Buyers beware as confident home sellers start to hold out for the asking price

geoffky

Dan: wrote: »

You can't compare property and cars, I thought you would have known that Geoff.

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DAN i am so sorry...cars have performed better over the last two years:rotfl:

shirlgirl2004

Well I live in the South East and yes sellers are holding out for near asking prices. Most of the houses on the market seem to be separating couples. We have put offers in on 5 houses and none have been accepted. We won't go above what we believe the house is worth to us though. Of those 5 only one has now gone as STC.

SingleSue

honeypopper wrote: »

A tiny minority are in negative equity, and it's also true that over 75% of homeowners either own their homes outright or have just a couple of years left to run before their mortgage comes to an end and they too own it outright. I'll get the link for you.;)

That's why there's so few properties on the market - most people don't need to sell.

Anyway, even those in negative equity at the moment will probably just hold on to their properties until they go back up again. Properties always rise eventually, and they won't be in neg equity for long. Meanwhile they can enjoy their homes.

OK, some people could say what if they lose their job and can't pay the mortgage, but that would apply to them even if they weren't in negative equity. The mortgage repayments would be the same. Makes no difference.

Not in neg equity for long?

Our old house - purchased for 41k in early 1990, repo in late 1994 and on the market for 28k, sold in early 1995 for 26k, sold again in 1997 for 25k...finally reached our original purchased price in 1999/2000 (can't remember which now, did do a long post with all the prices about 6 months ago and it surprised even me!)

We had been in neg equity almost from word go..so it took 9 or 10 years to get back to the original price.

Lotus-eater

Where I am the market is thus.
A low amount of houses on the market. Recently a good few coming on, less reduced (although still a few, in recent days as well), a couple gone up in price.
Definitely more gone SSTC or under offer. Although these tend to be the bigger, better, more individual properties that were selling throughout anyway,
That's just through PBee, don't know what the estate agents think yet, I'm seeing one this afternoon, I'll ask.

Lotus-eater

SingleSue wrote: »

Not in neg equity for long?

All be over by Christmas :rolleyes:

Harry_Powell

amcluesent wrote: »

"Buyers are beginning to lose the upper hand in house sales as fresh evidence suggests that in some regions of the country sellers are successfully holding out for close to the asking price.

Nearly two thirds of estate agents across the country said the difference between asking prices and selling prices narrowed sharply over the past three months.The margin between asking and sale prices is narrowing fastest in the South East of England."

GET IN!

That's not what I'm finding. We're (me n girlfriend) have tentatively started looking for out own home and we're treated like royalty by the sellers, especially when they realise that we're FTBers and currently in rented accomodation. It's almost embarasing the way they 'fawn' over us.

We haven't put in any offers yet as we haven't found a property we both like, but I'd imagine we'd be able to strike a decent deal when we do find one.

System

You will always get "fawned" over as a potential buyer when on a viewing.

Harry_Powell

It was more than that, I was given the impression more than once that the asking price was very negotiable.

We've had almost 15 months of bad news with the banks nearly going under and lots of people currently losing their jobs. A few 'green shoot' press reports aren't going to make much of an impact, no matter how much a few MSE bulls wish it.

chucky

Harry_Powell wrote: »

It was more than that, I was given the impression more than once that the asking price was very negotiable.

We've had almost 15 months of bad news with the banks nearly going under and lots of people currently losing their jobs. A few 'green shoot' press reports aren't going to make much of an impact, no matter how much a few MSE bulls wish it.

wrong impression unfortunately not everyone will accept your offer on property - it's their perogative to accept or reject. ignore the green shoots - just look at facts.

banks nearly going under is not going exactly under - they've been backed up by the Government and didn't collapse and are still there and seem to be now making a profit.

lots of people losing their jobs - does not mean home owners are losing their jobs. if you can prove that this will impact house prices directly and exclusively home owners only please let me know

Yakubu22

Absolutely hillarious these quotes. Are these Sellers trying to convince us or themselves?

I actually got a phone call yesterday from an EA who was following up with us (for the second time in 3 weeks) regarding a house i viewed a month ago.
The house was ok and had been reduced by 10k already. The EA basically said "please make an offer they will negotiate". Now I reckon if I were too (which I probably wont) I'd be offering about 10-15% off the new asking price.
I can also point out a number of houses local to me grossly overpriced that have been on the market for 12months+...but do they learn or listen?
So in my experience most sellers aren't confident, they are just dangerously optimistic.