How not to sell a house....

sarah_elton

A house we viewed in summer '09:

On at £275k when we viewed, and had been on the market a number of months. We felt it was worth no more than £240k and the vendor wanted asking price.

It went off the market a while later, and then came back on at £285k.

Just had a nose, and it's now on at offers in excess of £290k (with a different agent - maybe the original one got fed up with the price increases).

Meanwhile, we move into a similar house in the same area in two weeks and are paying £231k.

:doh:

brit1234

Greed will be their downfall, have you a rightmove link?

sarah_elton

Deleted........

Jowo_2

What a bizarre strategy - the longer it remains unsold, the asking price is actually raised instead of cut?!

By Christmas it'll be on for 300k plus...

Mind you, there are nearly 30 detached 4 bedroom houses for sale in Colchester in the 280 - 300k bracket. Obviously I'm not familiar with the locations to understand if they represent better value than that property.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/Colchester.html?minPrice=280000&maxPrice=300000&minBedrooms=4&maxBedrooms=4&displayPropertyType=houses&secondaryDisplayPropertyType=detachedshouses&oldDisplayPropertyType=houses&index=20

Swipe

An overlooked back garden makes it worth £60k less in my book

sarah_elton

The area within a mile of the station attracts a premium as it's full of London commuters. Like us. So a search within a 1 mile radius of Colchester station gives more comparable properties. Some of those in that price bracket are gorgeous but further out so you get more for your money.

Jowo_2

Swipe wrote: »

An overlooked back garden makes it worth £60k less in my book

Since when does the fairly common feature of an overlooked rear garden warrant a discount of around 20% off an asking price....!

PasturesNew

The houses seem big/cheap, bearing in mind they're on a mainline train route direct to London. Certainly cheaper than places I've lived which haven't had trains or access to London or jobs.

sarah_elton

Colchester is quite reasonable price-wise because it's about on the limit of commuter land for Essex. It's 55 mins on the intercity trains but Colchester is the last stop before London so you don't necessarily get a seat. Or it's just over an hour on the normal line. So further than many commuters would want to travel. Somewhere like Chelmsford is half the distance (30 mins on the train) and costs an awful lot more.

I think it's a great place, within the confines of being forced to live in the south (my heart lies in Cumbria). Historic town with lots of nice old buildings and independent shops. Accessible for London but far enough out to be more relaxed and friendly. Close to the coast and nice outdoorsy areas in Suffolk and the Stour Valley. Suits us. It's chav central on a Saturday night but then most big towns are.

paul1964_2

sarah_elton wrote: »

A house we viewed in summer '09:

On at £275k when we viewed, and had been on the market a number of months. We felt it was worth no more than £240k and the vendor wanted asking price.

It went off the market a while later, and then came back on at £285k.

Just had a nose, and it's now on at offers in excess of £290k (with a different agent - maybe the original one got fed up with the price increases).

:doh:

This seems to be getting quite common. I suspect they have been receiving offers at the £250k level and have increased the price so that potential buyers will be embarrassed to put in such a "low" offer and hey presto, will start offering the "correct" amount.

As the housing market cools, potential buyers will have to be on the lookout for tactics like this and fully research the true market value of their intended purchase.

Jowo_2

paul1964 wrote: »

This seems to be getting quite common. I suspect they have been receiving offers at the £250k level and have increased the price so that potential buyers will be embarrassed to put in such a "low" offer and hey presto, will start offering the "correct" amount.

As the housing market cools, potential buyers will have to be on the lookout for tactics like this and fully research the true market value of their intended purchase.

That may very well be their crude strategy - namely that they assume that buyers will simply put in an offer 10% under the asking price so if they pad out the asking price, they will get a higher bid through this artificial strategy. This relies on total ignorance of the local market by buyers which is unlikely as many buyers view multiple properties and get a feel for the 'going' rate and perform research on actual sales prices.

However, a friend put their 3 bed/2 bath refurbished property situated close to a station on the market for £375k, regarding it as fairly priced after extensive research into the local market and putting it on for less than the agent suggested.

Their first viewer emailed the agent to say they are very keen but that its only worth 300k in their opinion. Now as that type of sum gets a buyer a large flat or 2 bed flat on the outskirts of the town or 3 bed in need of renovation, this is clearly optimistic.

So for every buyer ramping up the price unrealistically, I presume there are bargain hunters thinking a 20% under the asking price is acceptable.