What would you do? Selling our house.

zone

Have you exchanged on your own house yet?

It maybe the house you want to buy the vendor is reluctant to reduce the price too quickly. Do you know how long it has been on the market?

fimonkey

You're doing the right thing, .. by the time you've exchanged (and be prepared for your buyer to gazunder, as seems to happen a lot nowadays) it will be a month or so down the line.... THEN try offering the same £200K with the added bonus that you're well into your sale so more than able to proceed... see what she says then.

Otherwise, rented is the way to go, rents are coming down too!

KellyC_4

The house has been on the market since January 08. I guess offering again once we've exchanged is an option, though the other 2 parties in our chain are keen to get moving quickly. I suppose if we've exchanged they'd have no choice but to wait though!

I can't help feeling that my absolute determination not to go above the limit we'd set might mean something's holding me back - going down the rented route does feel a bit of a relief. Perhaps the right decision has been made for us! At least we'll have a better idea if that's how we feel once time has passed and we're at exchange of contracts stage.

Thanks for being my sounding board!

Kelly x

des_cartes

KellyC wrote: »

Hi All

I've browsed these forums from time to time but this is my first post as I'd love some advice.

Our house has been on the market since last April (good timing eh?!). We started out at at £315k which was realistic at the time but of course not anymore. We're now at an asking price of £269,950, with of view to getting £250k.

Our initial plan was to downsize to allow me to give up work (we have a young family) and we were looking at houses at around the £250k mark back in April - so a difference of £50k.

We've now had a tentative offer of £235k. I really don't care what price we get for the house so long as we can buy again at a relative price, so I called the agent of the house we've seen and would like (it's the right style in the right area, too small but with potential to extend in the future) which is on the market for £235k (so much for the £50k differential!) and asked whether she'd accept £195k but she's said the lowest she'll go to is £210k.

Now, I've suggested to our agent that we may consider £239k if these potential buyers could stretch a little. It's what we paid for our house in 2004 (does that seem about right?) and would leave us with £50k after fees. I think we'd make a formal offer on the house above at £200k - I know she's said no less than £210k but I wonder if she'd feel differently if we were ready to go - but our second option is renting.

Renting feels scary to us as we've owned our own house since we were 18! It would be easier if it were just the two of us but with young children we feel a responsibility to get it right iykwim. We're worried about selling for less than anybody else is prepared to (if we can't buy at a comparative price then surely that's what we're doing?) and then finding that the market recovers and we can't ever afford to buy again. What are your thoughts on this? A search on the internet or listening to the news just makes us even more confused as there's such a mixture of 'expert' opinion on what house prices are likely to do over the next couple of years and of course I realise nobody has a crystal ball.

My instinct is that if we can get back what we paid for the house and walk away with £50k and possibly save something in the region of £800 a month for the next couple of years (our current mortgage v rents in the area we want to live) then that's not a bad option but my hubby is less inclined to do that.

Of course with interest rates being so low our current home is actually quite affordable now but we'll still want to move to this new area over the next few years as it's where we want to bring the children up and I'd rather do it now before they start school etc.

Thanks so much in advance.

Kelly

I would try to find place that you like with the same agent you are selling with. That way, the agent will have a vested interest in getting both deals to go through at the prices you want to sell and buy at.

KellyC_4

Thank you - good idea but we're looking to buy in a different town so that's not possible.

Kelly