What is is with old ladies and their houses?

seven-day-weekend

Our next door neighbours(Man in his 70s, woman an old-fashioned 62) put their house up for sale for £175,000 a couple of years ago. It's a mid-terrace on the outskirts of the city. It's a very nice house, but still a mid-terrace.

Even though they had it pointed out to them that you could get a bigger semi in a nicer area for the same money, they would not consider dropping the price as 'it was worth it (estate agent said)' and 'we've spent a lot of money on it'.

Suffice it to say it didn't sell (only had one viewing) and they took it off the market.

seven-day-weekend

However, if people of whatever age want a realistic price for their houses, I don't see why they shouldn't stick out to get it.

We paid £3k for our UK mid-terrace in 1976 (next door to the one mentioned in my post 52 above). If we were to sell it now I suppose we'd get £120k. We've probably spent about £30k on it over the years. So anything we got above that would be profit.

Although we would be prepared to drop the price a little, there is no way we would let it go for £50k (which would reflect what it had cost us).

So yes, we would benefit from a rise in equity.

mr.broderick

Conrad wrote: »

We all tend to get set in our ways as we get older, no matter how illogical the reasoning so it's no surprise older people often mentaly 'bank' that peak value and find it hard to let it go.

Notice how people tend to cling to a dress / hairstyle and music genre or film era from thier impressionable periods such as late teens.
In fact I'm the only person my age (42) that I'm aware of that does not like music / style from my past, although my favorite film is from 1979 - Alien, the greatest flick of all time of course.

Serious contender for best sci-fi ever made.

Pennywise

It's not just old ladies. There's a house on our road owned by a 40something couple - it's been on the market for 3 years - they've gone through four different agents and reduced the price massively (not!) from £375k in 2006 to £355k in 2009. Not a single house of the same size/style has sold on the estate for more than £285k. A couple of larger and more modern houses on the same road have gone for around £325 in 2007, so they clearly see that as the "road price". We've kept a keen eye on it as it would interest us, but not at that price - we've always though around £295k would be a fair price for it if in good condition. We're about to come into some money if the sale of an inherited property goes through, so last weekend we bit the bullet and went for a viewing. We literally couldn't stop laughing - the EA viewer wasn't impressed. The bathroom was a hideous brown colour and was really tiny - there was literally not enough room to bath the baby - the sink and WC were almost touching the bath. The kitchen was original and needed completely stripping out. Washing machine & dryer were in the understairs cupboard. Central heating pipes were fixed to the walls instead of being sunk in. Carpets & curtains were out of the ark - generally the house was ridiculously shabby. If I hadn't known who the vendors were, I'd have definitely thought it was an old lady's house - but this was where a couple of 40somethings lived! The house was built in 1977, so is 30 years old, and I can confidently say that they had'd done a single thing to it - the decoration, carpets, kitchen & bathroom were all clearly original. We've revised our opinion - we still like the house, but as it needs gutting, we'll only be offering around £250k. It's about time ALL vendors got real about the state of their houses and about time the estate agents started to be honest and tell the vendors why their properties aren't selling.

PS, we've had an EA around to value our house - again, what a plonker. He seriously suggested we put it up for sale at £325k - that is for one of the smallest houses (with smallest garden) on the road where not even larger and better houses has ever (not even in 2007) sold for more than £325k. In fact, comparably sized houses on the road have always sold for between £100k - £200k over the past ten years we've lived there. There are bigger and better houses within a mile with asking prices of £250k to £300k. Do these EAs have any real idea or are they just guessing and pricing high in the hope of getting the business?

Back to the thread, I think EAs have a lot to answer for - I've no doubt that it is they who are increasing vendor's expectations!

mr.broderick

harrup wrote: »

House prices are falling???????

Oh really ? Not when the owner is an elderly lady.


I just phoned 3 different EA's about 3 houses we looked at a few years ago.

Property 1: Sold in 2000 for £ 390.000, sold subsequently in 2006 for
£600 000 ( exactly the same house, just 6 years older). Now offered for £ 650 000! Belongs to an eldery lady who wants to sell it because husband died and house is too big.

Property 2: This house was on the market in 2006 for £ 500 000. Don't know whether it sold or not but since no previous sale is listed on zoopla, perhaps the buyer withdrew it. Now listed....wait for this !.....£ 599.950. Again, it belongs to an elderly lady whose son did it up and extended it. Believe me when I tell it it is a bog ordinary looking house standing on a 0.4 acre plot, the front overlooks the road, the back overlooks a housing estate. The EA just sighed and said the owner doesn't want to hear about dropping the price.

Property 3; and this is my absolute favourite of the lot! This property was sold in 2004 for £ 450 000. Lovely property but needed LOTS doing to it ( new roof, new...everything) and thus outside of our price bracket at the time.The new owners refurbished it completely and it really is a beautiful house now. EXCEPT they divided up the large garden ( 1 acre) and are now offerering the property for .....tada......£ 800 000 BUT with a 1/3 of the previous land. They are selling 2 building plots beside it seperately. The current owner, need I say more, a recently widowed woman. Who want twice the money but for 1/3 the land.

HOW is THAT representative of "falling house prices"??/ I thought these houses were hugely overpriced 5 years ago in a rising market. Now it's a falling one and they cost more than ever before.

Is this an "old ladies" thing? NONE of these properties are mansions, there are just 4 bedroom houses with a decent sized garden.

Am I missing something?

Just to freshen things up a little, i brought a 2004 honda Jazz Automatic in last week, it booked in the guide at 3700 if i remember with 60k ish, it had done 24k, we stood it at 4k. I priced it sharply on autotrader at £4995 with no intention of taking a chip on it. Just half an hour after listing it i received a phonecall from a local lady who asked had we still got the honda jazz, i went on to tell her i had jut listed it. She came in 1 hour later, test drove the car and went on to offer £4750. I told her someone would come along at the weekend and pay £4995 for it as there were not many about in this condition with that mileage. She ended up buying it for £4995.

There are loads of houses around and probably loads of honda jazz's.
People will always pay a premuim for a good un.

Addiscomber

harrup wrote: »

That....and knowing that my mum , MIL and all their contemporaries still see it as their divine right to own and afford a decent property, for which they paid - comparably - peanuts for and for which the younger generation has to pay whacko prices. IF we can buy it at all, that is. It's their "I'm all right, Jack" attitude which get me at times.

Please don't lead us down this old chestnut of a route again. It almost certainly wasn't "peanuts" on their wages at the time, and household goods cost more in relation to wages than they do now, so buying and setting up home has never been easy for most people.

harrup wrote: »

These eldery guys NEVER had a large mortgage, never experienced negative equity

Do you know this for a fact? Or are you comparing the size of the likely mortgage with today, but forgetting that wages/salary will have been a lot lower too? Also interest rates would have been higher too. I am not up to the maths of working out which was easiest - huge sum outstanding at low rates or smaller sum at higher rates, but I do know that you need to look at the whole picture of the cost of living to be sure of comparing apples with apples and pears with pears. I am not convinced that people with your attitude ever do that.

You mention greed quite a lot in your posts, OP, but sadly I detect a fair amount of greed in your attitude (and I don't count the bits where you have put in a winking smiley). You come across as extremely disrespectful of older people, elderly ladies in particular. These ladies are someone else's parents or grandparents. How would you like your's discussed in the same way? They are probably also not used to be dealing with financial affairs either, as the convention for older generations was for the husband to look after a couple's affairs.

harrup wrote: »

Heck, I'd be HUGELY exstatic to sell it at the price I bought it if other properties hadn't risen to absurd price levels.

but you resent others for wanting to sell their properties for what they feel they are worth? OK. we all know that they are misguided, but you seem to expect them to take a far greater drop than you should on yours.

harrup wrote: »

Example:10 years ago my house was valued at around 150 K and one I fancied at 325 K - a difference of 175K. Now my house is valued at 270K and that other house is valued at aprox 700K. A price difference of 430K! The ones who were supremely stupid and didn't overextend themselves were those who DIDN't buy - e.g. people like me. Because this small minority assumed - erroneously, evidently - that HP wouldn't go on increasing. Which, unfortunately for us, they certainly did.

Is this the reason for your rage? You seem to think that you "deserved" a bigger/better house but weren't, for whatever reason, able or prepared to pay what was, unfortunately, the going price at that time.

harrup wrote: »

I HOPE prices will fall sharply....but is this likely to happen? The only ones sharing my interest in such would be FTB or those who haven't bought a property in the last 15 years. Everyone else, from pensioners hoping to flog their property at max profit, to those emigrating ,to all those who did buy in the last few years will do anything in their power to not let house prices fall. By simply refusing to sell if at all possible.

Prices will fall, as dopester explained. You do need to have considerably more patience than you seem to be exhibiting at the moment. This affair has a long way to go, and will take as long as it takes.

Also, as you bought a house 20 years ago you must be in your forties at least. I save my sympathy for those who are too young to have bought a home before, and who are now going to find it hard going to save for the sort of deposit needed now, even if they do manage to keep a job.

My view above should not be taken as meaning that I approved of 100% or greater, mortgages far from it, and I certainly hope that Gordon Brown doesn't succeed in returning the mortgage market to "normal" if that is defined as how it was in the past few years. Prices need to fall to a point where FTB's can buy something reasonable as their first home for around 3 times salary plus a 10% deposit, as it used to be. Everybody should have a stake of their own in their property when they buy it. This fall will be painful for some, and undoubtedly there will be those who try to buck the trend but they will find out the hard way.

By the way, exactly how old does one have to be to count as elderly in your world view?

Davesnave wrote: »

Good discussion; far better than some of the in-fighting we've had recently.

I couldn't agree more. I don't look at this section of the forum as much as I used to as it seems to have been taken over by playground thugs.

harrup

Pennywise wrote: »

A couple of larger and more modern houses on the same road have gone for around £325 in 2007, so they clearly see that as the "road price".


Back to the thread, I think EAs have a lot to answer for - I've no doubt that it is they who are increasing vendor's expectations!

That's it!!!!!

YES - you hit the nail slap bang on the head. Evidently it doesn't restrict itself to elderly female vendors - but some people see a house on the same road going for a certain high amount and immediately apply it to their own. Never mind that theirs deviates sharply from the other one.

I guess the above would explain my confusion why the asking price for one of the houses I enquired abbout yesterday ( and I'd like you to picture a non-descript square modern featureless house with extensions on either side; front overlooks adjacent road, back overlooks a housing estate) was 50 quid short of 600K! There is nothing, nothing about this house or the location which would remotely justify this.

Except....some house further up on that SAME ROAD did fetch that price. The fact that those were entirely different properties with gracious looks, character and proportions, with garden access to Dartmoor and a plot size 3 times of that other house seemed to have escaped that wannabe vendor. In her mind her house is in the same area ( true) and probably decorated far more tastefully, so why should she ask for less. Utterly ridiculous and misguided, but there you are. The EA was actually sounding embarrassed when I asked whether the listing price was a typo or something.

In that confused vendors defence I have to say, however - the house does appear in immaculate condition. If one so wished there isn't anything that needs to be changed, updated or replaced. I'd have no wish to live with someone elses decor as thats how I make a house our home, by decorating it how I like. But if a buyer wanted they could just move in and not spend another £. Appealing for some, perhaps.

As to your delusional EA - do you think it possible that some knowingly suggest an indecently high asking price to FLATTER the seller? In order that they can snag that listing for their agency and then reduce the price once the seller has chosen him over other EA's? We have 6 EA's in our town, yet most properties are sold by one - the one who routinely suggests the lowest asking price. Or rather, that EA shifts houses fast whereas others seem to hang around for eons.

mean_momma

harrup wrote: »

..... completely unrealistic, pig headed and greedy.For example, offereing a house you bought for 20 K a few decades ago, doing it up to your taste, extending it a bit here and there and now asking 600 K for it falls into the latter category. For me.......

It is of no consequence, and indeed not really anyone's business how much an owner might have paid for a property in the past. What counts is how much someone may be willing to pay today.

harrup wrote: »

...MIL....That's not being a savvy, shrewd senior..... that's just ossified and dumb. AND greedy. She is far from an exception to the norm.

Oh dear, beware elderly ladies....Edit: if the above comments were made about a race, they would have been deleted as being offensive!

harrup

Addiscomber wrote: »

Please don't lead us down this old chestnut of a route again. It almost certainly wasn't "peanuts" on their wages at the time, and household goods cost more in relation to wages than they do now, so buying and setting up home has never been easy for most people.

.

Addiscomber, I'm not entirely clear on what you are saying to me. Or why.

Something in my messages has evidently riled you and I regret this. This was most certainly not my intention. I haven't been on the forum for long, hence my post could well be repetitive of what has been said before and perhaps even many times so. But, with all due respect, if that is the case and you thought " geez, not AGAIN - boooring" ...could you not simply have disregarded it? Its a fair question, I think.

Nonetheless, you are correct in stating that it certainly wasn't "peanuts". That wasn't one of my most apt remarks but it was a figure of speech in comparing the differential of their HP with their wages when they were young.... and our current HP prices with our wages. Be that with older members of my own family, or my friends parents...the general consensus seems to be that they bought a property - their first property anyway- which cost roughly 3x their yearly salary.

May I ask you - how many young people do YOU know for whom this holds true today? Whose house only cost 3x their salary. Me? None. THAT's what I meant by "peanuts in comparison".

"You mention greed quite a lot in your posts, OP, but sadly I detect a fair amount of greed in your attitude (and I don't count the bits where you have put in a winking smiley). You come across as extremely disrespectful of older people, elderly ladies in particular. "

Whilst my list of flaws is woefully long, greed isn't amongst them and to embue this characteristic onto a person you've never once met is ....let's euphemisticaly call it "strange". What is even stranger that you then decide that I'm not merely misguided, greedy, repetitive and disrespectful towards elderly ladies....whereas informing me of this presumably IS an extension of respect towards me... from you.

"These ladies are someone else's parents or grandparents. How would you like your's discussed in the same way? "

I'd have no problem with it as long it was justified but, I repeat - I am genuinly sorry if this has offended you since that was the furthest thing on my mind. I had no idea it came across as so incendiary.

"By the way, exactly how old does one have to be to count as elderly in your world view? "

In my CURRENT world view? Oh, about 65 +. But please ask again in 20 years when it will have shifted to 85 +. If you had asked 20 years ago, I would have said 50. My 22 year niece thinks I'm a dinosaur - at 46. No wonder I'm seemingly incandescent with rage..... according to you.

"(and I don't count the bits where you have put in a winking smiley)."

You don't like smilies? I'm VERY partial to them. And punishment for calling me greedy and disrespectful must be. Sorry. I suppose now I can add "infantile" to your negative assessment list. I'm really quite a kind, decent human being. Stilll......;) ;););) ;);););););)

Davesnave

mr.broderick wrote: »

There are loads of houses around and probably loads of honda jazz's.
People will always pay a premuim for a good un.

My new rental is in a cul de sac where I almost qualify as the youngest at 60. At the far end is a lady who was 'old' when I first met her 35 years ago. Despite being about 90, she handles her Jazz like Schmacher, whizzing up and down every day, always waving and smiling as she passes.

Another male friend drives the larger Honda; a sort of people-carrier. I don't like to ask how old he is, but he was a fighter pilot in WW2.

I'd like to grow 'old' like those two.....or Roger Daltrey.