Unrealistic Sellers

Gwenrose

I've been reading this thread with interest. This is our position. In June 2007 we put our 3 bedroom semi on the market, valued at 216k we were hoping for a quick sale, so told the ea to put it on at 210k, we live in what is called a very attractive location. Of course we were stupid enough to believe the ea when she said it would sell within six weeks at that price. To cut a long story short, we now have our third lot of buyers and are almost at completion, but during that time we reduced to 205k then 199k, but we have accepted an offer of 180k which was there max offer. We don't need to move, we have no mortgage, but we wanted a bungalow for various reasons, so we were prepared to accept an offer well below the asking price, but we were only able to accept that offer, because we found a property we could afford from the sale of this property.

I know of some sellers, who are not prepared to accept low offers, because it would mean they would not be able to look for any thing that they themselves would be able to afford and they are hoping that the market will pick up. Unfortunatly what a lot of them forget is, that if and when the property market starts to grow again, all properties will rise in value, not just theirs.

I suggest you take a good look around and don't always listen to what the ea says selling the property, remember they work for comission and want a large slice of the pie. Make an offer, even if the ea says the sellers has already refused one, a few weeks can seem like a life time when trying to sell and what seemed like a good idea to refuse an offer one week, could feel like a major mistake the next.

Good luck, good hunting.

homehunter

Conel wrote: »

We are trying, just getting impatient as we have waited for this so long. Plus hardly anything is coming onto the market and well priced ones are going very quickly. So it seems alot of buyers in our area may be in the same situation so good positions don't seem to be rewarded.

By the way, I love your username!!

We're impatient FTBs too! Started looking before the crash with a fair deposit given the mortgages available at the time. Then prices started to nose-dive, our rented flat got repo'd so we rented an end terrace, sat tight and saved more.

So around Feb this year, with prices still falling and a bigger deposit in the bank, we started looking again. Realistically priced properties got snapped up before we had a chance (fair play to those sellers ) but in the last 6 weeks the agents have been proclaiming 'things are looking up!' (quote from today's local paper above house listings), and prices seem to be higher than they should be somehow. An offer we made on a property which had been on the market for nearly two years was rejected (£139k on a £160 asking price) and last week, that finally sold, I guess for more than we offered.

I'm not too miffed about it - after all, the sellers held out and it paid off for them - but what really gets me is that the more we have saved, the more we still need to put down, to get a decent mortgage deal on the sort of house we want. Agents and sellers coming on to the market are starting to get cheeky with asking prices - fact is the mortgage deals are still not there and FTBs are finding it hard either getting accepted for a mortgage or getting a reasonable deal. With £30k in the bank and a joint income of over £50k you'd think we'd be able to get a good deal around the £160-170k mark. But our mortgage adviser suggests we aim for 25% deposit - guess that's us saving and waiting that bit longer then...! I just want my monthly payments to be comfortably affordable, and at least affordable should rates go up in the future...

darn my sensibility

Good luck Conel!!

Conel

homehunter wrote: »

We're impatient FTBs too! Started looking before the crash with a fair deposit given the mortgages available at the time. Then prices started to nose-dive, our rented flat got repo'd so we rented an end terrace, sat tight and saved more.

So around Feb this year, with prices still falling and a bigger deposit in the bank, we started looking again. Realistically priced properties got snapped up before we had a chance (fair play to those sellers ) but in the last 6 weeks the agents have been proclaiming 'things are looking up!' (quote from today's local paper above house listings), and prices seem to be higher than they should be somehow. An offer we made on a property which had been on the market for nearly two years was rejected (£139k on a £160 asking price) and last week, that finally sold, I guess for more than we offered.

I'm not too miffed about it - after all, the sellers held out and it paid off for them - but what really gets me is that the more we have saved, the more we still need to put down, to get a decent mortgage deal on the sort of house we want. Agents and sellers coming on to the market are starting to get cheeky with asking prices - fact is the mortgage deals are still not there and FTBs are finding it hard either getting accepted for a mortgage or getting a reasonable deal. With £30k in the bank and a joint income of over £50k you'd think we'd be able to get a good deal around the £160-170k mark. But our mortgage adviser suggests we aim for 25% deposit - guess that's us saving and waiting that bit longer then...! I just want my monthly payments to be comfortably affordable, and at least affordable should rates go up in the future...

darn my sensibility

Good luck Conel!!

Oh my god, are you me?

In exactly the same position, almost to the penny of what we have saved.

I totally understand why the new houses coming on to the market are not accepting our low offers. After all, if the EA valued it at 225k...it must be worth that :rolleyes:

I think I know why the one up for 225k is up for that (or it is a wild guess). The Vendor has lost his job and would rather sell than lose his house so I guess when he got people in to value his house, he went with the highest value? I read something on here about EAs doing this to win the business and then asking to lower the price.

Ah well, we'll wait and see what happens.

The feeling I get is that not alot of people are putting their houses on the market in the hope it will pick up?

ILW

I would suggest that if a property is selling within days of going on the market, it is underpriced and the seller is losing out.

chickmug

ILW wrote: »

I would suggest that if a property is selling within days of going on the market, it is underpriced and the seller is losing out.

I can understand this could be the case.

On the other hand I know of sellers who have just gone on the market, got a full price offer within days, refused the offer and increased the asking price with this, sometimes misplaced, new found confidence.

Often some time later when there is no other interest the price goes down and down.

not_loaded

Conel wrote: »

…The feeling I get is that not alot of people are putting their houses on the market in the hope it will pick up?

That’s quite possibly the reason, but the law of supply and demand then comes into play. We all know if you want to sell a common-as-muck car it’s not going to fetch fabulous money for you, as the next bloke (and quite a lot of other next blokes) will undercut your fabulous asking price. Try selling a very special limited availability car and the tables are turned.

The mistake being made on MSE (for house buying/selling) oh so many times is to generalise. If you’re in a hot spot with little competition you’re better off. If you’re in a cold spot with loads of competition, you’re copulated with.

Unfortunately posters often fail to say where they are and what the state of the market is in that location.

A neighbour of ours has a FTB property. He’s recently lost his confirmed ‘signed up’ FTB because he could not find (in a reasonable timescale) a ‘move up’ property to buy. They just are not there to buy. It doesn’t matter a jot what the reason is.

ILW wrote: »

I would suggest that if a property is selling within days of going on the market, it is underpriced and the seller is losing out.

One of our valuing EAs showed us the details for just such a property they’d sold very close to us. I could have told them it was underpriced and she very proudly boasted it had sold instantly. Quelle surprise! :rolleyes:

Conel

Hey everyone!

Not so much to do with unrealistic sellers....but why would an EA put a property on rightmove as already SSTC?

chickmug

Conel wrote: »

Hey everyone!

Not so much to do with unrealistic sellers....but why would an EA put a property on rightmove as already SSTC?

What can, and does, happen is that an EA can take on a new property and from known applicants get a quick viewing and agree a sale within a day or two.

The agent, in the best interests of their seller client, should proceed with marketing including web sites so that they can start getting 'back up' if this quick sale were to fall apart.

Conel

chickmug wrote: »

What can, and does, happen is that an EA can take on a new property and from known applicants get a quick viewing and agree a sale within a day or two.

The agent, in the best interests of their seller client, should proceed with marketing including web sites so that they can start getting 'back up' if this quick sale were to fall apart.

Ah ok, thank you

I spoke to the EA and he said he was on for about a fortnight and actually sold for above the asking price - which I can well believe as the houses on that road would for a few grand more.

gjchester

mose wrote: »

We are having the same problem, a house that we have had saved on rightmove for months at 220k has just been raised to 250k. They couldn't sell it then how on earth will they now.

Probably so in a few weeks time they can drop it to £220K again and put big "£30K price drop" in the blurb so people think it's a bargain.

More and more people are using add ons like Property bee to watch changes so EA's need to get even more slippery than they usually are to generate interest.