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

lauhen

I think that we are going to sit back and let it happen, and not get stressed about it. We will still do the regular call to ea to keep them on there toes but just not get worked up over it. And I need to stop looking on rightmove everyday for houses as it's driving me insane, I will look when we at least have viewings. I must delete the app from iPod.

wherediditallgothen

Just thought I would post here. Been on the market 4 weeks, no viewers at all, (not even any enquiries by all accounts) and I appear to have the world's most useless estate agent.

My partners' friend mystery shopped them, and she's still waiting for the e-mail of suitable properties they promised her. They say things are slow, but things might not be so slow if they got their finger out!

Just about to ring them, someone's going to get a rocket :mad:

Orpheo

Ok. I'm not here to be critical of any individuals and my apologies if I have come across in that manner. But, to be fair, there seems to be no acceptance here that price is a factor when selling your house. I've experienced selling at full asking price less than a day after being on the market, I've experienced having to pay full asking price for a property that I wanted - this was the reality of the property boom. What caused the property boom to be so is a whole new debate. But times have changed now, if you are in an environment of 4 sellers to 1 buyer then you have to compete.

In the personal anecdotal that I gave you, I sold my house because I competed on price. The other houses on my street failed to sell until they capitulated on price. You see all the signals of a buyers' market but don't change your behaviour to account for that.

What do you want?

For someone to buy your house for what you think it is worth?

For someone to buy it for just enough that you don't lose money that you never really had?

The buyer will offer what it is worth to them.

The number of wet-behind-the-ears buyers who will throw money at you because the EA says so is almost completely diminished. They don't have deposits and they can't get mortgages. In 2009 there was a last hurrah of people that had deposits or who borrowed from mum and dad buying into the tired mantra that house prices only ever go up. What you are left with now is people like me. I have in excess of a 50% deposit (for my price range), I don't care about magnolia walls, I don't care if the right house is perfectly decorated or a bit scruffy, I won't be falling in love with any houses and I won't be offering anyone asking price when I am watching properties drop up to 5K off their asking price every month. There are some properties that have dropped 20% in 3 months here in Lincoln.

There is no can't sell, only won't sell.

Emy1501

NEH wrote: »

Well other peeps on this board said our lfat must be overpriced which is why it isn't selling and when i repsonded and said we had a lot of competition as there is 4 of us selling flats within 200 yards or so and I was told by this board that we were all over priced which to be honest i don't believe....All of us have a resonable range of prices depending on condition.

We have discussed dropping our price but even those flats that have dropped have got no more interest than us so what's the point...

I think you've simplified the process but you haven't taken into account the fact that sometimes the market is very slow, it does happen and it's not all down to a simple formula of overpricing, bad EA/Solicitors or bad presentation. Out of the 4 of us we have 3 Solicitors covered so we can't all say they are bad so your formula doesen't apply in our case...

I'm pleased that your house sold in 7 weeks but you were lucky plain and simple...

and i'm sorry if one more person comes on this thread and accuses us of the reason it's not selling is it's overpriced i really will scream. I'm sorry but i'm fed up what do you want me to do give it away??? :mad:

Its down to you what you do. You can wait till the market picks up and sell it a price reasonable to you. The fact is though a house is only worth what somone is willing to pay for it.

I am not lucky my house went under offer in 7 days. It went under offer becuase it was presented marketed and priced right.

There are other similar properties sitting on the market for 2months+ because they are priced higher. poorly presented and marketed badly. In some case all 3.

The point of my post was that one should not simply rely on an EA valuation as fact as some on here seem to do.

Orpheo

Blodwen wrote: »

Viewing somewhere and asking questions doesn't always reveal everything that might be wrong, especially if the vendor (not suggesting you here) has something they want to keep quiet.

Absolutely, yes. This is why we have surveyors. This is why, after viewing a house that appeared to be everything we wanted it to be and having our 15% below asking price offer accepted, I commissioned a survey which revealed that the kitchen extension was a cowboy build and would need to be completely rebuilt. The irony is that the fitted kitchen was brand new, sparkly, shiny, impressive and was used in the EAs particulars as a key selling point. It took a qualified professional to identify the severe structural problems and I look upon the survey as money well spent. Now this was the straw that broke the deal for me, because I had already discovered lies from the EA and the vendors. So I pulled out. I've already relayed this story in this thread and was branded a time-waster by not_loaded because I pulled out of the sale.

NEH

Orpheo wrote: »

Ok. I'm not here to be critical of any individuals and my apologies if I have come across in that manner. But, to be fair, there seems to be no acceptance here that price is a factor when selling your house. I've experienced selling at full asking price less than a day after being on the market, I've experienced having to pay full asking price for a property that I wanted - this was the reality of the property boom. What caused the property boom to be so is a whole new debate. But times have changed now, if you are in an environment of 4 sellers to 1 buyer then you have to compete.

In the personal anecdotal that I gave you, I sold my house because I competed on price. The other houses on my street failed to sell until they capitulated on price. You see all the signals of a buyers' market but don't change your behaviour to account for that.

What do you want?

For someone to buy your house for what you think it is worth?

For someone to buy it for just enough that you don't lose money that you never really had?

The buyer will offer what it is worth to them.

The number of wet-behind-the-ears buyers who will throw money at you because the EA says so is almost completely diminished. They don't have deposits and they can't get mortgages. In 2009 there was a last hurrah of people that had deposits or who borrowed from mum and dad buying into the tired mantra that house prices only ever go up. What you are left with now is people like me. I have in excess of a 50% deposit (for my price range), I don't care about magnolia walls, I don't care if the right house is perfectly decorated or a bit scruffy, I won't be falling in love with any houses and I won't be offering anyone asking price when I am watching properties drop up to 5K off their asking price every month. There are some properties that have dropped 20% in 3 months here in Lincoln.

There is no can't sell, only won't sell.

Emy1501 wrote: »

Its down to you what you do. You can wait till the market picks up and sell it a price reasonable to you. The fact is though a house is only worth what somone is willing to pay for it.

I am not lucky my house went under offer in 7 days. It went under offer becuase it was presented marketed and priced right.

There are other similar properties sitting on the market for 2months+ because they are priced higher. poorly presented and marketed badly. In some case all 3.

The point of my post was that one should not simply rely on an EA valuation as fact as some on here seem to do.

Well we didn't, we actually researched prices, got 3 quotes from the Solicitors and then made up our own minds (given that we do have brains) what we thought it should have gone on the market for given the current sales figures etc...

Orpeho, if your theory is right then surely the flat that is the lowest would have sold by now and not been on for months???

Ours is an unpopular flat as i said because it is a studio, they are now beneath the current FTB apparently....

Emy, we have been cheeky enough to ask questions and if we lowered below the lowest we already know that having a low price would make no difference as they are getting no viewers for studio flats...(oh unless you count the two viewings that we had, one that had no idea that where are flats are is a micro climate and that a 1 bed or a studio isn't going to come under £50,000 and the other thinking a family of 4 could go into studio flat)

Please don't say it's our fault because of price because believe you and me if we could sell it it we would, as we are having to rent becasue of my ill health somewhere else and were given notice a few weeks ago so we're having to find another rental property in a current shortage in Scotland, so it's not as if we have the luxury to sell it whenever we like....Stubborn we aint, and as i said given our hard times if we thought it would make a differnce to drop then we would but we know from research again using our noodle that it doesn't...

tyllwyd

Orpheo wrote: »

Ok. I'm not here to be critical of any individuals and my apologies if I have come across in that manner. But, to be fair, there seems to be no acceptance here that price is a factor when selling your house. ...

Oh for goodness sake. This is meant to be a thread for support for people who are getting stressed about the whole house buying & selling process, not rants about everyone overpricing their houses. There are lots of other threads for that.

lauhen

It seems slightly aggressive on here today, or maybe that's just me, migraine, strong tablets, probably taking things to heart. I do agree that price is a factor, this is obvious to most I would hope, but some of us do stupidly still believe ea's, when they sell us there sales pitch, unfortunately they lie or bend the truth and we fall for it, I know as we have done that this time around, luckily we managed to go with another ea, who seems a little better, but now we know there tricks, we know what to look out for, and to more or less take what they say with a pinch of salt. But at the end of the day we do still need them, the reduced price that our house is now on at is what it was valued at by the second estate agent, we can't go down anymore than that, it should be worth more but not in this current Market, compared to others close by it is in a good position and better than others of the same price, but if no one is looking then that's that. But I hope that they will soon, as I keep saying it only takes one person through the door.

sonastin

Orpheo wrote: »

if you are in an environment of 4 sellers to 1 buyer then you have to compete.

And if you are in an environment of 4 sellers to 0 buyers, price isn't the magic bullet.

FTBs who are willing to step into the housing market have saved enough to buy 1- or 2-beds. To make a studio, NEH would have to not just lower the price, but then also go out there and persuade people who don't think they can afford to buy into the housing market so aren't looking that they should consider using what they have saved so far to buy that studio now instead of continuing to save to be able to buy a 1-bed in future. I'm pretty sure that is going to be a bridge too far for nearly every vendor.

And BTL investors seem to be even more cautious than banks these days so a lower price isn't necessarily going to be enticing them back into the studio-flat market.

Price isn't necessarily the answer. Unfortunately it seems to be patience while you wait for the buyer to appear. And making sure that you are competitive as and when that mythical creature arrives!

Or, as you've considered, rent it out until buyers want studios again...

Orpheo

NEH wrote: »

Orpeho, if your theory is right then surely the flat that is the lowest would have sold by now and not been on for months???

If my theory is right then the flat that is priced the lowest is, nevertheless, priced too high.

Especially if it is an unpopular area.

If your theory is right dropping 20% off your asking price would do you no harm, because you still wouldn't get a buyer. Heck, why don't you double your asking price considering price makes no difference. But your theory is wrong. There are capable buyers out there and they will buy the best that they can afford within their established budget.

Nobody (except your mortgager) can force you to lower your price, you can hold-out for whatever you want, but don't whine that you can't sell your house. I sold mine in the summer of 2008 when the market was very slow. Every bit of feedback that viewers gave to me I listened to it with respect and, whether I agreed with it or not, each opinion told me something about how my house should be marketed.