Selling house, getting low offers

Riggster

I would have taken the £99k

kilby_007

I don't know the market where you live, but where I live up until recently houses sold regularly at 10 - 15% below asking price. What we're finding now is that the market has become totally stagnant because EAs are overvaluing properties and then leaving them 10 - 15% overpriced for months before adjusting the price to "offers over" and dropping the price a little. Even then, people ignore "offers over" and go in below. The seller has unrealistic expectations and continues to reject offers.

shortchanged_2

MrsRobbo17 wrote: »

Ignoring the improvements made, Zoopla estimates the house at £103k so I dont think we're being unrealistic. What do people think of these online house valuation tools?

Just to let you know. Zoopla estimates are as useful as a wet fart.

kilby_007

shortchanged wrote: »

Just to let you know. Zoopla estimates are as useful as a wet fart.

I agree. Zoopla has quantitative, but not qualitative data on your house (I think I got that the right way around!)

So... they know how much some of the houses in that area sold for. If you're lucky, then the price will be based on an actual sale of that house which represented an average selling price at that time. But if it takes the price from a neighbouring property, it could be miles out! Just because it's a 4 bed detached in the same area doesn't mean it won't have a couple of acres of land attached, outbuildings, etc etc.

alipops1986

Hello,

From experience i'd say tread carefully. We sold our house, last week at last, after about 4 months and it was the 2nd offer that we accepted.

We first went for up for sale last August, got one offer of 87k - house was on for 95k but didn't take it because naively we assumed we could get more. No more offers so we took it off in September.

We put it back on this February, had 20 viewers up until last week. 1 couple offered 80k then went up to 84k but were very rude about it really, so we declined. 2.5 months went by, with plenty more viewers but no offers. We then had a FTB last week who loved it and in the end we managed to agree on 85k!

So, the moral of the story is - i'd have taken 99k in your situation as from experience by holding out for more you could also be holding out for less........

Alipops x

PasturesNew

Most people with a thread like this would have posted an RM link by now to get a buyer's eye view on what would go through a buyer's mind.

mummyroysof3

That's why I talked hubby into accepting 94 as I was worried that holding out ment we would have to start reducing. We have decided we in no rush so will just see what happens

moneyistooshorttomention

There is also the argument that "getting plenty of viewers" means that the house must obviously be priced right in the first place and therefore a viewer will turn up at some point offering at or near to that price - the question is whether you are prepared to wait.

If you aren't getting many viewers to speak of - then it could be that the price is an "over optimistic" one and any viewers that do turn up will offer a lot less.

Guess another thing might be how widely appealing your house is - whether its one that will appeal to a broad range of people or will be very appealing (but only to a certain small group of people). Sometimes a house has a feature that not a lot of people want - but those that DO want it want it badly enough to pay a good price for it (eg maybe a personal factor of a person/people that are important to that particular buyer living nearby).

lessonlearned

My friend needed to sell her mum's bungalow to fund nursing fees.

Property needs work and probably unmortgageable.

Auctioneer said £150K, my friend said ok - with discretion, ie use your common sense. Auctioneer refused a bid of £149k

Two months later property goes back into auction - again Auctioneer adamant it should be £150k, my friend said £140K with discretion. Auctioneer refused bid of £137.

My friend eventually sold it at £135K post auction. £14K less and all for the sake of an extra £1k - madness.

Waiting and hoping is senseless.

If you have a fair offer on the table, don't mess about - take it.

shortchanged_2

The moral of the story here is don't go by all the headlines in the media about the 'average' house prices in the UK rising. The UK average is very skewed by figures from the South East and London. So if you live outside these areas your particular market may well still be quite weak.

It's all about knowing your own local market. I think many people get carried away with watching the property !!!!!! on tv.

It's generally quite obvious to spot an overpriced property and in many areas these places will sit on the market for months and months unsold.