To those selling in these difficult times

joshiesaunt

hi all
well, finally exchanged about 12.30pm today! I was on the phone to the EA and solicitor first thing (even considered going into solicitors office as it opened - pretty desperate eh?!) - a bit nail biting as EA said buyers parents pushing son for another 10% off but exchanged for £319,250 (about 11% off original price in feb). I feel so relieved - completion in two weeks so will have to pull my finger out tomorrow! I kind of feel for the people buying our house as they will experience a price drop but its a lovely victorian 3 bed in london and they have said that they will be living there long term so hope it works out for them. really wishing you all the best of luck too and I've valued the support/stories on here. I'll definitely keep cheering you all on. Incidentally, my brother has been on the market in Dudley (guardian said it was the fastest falling market in uk) for a year and has also received an offer - maybe things are starting to move a little - fingers crossed for him.:j

geoffky

moneysavingfamilycomp wrote: »

we know exactly whats going on all the other 2 bed semis of similar and lower spec in our area are still being marketed at 95k plus ( i check out other agents in our area at least twice a week.) we were advised by agent that house was worth more than 90k and as we had only been on the market 1 week that we shouldnt accept but we had seen a house we wanted and decided against there advice. original valuation from 3 agents was £99,950 but because of the way the market was last year we decided against this figure. the drop of £5,050 was the most we could afford we want to move to a 3 bedroom and the cheapest in our area is £115k so if we drop much more when noone around us is we wont be able to afford to move i know it sounds like we are digging our heals in but we arent we are in a unique situation in that whereas the rest of the country prices are plummeting in our area they arent but people arent buying. believe me if we could find a house within our price range i would drop our price i have no problem with that.

first bit of postcode on property snake might tell you a different story...try it

geoffky

Davesnave wrote: »

My drop is about 18%, though it's more complex to work out, because I've kept part of the original property to sell at some time in the future, possibly 5 years down the line. Not sure what it will be worth then, but I have a current offer on it. It isn't really possible for me to accept that just now though.

Hopefully,the figures/stories here will help others to put their own sales in perspective. We don't need verbal invective to get the point over that all of us have taken a hit. Dropping your price is easy to do when the money is theoretical or someone else's.

DAVE the problem is its the difference between getting a sale or not..i am waiting to buy but if i find a seller who is realistic and knows the score i could do a deal tomorrow but unlike you some think this is a little blip and all will be well again in the next twelve months.. this is one mess that has frightened me so much its unreal.i honestly think we have seen just a tiny tiny drop in prices compared to whats coming. so to be able to get ahead of the curve you have to be one smart cookie and you will be rewarded...i honestly know about the money side of it because i will be paying cash so its hard earned money and not spread over 25years or 30 for some fools...good luck all but don't get left behind holding the baby as the baby will grow teeth and bite your a-rse

Davesnave

geoffky wrote: »

DAVE the problem is its the difference between getting a sale or not..i am waiting to buy but if i find a seller who is realistic and knows the score i could do a deal tomorrow but unlike you some think this is a little blip and all will be well again in the next twelve months.. this is one mess that has frightened me so much its unreal.i honestly think we have seen just a tiny tiny drop in prices compared to whats coming. so to be able to get ahead of the curve you have to be one smart cookie and you will be rewarded...i honestly know about the money side of it because i will be paying cash so its hard earned money and not spread over 25years or 30 for some fools...good luck all but don't get left behind holding the baby as the baby will grow teeth and bite your a-rse

I agree. This is a thread where the people involved are not working in the realms of theory, or being would-be economists. Hopefully, with the majority of us now showing drops of around 20%, others calling in here will relate that to their own situation and act accordingly. If they don't, on their own heads be it, but I don't think shouting at them will help.

Like you, I'm paying cash for whatever I buy next. It is extremely frustrating to see many sellers with the type of property I want still doing the 'La, la, la, I'm not listening' routine as regards the market, which is why I'm heading into rented for a year or so. Unfortunately, the only way I can prosper now is if they come unstuck, and I'm sure they will, but it will be ignorance of the current situation rather than pure greed that causes the eventual collapse of prices in formerly 'recession-proof' areas.

pawpurrs

Do you think acheving a sale price the same as 2006, would be a good achievement at the moment?

SuperSaverSue_2

We had about 3 viewers but they thought it was too expensive so we reduced. Since then we had another 3 peoople in and the last one is the one who is buying it.

dpw

Sorry if I repeat what's already been said, as I've not been reading this thread previously.

We have had our property on the market since June and have had average 1-2 viewings a week and 4 offers(last one accepted). To achieve this we hae constantly kept in touch with the EA to keep us up to date about interest in the property in the EA, chase up feedback from viewers, and report on amount of interest via rightmove. Your EA should be able to tell you how many times your property has come up in a search result and how often it has been looked at in more detail on Rightmove website. We were also able to persuade the EA to give us extra photos of the house on the main search result page of rightmove at no extra cost, which makes it stand out over other properties.

We have also kept a close look on the other properties in the area via rightmove for comparison of prices / decor etc and realised that the EA valuation was a little optimistic. We dropped our price based on our own research and the viewings suddenly picked up. You need to be competitive with the current market in your area if you're going to attract interest. If you're unrealistic then you'll never get viewings let alone sell.

We have friends that have been on the market for >12 months. They are never in touch with the EA, have no viewings for >6 months, have not adjusted their asking price in response to the market, and had awful photos in their marketing brochure ( get someone else to look at the brochure for your property and ask them what they think). We told them of our experience, and all of a sudden they are getting results.

Debras_Angel

pawpurrs wrote: »

Do you think acheving a sale price the same as 2006, would be a good achievement at the moment?

Hi pawpurrs,

That's what a couple of EA advised us when we went on the market. We put the house up for what we paid for it in March 2006.

I looked at the land registry figures when they came out 2 weeks ago and for my area the annual drop was 5.9% and overall for my county was 2%.

The offer I got was 18% below and keeping an eye on this thread would indicate this is a more realistic drop to the figures quoted.

People will say I live in a very desirable area but in the current climate I don't think it matters as prices are dropping regardless.

We don't need to move right now or anytime soon, but saw a house we liked that needed a lot of work and they weren't willing to drop so we would have bought and gutted and did a lot of work and watched the prices continue to drop.

Also for people to come on and say 'The fools who have/will have a 25-30 year mortgage, good luck to them but not everyone is as fortunate as some of us!

Lets keep this thread what it has been throughout, supportive and mainly realistic.

Lisa sounds like it all worked out in the end.

pawpurrs

Thanks.
Looking on Rightmove sold properties for this year, I was very suprised to see that those houses that have sold this year all with out fail show an increase on the price achieved in 2007? Have to say I am flabergasted.

Anxiously awaiting feedback/possible offer from my second time viewers of last night, I hope they havent decided against the house.

Debras_Angel

Yes but I bet that over the coming months we will see the big drops filtering through, if the threads on this forum are anything to go by or maybe there is too much scare mongering;)