Advice please - £105k with deposit paid or offers over £95k...

blt

Hi everyone,

Would appreciate your thoughts on this....

On the advice of my EA, who told me that my house was kind of "first time buyer" territory... I changed the listing price on my house to £105k with 5% deposit paid. They told me this would help first time buyers for obvious reasons.

The 3 viewings in the last few weeks have not been first time buyers, except for one couple who even with this 'incentive' said that they had decided not to look to buy a house for another few weeks, until they had more of a deposit saved up.

I need to sell as I've got married and my we're living in my husband's house. I'm looking to achieved a sale price of £98k which will clear my mortgage and pay off the EA fees. The house was valued at between £110k and £120k by 3 estate agents.

I'm considered changing the listing to "offers over £95k". I thought this would mean it appeared in more people's search results etc.

TBH I'm sick and tired of the whole thing. I need to sell the house as I need some medical treatment which my local NHS trust will not pay for and the only way we can afford it is not to have 2 mortgages! We have considered renting it out but the stress of that isn't something I really want.

Help! Do you think this is a better price option? Thanks for your time

Doozergirl

I'd rather price 5% lower than 5% more with a free 5% being given away - £100k is a big bracket on the likes of RM, you're missing people that way!

The search bands on RM are £90k and £100k so I'd go with either of those. £95k just sits in the middle of a whole raft of houses.

Offers over, unless the house is a bargain, just looks to me like the seller hasn't so far managed to attract an offer in the normal territory of slightly under their asking price, so instead of accepting that they need to drop further, just rephrase it the same asking price. I think the vendors in those cases look like they are being unrealistic in their expectations. I generally avoid viewing houses like that. I'd prefer to have numerous offers under and start to realise that perhaps I was being unrealistic, than to have no viewers at all because I was clearly asking for more than people thought it was worth.

walletpains

I've been told that offering buyers something towards the property would attract viewings, but personally I think it looks a little desperate. In my view, it's the kind of thing you'd do if you were struggling to sell.

I would also doubt whether a £110k property would appeal to many FTBs in this market, when people are having to get a 25% deposit together (although this will depend where in the country you are!). £110k is the region I'm looking in for my second buy.

Neil_in_Bristol

I think the problem is that many mortage lenders won't accept a "gift" from the vendor as a deposit, so you'd be better off reducing the price.

I don't think anybody pays any attention to "offers over", so you'll probably get offers of £95k or less if you go down that route, but at least it will be more prominent on Rightmove.

blt

Thanks for your replies everyone.

I'm so mad at myself for being swayed by the Estate Agent. When I spoke to them, it was with a view to reducing my property from £110k to £100K. They advised me that £105k with 5% paid would be good as their mortgage broker had a deal with the Halifax where FTB need just a 10% deposit and they would accept half of this in the form of a gifted deposit.

As I've mentioned though, only one FTB has even viewed?!

After your really helpful feedback I'm now thinking maybe just £100k is the way to go? Then I could possibly achieve £97 or £98k. I guess you're right about the offers over in many ways, it's just I've seen quite a few people do that....

I also know £110k might be a lot for a FTB, but it's so heavily reduced it pains me! 3 bedroom house, 2 bath, downstairs cloakroom, new kitchen....the lot! Argh! I think it is more of a 4 person family home really, not for someone just starting out...

walletpains

It does all have a knock-on effect though. The general lack of FTBs at the moment could easily affect the sale of my property... and there's a good chance that anyone who was a FTB back in 2005-2007 will have a 95% mortgage and will be stuck. Those people might be attracted by a 5% gifted deposit.

It depends how desperate you are to move. Maybe 'suck it and see' for a couple of months and then change tactics again if needed in the summer?

blt

Hi,

I've had it on the 5% paid deposit thing for about 6 weeks now....it is hard to know what to do. I'd kind of assumed that if people didn't 'need' that then would offer a lower price without it?

I know also that £105k just misses the £100k bracket on rightmove too, but I've always looked in the next bracket up when looking to buy - my thinking being you can offer less.....

It's just so frustrating - I don't know what to do for the best.

brit1234

blt wrote: »

They advised me that £105k with 5% paid would be good as their mortgage broker had a deal with the Halifax where FTB need just a 10% deposit and they would accept half of this in the form of a gifted deposit.

t


So you are forcing your buyers with one lender, what happens if buyers have a mortgage in principle with another lender? That reduces your pool of buyers.

Personally I would ignore any gifted deposit property, gifted deposit suggests overvalued. Far better to reduce the price by the deposit.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

blt wrote: »

We have considered renting it out but the stress of that isn't something I really want.

Put it through a letting agent and let them deal with the stress on your behalf. By far the best option until the mortgage market recovers.

There's no point in reducing price, unless you're willing to give it away so low a speculator will snap it up to let out. FTB's just can't get mortgages at the moment, no matter what your EA says.

Those 90% FTB mortgages may be available in theory, but good luck getting one!!! Thats why the FTB's can't buy, not because of a 5K difference in price.

I'd rent it out through an agent I were you... Rents are currently rising and void periods are at near record lows due to the shortage of housing and mortgage rationing.

GDB2222

blt wrote: »

It's just so frustrating - I don't know what to do for the best.

I notice that you have two somewhat conflicting aims:

a) You want to sell quickly.
b) You want to sell for a certain figure

Which is more important to you?

Also, how much is it costing you (mortgage, insurance, council tax) whilst it remains unsold? You could perhaps knock say 3-6 months of that amount off your target sale figure. Maybe that will help things along? Most people are in the position that they are living in their home, and if it doesn't sell it's not really costing them much as they need somewhere to live. You are not in that position and perhaps you need to change your mindset.

GDB2222

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Put it through a letting agent and let them deal with the stress on your behalf. By far the best option until the mortgage market recovers.

.....


I'd rent it out through an agent I were you... Rents are currently rising and void periods are at near record lows due to the shortage of housing and mortgage rationing.

How much experience do you have of letting out properties, Hamish? It's far, far harder to sell a property with a tenant in. The tenants will have a minimum lease term of say 6 months - so what happens if your ideal buyer comes along after 2 months? What happens if the tenant quite reasonably does not want to show the property? Or does not look after it very well?