House not selling

Trollfever

Orpheo wrote: »

You are talking rubbish. That you used to be an EA makes you an expert in what? Sweet FA. You may think that you have some insight into buyer psychology, but you clearly don't. All you have is the same tired old BS.

I am a capable buyer with a liquid deposit of more than 50% in the price range in which I intend to buy. I don't look at anything marked, offers over, fixed price or priced with a faux auction style "guide price" range. Haart do this guide price nonsense, so I never view properties through them. As a serious buyer, I decide on my parameters for spending my money and your unqualified opinion is nothing more than bleating.

Don't let guide price put you off. One of my local agents who lists like this gets some of their properties from The Official Receiver.

GDB2222

So, if I get you correctly, you want:

The £125k
Plus a bit because you're not in a hurry (fair enough, but don't complain that it's not selling quickly enough, then!)
plus a bit because you have a garage.

Assuming you have the same size plot as next door, how much does it cost to build a garage? £3-4k, maybe? I just wonder whether that, plus the discount you think your neighbours gave, adds up to the 20% extra that you want to achieve.

I guess your neighbours found an absolute bargain that they wanted to buy, and it was worth their while to take a discount on their old house in order to get the bargain. Until you find somewhere to move to, you are not in the same position as them, so there's no point reducing your price at all, really.

hcb42

Offers over works ok if the house is say unique or in a particularly strong area.

I am comfortable with it, indeed my current house in England was marketed that way, however I have also bought three houses in Scotland, where it was the norm in a rising market.

At the end of the day though, for the OP, it sounds like lack of demand. OP only you can decide if you want to stay put or drop the price drastically to see if that stimulates any demand

satchmeister

Spring_Time wrote: »

LOL!!

We are keeping an eye on properties with a view to buying at our pace, when we are ready, very busy sorting savings right now :money: but we like to keep an eye on what's out there and I can tell you now any time I see an AD saying "Offers Over..." I do not even bother looking at other details of the house. Its off putting. I like to know what price the sellers are looking for, what I would be happy to offer etc..I do NOT want to get into what may end up a competition, Nah thats not for me! I know that can happen with usual priced properties but I at least know what the vendors are looking for. "Offers over" is to open ended. For all I know, I may have offered OVER what the vendor was willing to take and whilst as long as I was happy to pay that price that should be fine but I am human and would feel a bit cheesed off that I could of got it cheaper. I'm a buyer looking for the most for my money I have got no time to deal with a vendor who has not even set a price as such!

It also screams to me that the property is HARD to sell, it would cross my mind heavily that I would be stuck with it if I ever wanted to move again! Again, not for me


Just to add, I am new to all this property stuff so I may have my reasons wrong BUT thats what "offers over" means to me. A FTB.

Quite, how does 'fixed price' and 'offers over' induce me to view, I just think the vendor is being an idiot, so if someone can explain why I should respond to 'offers over' when the stats say people are achieving 92% of asking prices I would be most grateful.

Catblue

MarshallMellow wrote: »

Our house has a garage where next door doesn't. Neighbours found a house they really wanted, weren't prepapred to be patient and put their house on under value. House was snapped up straight away due to them wanting the other place.
To me that indicates that the house was sold cheaply. If I was buying a house and the 1st offer was accepted, I would always wonder if I could have got it for less. If I was selling a house and an offer came in shortly after I put it up for under what I was asking for, I would try to negotiate.

This is where your delusion is coming in. And what is preventing you from selling your house.

Potential buyers for your house will look at the sold price for next door and ask why your garage makes the property worth £25K more. Most people with just £150K to spend don't want to spend £25K of it on the garage alone. They want most of that £25K to go on living accommodation, not a place to store their junk.

The Nationwide indicates that a single garage might add around 6% to the value of a house. So if the only difference between yours and next doors is a garage then it would pitch your house at around the £132, 500 mark, not £150K.

Don't think that buyers won't be making these calculations - they will. Money is very tight and buyers are much more cautious than they used to be.

GDB2222

You actually have a bigger problem, come to think of it. Any valuer valuing your house is likely to start from the £125k, without figuring that it's particularly low, then maybe add on a bit for the garage. So, even if buyers agree with you that it's worth closer to £150k, their lenders' valuer is not going to agree.

Procrastinator333

Your house has been up for sale for a year. In that time you have tried different agents, a 6% price reduction and the only interest that has generated is apparently 1 offer that was too low.

To be blunt, it is price. Yes the Market is slow, but if a property has a sensible price, it won't take > 12 months to get an offer. You have 2 choices. 1) keep telling yourself your house is worth it, get angry and upset and continue to have no sale. 2) knock £20k off the price, sell the house and move on.

All the best whatever you decide.

MarshallMellow

Catblue wrote: »

This is where your delusion is coming in. And what is preventing you from selling your house.

Potential buyers for your house will look at the sold price for next door and ask why your garage makes the property worth £25K more. Most people with just £150K to spend don't want to spend £25K of it on the garage alone. They want most of that £25K to go on living accommodation, not a place to store their junk.

The Nationwide indicates that a single garage might add around 6% to the value of a house. So if the only difference between yours and next doors is a garage then it would pitch your house at around the £132, 500 mark, not £150K.

Don't think that buyers won't be making these calculations - they will. Money is very tight and buyers are much more cautious than they used to be.

No dilusion here my friend, I started this thread to get advice, not be talked down to.
Fact is house value has been dictated by EA, not me. I didn't go with the highest valuation, as most were still saying around 155k. The EA was the same as that for the neighbour, and he valued his house at 135k. Neighbour dropped value 5k and accepted 5k less again.
I am fully aware that people do their research before buying, you would expect that.
Speaking to EA and asking about other properties in area that are listed between 142k-150k to see whether they have viewings, he said some but people think they are too cramped etc... ours is the same principal (ie 3 bed semi), however much bigger and more space around. I also asked if he had any people on his books that were looking for houses that had around 140k to spend, he said that he was doing a viewing tomorrow for one such person. He said that he didn't think we'd accept 140k. We may not accept it, but we may get someone who likes the place. The guy who's buying next door told EA he only had budget of 115k, then drove around area and like it!

GDB2222

Procrastinator333 wrote: »

Your house has been up for sale for a year. In that time you have tried different agents, a 6% price reduction and the only interest that has generated is apparently 1 offer that was too low.

To be blunt, it is price. Yes the Market is slow, but if a property has a sensible price, it won't take > 12 months to get an offer. You have 2 choices. 1) keep telling yourself your house is worth it, get angry and upset and continue to have no sale. 2) knock £20k off the price, sell the house and move on.

All the best whatever you decide.

I think he said that he cannot afford to knock £20k off the price. But I agree with you that he should stop getting angry and upset about the position, as it's not helping.

MarshallMellow

GDB2222 wrote: »

You actually have a bigger problem, come to think of it. Any valuer valuing your house is likely to start from the £125k, without figuring that it's particularly low, then maybe add on a bit for the garage. So, even if buyers agree with you that it's worth closer to £150k, their lenders' valuer is not going to agree.

That's a good point.