To those BUYING in these difficult times....

shupufski_2

I am user of Property Bee (which self respecting buyer isn’t!?), Zoopla and Property Snake.

I think the information that real "savvy buyers" (to use EA parlance!) have access to has changed the relationship between buyers and sellers. Nowadays, you don’t have to be ignorant and many of those who overpay just don’t do their homework. Or don’t want to!

In my quieter moments, using Property Snake, I like to prepare a list of ridiculous vendors. Take the number of days that the property has been on the market and divide it by the % decrease in sale price (so that 5% is 5). There are some houses in Hale that have an idiot rating over 150!

I feel like an obsessed loony now!

sonastin

Propertybee, Propertysnake etc ain't a right lot of use to me right now to be honest. I've looked around at all the properties for sale in the area (either via drive-by or actually viewing depending on the outcome of the drive-by). Apart from the one I'm trying to buy (if only they'd pull their fingers out to sell it!) there isn't anywhere I want to buy. Every time I get an e-mail from Rightmove with an update I get all excited thinking maybe this is the one that gets me away from the purchase from hell. But I'd say 90% of the updates are for houses I've already seen. Doesn't matter to me how much they drop their prices - I don't want those houses. Of the 10% that are new, so far they have been on roads that the drive-by classed as no-way-no-how-never or don't have what I need (i.e. a garage).

But its the 90% that depress me. I wish them well with their sales and they do seem to have the message that the market is dropping but I wish someone new would put their house on the market!!

shupufski_2

sonastin wrote: »

Propertybee, Propertysnake etc ain't a right lot of use to me right now to be honest. I've looked around at all the properties for sale in the area (either via drive-by or actually viewing depending on the outcome of the drive-by). Apart from the one I'm trying to buy (if only they'd pull their fingers out to sell it!) there isn't anywhere I want to buy. Every time I get an e-mail from Rightmove with an update I get all excited thinking maybe this is the one that gets me away from the purchase from hell. But I'd say 90% of the updates are for houses I've already seen. Doesn't matter to me how much they drop their prices - I don't want those houses. Of the 10% that are new, so far they have been on roads that the drive-by classed as no-way-no-how-never or don't have what I need (i.e. a garage).

But its the 90% that depress me. I wish them well with their sales and they do seem to have the message that the market is dropping but I wish someone new would put their house on the market!!

I am living in the same world. Sadly.

jozbo

For all the talk of a buyer's market I'm finding it's a long battle with the banks to get things moving and at the pace that desperate vendors demand.
Plus the low valuations offered by banks' surveyors due to the falling market mean there's lots of renegotiation needed. Finding middle ground between the tightar*e lenders, estate agents' overly positive valuations and vendor's stubbornness is a delicate operation.
I don't think it's a smooth ride for anyone buying (or selling) at the minute.

dkmax_2

shupufski wrote: »

Nowadays, you don’t have to be ignorant and many of those who overpay just don’t do their homework. Or don’t want to!

Quite. Being a "savvy buyer" is a big a disadvantage as you are more likely to be aware of a multitude of reasons to offer short of the asking price. Those that go in blindly (often without so much as a house buyers' report) get the house and the opportunity to repent at leisure.

beccad

sonastin wrote: »

Propertybee, Propertysnake etc ain't a right lot of use to me right now to be honest. I've looked around at all the properties for sale in the area (either via drive-by or actually viewing depending on the outcome of the drive-by). Apart from the one I'm trying to buy (if only they'd pull their fingers out to sell it!) there isn't anywhere I want to buy. Every time I get an e-mail from Rightmove with an update I get all excited thinking maybe this is the one that gets me away from the purchase from hell. But I'd say 90% of the updates are for houses I've already seen. Doesn't matter to me how much they drop their prices - I don't want those houses. Of the 10% that are new, so far they have been on roads that the drive-by classed as no-way-no-how-never or don't have what I need (i.e. a garage).

But its the 90% that depress me. I wish them well with their sales and they do seem to have the message that the market is dropping but I wish someone new would put their house on the market!!

Sadly, I agree with everything you've said I want to see something different! I've seen everything I want to see, and there's a very good reason why I'm not seeing the rest! It's not difficult to scope something out online these days with streetview and the satellite images. You can see online whether it's a nice street or not, you can see on the maps that it backs onto the Tesco carpark. No amount of sales patter from an agent is going to make me go and see a property in a street I just do not want to live in :rotfl:

brit1234

Personally I think we need a few months of falling house prices for sellers to actually get into their head that the property is overvalued. Lots of sellers were getting ready for the September traditional bounce which turned out to be record falls. If the spring bounce goes negative as well sellers will start reducing. They have too banks won't lend the stupid large amounts any more as they don't have the money and can't sell off the loan.

Keep the faith.

I have a 25% deposit and mortgage in principle I just need sellers to drop their prices to affordable levels.

Not_a_Newbie

Posted on the Sellers thread as I didn't see this one, this is our situation.

1. We are in rented, therefore no chain
2. The vendor has had the property on the market since January
3. Only a few viewings and 1 (our) offer
4. House was being sold as a 4 bed, but really it was only a 2 bed plus box plus sunroom (as per the description of the room on the planning permission)
5. We offered 86% of the asking

I'm not sure I agree with those of you that say it is greed, in most situations I think that vendors are blinkered to what is happening with the housing market.

sinbad182

brit1234 wrote: »

I have a 25% deposit and mortgage in principle I just need sellers to drop their prices to affordable levels.

Affordable levels for you will never happen though, will they? You'll always be clinging on for that next big crash, where you'll get a house for next to nothing.

westlondonbuyer

Sold mine and my husband's flats in 2008 and 2009. Swings and roundabouts for us, as we sold considerably under 2007 peak prices, but are now cash buyers as we'd each owned our pre-marriage homes for many years.

Local properties don't seem to be moving but many have been on the market since early Spring, when we first started looking. Often they're priced at 2007+15%.

I have made several offers in the region of 15%-20% from AP, hoping to agree a completion price of 5%-10% from peak LR-recorded price, which I think more than fair given the state of the economy/future uncertainty etc. Absolutely no interest or counter-offers from vendors, although no estate agent bar Foxton's (of course!) has told me I'm being cheeky with my offers.

There are now several more houses on the market and this last week I have finally started seeing price-cuts on Rightmove. But the price-cuts are barely 1% or 2%, and we've been told vendor expectations are still 2007 completion levels.

At a push, we could now afford these prices if we were absolutely desperate to move, but the house we're renting is lovely, and it seems daft to pay peak prices given nothing actually seems to be selling anyway.

So we have decided to renew our rental lease for another 6 months and start looking again next year.

I'm secretly terrified an offer I made in the Summer will be accepted; it now feels 10% too high given what else is now on the market. Buyer's remorse before my offer has even been accepted, you couldn't make it up:eek: