House Price Crash Discussion Thread

caz1978_2

Not sure if this has been mentioned before as the thread is so long....

We took 9 months to sell our house due to it being overpriced in the first place and I have been watching the market in our area very closely for the last year. As someone in my position I can tell you exactly what OUR problem is - OVERPRICING. Its really hard to spot them doing this as it takes ages to find out from land registry what houses have actually been going for. Once a property sale has been completed the agent should tell you what it went for but most have been being really cagey about this.

All the agents in our area are overpricing, meaning that desperate people will eventually just drop the price sooner rather than later but others are refusing to budge as they think their house is worth more than it is. Things are taking even longer to sell because the vendors, like ourselves, take a few months to come to the eventual conclusion that their house has been overpriced. In some cases the houses have been fetching near the asking price but this is all due to luck and finding someone who really wants to buy your house. I am just talking about in my particular area as not really been paying much attention to the rest of the country but has any one else been having the same problem as me?? I just think that if the agents priced stuff realisticly I could go and make an offer on a property tomorrow instead of having to wait ages for the vendor to drop the price.

Others may be quick to disagree with me but like I said I am talking about our area and dont claim to be an expert lol

treliac

caz1978 wrote: »

Not sure if this has been mentioned before as the thread is so long....

We took 9 months to sell our house due to it being overpriced in the first place and I have been watching the market in our area very closely for the last year. As someone in my position I can tell you exactly what OUR problem is - OVERPRICING. Its really hard to spot them doing this as it takes ages to find out from land registry what houses have actually been going for. Once a property sale has been completed the agent should tell you what it went for but most have been being really cagey about this.

All the agents in our area are overpricing, meaning that desperate people will eventually just drop the price sooner rather than later but others are refusing to budge as they think their house is worth more than it is. Things are taking even longer to sell because the vendors, like ourselves, take a few months to come to the eventual conclusion that their house has been overpriced. In some cases the houses have been fetching near the asking price but this is all due to luck and finding someone who really wants to buy your house. I am just talking about in my particular area as not really been paying much attention to the rest of the country but has any one else been having the same problem as me?? I just think that if the agents priced stuff realisticly I could go and make an offer on a property tomorrow instead of having to wait ages for the vendor to drop the price.

Others may be quick to disagree with me but like I said I am talking about our area and dont claim to be an expert lol

Is it not greedy sellers who overprice their houses on the whole? (I'm not referring to you of course) I can't see what agents have to gain by overpricing. If they then can't sell them, they can't make their commission.

caz1978_2

treliac wrote: »

Is it not greedy sellers who overprice their houses on the whole? (I'm not referring to you of course) I can't see what agents have to gain by overpricing. If they then can't sell them, they can't make their commission.

In our area it is competition between the agents and overpricing to get the boards. They want to be seen as getting as much as possible to maintain a reputation.

diable

caz1978 wrote: »

Not sure if this has been mentioned before as the thread is so long....

We took 9 months to sell our house due to it being overpriced in the first place and I have been watching the market in our area very closely for the last year. As someone in my position I can tell you exactly what OUR problem is - OVERPRICING. Its really hard to spot them doing this as it takes ages to find out from land registry what houses have actually been going for. Once a property sale has been completed the agent should tell you what it went for but most have been being really cagey about this.

All the agents in our area are overpricing, meaning that desperate people will eventually just drop the price sooner rather than later but others are refusing to budge as they think their house is worth more than it is. Things are taking even longer to sell because the vendors, like ourselves, take a few months to come to the eventual conclusion that their house has been overpriced. In some cases the houses have been fetching near the asking price but this is all due to luck and finding someone who really wants to buy your house. I am just talking about in my particular area as not really been paying much attention to the rest of the country but has any one else been having the same problem as me?? I just think that if the agents priced stuff realisticly I could go and make an offer on a property tomorrow instead of having to wait ages for the vendor to drop the price.

Others may be quick to disagree with me but like I said I am talking about our area and dont claim to be an expert lol

What area is you area?

caz1978_2

Solihull

Reactor_2

caz1978,

I brought this up in a previous post, but people are reluctant to sell for a loss, so they will hold out on a price. The other scenario is that people don't want to sell their house lower than the price that a similar house in the road sold for recently. It all comes down to over-confidence in people.

Unfortunately, as history shows, people tend to buy at the highs and sell at the lows, rather than the opposite. I remember in 2006 and 2007 when everyone was talking about how easy it was to buy a property and how easy it was to make money, but I was wary that the euphoria could continue on. I said that the last time we had a booming economy, fuelled by credit expansion, it ended in a bust in 1990 and before that it was 1929. I said that what was happening in in 2006 and 2007 was more like 1929 and everyone said that I was stupid and that today (2006 and 2007) was different to 1929. I was presenting the evidence that human behaviour has not changed, but everyone would have some reason to justify the ever increasing prices. From my perspective they were building castles in the sky.

But, just to clarify, the price your home is worth is the price someone else is willing to pay for it. This is a reality a lot of people can't grasp. If the price is right, it will sell within 2 weeks. If you hold off on a high price, then I think you're going to be waiting on the best part of a decade before your home will sell. If you find yourself trying to justify why your house is worth the high price you are asking for, even though it has not sold in months, then you are just deluding yourself. Take a reality check and then keep lowering your price until it sells. Alternatively, come back in a decade's time to sell.

The only tip I can give, if you are here to try and make money from property speculation, is to be 'greedy when everyone is fearful, and be fearful when everyone when is greedy' (Warren Buffet).

caz1978_2

Yes, reactor, agree totally. Once our house was priced properly we actually had two bidders at once and got more than the asking price but we refuse to over pay when we have accepted less. Its just a matter of waiting until the houses we like have been on the market a while and the vendor then realises their price is too high. Otherwise we will have a large uplift in our mortgage for a house that is the same as the one we have now. People cannot except that the market is dropping, as you said they are deluding themselves.

Reactor_2

There is a 2 bed flat next to mine, with a car parking space, that has been vacant for the best part of 2 years as the landlord has been trying to rent it out. I'm not sure what they had asked for originally, but its current price they want to rent it out for is still too high. One thing I'm sure of is that they would not have been sitting on such a large loss from income if they had rented it out at a more reasonable price.

They could have just checked what other people in the area were trying to rent their places out for and adjusted it accordingly. It's not like they can't increase the rent once the contract comes up for renewal, if demand for renting in the area picks up. I can only guess that they are inexperienced and haven't thought it through, or they are picky about the people they want as tenants.

jimbosjones

Reactor wrote: »

There is a 2 bed flat next to mine, with a car parking space, that has been vacant for the best part of 2 years as the landlord has been trying to rent it out. I'm not sure what they had asked for originally, but its current price they want to rent it out for is still too high. One thing I'm sure of is that they would not have been sitting on such a large loss from income if they had rented it out at a more reasonable price.

They could have just checked what other people in the area were trying to rent their places out for and adjusted it accordingly. It's not like they can't increase the rent once the contract comes up for renewal, if demand for renting in the area picks up. I can only guess that they are inexperienced and haven't thought it through, or they are picky about the people they want as tenants.

I have two houses which I let out and I can't understand why a land lord would do that, I get itchy feet when they've been on the market for more than a week and start dropping the price to get potential tenants in. So far I've never had one vacant more than a month, and with mortgages to pay that's just as well. If I left one on the market for a year I would run out of savings very quickly.
I guess maybe these people don't need the money, but there should be some legislation to prevent houses being empty for so long, whether they are holiday homes, abandoned or lazy landlords. There are so many people living in cramped or temporary accommodation, the more there is moving through the market the better I think.

Catapa

jimbosjones wrote: »

I have two houses which I let out and I can't understand why a land lord would do that, I get itchy feet when they've been on the market for more than a week and start dropping the price to get potential tenants in.

Landlords like those you are referring to are partly to blame for the high cost of rented accomodation in the UK.