to hear things moving for you davesnave (and pawpurrs too?)
davsiddips - not sure of the protocol on naming area we live in as fairly new to this site - did this in a previous post and it was deleted! hopefully I can say that it is in the borough of greenwich. where are you (vaguely?)

What do you think? should I just take the extra £££'s off if they ask or should I call their bluff and say re-marketing (or taking it off the market altogether and toughing this whole period out which is what I feel like doing but dont want to cut off my nose to spite my face iyswim) why oh why could'nt their solicitor have called my solicitor or our EA an hour earlier and I'd be sooo happy now!

Thanks. There's no problem naming your area here, as the form you fill in when you sign up allows you to show this in all your posts under your username, if you wish. I just say I'm from Somerset if anyone asks.

I would share the survey costs if it makes the blighters feel happy, but if they cut up rougher than that, then it will be a harder call. If you live in an area of similarish properties, you could spend tomorrow looking at Nethouseprices for your post code to see how far back in time your offer has taken you. (I'm back at July 2005 prices) This gives a better perspective, I think, than simply saying 'I've 'lost' £x ' since I went on the market.

Everywhere is different, but from where I'm looking there are serious reductions in selling prices going on, and I'm in an affluent region with plenty of jobs etc. My feeling, however, is that this market has a long way to fall yet, so if I get out now it will be better than waiting for things to pick up. I'm going to rent. Maybe, by the end of next year, I'll be ready to buy again. Regardless, I also believe that the market won't recover to these levels for at least a decade, so now is not a 'bad' time to sell, if you can!

Davesnave

oilit wrote: »

spoke to an estate agent this week in the cotswolds, his view is that if the property doesnt sell in the 1st month, it wont, so the sellers need to be realistic and drop the price or take it off the market.

I know a builder who has had not one viewing on a new house which has been on market for 6 weeks. Had an open day and 6 people turned up - still no offers (and he has dropped the price by 80k !)

If you have to sell its ugly...

I could show you new builds which have been on the market since last year.

It is a tough market, because the speed of the drop is faster than we've experienced before and some people are literally scared stiff by it. Like a rabbit caught in the headlights, they are unable to decide a course of action, so do nothing quickly enough.

As to 'ugly.....' Scary, yes, but if you have grown-up kids, there's a chance that they may benefit. In the longer term, society might also come out of all this in better shape than it went in, though I'd not put too much faith in poverty as an instrument of moral reform! It is really difficult to guess what people will turn to when they can no longer distract themselves through conspicuous consumption.