What is is with old ladies and their houses?

mean_momma

[quote=harrup;18968259
. I really have nothing against eldery ladies. The way time flies I'll be one by tomorrow.[/quote]

We have also had the experience of buying from a widow who had lived in the house all her married life, and, yes, she was difficult. I would have found your posts funny, but the venom against elderly ladies in general was just a bit much.. Looks as though your MIL has a lot to answer for!

harrup wrote: »

: the past purchase price puts a current asking price at least in some kind of context ....... Now lets assume that the seller bought this house eons ago for a very attractive, modest price but now also wants 500 K,. This then does seem unreasonale and yes,...greedy. To - ME. Perceptions vary..

Yes. perceptions vary. One persons 'greed' is another persons 'need'. They may have to raise X K, and be prepared to sacrifice their prize property if that price can be achieved. Or, they may just be trying their luck. Knowing the past price the gives a buyer some negotiating power, but it is no good envying someone's home and claiming that they do not 'deserve' a certain price for it because it was bought many years ago..[/quote]

harrup

mean_momma wrote: »

We have also had the experience of buying from a widow who had lived in the house all her married life, and, yes, she was difficult. I would have found your posts funny, but the venom against elderly ladies in general was just a bit much.. Looks as though your MIL has a lot to answer for!

..

[/quote]


THIS I cannot allow! Gasp.

My MIL is a Sugarplum, actually. Akin to a lottery win, I'm lucky.

Look, I went back to read my original post. In a way I can see how you reached your - quite erroneous, I might add - conclusion that I'm a rabid old woman hater. Or one who detests elderly sellers in general. I don't.

There is no such thing as an "elderly lady seller" in general. Some are out of touch with reality, some are as sharp as a tack. Some are deliberatly greedy, some just want a fair market price for their house. Some are time wasters just faffing around with putting their house on the market because they are lonely or bored, some have fallen on harder times or lost their husband or whatever.

The reason this post commenced was that the common thread btw the houses I saw every seller was....an elderly lady. Combining this with my MIL's and her chums mutterings on the great house selling debate - it was neigh to impossible NOT to reach an impression of "I'm all right Jack, I already live in a decent sized home, stuff anyone else". In my perception they ALL vastly overvalued their own homes and stubbornly demanded silly prices for it - but then, in the same breath, saw fit to demand that THEIR new property should cost very little and be of top notch quality. You can't have it both ways.

But in no way do I think, or did suggest, that someone is less deserving of a fair price on the sole account that they are old! It can't be easy to leave a home in which one raised ones family in, grew old in, where so many memories lie....I know that.

It still doesn't support a moogly-googly, totally whacko HP just BECAUSE they are old and now expect the younger generation to pay through their noses for a house they themselves paid VERY little for. If that makes me morally reprehensible, then so be it.

Addiscomber

[/quote] It still doesn't support a moogly-googly, totally whacko HP just BECAUSE they are old and now expect the younger generation to pay through their noses for a house they themselves paid VERY little for. If that makes me morally reprehensible, then so be it.[/quote]

You just don't get it, do you?

Elderly people who have not moved for donkeys years might appear to have paid very little for their home in comparison to todays prices, but it was not very little by the wages of that time and in terms of what other things cost at the time such as furniture and household goods. You are looking at only one element of an exceedingly complex picture.

I am not saying that elderly folk, ladies left on their own in particular, shouldn't be realistic about the way house prices are falling, but you seem to think that they should drop their prices simply because they happen to have bought years ago for what you erroneously perceive as "very little", or "peanuts" as you put it earlier. That view is just as wrong as them sticking out for what they think, or an EA has told them, it is worth when lack of sale/viewings indicates otherwise. Markets work by something being worth what someone is willing to pay for it, and the majority of people buying will be willing to pay more than someone happened to pay 30 years or so ago, but currently roughly 25% less than other people were willing to pay the year before last, and probably less still if the market continues to fall.

By the way house price sites, and even the Land Registry, do not show the whole picture. The house price sites do not go back far enough to show what we paid for our house in 1992, but the Land Registry site would, if you paid whatever the fee is. It is not, however, going to tell you that we extended the house, spending as much again, because we paid cash for the work from an inheritance, and you wouldn't know by viewing whether the work was done before we bought or not. You would only find that out either by asking us or if a conveyancer checked that the appropriate regulations had been met.

(Now just in case you think that I am having a pop at you because I am one of these elderly ladies, I am 57, my husband is still with me and we have 2 just about adult sons still living at home in a house that we do not expect to move from. I said for years that house prices were unsustainable and that the UK economy was like the Emperor's new clothes, being so dependent on selling each other houses and imported goods instead of actually making stuff anymore. I did not, however, expect everything to go so spectacularly bad with banks failing right left and centre.)

StevieJ

dopester wrote: »

How are you suggesting pensioners earn from their assets? By assets you mean their homes yes?

Do you mean pensioners borrowing against your own vastly inflated priced home, to help with your living costs?

Great plan. I'm glad I'll be buying my first house for cash without a mortgage - to use as a home - not some cash-machine pension pot.

Ahh but when you retire, you will not have to pay rent, so effectively contributing to you pension pot :beer:

Mr_Matey

Regardless of who it is, when it was bought and for how much, if it's not competitively priced in this market then it won't sell.

Anyone, young or old who's over-valuing their property and looking for the buyer to pay more than similar properties wouldn't even get a viewing from me. I'm certainly not mortgaging my future to fix someone else's poor financial circumstances.

If they want to keep their price high, good luck to them, just don't expect many inspections.

Maisie11

Its coming back to averages and using internet house price sites to try and prove that you should be able to pick up a house at say 2004 prices. These sites are flawed, you dont know if the house was a wreck and the owners did it up, whether they themselves got a bargain etc and also whether it is a one off. On an estate I agree houses are easy to value, however what about a street that has different houses of all shapes and sizes. We live in a lane that has 2 bed detached houses and also 5/6 bed houses all built at various times over the last 80 years. Some have been extended, one was knocked down and rebuilt etc etc. Many have large gardens, a couple dont. There will be NO website that you will tell you what an individual house in our lane is worth. You almost have to test the market to get a relevant price.

Suzkin

These ladies probably had some really nice memories of being in their houses, and so value them with 'added value'!

I love my lill house - despite its state of repair. If I ever sold it (and I wouldn't want to at all, really) I'd be charging a lot - cos I love it!).

MyLastFiver

dopester wrote: »

Let them stick out for whatever price they believe it is worth. They can't stop their next-door-neighbour, or guy up the street, from reducing their price. Give it a year, two-years, three-years... and if you've "stuck it out" on some peak valuation, then it will get you nowhere.

Say in 3 years if similar houses to yours are selling on your street for £200,000 ... then you stick-it-out peak-2007 valuation of £500,000 is just going to be stupid.

You might as well "stick it out" to get £5 million, or £50 million - as your valuation will be ludicrous to what is happening in the real world. Ever more ludicrous as those who have to get real, have to sell at market value, keep reducing their prices.

You can't magically keep peak price for your property as rest of the market falls.

"Stick it out" for peak price if you must, but market-forces win out against fantasy-world self-valuations.

Ah but your analysis assumes perfect competition. What if all sellers in an area got together and colluded to keep prices high

ukjoel

Think you missed the point.

A lot of these old dears DONT WANT TO SELL. They are pressured into it by thier kids who are worried about her falling over, or paying inheritence tax, or even worse the govt getting it to pay for care homes. So they persuade Mum to put it on market who for the sake of an easy life says yes.

However Mum isnt stupid and thinks big old family home I have been in for years, or smell of wee retirement home.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Hard choice so rather than sell she ensures price is set too high and no offer below is accepted.
If you want this house at a bargain price you need to wait until she dies it goes probate and the family sell it off and divide the money.
Thats the point at which it becomes a buyers market on that house.

People need to remember its not all about the money, its about the emotions and memories, and lots of other things as well.

Geenie

dopester wrote: »

How are you suggesting pensioners earn from their assets? By assets you mean their homes yes?

Do you mean pensioners borrowing against your own vastly inflated priced home, to help with your living costs?

Great plan. I'm glad I'll be buying my first house for cash without a mortgage - to use as a home - not some cash-machine pension pot.

I mean their savings as well as home. And yes, if they need to go into a care, then they will need all the money they can get their hands on, so why shouldn't they have made money from their home like everyone else, and as you will expect to do eventually. Because even if you are investing in a home, you will not be best pleased if when you come to sell it one day in the far future, it is still only worth what you paid for it.