Rant! Why be on the market and not sell???

StevieJ

ahome, kitchensink :rotfl:

Sockie, where are you when we need you.

besonders1

I have seen quite a lot of homes come to the market from private sellers and they are all asking peak prices. It seems as though a lot of sellers are not convinced that the prices will return to 2007 levels and are worried that they are going to fall into negative equity. I think many sellers are hoping that if they sell sooner than later, they might just get a cash buyer that will offer close to peak levels. It will be interesting to seen in the next 5 years what happens and where the bottom of the market is, as I don't think we are anywhere near yet.

00ec25

based on personal expereicne from when I was relocating, I think the OP should be grateful that their prospective seller has not accepted the offer.

I had a seller who waited until i made the offer before looking for themselves (perfectly acceptable and understandable as they needed to know how much they had to play with) but in the meantime I was renting in the new locale and the family was back home in my own house.
I had a short term let (3 months max stay) as I could not take on a 6 month AST given i expected to move as soon as the sale completed, but as the end of my rental approached I put pressure on the sellers EA to find out what the delay was, only to be told 3 days later than the seller had decided to withdraw the property from the market as they could not find a place they wanted to buy and refused to go into rental themselves.

The EA was rather miffed as they had been marketing it for close on 5 months by then (2004 market conditions). You can imagine how I felt about the survey fee and abortive legal costs. I also had to find a new rental place for another indeterminate period at a time I expected to be owning not renting, and the family had to stay back in my own house and could not move down yet either

be thankful for sellers who are do not lead you down the garden path and let you incur costs

Cozworth806

I am wondering what the reaction will be in our street now when the neighbours realise that we bought for £40k less than the asking price on two of the houses and £80k less on another one!
Should put the HPC into some clear contrast for them.

From a buyers point of view we were lucky, although we had to go to our stated max to secure the divorcee's home, as she needed to clear out her mortgage. Sellers still don't believe in negative equity.

bootalishus

we have a similar problem with the 4 bed detached type houses in my area. tends to be older people selling to downsize. They are not getting a huge saving on the property they are buying as it is cheaper also they cant accept the value of their house has gone down (even though every inch of it needs doing up as well), this coupled with the fact they are happy to stay where they are if they dont get the 2007 price. It is very frustrating though for us buyers.

poppysarah

At least one house won't accept viewings because they don't want to sell at current prices. No HIP though - thats how long it's been on the market so presumably they consider it being "marketed" - don't know what the official rules are.
Another one is a divorced couple fighting over the house. He's trashed it and won't accept less.

Others been on at insane prices for well over 16 months now and not a sign of lowering prices even though identical houses have come on and sold for less (99k rather than 84k)
Others have dropped the price to what it should have been on 16 months ago and are still very overpriced.

And then there's the downsizers who have a tiny 3 bed terrace and imagine they can resize to ... gawd knows...

kitchensink_2

Thank you all for your replies, it's reassuring that others are/have been having similar experiences. 00ec25 - I think you make an good point and it's something I have been concerned about. The vendors of the house i would like have come back today (with a lot of prompting from me), with a price they would sell at but it is over the odds. Even if we did agree a price I would worry that they would pull out if they couldn't find somewhere- I don't think they would be up for renting - 'we're in no rush to move' territory.

I can emphasise with you bootalishus, that most 'downsizer' 4 beds i've seen do need quite a lot of work to update them and this coupled with the skewed idea of how much their houses are worth makes for hard house hunting.

starting to wonder if this is a case of 'can't sell' (FTB houses) and won't sell (downsizers)...now where are my red and green bl***y peppers.

Hatster

I agree with the view on the 'downsizers' with the 4 beds - both my parents and my in-laws are in this position. Just having retired, they're in their 60s. They don't need a large house any more, but don't have any pressing reason to move, so why should they accept an offer that doesn't suit them? Their feeling is very much that they'll put the house on the market and see what happens - and if that means they move in 5 years time, no problem. There are probably a lot of other people who just aren't fussed to sell.