Partner will not budge on price?

flumder

Hi everyone, I did have another account on here but I had to get another account as I no longer have access to the email address I used, I hope thats ok.

Here is our situation in a nutshell..

We have a three bed detatched house.

We still owe 74k on the mortgage.

The house is up for sale for 120k, we are now in the process of changing estate agents because we have only had one viewing since last december.

In addition to the mortgage, we owe 20k to my partners parents, they agreed to let us give the money back when the house sells.

We are selling the house because we can no longer afford to live here. We are struggling with money, and have been since I lost my job last year.

The problem is, my partner will not budge on the price at all.

He is aware that the market has changed since he bought the house, but he is unwilling to let the house go for less than 120k. If we dont sell it we will end up losing it.

We have been contacting a few companies that buy houses fast to see what kind of prices they were offering, we had three low offers, and another company got back to me today saying although they do not buy houses in our area they do have an invester interested and would pay 95k.

The way I see it, 95k would let us be free of a house we cannot afford to live in anymore, we could use the 95k to pay the mortgage off and my partners parents back, that way, we would be debt free and able to start again somewhere from scratch.

The way my partner sees it is that if he let the house go for 95k he would be giving it away, and that he has plans for the money. He was reluctant to say at first but when I asked him he said he had always planned to use the money from the house sale to get married and start our lives together somewhere new.

He always saw his house as an investment, then the market changed and I cant seem to get through to him that he wont get the price he is hoping for these days.

I can see it from his side as well as mine, but its always in the back of my mind that I would rather let it go for a smaller amount and be able to clear the mortgage rather than lose it because we cannot afford it.

What would you do in our situation?

BitterAndTwisted

That house is not an investment and it never was: it's a home. A home which is now worth less to any vendor than your partner thinks it's worth or someone would have made an offer on it by now.

You have a choice: sit tight and wait for it to be repossessed or sell it for an amount which could leave you debt-free. If you do nothing prices locally could drop further and then you'll be royally stuffed.

You can't make him sell but you could try to explain which outcome you favour. If he's so confident that the house is worth that £120k I suggest you ask him whether he'd like to take on the mortgage on his own. He could always get a lodger to share some of the expenses while you rent somewhere else affordable......

Doozergirl

There is a bit of a difference between £95k and £120k! Dropping the price would help it sell to 'normal' buyers. Believe me, the people who will buy your house for a knock down price, will be sticking it straight back on the market for more.

You can't post links with only one post to your new name, but if you give us the RM property number or perhaps the postcode, we could do some research into what sort of price is likely to attract a more reasonable buyer.

Catatonia

I agree with Doozer. How quickly do you need to sell before you will start missing mortgage payments? Could you reduce it to £110k to start off with?

CloudCuckooLand

NI prices fell 40% from peak.

-14% last year. http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/corporate/statistics/hpi012011

If he is happy to be patient, then one day, far, far away he may get the figure he wants.

If a quick buy company will offer £95k, you may find a private buyer around £100kish...worth a re-price?

Dropping by £10k, even, might attract fresh interest.

"What would you do?" - Steer clear of quick buy and "investors"...

flumder

Doozergirl wrote: »

There is a bit of a difference between £95k and £120k! Dropping the price would help it sell to 'normal' buyers. Believe me, the people who will buy your house for a knock down price, will be sticking it straight back on the market for more.

You can't post links with only one post to your new name, but if you give us the RM property number or perhaps the postcode, we could do some research into what sort of price is likely to attract a more reasonable buyer.

I think some people may remeber my last post, I think it was only last week, wish I could still get into my email

Here is a link to zoopla, my estate agent still has not updated the pictures on their site etc that is partly why we are changing agents. Hopefully the new agents will take some good pictures of the house
as the ones on zoopla are ones I took myself, so not great as Im not a photographer.


http:// www. zoopla.co.uk/ property/30-hawthorn-hill/ dromara/ dromore/ bt25-2hy/ 3226302

Doozergirl

I remember now.

I think new photos will help. Make sure you vet them and check the pics as the agent takes them - don't let them leave without good photos!

BUt a price drop will probably be in order as well. There has to be a compromise. If you were very brave you'd change the price to 'offers over £95k' which we know has to be a keen price for the house. And then see what happens. If it's worth £120k to people, you might be surprised that you get an offer much closer to that.

mlz1413

Do you have any spare rooms? could you get a lodger to help with money short term?

I realise your OH wants to do nice things with the money but you will never be able to do nice things if it gets repossed, worse case serino the lender will put at auction get £75k and you never pay his parents back.

Ask him to agree to an open weekend with a new estate agent and let it be open to offers - this will let you see what people in a ready to move situation will pay. You and he can then talk about real options.

Honest_EA

Hi, let me give you some advice based on my experience in dealing with situations like yours on an almost daily basis: Firstly, we are still in a falling market in N.Ireland with interest rates set to rise and the cuts to deepen, leading to more forced sales and repossessions. Your partners stubborness to hold out for an unrealistic figure of £120k will likely lead to the house being repossessed as you have said you cant keep paying the mortgage. It would be crazy to allow this to happen when you could sell the house and clear all debts avoiding the hassle of the banks coming after you to repossess your home. Forget about these house buying companies - simply put the house on at an attractive price, say to the NEW agent that you don't want any messing around and need a quick sale. In my opinion you should be able to get just over £100k for it relatively quickly which will allow you to move on debt free.

There are plenty of rental properties to choose from so you wont be homeless and while renting you can get back on your feet as the economy improves in the future. As prices fall, you should be able to buy a nice house in the future for less than it would cost right now so renting is a good option. Finally I want to say that a house is not an investment, that word was used for houses as the prices inflated out of hand in the mid 2000s and people thought prices would rise forever. A house is your home but any house can be a home so tell your partner that it will be a better long term investment to sell now and live a stress free life while this economic crisis blows over. I can't help you with your choice of estate agent but I read your original post and it's shocking to see the lack of effort put into listing some houses these days, but that happens alot so hopefully you will have better luck with the new agents. Good luck.