Reduce price?

Exodi

BungalowBel said:

And , being a baby-boomer, I don't think the interest rates are high at all    I remember 15%, and for a short while, 17%.  Give me 5% any day!

Give it a rest, houses didn't cost 9x average earnings back then, it's not comparable in the slightest.

I'm sure younger people would happily exchange 5% interest rates for houses that can again be bought by a single earner with an average job.

grad101

It depends on how desperate you are to sell as to whether it's worth waiting another few weeks. Only you can answer that - you may have to accept a lower priced offer, but what price do you put on flexibility/ability to move/whatever your reason for selling is?

I'm looking as a buyer in SW/SE London right now and a lot of properties have sat on the market for a long time. We're viewing places on the market for 5-6 months with no offers or well under asking price. It's different to the 2016/17 manic market in London where flats sold like hot cakes. So when you are looking at comparably priced properties in the area, you also need to ask how long they have been on the market for - no point a being comparable to other houses if those haven't sold either! 

That said, some properties also sell within a few days. Different buyers value different things so if you're not in a rush to sell, there's no harm waiting to see if someone sees that special something in your flat.

Addison89

Thanks everyone, really helpful! I won’t post a link to the advert as it’s against the forum rules but I also don’t want to be recognisable. I think we will wait a few more weeks then reduce the price. We are not desperate to move but in the same time I can’t see myself staying there for another year!

Bigphil1474

OP, we put ours on the market in October and were thinking of reducing the price in early January but decided against it, and then got an acceptable offer, so I'm glad we didn't. Thing is though, if people are viewing it, if they wanted to buy it but thought the price was too high they'd just offer less. My philosophy essentially became so long as we are getting viewings, we'll leave the price as is. If we stop getting viewings, then we'll have to think again. 

Addison89

Bigphil1474 said:

OP, we put ours on the market in October and were thinking of reducing the price in early January but decided against it, and then got an acceptable offer, so I'm glad we didn't. Thing is though, if people are viewing it, if they wanted to buy it but thought the price was too high they'd just offer less. My philosophy essentially became so long as we are getting viewings, we'll leave the price as is. If we stop getting viewings, then we'll have to think again. 

Thanks, problem is we haven’t had any viewings for two weeks now and I think in total we had maybe 5 in the last two months 😩

BobT36

BungalowBel said:

And , being a baby-boomer, I don't think the interest rates are high at all    I remember 15%, and for a short while, 17%.  Give me 5% any day!

Yes but think how percentages work. On what total value? 

Give me 15% anyday on the price of a house back when you're thinking of, rather than 5% of the massively increased prices we have now.
heh @Exodi beat me to it. 
I don't earn that much more than people did back then (comparatively, especially taking into account inflation), yet back then I'd have been able to buy a house with CASH, just on my income! 
Yet now even with both me & my partner having high salaried jobs, we still need a mega mortgage. You're also losing the benefit of one person being able to be at home providing childcare and homemaker work too. 

markin

'Offers around' vs 'offers over' May temp people to make an offer, the market is just very slow.

Also the RM filters are 375-400, So 375 would get it on the first 10 pages rather than over page 10 on the results.


"We got a nasty shock last week when Santander announced a massive 20 per cent cut to one of its top savings rates.

The bank, which has more than 14 million customers, said it was acting proactively as it expected the Bank of England’s base rate to fall in the coming months. 

A few days after the shock cut announcement, it hiked its mortgage rates. Let’s hope others do not follow and cut their savings rates, especially given that the base rate has yet to fall from its current level of 5.25 per cent."
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-13214967/Did-spot-smoke-mirrors-trick-Santander-pulled-week-SYLVIA-MORRIS-explains.html

Bigphil1474

BobT36 said:

BungalowBel said:

And , being a baby-boomer, I don't think the interest rates are high at all    I remember 15%, and for a short while, 17%.  Give me 5% any day!

Yes but think how percentages work. On what total value? 

Give me 15% anyday on the price of a house back when you're thinking of, rather than 5% of the massively increased prices we have now.
heh @Exodi beat me to it. 
I don't earn that much more than people did back then (comparatively, especially taking into account inflation), yet back then I'd have been able to buy a house with CASH, just on my income! 
Yet now even with both me & my partner having high salaried jobs, we still need a mega mortgage. You're also losing the benefit of one person being able to be at home providing childcare and homemaker work too. 

We bought our first house in 1995 for £45k. At the time I was on about £10k a year. My partner also worked . We've just sold that house for £180k, and my salary is £40k. My partner no longer works. The ratios are identical. 

Exodi

Bigphil1474 said:

BobT36 said:

BungalowBel said:

And , being a baby-boomer, I don't think the interest rates are high at all    I remember 15%, and for a short while, 17%.  Give me 5% any day!

Yes but think how percentages work. On what total value? 

Give me 15% anyday on the price of a house back when you're thinking of, rather than 5% of the massively increased prices we have now.
heh @Exodi beat me to it. 
I don't earn that much more than people did back then (comparatively, especially taking into account inflation), yet back then I'd have been able to buy a house with CASH, just on my income! 
Yet now even with both me & my partner having high salaried jobs, we still need a mega mortgage. You're also losing the benefit of one person being able to be at home providing childcare and homemaker work too. 

We bought our first house in 1995 for £45k. At the time I was on about £10k a year. My partner also worked . We've just sold that house for £180k, and my salary is £40k. My partner no longer works. The ratios are identical. 

... erm OK? Thanks for the anecdote I guess, though I'm not sure what your point is? 

There's so much data out there about average house prices and average earnings, I can only conclude that you either already know the ratio between average house prices and average earnings has obviously increased (but then I'm not sure of the purpose of your comment) or you truly believe houses are still 4.5x average earnings (which I truly find hard to believe)?

Honestly I really don't know what else to say to you... I can link sources if you want, but I mean they're not hard to find...

EDIT: and you have a high post count so you're clearly active on this forum. What is going on!

Albermarle

There's so much data out there about average house prices and average earnings, I can only conclude that you either already know the ratio between average house prices and average earnings has obviously increased (but then I'm not sure of the purpose of your comment) or you truly believe houses are still 4.5x average earnings (which I truly find hard to believe)?

According to the Nationwide charts ( last one in the link below) , many areas of the UK still hover around that 4.5 figure, some even less.

Nationwide HPI News - Charts (nationwidehousepriceindex.co.uk)