To those selling in these difficult times Part Deux. AKA sellers support network!

not_loaded

Yes, that’s essentially what we’ve found.

Loads of viewers, but very few real buyers amongst them. I wonder why they shop around like that. I suppose they’re doing a bit of a Phil & Kirstie job, where they’re ‘thinking out loud’ by viewing property which helps them decide what they do and don’t want.

We’ve also suffered from the unrealistic expectations. A huge garden seems to be the most desired thing. We have a large, spacious well laid out house, great for a growing family, brilliant schools and transport etc. There’s very little on the market, and the garden is a reasonable size for where we are. Houses like ours, but with the larger gardens are few and far between, and dictate another £70k to £80k typically.

There’s great woodland, playgrounds and recreation grounds all around too. I think it’s just a question of finding an excuse to not be interested. One woman said we had ‘too much storage space’. :rotfl:

Has anyone here ever had feedback like: ‘actually we’re tyre kickers mooching around – we might buy one day, but not for ages yet’? Course not, that’d be honest.

tyllwyd

sonastin wrote: »

Agreed!

I'm finding the "if its not selling, it must be overpriced" wisdom on a lot of these threads a little bit trite at the moment. Sometimes its true but sometimes, there just ain't enough buyers to go round. Sometimes I feel like I could drop the price to tuppence ha'penny and it wouldn't make any difference at all :rotfl:

Totally agreed - we've considered dropping our price but we've seen similar houses that have cut 10% of their asking price (to come under the £300K mark) and are still not selling. We've mentally revised our price downwards, but if you keep cutting the asking price to chase non-existent buyers then you just give away all your negotiation room. If other houses were selling but not us, obviously we'd have to take account of that, but until that happens we're trying to hold our nerve.

sonastin

NEH wrote: »

I had that on my other thread yesterday that mine must be priced too high but I have checked sold prices...There are 3 flats in 200 odd yards down from us that are also selling so competition is fierce...One of them is with the same solictors as us and they dropped their price to a fixed one and guess what it still hasn''t sold. One of the other flats has been converted to a 1 bedroom and is all singing and dancing and it hasn't sold but I do know that all 4 of us aren't overpriced.

I do wish some people would accept that buyers are a rareity these days and FTB's which is what we really need are few and far between and tbh a lot of them are fussy beggars and don't want to do any work but pay the same price for one that is done up iyswim....

It was actually reading that thread that got my knickers all in a twist about it but I thought this was a more suitable venue for a rant! :rotfl:

My house is quite a rareity in this area that its really difficult to get a decent comparison. Its one of 10 relatively modern (12 yrs old) houses built in an area dominated by victorian terraces (think coronation street!). We have parking for 2 cars + garden front&back whereas most of the surrounding streets are crammed full of parked cars, and the houses only tend to have a small back yard. There area a few 1960s semis around which are a little bit bigger - some with parking - so we've made sure the price is below what they are asking. There's also a few victorian semis but they are huge and well out of my price range But as for direct comparison, the last house like mine sold in 2004 - not quite the same market as this!

I've tried to look at it in terms of "what do you get for your money" rather than a direct comparison but if the few FTBs (who are as rare as rocking horse droppings) prefer the character of an old place to having a garden and parking, there isn't a lot I can do about it. There are so many older properties for sale, I have to rely on the different features to make my house stand out - price alone just isn't going to do it!

NEH

not_loaded wrote: »

Yes, that’s essentially what we’ve found.

Loads of viewers, but very few real buyers amongst them. I wonder why they shop around like that. I suppose they’re doing a bit of a Phil & Kirstie job, where they’re ‘thinking out loud’ by viewing property which helps them decide what they do and don’t want.

We’ve also suffered from the unrealistic expectations. A huge garden seems to be the most desired thing. We have a large, spacious well laid out house, great for a growing family, brilliant schools and transport etc. There’s very little on the market, and the garden is a reasonable size for where we are. Houses like ours, but with the larger gardens are few and far between, and dictate another £70k to £80k typically.

There’s great woodland, playgrounds and recreation grounds all around too. I think it’s just a question of finding an excuse to not be interested. One woman said we had ‘too much storage space’. :rotfl:

Has anyone here ever had feedback like: ‘actually we’re tyre kickers mooching around – we might buy one day, but not for ages yet’? Course not, that’d be honest.

Well in the dim and distant past before the upheaval of the last 2 years had happened we did look at houses to see what was out there but we were honest about it and we were thinking of moving but we needed to know what we could get for our money to confirm whether we could move or not or whether it was worth while. By doing that we did find a place 3 months down the line and put an offer in but sadly life got in the way and we had to pull out...

PottyHouse_2

RE: House prices

Just out of interest (if you didn't already know !!) we went on the market end last February - we got offer £2.5k under asking price, the next offer we went with was the same - that all fell through last year.

This year we kept the same price - I was desperate to drop the price just to sell, OH said "no" lets just see, we got the same offer, accepted but did not proceed and within 3 weeks the same offer again which is the chain that has just broken!

I can see EA taking on new homes all the time putting the prices up, I think to try and make the market rise but it don't work if nobody is willing to pay those prices !!!!

We are going on with another Agent tomorrow and going to keep the same asking price and I will be interested to see if they value it any higher - we are happy with the price that we achieved before and will be as long as houses around us don't go higher !!! Can't risk being outpriced now.

Also those houses going on higher, most of them have ended up dropping their price anyway - one house on the market last year for £185k which could not sell put their price up to £200k in January this year !! Needless to say it has now come down again to £189k and still going nowhere - who are they trying to kid !!!!

sonastin

PottyHouse wrote: »

Also those houses going on higher, most of them have ended up dropping their price anyway - one house on the market last year for £185k which could not sell put their price up to £200k in January this year !! Needless to say it has now come down again to £189k and still going nowhere - who are they trying to kid !!!!

They've obviously not heard of Property Bee - didn't realise that in this information age, you can't get away with anything!

not_loaded

NEH wrote: »

Well in the dim and distant past before the upheaval of the last 2 years had happened we did look at houses to see what was out there but we were honest about it and we were thinking of moving but we needed to know what we could get for our money to confirm whether we could move or not or whether it was worth while. By doing that we did find a place 3 months down the line and put an offer in but sadly life got in the way and we had to pull out...

I don’t really have a problem with viewers at any level of proceedability. I’ve mentioned that before in the depths of this thread. Overall though I guess that 90% or more of our viewers have not been ready to sell and move. A few years ago houses here were not even getting to RightMove before going sstc.

Early 2009 was better than early 2010 for actual sales here. That was when we had our two offers that were a complete waste of time. Such is life!

azkaban420

We've had to drop our price considerably to get a sale, but that's not to say our house was over-priced - we had several other issues, for those who know, with double yellow lines outside our house etc etc. The buyers have got the house at a very good price. What makes me laugh is people who come and waste your time with viewings, then say 'oh no this is too high for our budget, we're looking for £20-30k less', when they have no intention of even making any offers, even within their budget. I find these people seem to want everything for nothing. I know when I buy I will have to compromise on some stuff for my budget and am realistic about this. I wouldn't even think of going to see a house for £300k with a £250k budget, unless it had been on the market for years or something to that effect where I'd had an indication it may sell for a lot less.

As most people say, I agree, and think that as it is harder to get decent mortgages and put together deposits, there are not many 'real' buyers out there, and those that are pretty much dictate the market. Price drops are important - if you're priced too high, you won't sell, but sometimes there's more to it than just dropping the price.

Rant over...!

Az

NEH

sonastin wrote: »

They've obviously not heard of Property Bee - didn't realise that in this information age, you can't get away with anything!

If you change agent though that can throw property bee out...

wherediditallgothen

Greetings,

My house has now been on the market for approixmately a week. When should I be looking to make contact with the agent to ascertain whether there have been any developments?

Thanks