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

the_baldman

HelenDaveKids wrote: »

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?

Not sure why you consider that the sensible side is saying wait. As with any investment a house value is subject to market conditions. Asking prices are still at an historic high so it is not that easy to judge which way the market will go. I think you have to look at your cash flow situation if you do not sell and evaulate that against a reduced sale price. Renting is an option but finding good tenants is not always easy.

the_baldman

Jackinbox99 wrote: »

Well, spoke to the EA yesterday and the buyer really cant afford any more than he is offering. The EA gave me the flannel that house prices are dropping at 150quid a day and im not going to get a better offer, blah blah sales speil. In the end I haggled with them over their fee`s and got them down from 2% to 1.5% of the selling price, and accepted the buyers low offer, which is 10k less than I wanted.

Looking on Mouse Prices, ive just sold my house for the same price as houses in my street were selling back in 2002/2003 !!!!!!!!!!!!! and 30k less than it was worth 2 years ago. I appreciate things are lower than 2008, but didnt think they were down to 2002/2003 prices yet.

Im so angry about it all. All that money you spend doing a house up so its perfect and its made no difference to the house prices. Now, the house ive just bought ive had to pay top wack for and just can not afford to do it up as good and nice as I did in my current house.

Makes me feel im some sort of charity. Buy a house, spend a fortune doing up and sell it cheap so the next person benefits.

I think you have to step back and accept that like all investments houses can go down in value. Alternatively it is best not to see it as an investment but a home that you have enjoyed living in (a bit like a new car) and that over a period of time you will be able to improve your new house... l would suggest you try to negotiate down teh price of the house you are buying.

pjcox2005

Out of interest, at what point does renegotiating become gazundering.

I was just surprised people are suggesting it considering there is 8 weeks already past, as normally these threads treat gazundering as out of order.

[Just to state, not aimed at anyone as people miss dates etc. in posts, I was just curious as to whether it's more acceptable in the current climate]

whysitallsocomplicated

Hi
its not always about gazundering sometimes its about working with everyone else in the chain to keep things together. We had to do this when we lost our first buyer then given 2 weeks to find another before the house we wanted went back on the market. we managed to find another buyer but had to drop the price to get the sale. before we accepted the offer we spoke to everyone else in the chain asking if everyone could accept a bit of the differance. Everyone agreed as it meant the chain was back in place and everything could get back on track. if they hadnt agreed the chain was broken and everyone lost out anyway.

the most important thing in a chain is remebering you are playing apart in everyones involved dream of a new house. Keep talking and try to get everyone to buy into changes that come about, youre all in it together afterall!

HelenDaveKids

Davesnave wrote: »

Some support thread this is turning out to be!

It seems to me that two of you here bought before you sold, which hints strongly that the model of the market inside your heads was somewhat different from the reality. Regardless, the current situation has been a big shock, and you need to come to terms with it before you can move on.

When the market went into free fall a couple of years ago, some of us on that other channel, 'Debate,' where all the nutters hang out, found a better understanding of their feelings through consideration of the Grief Cycle, developed by psychologist, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in relation to people learning that they have a terminal illness. She discovered that their thinking went through a sort of roller coaster of emotions before they could get to grips with their new reality, as shown in the diagram below:



Others think this model is applicable in human reactions to any kind of negative Big Event.

While it is simplistic, the K-R model may help us to understand how we feel, why we feel that way, and to judge where we are in coping with the new situation. Eventually, whether it is learning that we a gravely ill, or that we have lost a significant amount of money, our goal should be to mentally pick ourselves up, brush ourselves down and move on. Getting stuck in one phase explains the self-destructive behaviour of those individuals who remain in a negative, passive state far longer than is useful.

You can see a good summary of the Grief Cycle here:

http://changingminds.org/disciplines/change_management/kubler_ross/kubler_ross.htm

The model certainly applied to me in 2008. I believe that knowing about it helped me to recover and move on from a financially damaging situation, eventually turning the changed market to my advantage.

You can do the same, or you can dismiss this as psychobabble and I won't be offended!

Yes, i think your probably right! DABDA is how I used to remember it! (DENIAL ANGER BARGAINING DEPRESSION ACCEPTANCE) - I did think it would be easy, then felt a little cross no one is buying my house! and took me a few weeks to accept situation is fairly grim, tried techniques like offering part x (bargaining), feeling well depressed and now accepting price needs to drop if want to sell! :T

Jackinbox99

the_baldman wrote: »

I think you have to step back and accept that like all investments houses can go down in value. Alternatively it is best not to see it as an investment but a home that you have enjoyed living in (a bit like a new car) and that over a period of time you will be able to improve your new house... l would suggest you try to negotiate down teh price of the house you are buying.

I cant negociate the price of the new house down as its all completed and ive moved in now! I bought the new house 2 months ago (completed 2 weeks ago), when similar houses in my street were selling for 172k. I figured even if prices drop over 2 months they wouldnt drop too much, certainly not by 20k!

Sensibily I didnt push myself on buying a house for more than I could afford, so factored in a good margin, which I hoped would leave me enough money from my house sale to pay for renovation work on the new property. But, now i`ll be lookin at a loan for the work.

I know house prices go up and down, but was only mentioning my frustration that when it comes to buying sellers were not dropping their prices so I had to pay nearly the full price. But, litterally 2 months later as a seller I am having to drop 12k off the asking price and sell for 20k less than the same house was selling 2 months back.

I am just glad I did buy before selling, else id have really struggled being part of a chain and the house purchase would have probably long fell through and id have had to take a bigger loss.

At least I have a buyer, and unless he backs out the house should be sold before Christmas.

And walking away from it, ive learnt several lessons:

Lesson 1 is that there is no point in spending money doing a house up as you get zero return from it. Spent as little as possible on making a house "acceptable".

Lesson 2 is never underprice your house hoping for a quick sale as buyers will always offer you less anyway. I may or may not have been better off pricing it at the 175k the estate agents recommended, rather than pricing it at 167k hoping for a quick sale for 162->165k

Lesson 3 - like buying a car, you will nearly always have to pay over the odds when you buy and sell for lower than the market price in order to get a sale.

Lesson 4 - its all about luck. My neighbours were lucky enough to have a couple from london come up and buy their house for well over the market price a couple of years back.

Catatonia

Jackinbox99 wrote: »

Lesson 1 is that there is no point in spending money doing a house up as you get zero return from it. Spent as little as possible on making a house "acceptable".

For an investment, yes, but not true for a house you're planning on living in for years. A house I'm interested in has a kitchen that's perfectly adequate, but is made of cheap plastic (including the sink). If I buy the house, I eventually plan on ripping it all out and putting in something much better quality. I don't expect it to add any value, as there's nothing actually wrong with the current kitchen, but a lovely kitchen will give me lots of pleasure over the years.

tyllwyd

Just noticed that our EA usually runs a full page advert in the local paper every week but nothing this week - he's got plenty of properties on his books, but I wonder if this means he hasn't got many sales going through and he needs to keep an eye on costs.

spookytoy

just a little note.. posted a few times but normally lurk

Selling house in Aberdeenshire ( scotland)

on market since start of May 2010,
Accepted an offer on 20th October,
CONCLUDED TODAY (19th November) YAY.:j
Excahnge date 3rd December.... only 2 weeks away !!

So after a stressful time and lots of to-ing and fro-ing its finally done,

My offer on the new property was accepted last week and I will conclude my purchase on Monday and all things working out will be moving in on 3rd of December as well.

* can now breath a a big sigh of relief* now its mad panic time to get everything packed and a moving team arranged!

Good luck to those still selling.

tyllwyd

Congrats spookytoy! I remember your property - it seemed quite an unusual one, so it is brilliant that you've managed to find the right buyer, and less than two months for the sale to go through is fantastic. Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly and moving day isn't too stressful!