To those BUYING in these difficult times....

Rainmaker_uk

SG27 wrote: »

I'm sure people wont drop to silly prices!

It's frustrating when people wont accept the fact that their house isnt worth what they think it is and wont drop to a "silly" price as I am sure you will find out.

Offer 10% off if thats what you would have accepted and stop being such a hypocrite!


If I see a house that is properly priced I would offer full asking price if I see a house that is too overpriced I wont even bother viewing. Which is obviously the problem you had.

Wow it must be great to be such a know-it-all sage...

You don't know what price we put ours up for - fyi it was less than we bought it for 5 years ago and we would have taken 10% or more off that figure.

But I digress. I was on here asking for advice not your ill informed judgement. Please get over yourself and grow up.

redstararnie76

Rainmaker - I've heard of people dropping as low as 30%, but I believe that's the exception, not a rule. From what we've seen, despite it being described as a 'buyers' market', many sellers can't afford to lower their prices by much due to mortgages etc. I think I read somewhere that the 'average house' (whatever's meant by that!) is selling for about 10% below asking price, if that helps?

tyllwyd

Just speaking as someone who has moved a few times since we bought in the late 90s, my feeling is that at the moment there isn't a 'normal' amount to offer. In the past when the market was stable or rising, I think I'd have said about 5% below was a sensible offer, but the market is so slow and so patchy at the moment, it seems much more difficult to guess. Sellers might be expecting low offers, so they've priced high to compensate, or they might have priced low to try to generate interest but can't afford to drop. They might be desperate to move, or they might not be so bothered. They might expect the market to drop, or they might think it will stay the same or rise. Who knows!!! All I think you can really do is make a judgment on what you think the house is worth, and try to get some background out of the EA.

pollyzanna

we had sold our house within a couple of weeks, (in August)
we had found our dream home, offered, rejected, 2nd offer (10 days later!) accepted (hooray!) at about 90% of asking price.
mortgage good to go blah blah

just recently got the survey back:
"severe structural movement" :eek: surveyor deemed the house to be "unsafe" etc etc etc
so we're pulling out.:( - we just couldn't afford to do that kind of building/structural work on it

We're still going ahead with the sale of ours and will rent until we find something else. The trouble is we're extra fussy now because we had seen our dream house!

redstararnie76

Bad luck Polly! Oh well, on the plus side, if you're renting at least you will be in a strong position when you do find somewhere to buy - you won't need to sell and hopefully you may be able to get a better deal as you'll be ready to move quickly.

JuniorSherlock

Rainmaker - here in Wiltshire they are accepting offers on average around 10-20,000 off the original asking price.
I know our repossession was sold in 2005 for £159,000. The repo company put it up for sale at £133,590 and it's been on the market since April. They accepted an offer of £125,000 before it fell through.
If you look at property bee you can see how much they are falling by. If they have already dropped their price they are unlikely to want to accept an offer that is another 10% below that.
Weigh up how long it's been on the market, whether it has dropped in price before and how much interest the EA has had in it when deciding how much to offer.

Well last night the EA phoned and asked us if the £120,000 we offered is our last and final offer. They revealed the repo company were looking for closer to £125,000 but the EA advised us to up our offer by £1,200. I upped it by £1,500. Not heard back yet.
Trouble is we are going on holiday on Sat and I really want it sorted before then. At least if they accept we can start to get the wheels in motion, but this waiting for them to accept or not is just so unfair. It's been one week and one day since our first offer went in.

SG27

Rainmaker_uk wrote: »

Wow it must be great to be such a know-it-all sage...

You don't know what price we put ours up for - fyi it was less than we bought it for 5 years ago and we would have taken 10% or more off that figure.

But I digress. I was on here asking for advice not your ill informed judgement. Please get over yourself and grow up.

I gave you my advice. If you would take an offer of 10% off asking then make your offers 10% off asking.

It's the 'i'm not prepared to drop my price but I want someone else to drop theirs for me' feeling that I got from your first post which annoyed me.


I made an offer on a house that was up for £165k in march this year. It had been on the Market two years, there were similar houses for sale about 10 minutes up the road that were slightly bigger with bigger gardens for £160k but the original house was already at our limit of distance from work so too far. So we offered £148k on it which was declined with no come back. I tried £152k which was declined again and was told the vendor needs the asking price or something near it. So I tried £158k (4% off) which was the most we could afford at the time but this was rejected also.
It's still on the Market asking OIEO £158k now! But the similar ones up the road now start from £145k! Oh and he paid £67k for it in 1999! Pure greed!

This is why the Market is not moving, people like this are why I can't buy and why they can't sell.

milliebear00001

I would like to tentatively join the thread!

Our situation is that we have had an offer accepted on a house that I really like after two abortive attempts to buy other houses (we pulled out of both because of survey issues).

We are paying £128500, down from £133000. House was previously on for £145000.

Just had the survey back - all fine, and the mortgage offer arrived in the post yesterday. Looking like a 4 person chain - resurrected chain after previous buyer pulled out. I am the bottom link and all parties seem to have found properties to buy. Currently waiting on our searches/queries, and vendor is waiting on the same for their new property. Not sure what's happening with the other two parties.

REALLY want it sown up before Christmas - it's been a roller coaster so far and I can see myself being gutted if anything goes wrong this time...

Not seen FandF list yet. Judging from this thread, that could be interesting, Hope there aren't too many surprises!

LilacPixie

I think I need to join too, if only to stay sane. Well i'm in scotland, Friday had 3 viewers didn't feel particularly positive about any of then TBH but come mondday morning we had 2 notes of interest, monday afternoon we had an offer on the table with a tight completing date of 6 weeks. Offer on the low side but a smidge away from our agreed acceptable limit so we said nope, Tuesday morning they came back with offer just at the acceptable bit but needed a quick completion. Tuesday afternoon we viewed a house we loved, but felt it was out of reach for LTV morgage we wanted vs equity after fees on our sale if offer agreed but that vendor has signed missives on anohter property to complete early december. Within an hour of leaving the viewing we verbally offered and they accepted. Offer was put in writting today and details passed to broker to start formal mortgage application.

I am now terrified that the vendor will either pull our or my buyer will or mortgage will just be totally declined as being unaffordable or something. I am Mrs Paranoia.

redstararnie76

Hi LilacPixie - just wanted to wish you good luck. I know that paranoia very well....
In my more paranoid moments, I sometimes feel that there are so many variables involved in buying and selling that it's a miracle that anyone ever moves!