Part exchange prospects

dafa93

Hello,

Just interested in getting any advice people might have.
Myself (and partner) have been looking to move house for a short while. We have been in our property for 2 years (we were 1st time buyers). A new development launched last summer, and we were thinking of doing part exchange but decided to try selling privately instead. It is a 2 bedroom end of terrace built 12 years ago, to which we have replaced all flooring and fitted new bathroom suites.
We had our property valued by 2 agents, both came back with a value of 260k which we were happy with.
Put our house on the market with agent 1 in October 2018 (large corporate chain) for 260k. Had a few viewings but no offers, even after reducing to 250k. We ended the agreement and have now been on with another agent for about a month now.
Recently had a potential buyer quite interested, but came back with an offer of 230k ! So we told them where to go.

We are desperate to move, so have contacted the house builder of the new development regarding Part Exchange. We are at the stage where they are going to get an agent round to do a valuation. Have told house builder we would need 250k to proceed with part exchange, the sales lady does not appear confident that they will offer that, but will see what the estate agent comes back with.

I just wanted to see what people think? My house is worth 260k (supposedly). What are the chances of the builder offering 250k? I feel like they are going to come back with a silly offer but still hoping for a good outcome for us.

RedFraggle

Zero chance of that I'm afraid. If the house is in good order and isn't selling it's been overvalued.

Bossypants

dafa93 wrote: »

My house is worth 260k (supposedly). What are the chances of the builder offering 250k? I feel like they are going to come back with a silly offer but still hoping for a good outcome for us.

Your house is only 'worth' as much as someone is willing and able to pay for it. So far, it looks like it's worth £230k. You'll have to consider whether you want to move badly enough to take the hit, or whether you stay put and see what prices do. I've recently been in your situation so I feel your pain (I opted to take the hit), but that's the property market for you, it goes down as well as up.

dafa93

Hi guys,

Thanks for your replies.
I would say maybe you are on to something - my only comeback would be that all 2 bedroom terraced and semis are priced between 250-260k currently. I live in a nice town in Central Bedfordshire, with trains to London taking 35 mins. Surely they can't all be overvalued?!

Considering I bought the house for 234k in 2017, I would be disappointed to see it go down in value in 2 years. I just don't think 230k is reasonable at all.

I'd guess its likely that the house builder are going to come back with an offer thats no good for us. We will probably have to carry on trying to sell for a little while longer and if nobody bites then we won't move I guess!

Thanks again for your replies

AdrianC

dafa93 wrote: »

my only comeback would be that all 2 bedroom terraced and semis are priced between 250-260k currently. I live in a nice town in Central Bedfordshire, with trains to London taking 35 mins. Surely they can't all be overvalued?!

You mean the ones that are unsold are asking £250-260k?

How much did the ones that sold sell for?

Considering I bought the house for 234k in 2017, I would be disappointed to see it go down in value in 2 years. I just don't think 230k is reasonable at all.

£250k would be a 7% increase in a year and a bit, £260k would be 11%. In the current market, that's optimistic... Obviously, local factors may vary, but they may vary either way...

Bossypants

Priced yes, but what are they selling at? Both my place and the place I'm buying went for ~£20k under asking. I also bought this place two years ago and am selling for £4k less than I paid, and that's not including the price of the new windows, doors and stove I put in (was intending to stay for much longer, but then life happened).

If I were you, I would stop thinking about 'reasonable', it's not a concept which applies to the housing market and will keep you up at night for no good reason. The only questions you should be asking are 'what will someone give me for my house today?' and 'is that enough to let me get what I want to move to today?'. This applies whether prices go down or up.

MysteryMe

Unless you are in a particular hotspot then winter time is not the busiest period for people to want to move house so you appear to be a bit hasty in writing off the possibility of selling privately.

What have similar properties nearby sold for recently?

dafa93

Just looking at sold house prices, houses of a similar standard to mine (2 bed terraces / end of terrace) have sold at between 258k and 267k. Thats in the last year! So it's frustrating that the market now seems to have really slowed down now.

eddddy

dafa93 wrote: »

I just wanted to see what people think? My house is worth 260k (supposedly). What are the chances of the builder offering 250k? I feel like they are going to come back with a silly offer but still hoping for a good outcome for us.

Obviously the builder's plan is to sell your house after they p/ex it - so the starting point will be what they think they can sell it for fairly quickly. (Would that be £230K?)


If the builder is having trouble shifting their new houses, they might offer you a bit more than that - i.e. essentially giving you a discount because business is slow.

If the builder is having no trouble shifting their new houses, they might offer you a bit less than that - to compensate for the hassle, the risk, and tying up their money.

supa34

The builders want to make money end of day. To pay you 250k for a house valued at 250k means after taking legal costs out they are losing money. I reckon they will offer 220, as even at 230 there is y much for them to take a risk.

Estate agents are known to give a inflated price.
Also finally, it's not a good time. With Brexit etc people are just not buying and moving at the moment.

loonywitch

Our little 2 bed (in obviously a complete different part of the country) was valued at 90k. The builder offered us 70k. We declined and expressed we would need a lot closer to our valuations if we were to proceed on their property which was up for 250k but they didn’t bat an eyelid or even bother offering stamp duty or extras. In the end, we ended up dropping ours to 75k and we’ve sold stc for that but that means the new build wasn’t an option for us