Asking Price vs. Valuation

wheresmydoshat

As a First Time buyer I am intrigued by how asking prices have remained at similar levels to last year where we are looking to buy in Kent, yet you read everywhere that house prices have gone down by x amount.

Apart from the uphill struggle against vendor denial which you can't do much about, when (if at all) can you expect asking prices to become more realistic and take into account the lowering prices ?

At the moment it looks like my area is stubbornly sitting it out, as I am yet to see many asking prices coming down at all.

ad44downey

You're making the mistake of taking notice of the asking price. It's not to be taken too seriously. As you say many vendors are in denial. You can ask for a million pounds if you want but obviously won't get it. The vendors with the unrealistic asking prices tend to the ones that never sell, more fool them,

wheresmydoshat

oh don't get me wrong, when we made offers on a house last summer with an asking price of "£220k-240k" i completely ignored anything above 220k and went in at £190k, with a view to offer £200k at the most.

we were told they'd accept around £215k, which of course they would !!!

but all the time the asking prices are inflated the offers you make appear "silly", even if they aren't.

pawpurrs

Whereabouts in kent are you looking?

superfran_uk

Depends where you're looking. In West Kent (where I am) you'd be right in saying house prices haven't seen much of a drop - in Sevenoaks they fell by 1.2% apparently, according to some stats which were posted on here! In other areas they will probably have fallen in line with or more than the national average.

seeff

Got the same here in too - prices haven't really dropped accord to measures (less than 1%). But of course there's no such thing as an "the average house" and we just got almost 15% off.

Depends on the specific case really - once you've been looking for a while you can spot the houses which are still on the market, their owners much be getting more realistic now!

wheresmydoshat

tenterden and surrounding areas, where there are barely half a dozen 3 bedroom houses on the market !

trumpton

I think in the past people rountinely expected to get pretty near the asking price. Now buyers expect 10% off at least. I think until figures come through the land registry, 3 months after the sale, it's hard to tell whether your own area is holding up in value or dropping.

ToMonkey

Based on a valuation of my home this week, i thought my house was worth top price 175k bottom price 155k

It was valued at 130k. Other homes much smaller than mine are on the market for upwards of 50k+ more.

I never wanted to move just build an extension so its ok but looking at it we couldn't afford to move based on realistic prices.

Noone is dropping prices. Once house I put an offer in on 6 years ago at 130k is now up for sale for 160k and its a right dump, it still needs all the work doing to it that needed doing years ago.

People are greedy and unrealistic. Its no wonder sales have fallen.

Nenen

wheresmydoshat wrote: »

tenterden and surrounding areas, where there are barely half a dozen 3 bedroom houses on the market !

That's strange... what is your maximum price? I just searched Rightmove for: Tenterden and 3 mile radius, 3 bed houses up to 250K and got 50 results. On the very first page, 3 out of 9 houses (one house is on with 2 agents so I only counted it once) had been reduced.
I think that people who had valuations done last year (or even the beginning of this year) are finding it difficult to accept that they won't get anything like the original EA valuation but newcomers to the market are being more realistic. I think that is due to change in thinking by EAs... at first they kept overvaluing, possibly believing that if they buried their heads in the sand and kept selling prices high then confidence in the market would be restored and it would be 'business as usual' for them. However, after many lean months with little income as overpriced houses were simply not selling, EAs are now being far more realsitic in order to get some commision.
Good luck with your search

wheresmydoshat

People are greedy and unrealistic.

so true.

there are houses up for £180k in tenterden that i wouldn't pay half that for.