To those BUYING in these difficult times....

azkaban420

Lol no probs Catatonia, at a guess, looking on google maps, garden is about 50ft x 30ft, and next door garden is probably half that size if not less.

Az

Catatonia

Hmm, that's quite a big difference, as you could do a decent extension and still end up with a bigger garden. I guess rarity comes into it too, as if there's hardly any houses with this type of garden then that would push the price up more.

However, often it doesn't make much of a difference. The house I sold was an end terrace so had a garden twice as big as any of the other houses in the street. It was in fairly good condition, but actually sold for £23k less than one in better condition further up the road. You should tell that story to your sellers.

westlondonbuyer

Lots of houses have come on in the last week. Many of them I recognise from Rightmove from 6,9 even 12 months ago.

Several cut the price quite aggressively before Christmas, but clearly had no joy.

Now they're all back on the market...with increased asking prices.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

In a few weeks, vendors like these will all be posting bitterly on the "Sellers in these difficult times" thread, swearing they've not overpriced, before then starting another thread about letting out their property because they can't sell it.

The_Drama_Llama

westlondonbuyer wrote: »

Lots of houses have come on in

Now they're all back on the market...with increased asking prices.

I am constantly amazed at people sticking their prices up...here in Brighton it's a common pattern: Go on 20% over valued. A month later stick the price up by 10k...then sit for another 4-5 months with obviously zero interest.

You've got to wonder what the EAs are doing...it has to be hurting them as much as anyone.

Grimbal

Same sort of story in my neck of the woods too. It's just amazing how some buyers stick their houses on for inflated prices! I can think of one place that we've viewed that Property Bee list as going on in Aug 2009 for a silly price. It's come down a bit, but they've stubbornly kept it on for at least 50K too much since July 2010 without further reduction

liam_h

Just thought I'd give a quick update on our situation. The story so far is;

Offer accepted end of October.

In November receive paperwork from Vendor confirming they wish to complete before Christmas.

We get everything done for first week in December including transfer of monies (cash buyer) and are ready to exchange. Suggest 15th for exchange and 17th for completion.

Receive notification from vendors solicitors this will not be possible as their vendors are holding things up by not sending paperwork and contracts. Decide to leave it until January.

First week of January send another email to vendors asking when they can exchange. Receive notification back that they don't know as mortgage isn't in place. Follow this up and find out our vendors vendors are holding everything up by not giving access to the home to do a survey until they find a place of their own, so the reason for no mortgage.

6th advise we need to move end of January to EA. Promise to speak to vendors solicitors.

7th hear nothing back.

10th ring again and advise we need to move before the end of January as our tenency is up. Last EA I spoke with didn't record details of call and hasn't actioned. Not happy! EA understands and will advise vendors solicitors.

12th receive a call confirming vendors don't want to lose sale and will look into rented. Will speak about it over weekend to see if there is anything suitable. Believe vendors serious about renting as they enquire about the availablitiy of our property. Sadly not available.

Then give vendors weekend to consider.

Monday receieve email from vendors solicitors confirming they don't want to lose the sale and was looking at her options today. Not impressed but leave it.

Tuesday hear nothing back.

Time to chase up again I think today. Really annoyed with how everything has gone. It was going worryingly smooth and now it's like this. I have a feeling we're going to end up in rented for 6 months. But they knew this sale was going to take at least another three months with their vendors messing about, I'd have hoped they'd have used common sense and started looking. Also miffed they didn't keep us in the loop.

Hopefully by Friday we'll have a better idea. But we're really stuck. We really like this house, and thinking we may lose it has made that more apparant. We can't have this dragging on for months, and if we rent it will be another 6 months. Of course we'll look at other properties during this time, but we can't really afford to shell out another grand in fees and searches.

JuniorSherlock

Oh well, update from me. The Housing Authority have told us that unless we accept the house with a smaller boundary (and therefore one of the smallest gardens on the estate) then they'll buy the house from the bank themselves. We thought we were buying the house with the land as marked out in the Land Registry, turns out the HA want this land to widen the road for a development behind the houses. So they are going to take that land and there ain't a darned thing we can do about it.

The house has been up for sale since March. One sale fell through at this very stage because the HA were being so slow about signing the transfer of the leasehold over, they've had plenty of time to get all this sorted out but no, at this late stage, a month before our mortgage offer runs out they come up with this.

I am going to sue them for a home hair dying kit to hide away all the new white hairs that have sprung up.

Grimbal

Thought I'd resurrect the thread to ask if anyone has any updates?

AFM: Market seems to be picking up at the top & bottom, but we're finding that there's nothing coming on in our middle price range

We're completing mid-March so have been looking for places to rent. It's been a couple of very fraught weeks whilst we have gone through all of the LAs in our area trying to find a LL willing to rent a decent sized house for a 6months AST+ rolling 1 month periodic tenancy. We've not been able to find that, but have been able to find a place for a 12 month contract with a 6 month break clause. It was touch and go for a while as we were up in competition with another couple offerring an 18month lease. LL chose us though - so we're now very relieved that we will have a roof over our heads in a month or so !

The_Drama_Llama

I'm just starting to buy. I'm in the unbelievably lucky position of being a first time buyer with cash and no chain (on a periodic tenancy in rented).

There's very little out there though, and what there is is very over priced (I'm in Brighton...or 'Little London by the Sea' as it's sometimes known). I've been keeping an eye on RM since the middle of last year and the house I've liked the best is still up (since September). Saw it on Wednesday and have asked for another viewing next weekend. EA was a bit silly and let on that the vendors had found somewhere to buy and that they'd definitely drop from 275k to 250k as I was a FTB. Working for the sale, not the vendors, if you ask me...tsk tsk.

Now I have the joy of trying to find a Solicitor so I'm all ready to go...

Glad you found somewhere to rent, Grimbal...

sonastin

Update from me: I still have absolutely no idea what is happening with my purchase and I'm bored of trying to find out!

Vendors realised that the Building Inspector needs to inspect the garage foundations, arranged for trial pits to be dug, had them inspected and confirmed that there are no foundation under the garage. Building inspector then insisted that he needed more trial pits in different locations so that was being arranged last time I spoke to the EA.

At this point, no one can tell me what they intend to do about it now that they know the garage extension needs remedial work. I don't know if they plan to do the work before the sell the garage or if they'll now accept that the revised offer that they asked for was low for good reason and sell me the place at a reduced price. It certainly doesn't seem to bother them that as of next week, I won't have a mortgage offer in place. And I keep reading on here that repossessions are supposed to be sold as quickly as possible. If after all this someone gazumps me, you might be hearing on the news about the mad lady who went on a killing spree around the estate agents, asset management companies and building control department involved!