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

tom9980

At the end of the day you need a buyer and seller who are in agreement on a price that is acceptable to both parties. My view is I see little room for rises above inflation and for this reason I am selling my empty property. I see no reason to be a landlord with the waves of sentiment against us so I choose to not to build a portfolio and continue being a good landlord. 

I met an agent today that I have noted sells my type of property well and at a good price for a number of years, two on the same street recently. Before shutdown they were selling 145% above the monthly target with over a week left. He tells me on Monday they were in despair about Boris's announcements but as things changed last night the market has jumped to life this morning. His phone rang twice just while we spoke and he says it has been the same all morning. Lots of pent up demand.

my agent valued it at £180k I felt that was too high and told him £175k with a view to accept above £165k and gave him incentive to get it done quickly. I have a bottom line figure of £155k before I relet the property so it's interesting to see what happens.

How this actually plays out is anyone's guess, my guess is best case stagnation worst case 25% crash in prices. You should arm yourself with information and come up with scenarios it doesn't matter if you are a buyer or seller make a choice and be willing to live with the consequences. Many of HPC live with renting for a decade after the last crash and likewise many live with negative equity after buying in 2007. You have a decision to make based on your own unique situation nobody can do it for you for some buying now makes sense. Just don't become crashy and don't wait expecting to time the market at it's lowest point (graphs) because you are unlikely to be as lucky as I was when I bought in April 2009.

Good luck to all.

Getting_greyer

Doesn't matter if you drop your offer. I honestly don't see the government allowing huge unemployment to occur.  Keynes is the Chancellor's new best mate.  Stabilising the economy with low unemployment is the only chance the gov have of re-election and they know it.

 Or.....
Drop your offer now!  The government wont mind huge unemployment as it depresses wages.  This keeps firms cost down and brings aggregate prices down.  Allowing huge swathes of millennials a cheaper route to home ownership is the gov only chance of re-election and they know it. 

Ftb2019_3

Emailed the estate agent earlier in the week and he rang today. Said he totally got where we were coming from and agreed. We paid asking price and said he would renegotiate too. Let him know and hed put it to them.

Not very hopeful but not comfortable to continue in a slipping market.

GianBel

I expect prices will hold for a while, until it becomes clear that we're hitting a big recession. 8 million people in the UK furloughed at the moment. A fair amount of those will be made redundant once government money dries up. Couple that with banks being more stringent with who they borrow to, and the writing is on the wall. And for all the optimism that certain people (with vested interests) have, there is no vaccine or proper treatment. The lockdown might be partially lifted, but this isn't over and the impact will last for some time to come.
I made an offer on a house today, at 16% below asking price as that is what the Bank of England is predicting and I don't want to pretend to know better than them. The agent was visibly unhappy and the offer might be rejected. But having just sold and sitting on the cash, I'd rather not take the risk and will wait it out. Prices are highly likely to fall and until there is a cure and the economy picks up again, they won't rise. I have time.

Crashy_Time

Safe'n'Sound said:

Crashy_Time said:

I think house prices will be like Brexit soon, all the argument and banter and entrenched positions online will seem quaint and not really all that important after this economic slowdown really gets rolling, the predictions from most commentators are quite dark, the V shape recovery is definitely off the table.

By using Brexit as your go-to direct comparison, you may have just let your mask slip Crashy. Of all the recent examples of over hyped fear mongering, so called professional economic experts being so far off the mark and poster boys & girls for 'Remain' (market crash supporters in this case) dishing out 24/7 negative soundbites..... Well, be careful what you wish for as it all sounds the same to me.

Unlikely, Brexit is in no way comparable to this crisis, the fear mongering is real this time.

[Deleted User]

By the middle of August they will have the figures to say whether we are in a full blown recession. The first quarter dropped by 2%. If the next quarter shows further shrinking then its officially a recession. Those are months April, May and June. I thinks its virtually impossible to deny. I think personally it will be an L shaped recession - the worst kind 

GianBel

We had a 2% drop in the first quarter and that included a week of lock-down in March. April, May and June will be far worse.
Until a) effective treatment is found, or b) a vaccine is found (and we can produce enough of it and administer it to enough people), any subsequent months will be equally bad (unless we're willing to (continue) to sacrifice health for wealth. This has the makings to become one of the worst recessions. 

Safe'n'Sound

Crashy_Time said:

I think house prices will be like Brexit soon.....

Crashy_Time said:

Unlikely, Brexit is in no way comparable to this crisis.....

Erm, OK.

dani17

GianBel said:

I expect prices will hold for a while, until it becomes clear that we're hitting a big recession. 8 million people in the UK furloughed at the moment. A fair amount of those will be made redundant once government money dries up. Couple that with banks being more stringent with who they borrow to, and the writing is on the wall. And for all the optimism that certain people (with vested interests) have, there is no vaccine or proper treatment. The lockdown might be partially lifted, but this isn't over and the impact will last for some time to come.
I made an offer on a house today, at 16% below asking price as that is what the Bank of England is predicting and I don't want to pretend to know better than them. The agent was visibly unhappy and the offer might be rejected. But having just sold and sitting on the cash, I'd rather not take the risk and will wait it out. Prices are highly likely to fall and until there is a cure and the economy picks up again, they won't rise. I have time.

I pulled out recently and tried to explain my point of view to the EA( bank of england reports, banks withdrawing high LTV products, number of furloughed people, unemployment expectation ....) he was denying and kept saying after 20 years spent on the market i cannot see the prices dropping. So I think it is  useless to explain to them. Just wait 6 months and we will see what will happen.

Crashy_Time

Safe'n'Sound said:

Crashy_Time said:

I think house prices will be like Brexit soon.....

Crashy_Time said:

Unlikely, Brexit is in no way comparable to this crisis.....

Erm, OK.

I think you completely missed the point I made.