Is the market picking up?

Contessa

Yesterday a house (bungalow) was newly listed on RM. I saved it as a definate possibility as its location was just where I wanted. I thought it looked a bit bland, needed updating and was quite expensive for what it was. This morning it's listed on RM as SSTC.
Another one that's got away!
I also see that since Monday nine of my saved properties have been removed from RM.

tyllwyd

Its a funny situation at the moment. My friend has a house on a popular housing estate, but she's at the wrong end near the high voltage power lines. She tried to sell about 10 years ago but everyone was put off by the pylon. She put her house on the market a couple of weeks ago and has just SSTC to the first person who viewed. There are so few houses for sale at that price point on that estate hers has suddenly become very desirable!

shortchanged_2

Well I'm certainly not seeing this where I live. All I seem to be seeing at the moment is 'price reduced' or big price reductions and sales being changed to 'offers over', but I suppose it depends where you are living. Apparantly the South East market is still strong.

What you're stating Contessa seems to be an EA trick in that RM have listed a property that had already sold to try to give the market the appearance that things are shifting quickly.

Contessa

What you're stating Contessa seems to be an EA trick in that RM have listed a property that had already sold to try to give the market the appearance that things are shifting quickly.[/QUOTE]

That makes sense. I've noticed it before. Reinforces my belief that some houses aren't really sold on the open market.

mark5

Where I am, houses seem to either sell within a few weeks or sit on the market for months before being removed.

jimjames

mark5 wrote: »

Where I am, houses seem to either sell within a few weeks or sit on the market for months before being removed.

Its very hard to tell round here as well. Looking on Rightmove with PropertyBee there are some properties remaining on for months with repeated price reductions. Saw a couple of others recently similarly prices that went SSTC very quickly.

Some agents though are making it very hard with their pricing. A range of £120k-150k is just crazy!

pleasedelete

My neighbour sold his at 25 per cent more than he paid in 2007(when all simikar houses sold in 3 days here) on the 1st day it went for sale- so it does happen.

Leif

I've noticed that 6 months ago houses were going on at absurd prices, £350K say and selling low, £300K perhaps. I could predict fairly well the sale price, and it was always at a big 'discount'. Now the agents seem to be pricing houses more realistically. I am in East Hants by the way.

shortchanged wrote: »

What you're stating Contessa seems to be an EA trick in that RM have listed a property that had already sold to try to give the market the appearance that things are shifting quickly.

Quite possible. Also agents often pass details to those on an email list before it goes out on the web site. The result is that if it is desirable, it sells almost straight away.

Davesnave

In reasonably affluent places, some roads are always in demand, which may or may not be justified by the experience of living there.

In 2009 we rented in one such road and disliked it. Around us, houses priced sensibly still sold more easily than in the place we'd moved from. It was all about the address, not the subsidence, or the more impersonal nature of the area.

A week or two ago, I noticed an advert for a house in our former home road, which the agent described as: "One of the city's best kept secrets."

Wish he'd blown the cover a bit sooner! :rotfl:

Contessa

Quite possible. Also agents often pass details to those on an email list before it goes out on the web site. The result is that if it is desirable, it sells almost straight away.[/QUOTE]

That is the one factor which might persuade me to use a high street EA, rather than an online one.

However,

I'm on the e(mailing) lists of several EA's and I have NEVER received details of any properties before they come on to the market.
One sent me the details of the property I had requested info on-regularly about twice a month-but no others.
Two others took about three days to acknowledge my request for further information-waste of time as it's always and only been an email of the RM ad.
One telephoned me immediately ( I was impressed)- nothing at all since.
One occasionally sends me RM details, but I've already seen them at least a week before.
Another one rings me up every couple of weeks to ask if I'm still looking ( but never sends me anything before it's listed and so I know what property they have-if it's really on the "open market")

Davesnave

Contessa wrote: »

Quite possible. Also agents often pass details to those on an email list before it goes out on the web site. The result is that if it is desirable, it sells almost straight away.

However,

I'm on the e(mailing) lists of several EA's and I have NEVER received details of any properties before they come on to the market.

I think times have changed from the pre-Internet days when agents seemed to 'play' their properties like a set of cards.

It certainly happened when we bought our second house. When we informed agents that we had struck a private deal, a couple of them suddenly discovered new properties and suggested we have a quick look. We didn't want to, but I remember them pressing quite hard for viewings on those.

These houses had been on the market for a short while, hadn't appeared in the newspapers, and as our council had a 'For Sale' board banning agreement in place, were pretty difficult to find. I also believe that in those heady days some owners actually preferred no overt advertising in the media, so would ask for a discreet approach to the matter of selling their house!