Selling in a falling market

leftieM

How low do you go? I had the EA out last week and he advised me to put my house on at £170k. Houses in my estate (ex-council) are on at anything between 225k and £180k but not getting offers. Sales are starting to fall through when buyers realise that they are paying too much for a house and the seller can't/won't accept less. So I think that if I get 165k I'll be doing well. Houses here sold for a top price of 212k last spring so have fallen dramatically.
It is possible that the EA is desperate for a sale and wants me to go too low but tbh I think that what seems low now will look pretty good in 12 months' time. I suppose I'm taking a punt with a house in an area where I never really felt at home. I may lose but hopefully the worst that will happen is that we can only afford this type of house again. Of course we may not be able sell at all. Putting the house on at a price that undercuts the neighbours by up to 55k will hopefully bag us the one buyer who is looking in this area, if he/she exists.
By the way, I didn't buy through the RTB scheme but paid full price on the open market for this house, in case anyone decides to have a go!!

dolce_vita

Somewhere in between what your signiture says.

You don't want to be chasing the market down.
If you're keen to sell and have found another place and if selling for 170k will give you a decent profit then put your house up for 190k and take 170k and move on.

guppy

Unless you are desperate to sell I wouldn't start talking the price down too much, I'm sure there will be plenty of buyers to do that for you.

Stick it on a bit higher as dolce says, and see if you get much interest. If not, rethink the price. Reading this board (and even some of my posts) you'd think the HPI sky is falling in, but I'm not sure that sentiment has reached every single buyer in the land.

Just don't mug yourself

poppy10_2

I thought NI was still rocketing?

leftieM

No it's started to fall now but the media is going on sales not sale agreeds so there is a 3 month time lag on their information. Surveyors reported falls of up to 8% last month and, I think, the month before that too. Ex-council houses are particularly vulnerable to falls - we're still a very class conscious society, more than mainland UK. We (NI) don't have a system where sale prices are recorded in a central database - EAs and mortgage lenders hold the information - so it appears that prices haven't fallen as asking prices are similar but houses aren't selling for 40k+ over the asking price which means effectively the market has fallen. In fact few houses are selling at all. We're at the sticky asking prices stage.

Edit - I just spoke to a different agent who has sold a house in my estate. It was on for 185k and sold for 165k so I was spot on with my estimate. At least I know I won't be doing myself out of much if I sell for that figure.