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

djheath

Thanks for the reply.

I have just spoken to my EA and said I am leaving in two weeks. He is a nice guy and I have no problems with him, but he basically said he wanted to keep my place on the market as he thinks it's a great place and is just struggling to get people in. He said everyone at the minute is just swapping properties between agents and any new agent I choose will just do the same as they have. I said I wanted to try a different approach even if it was psychological as I have only had two viewings so have to try something.
He said I could go multi vendor if I wanted with him, but I feel this just shouts desperation.

As said before, I have lowered the price already and it is the lowest on Rightmove for the property type and area but still no viewings. Most likely because it is for FTB's and they are finding it difficult to buy.

I was going to go with the estate agent opposite the one I am with now, but my current EA just said he doesn't see any point in that and said I should go for one further out of the village to see if I could get more coverage.

Just dont know what to do really!

Jackinbox99

Okay so buyer has come back and only increased their price by £1500 and the EA claims thats all they can afford. So now im in a dilema.

Houses in my street very seldom come up for sale as they have the biggest gardens in the area. There have been 3 houses come up in the last 6 years. First went for 155k in 2005, 2nd went for 170k in 2008 and one sold 2 months ago for 172k. All 3 houses needed a lot of work. The one which sold for 170k I am actually friends with the new owner and they have spent 30k on the house trying to bring it up to the same standard as mine, so it now stands them at £200k. In fact I would go as far as to say its still probably not as good as mine as my garden has been landscaped, new patio / bbq area, bigger lawn, and a big new double garage has been built.

I had 3 EA`s value my house, and came back at 175k, 170k and 170k. I priced it up for £167k for a quick sale. The EA i used seem to have turned out to be useless, as they have only found me 2 viewings. First couple couldnt believe how good I have done the house up - as ive really done it to sell - all neutral, nice new big kitchen, new bathroom, nice big living spaces inside & out. The 2nd couple who viewed the house didnt seem impressed and didnt say anything positive about it at all.

Anyway, 2nd couple have come back, said they loved the house and offered £153k. Now they have increased it to 155k and say thats all they can afford.

I personally think thats taking the mick. Even if we assume my house was a pile of crap needing all the work doing to it, based on selling prices it should be worth 170k. Thats not even considering the £30 or £40k of work done to it which should boost its value further.

But, maybe im being un-realistic. I know a house is only worth what someone is prepared to pay, but the difference between sold prices in my street and this particular offer seems huge.

So, are the EA`s just rubbish and not marketing my house?

Or, have house prices fallen so much this last few months that rather than being worth 170k->190k my house is really only worth £155k and I should accept that?

The problem is, I need a quick sale, but having just been through the purchasing process in buying my new house ive found sellers refusing to drop prices and have had to pay top price for the new house, so am reluctant to give my house away and throw money down the drain.

pjcox2005

Only you can really judge whether it's reasonable in relation to your circumstances.

From a very high level understanding of your post, I would suggest you are more emotionally attached to some of the improvements made than a buyer would be.

Prices have fallen since 2008 in a lot of areas, and the estate agents would price a property up knowing that the buyer would look for some reduction in my opinion. Hometrack reported in Feb that sellers were achieving on average 93% of asking price, and I would suggest the market has moved in the buyers favour since then so their offer appears reasonable (I would certainly be looking for under asking price in the current market).

However, putting that to one side it boils down to this, can you afford to sit it out (and potentially for a long period if prices fall further/your current lack of viewings) and wait for a higher asking price or do you want to sell and move on as planned before?

Jackinbox99

pjcox2005 wrote: »

Only you can really judge whether it's reasonable in relation to your circumstances.

From a very high level understanding of your post, I would suggest you are more emotionally attached to some of the improvements made than a buyer would be.

Prices have fallen since 2008 in a lot of areas, and the estate agents would price a property up knowing that the buyer would look for some reduction in my opinion. Hometrack reported in Feb that sellers were achieving on average 93% of asking price, and I would suggest the market has moved in the buyers favour since then so their offer appears reasonable (I would certainly be looking for under asking price in the current market).

However, putting that to one side it boils down to this, can you afford to sit it out (and potentially for a long period if prices fall further/your current lack of viewings) and wait for a higher asking price or do you want to sell and move on as planned before?

Hi,

The improvements are those which would make the property more attractive to any buyers, such as kitchen, bathroom, garden, new floorings, windows, doors etc. But, discounting all those "improvements" and assume they are worth nothing, are we saying that the same house but a smaller plot was worth 172k 2 months ago is now worth 155k? Thats a hell of a drop in 2 months.

Having just been through the purchase process myself, ive done the normal 10% under first offer - refused, then 5% under, then had to offer about 2% under. In 3/4 of the houses I offered on, I was turned down, finally having one accept at 2% under asking.

The 93% thing back in Feb is interesting. Maybe my mistake is setting my asking price low to try and encourage a sale. Maybe I should have set it at what the EA`s suggested, at 175k?

I could always "sit it out". But, like you say, things may go down even further and I could be better off taking the cheap offer and accept that when you buy a house its a sellers market and when you sell a house its a buyers market! That, or ive been extremely unlucky.

tyllwyd

It's really difficult - obviously if you turn down an offer now and the house doesn't go on to sell you are going to kick yourself. Equally, you don't want to panic and give your house away for a stupid price, that's shooting yourself in the foot!

My impression is that there are so few buyers & sellers around that it is really difficult to establish what is a 'fair' price at the moment. I agree, the market won't have changed by £20K in that amount of time. It is going to depend on how quickly you need the money from the house and how much of a gambler you are. We aren't desperate to sell, so if it was a similar offer on my house we'd tell them to get lost and sit it out - but I don't think anyone else can make that judgement for you.

Jackinbox99

Well, I have gone back and said ive done my research, i know what recent local prices are. I`ll take 160k and thats it. The EA are still saying the buyer cant afford any more than 155k, but from my experience of buying the new house 8 weeks ago, there are always ways to find that extra few grand - longer mortgage term, personal loan, selling items off. The buyer must know what local prices are, so its up to him.

I cant afford to keep the house sitting there until next year, so I think, disregarding any improvements I have made on the house which i`ll have to take a hit on, a 12k drop over what a similar house sold for 2 months back is a fair price.

Have to wait and see what they come back with now.

harz99

Jackinbox99 wrote: »

Well, I have gone back and said ive done my research, i know what recent local prices are. I`ll take 160k and thats it. The EA are still saying the buyer cant afford any more than 155k, but from my experience of buying the new house 8 weeks ago, there are always ways to find that extra few grand - longer mortgage term, personal loan, selling items off. The buyer must know what local prices are, so its up to him.

I cant afford to keep the house sitting there until next year, so I think, disregarding any improvements I have made on the house which i`ll have to take a hit on, a 12k drop over what a similar house sold for 2 months back is a fair price.

Have to wait and see what they come back with now.

As a matter of interest what are your agents charging? Is there any scope for getting a reduction their, either to your pocket or to drop a little further if needed?

doire_2

tyllwyd wrote: »

It's really difficult - obviously if you turn down an offer now and the house doesn't go on to sell you are going to kick yourself. Equally, you don't want to panic and give your house away for a stupid price, that's shooting yourself in the foot!

My impression is that there are so few buyers & sellers around that it is really difficult to establish what is a 'fair' price at the moment. I agree, the market won't have changed by £20K in that amount of time. It is going to depend on how quickly you need the money from the house and how much of a gambler you are. We aren't desperate to sell, so if it was a similar offer on my house we'd tell them to get lost and sit it out - but I don't think anyone else can make that judgement for you.

When you say "sit it out" have you got a time scale in mind? Whats going to happen when the new FSA rules come in? Pepple trying to get a mortgage will find it even harder than it is now!

tyllwyd

doire wrote: »

When you say "sit it out" have you got a time scale in mind? Whats going to happen when the new FSA rules come in? Pepple trying to get a mortgage will find it even harder than it is now!

Well, for me 'sit it out' is maximum probably until my eldest leaves school, so another seven years or so. But what I really meant was to wait until I get an offer which I consider reasonable, bearing in mind what I can see of the market around me at the time. I need to buy a new house when I sell this one, so I don't want to sell for a price that is considerably lower than I think I would need to buy this house or its equivalent back again. To me, the offer the OP has received seems to fall below that level, so I wouldn't accept it.

I appreciate your point that things may get more difficult in the future - fair enough, but as far as I can see things are changing all the time, and it is impossible to try to second guess what will happen to house prices next year, so I am only willing to make a decision on what I can see right now.

HelenDaveKids

It's really difficult trying to gauge the right price. We put ours on about 9 wks ago at 165k, had 1 viewing so dropped to 160k, had 2 more viewings. Today after about 4 wks of nothing have dropped to 150k, EA seemed a bit surprised at the drop and made me question myself, however we've already bought our next house, so not "desperate" but will be soon!!! My mate suggested renting it out for 6 months, then hitting the spring market (not sure it's quite that simple) which is something to ponder. Do you think the market will improve or just continue to spiral down? The pessimist in me thinks SELL SELL SELL, just keep lowering and SELL but the sensible side thinks Sit it out, it'll all come good.


Can you afford to wait?