Minimising a Loss on Sale of House

Leodogger

notanewuser wrote: »

It sounds slightly better than sheltered housing, I suppose. I think most people who want bungalows want them because they were traditionally built on big plots. Families tend to want 3 beds or more. Most people given the choice would prefer a detached/semi-detached property over a terrace. Make a terraced house a bungalow and give it small gardens and your market has probably shrunk by 80-90%.

It all depends on what you want the bungalow for, these are 24 hr emergency call out housing association bungalows which are obviously built for elderly with health problems. As the population is ageing, these properties will be needed more and more and there are not that many that are available or that are almost wholly owned (ours is 95%), most are either 75% owned or 50% owned, the remainder is owned by the housing association. This of course keeps the actual ownership cost down but provides the 24 hr call out assistance that elderly people need plus the maintenance is taken care of too by the housing association.

Like I say, it all depends whether you need independant living or not Here we have both.

Leodogger

Tinkaf1 wrote: »

I am no expert but I think people buying property in Spain really do need to be careful at the moment, so on that score make sure you really look into it. Last I saw people are in negative equity and were stranded there desperate to get out. :-(
But... if you are trying to maximise your money, do your research, have 3 agents come in to value it and then instruct an online agent like House Network if you don't mind doing the viewings yourself. They charge around 450 - 500, rather than a percentage. Saves vital pounds. :-) You set your own price with them though, they dont do valuations.

Thanks but we are not intending to buy a property in Spain, just rent. I might take a look at House Network though. Do they get the buyer vetted though to find out if they can afford to buy the property ?

phoebe1989seb

We have experience of selling at a loss in 2011 a house we purchased in 2007. We found that the hand-painted, solid wood/granite worktop kitchen and high-end bathrooms etc that we'd installed merely made the house more saleable - our buyers said that apart from the very picturesque style of the character property, it was the kitchen in particular that sold it to them........so it's not always the case that a new kitchen will deter a buyer because it's not to their taste IMHO, the same cannot be said for laminate flooring though

We achieved an offer we were happy with within two weeks - but our overall *loss* was around £60k.........

However, if you really want/need to move on - as we did - you have to accept the hit and hope that you can recover the loss elsewhere, which we did by buying our current house at a very good price

Hope it works out for you!

Leodogger

phoebe1989seb wrote: »

We have experience of selling at a loss in 2011 a house we purchased in 2007. We found that the hand-painted, solid wood/granite worktop kitchen and high-end bathrooms etc that we'd installed merely made the house more saleable - our buyers said that apart from the very picturesque style of the character property, it was the kitchen in particular that sold it to them........so it's not always the case that a new kitchen will deter a buyer because it's not to their taste IMHO, the same cannot be said for laminate flooring though

We achieved an offer we were happy with within two weeks - but our overall *loss* was around £60k.........

However, if you really want/need to move on - as we did - you have to accept the hit and hope that you can recover the loss elsewhere, which we did by buying our current house at a very good price

Hope it works out for you!

It is easy to accept the hit when you are still in work and able to replace any money out of pocket but when you are retired with limited savings you have to be careful how much of your savings you are willing to sacrifice, especially if the next property is going to need work doing on it and any savings used up in the purchase and renovations can never be replaced. However, we are going to make our decision soon after consulting a couple of estate agents.

makeyourdaddyproud

JWhite wrote: »

It is easy to accept the hit when you are still in work and able to replace any money out of pocket but when you are retired with limited savings you have to be careful how much of your savings you are willing to sacrifice, especially if the next property is going to need work doing on it and any savings used up in the purchase and renovations can never be replaced. However, we are going to make our decision soon after consulting a couple of estate agents.

I'm afraid you'll simply have to accept the harsh reality of the housing market in the UK. You don't have the right to demand money you see fit for your property, only the market does that for you.

As you you cited in an earlier post - not being privy to viewings of quickly sold properties, overpaying and not buying the best examples for your postcode area are incidences that have conspired to leave you with a property you can't sell on.

The best properties are the ones NOT on RM and the best price is the first one rejected by the vendor.

Davesnave

makeyourdaddyproud wrote: »

As you you cited in an earlier post - not being privy to viewings of quickly sold properties, overpaying and not buying the best examples for your postcode area are incidences that have conspired to leave you with a property you can't sell on.
.

That's harsh considering it's not even been marketed yet!:rotfl:

However, the revelations regarding HA involvement and the likely aura of sheltered housing will conspire to make it more difficult to sell close to the market rate for bungalows of the type.

I say this as an 'almost OAP' on a fixed income living in a bungalow. The difference is that mine has land attached and I bought it to stay fit, not because I'm some doddering old bloke who can't manage stairs.

And this is the problem. Yes, the population is aging, but the average 65 year old Boomer is now reasonably healthy, so they won't willingly look at retirement complexes for years yet.

I still don't understand the thrust of this thread. OP 'lost' about 11% on what he hoped to achieve after selling his last property in a falling market. Isn't that roughly what happened to many of us?

phoebe1989seb

JWhite wrote: »

It is easy to accept the hit when you are still in work and able to replace any money out of pocket but when you are retired with limited savings you have to be careful how much of your savings you are willing to sacrifice, especially if the next property is going to need work doing on it and any savings used up in the purchase and renovations can never be replaced. However, we are going to make our decision soon after consulting a couple of estate agents.

I truly appreciate your situation, but in our own case DH is self-employed (mid forties) with no guaranteed income - although thankfully he is currently doing very well - and over the past six years since he chose to set up his own business after some health issues we have had some very tough times financially and we could ill-afford to *lose* on our sale.

Our last four houses over the past 20 years have been real *projects* with us doing the majority of the work ourselves, with the current one considered un-mortgageable and whilst we made a good profit on the house-before-last, the losses suffered on the next one did considerably dent both our finances and our confidence.

I admit we have been very fortunate to have (finite) savings etc to utilise for our current restoration project because till very recently income alone would only cover the bare essentials and a mortgage (or rent) on a property of this type/size would have been unaffordable, so we consider ourselves extremely lucky that whilst we suffered a £60k loss in 2011, we were still able to buy this house mortgage-free and hopefully (if we ever sell) will at the least break even........

Our experience has made us fully appreciate that nothing is assured and that hard work is no guarantee of a return in buying and selling houses

AlexMac

Interesting thread, JW, and thanks for coming back to keep the dialogue going. I guess that, like us, you're getting on a bit (if not, my apologies!) but wonder whether, given your wise plan to rent- not buy - in Spain, it's worth trying to keep your options open by retaining a property in the UK? Unless you need to free up capital to spend, any currently available savings or investments are likely to be at such low rates of interest that they will effectively depreciate even faster than house prices. So if for any reason you wished to return to this country you'd find it difficult to afford to buy back into the UK property market.

What are rental values like in your neighbourhood, and is letting out your UK home an option?

I ask, because we have a friend who relocated to Andalusia ten years ago, but has had to return to the UK recently; to find that he can't sell in Spain, and is financially stuck- unable to buy here. Not quite your situation, but who knows what the future will bring; and despite having excellent health-care, the Spanish are getting jittery about the cost of looking after an increasingly aging ex-pat Brit community.

And I share your cynicism about EAs- while ostensibly accountable to the vendor, in practice, they're in business and their own bottom line's all that matters in tough times- and selling now for 1.5% of £140k - (a typical fee of over £2k) is better than hanging on for 1.5% of £150k - an extra £150, so of course they are despaerate for you to accept offers under!

Anyway- whatever happens, good luck- a falling housing market is good when you are trading up, as you can get more savings on a more expensive home; less happy when you're trading down!

Leodogger

AlexMac wrote: »

Interesting thread, JW, and thanks for coming back to keep the dialogue going. I guess that, like us, you're getting on a bit (if not, my apologies!) but wonder whether, given your wise plan to rent- not buy - in Spain, it's worth trying to keep your options open by retaining a property in the UK? Unless you need to free up capital to spend, any currently available savings or investments are likely to be at such low rates of interest that they will effectively depreciate even faster than house prices. So if for any reason you wished to return to this country you'd find it difficult to afford to buy back into the UK property market.

What are rental values like in your neighbourhood, and is letting out your UK home an option?

I ask, because we have a friend who relocated to Andalusia ten years ago, but has had to return to the UK recently; to find that he can't sell in Spain, and is financially stuck- unable to buy here. Not quite your situation, but who knows what the future will bring; and despite having excellent health-care, the Spanish are getting jittery about the cost of looking after an increasingly aging ex-pat Brit community.

And I share your cynicism about EAs- while ostensibly accountable to the vendor, in practice, they're in business and their own bottom line's all that matters in tough times- and selling now for 1.5% of £140k - (a typical fee of over £2k) is better than hanging on for 1.5% of £150k - an extra £150, so of course they are despaerate for you to accept offers under!

Anyway- whatever happens, good luck- a falling housing market is good when you are trading up, as you can get more savings on a more expensive home; less happy when you're trading down!

Thanks for your comments. Actually the reason we are selling is a little more complex. We are in a housing association property and are unable to rent privately (it is a condition of our lease) but we do want to retain a base in the UK for renting to supplement our income when we go to Spain to rent, otherwise keeping up two properties would be unaffordable. Why then you ask did you buy a housing association property? Well again a complex situation forced us to sell. We had a property in Spain which we had to sell at a loss to offload our mortgage in the UK when we retired a few years ago. We couldn't afford to run two properties on our pensions. Like most people who have bought in Spain we got our fingers burned, even though we kept it for 9 yrs and had a lot of nice holidays there, we always knew we would either have to sell or move to Spain to pay off our mortgage. I came to the conclusion I did not want to settle in our apartment there permanently but wanted to keep a base in the UK and spend perhaps 6 months at a time in Spain when my daughter moves out there. Therefore we sold our house and bought the only bungalow which was within our budget at the time (before we sold our property in Spain). Now we have sold our property in Spain we have some savings so could afford a bigger bungalow and we want to move slightly out of the area we are in so have decided to sell.

As for these bungalows not having a market because 65 yr olds today are far more healthy, so are we, but most on this development are either single women alone who can't maintain a house or larger property, or have spouses in care homes and wanted to release equity from their homes and have neighbours of a similar ilk for companionship with the benefit of 24 hr emergency call out and maintenance taken care of. Ideal for people with as I say health problems, or on their own and wanting a small property with no worries about caring for the property. Many people these days with smaller pensions and reducing money to live on are looking to release money from their properties to supplement their meagre pensions, reducing annuities and to enjoy the remainder of their lives, so I think actually, unlike many on here who think there is a limited market, there will be an expanding market for these properties. The average age on this development is mid 70's to 91 yrs old and as I say we have an ageing population so these type of properties will become much more needed as larger properties are becoming too expensive to run (energy costs etc.), especially as government will look to reduce benefits to the elderly in these austere times and in the future.

No I have the opposite view, the reasons we looked to downsize are exactly what is becoming the norm these days and there is a market I believe, we just need a decent EA who actually is looking after our interests and I won't be bullied again into accepting what they want for our property to make a fast buck !

By the way, rentals are highly active in our neighbourhood and there would be no problem in renting out.

Leodogger

Davesnave wrote: »

That's harsh considering it's not even been marketed yet!:rotfl:

However, the revelations regarding HA involvement and the likely aura of sheltered housing will conspire to make it more difficult to sell close to the market rate for bungalows of the type.

I say this as an 'almost OAP' on a fixed income living in a bungalow. The difference is that mine has land attached and I bought it to stay fit, not because I'm some doddering old bloke who can't manage stairs.

And this is the problem. Yes, the population is aging, but the average 65 year old Boomer is now reasonably healthy, so they won't willingly look at retirement complexes for years yet.

I still don't understand the thrust of this thread. OP 'lost' about 11% on what he hoped to achieve after selling his last property in a falling market. Isn't that roughly what happened to many of us?

Did everyone lose 11% on the sale of their houses in 2011 ? To listen to EA's they stick your house on at what they tell you is a realistic price after they value it and tell you the house is worth that or offers near it and then when someone comes along with an offer £20,000 less tell you to jump at it, who is the valuation expert I wonder ! I don't call that being realistic, I call that leading you up the garden path. I would have appreciated the truth from the outset if they felt the house was not worth what they put it on at, not a bunch of lies to get your property on their books and then do a crap job at selling it for you. When I challenged them about the offer, they tried to make out it was a bargain because it was a cash offer, if you sell your house to someone who needs a mortgage it is still a cash offer when it goes through so what the heck is the difference if you are willing to wait. I think I might try an online EA, at least that way I can set the price and drop it by degrees until we get an offer we think is acceptable. Then I am in control not them who try to make you believe they are experts and know what your house is worth when really all they are after is a quick commission with the barest of costs outlay whilst they behave like a bunch of second hand car salesmen !