Is it reasonable for us to drop our asking price given current climate?

Crashy_Time

I think the OP meant to say "Offer price" in the thread title? Best bet is not to offer, not to negotiate, just withdraw from the market and see what happens over the next few months, we are in completely uncharted waters.

MobileSaver

Crashy_Time said:

Best bet is not to offer, not to negotiate, just withdraw from the market and see what happens over the next few months

The problem with your approach is what will you know "in the next few months?" Let's assume over the next few months only a tiny fraction of transactions complete because of COVID-19 and because of the same only the most desperate sellers sell and at a discount just to get the deal done so prices drop a few percent.

Straight away there is a lag of around six weeks before Land Registry produces the stats so a price drop in a few months means you won't actually know about it until say September but then what? Do you instantly jump in, cheque book in hand, to try to buy with a few percent off or do you wait for "the next few months" hoping prices will drop further, taking us to Christmas? But again, then what, wait until next Spring in case prices drop again?

As many on here have said repeatedly, trying to time the market is a mug's game. The problem you have is exactly what happened to you; you convince yourself there is going to be a huge price crash so you just wait and wait and never have the confidence to actually buy in case prices are lower next month.

By the time you realise prices are on the rise again it's too late and one day you wake up and realise you've been paying off your landlord's mortgage instead of your own mortgage for 15 years. Would you recommend the OP does what you did and withdraw from the market for 15 years?

Splatfoot

Splatfoot said:

Those posters that are obsessed with prices going down, why did you not buy in the months/years after 2008? When there was actually a house price reduction? I'd be interested to know. 

Anyone?

Safe'n'Sound

MobileSaver said:

Crashy_Time said:

Best bet is not to offer, not to negotiate, just withdraw from the market and see what happens over the next few months

The problem with your approach is what will you know "in the next few months?" Let's assume over the next few months only a tiny fraction of transactions complete because of COVID-19 and because of the same only the most desperate sellers sell and at a discount just to get the deal done so prices drop a few percent.

Straight away there is a lag of around six weeks before Land Registry produces the stats so a price drop in a few months means you won't actually know about it until say September but then what? Do you instantly jump in, cheque book in hand, to try to buy with a few percent off or do you wait for "the next few months" hoping prices will drop further, taking us to Christmas? But again, then what, wait until next Spring in case prices drop again?

As many on here have said repeatedly, trying to time the market is a mug's game. The problem you have is exactly what happened to you; you convince yourself there is going to be a huge price crash so you just wait and wait and never have the confidence to actually buy in case prices are lower next month.

By the time you realise prices are on the rise again it's too late and one day you wake up and realise you've been paying off your landlord's mortgage instead of your own mortgage for 15 years. Would you recommend the OP does what you did and withdraw from the market for 15 years?

I would go further in that direction you dabbled towards. I don't think the panic sellers will register that much on the richter scale. I think if there is a drop, it will be so small the statisticians will not bother applying it. Any drop greater than 4-5% won't be seen for at least 12 months, if not 24 months because the current Con Gov will do everything in it's power, beyond even mathematical comprehension to save the market, because it's a historic event and goes against all they stand for. Now if you want to talk a proper crash in the market, enough to make you pack up your plans, then if Jeremy Corbyn had have gained power in the last GE, that would have raised the market to the ground, but it didn't, so we have lost the most certain option.

My thoughts, well, if your situation leans towards all the markers that have been mentioned in so many threads here, buy the house you can afford. If there is any doubt, and you have no issues with waiting, give it another 12-24 months. But be careful as the lenders may not be so easy next time. Financial scarring is a dirty area to be in and it lasts a long long time. What you 'might' save on paper straight away 'could' be paid back over time. I know it's a sickening feeling paying over the odds for something, I can't pay the ticket price on a TV never mind house! Sometimes, we have to look at all the pro's and not just one con.

blue_max_3

I think the property that was valued before lockdown and still haven't sold are likely to be withdrawn or reduced. We will see the reductions played out on the websites quite soon. However, in a falling market, valuations will be more realistic and may be sold at asking, giving the impression that nothing has changed. It's a shame we don't value property by the sq.m like they do on the continent. It would give an easier way to compare.

MobileSaver

Safe'n'Sound said:

I think if there is a drop, it will be so small the statisticians will not bother applying it.

I was thinking about this from a different angle over the weekend...

The lockdown has introduced such a huge drop in transactions that it is not unthinkable the normal House Price Index statistics will be suspended for a few months; the valid justification being that statistically the number of transactions will be so small as to be statistically unreliable. If this happens you can imagine some people here and most people on the HPC forum will be absolutely seething!

MobileSaver

graphs said:

House prices only going one way and the majority of the forum is seething lol

Yes, most homeowners on this forum must be absolutely seething that since this crisis started they are now four months closer to owning their own home outright while most crashaholics have been paying their landlord's mortgage instead! LOL

Splatfoot

It's interesting to me that no-one (The house price crashers) answered the question about buying a house/not buying a house in the aftermath of 2008

abanksee

Splatfoot said:

It's interesting to me that no-one (The house price crashers) answered the question about buying a house/not buying a house in the aftermath of 2008

I was 20 then... hardly in a position to buy. Wouldn't say I was a price crashers either, price dropper is more appropriate.

blue_max_3

Splatfoot said:

It's interesting to me that no-one (The house price crashers) answered the question about buying a house/not buying a house in the aftermath of 2008

I find myself in the position of having sold my property a couple of years ago due to divorce. I can't really afford to buy in the area I live, but this gives me a glimmer of hope. I owned my property since 1988. I'm not feeling much sympathy for having to rent, but if I can buy a home to live in and not for investment, then don't think it's too immoral.