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

Jackinbox99

tyllwyd wrote: »

Congrats on the new offer (and two fingers up at the guy who tried to mess you around). Just being nosey, is the new offer better or worse than the original one you accepted?

Our EA was on the phone yesterday. We've not had any viewings on the house since the end of October, so not exactly a hive of activity!

Its the same amount, but hopefully this one will go through okay.

Viewings in general seem to be very low in volume atm. I only had about 5 or 6 viewings in total since October, and only 1 over the last month!

tawse57 wrote: »

According to the land registry sellers were getting about 90 to 91% of asking price last Oct.

As most economists expect house prices to fall by up to 10% this year you could see a situation by the end of the year where house prices have dropped 10% from today. The 90% 'rule' will still hold true so in theory a house on ther market today could be lucky to get 80% of today's asking price in 12 months time.

If your first offer does not embarass you then it is too high. If I was offering now my first offer would be a good 20% below asking price and I certainly would not pay more than 85% of asking price - but that's just me.

I tried that with the offers I made and was laughed away by the sellers. I had to end up settling for about 2% less than asking price on the house I just purchased, and the other 3 houses I offered on wouldnt lower the price by even that.

The house ive just sold (or is in the process of going through) I had to accept an offer of 10% less than an identical house but with a smaller plot of land sold for a couple of months back, and about 7% less than the price I felt mine was worth based upon the current market. It really all depends upon how desperate the seller is and how many buyers are interested in that propety.

azkaban420

Congrats to Jack and anyone else I've missed who's recently had good news on this thread

Az

the.ciscokid

tyllwyd wrote: »

Well, we've made the decision to reduce the asking price by £10K. It leaves us just above the £300K mark so we'll have to see if it makes any difference.

To be honest, I think if you are going to drop the price, it needs to be reduced to within a new rightmove price bracket.

What I mean is that the chances are a new group people are searching up to £300k as their maximum since it is a clear price bracket using the rightmove search. This leaves your property, at just over £300k, outside of those searches.

It depends how much you mean when you say just above. If you mean less than 3%, or around 10k, I think you might be better to just put in on for 299,950, and be done with it. Just negotiate hard on the place you are looking to buy.

prozac_zombie

Hi I am now in this boat again having lost my buyer today after 4 months of " negotiating "

tyllwyd

the.ciscokid wrote: »

To be honest, I think if you are going to drop the price, it needs to be reduced to within a new rightmove price bracket.

What I mean is that the chances are a new group people are searching up to £300k as their maximum since it is a clear price bracket using the rightmove search. This leaves your property, at just over £300k, outside of those searches.

It depends how much you mean when you say just above. If you mean less than 3%, or around 10k, I think you might be better to just put in on for 299,950, and be done with it. Just negotiate hard on the place you are looking to buy.

Yes, we spent a long time discussing whether to do that (and to be fair, it's what our EA suggested as well). What's worried us was that if we are under £300K, people will still want to bargain down, and we would be starting from a relatively low point. If people are searching with a budget of between £250 - £300K, there are a lot of other properties to choose from (although smaller and not as nice as this one, obviously!) so there would be a lot of competition anyway. My OH's logic was that if you were seriously searching with a budget of £300K, you'd have a look and see what was in the next price bracket above anyway. We'll have to see if he is right!

tyllwyd

prozac_zombie wrote: »

Hi I am now in this boat again having lost my buyer today after 4 months of " negotiating "

Really sorry to hear that - hope it turns around for you quickly.

the.ciscokid

tyllwyd wrote: »

Yes, we spent a long time discussing whether to do that (and to be fair, it's what our EA suggested as well). What's worried us was that if we are under £300K, people will still want to bargain down, and we would be starting from a relatively low point. If people are searching with a budget of between £250 - £300K, there are a lot of other properties to choose from (although smaller and not as nice as this one, obviously!) so there would be a lot of competition anyway. My OH's logic was that if you were seriously searching with a budget of £300K, you'd have a look and see what was in the next price bracket above anyway. We'll have to see if he is right!

But you don't have to accept a lower price!

If your house outshines others in the same price bracket, you will generate demand, and thus a better price.

Personally, I think selling a house is like any other transaction, and you want to generate interest and have as many people looking at it as possible.

I also think that you can never tell what is down the road, so if you want to or have to sell, it's best to try and do so sooner rather than later in this market.

Good luck though, hope you get what you are looking for.

deeplyblue

Not a seller - yet. We are one interested party in a probate sale. Legal issues partly arising from a home-made will (should have been OK, one tiny problem cascaded. Hint: don't chose witnesses who might die before you do!) mean probate only came through late November on a house that has been empty since March 2010.

Clearing etc difficult as all interested parties live at least a couple of hours drive away. We (as nearest) had to make an emergency visit in the worst of the cold to deal with frost-related issues.

Result: house not fully cleared (though that could be done fairly quickly as most contentious issues solved) and now very cold as CH off.

So, query to sellers (and perhaps potential buyers) would you put the house on the market asap, or reckon to wait until real spring (which, in this part of the world - northern England - doesn't arrive until March)? Come spring we will probably not be frightened about burst pipes and could turn the water back on. I'm reckoning that having a house which is cold and has no running water would be a turn off. OTOH prices are falling all the time, and many buyers may have done their market surveys by the beginning of March.

Of course, there's the question of price. That's still under negotiation between the heirs - nobody's being greedy, but some have amount as a priority and some speed. We'll have to see.

Catatonia

I agree that your house will get more attention at £299k. A lot of people will have a ceiling price of say £250k. £300k, £350k and won't look above that.

tyllwyd

Catatonia wrote: »

I agree that your house will get more attention at £299k. A lot of people will have a ceiling price of say £250k. £300k, £350k and won't look above that.

Yes, it does seem to skew the market a bit at this price, with very few properties for sale between 300-325 because everyone is heading below £300K. But then if someone is looking up to £350K, then ours might look good value, but if they are looking up to £300K ours will be top of their budget.

It is strange how Rightmove is having an impact - when we bought our last house (going back 12 years), it was priced at £103K with the owner looking to achieve £100K (which was pretty much what we paid). That was way back before Rightmove, so if you told your EA that your budget was £100K, they'd automatically send you details for properties a bit higher as well as lower.