I think our house may be worth what we owe on it, maybe a little more. We would like to move, but it’s not urgent. We don’t have much in the way of savings to pay for a move and new deposit.

So it occurred to me that we could sit down and work out what our house would have to sell for to allow us to move, then put it on the market at that price and wait. If someone’s really keen on it then we might get it, otherwise it’ll sit for a couple of years until the market picks up and it becomes reasonably priced again.

Any disadvantage to doing that, besides having a sign out front for two years?

Think that’s what anyone who’s not desperate to sell does isn’t it?

Hmm.. spose so.. I’ve never sold a house before though so I dunno how it works. Do you get someone interested and then start looking for your new house? Or do you find a new one and then explain to the current owner that you’re waiting for this crazy scheme to come off before you can buy their house..?

Sounds like the worst plan in the world.

Any disadvantage to doing that, besides having a sign out front for two years?

a possible endless stream of random numpties poking and pointing and drinking your coffee then bad mouthing you behind your back. Other than that it’s faultless.

It would force us to keep the house tidy tho eh…

Any disadvantage to doing that

It would force us to keep the house tidy…

You have answered your own question..

We need some forcing to tidy up, we are terrible.

People assuming there’s something wrong with it because it’s sat on the market for 2 years irrespective of what they see with their own eyes.

Hmm.. fair comment…

We would need maybe £230k for it.. others have sold for £210k ish a while back, but with slightly different circumstances. There had been a lot of repos on the street; ours is nicely kitted out and we have three off-road parking spaces instead of one. Little things, but I’m hoping.

It’s what y neighbours have done, except now they’ve found somewhere they like they’ve had to drop £35k to get a sale…

I wonder.. if we moved out to the sticks it might be a cheap enough area so we could move on less…

One possible issue is where people say ‘”that’s been on the market a long time, must be something wrong with it” and not look at it. And you’ll start to get stupid offers that bug the shite out of you!!

You may not get a new mortgage on a new place – lenders are demanding more and more equity in a property. So to move with little or none is going to be tough.

On the big assumption your moving to a more expensive house then it’s a very bad idea.

Waiting for yours to go up 20k may mean the more expensive house you are looking at may have gone up 30k

otherwise it’ll sit for a couple of years until the market picks up and it becomes reasonably priced again.

I’m not sure that’ll pan out for you
Even if prices start to ease up, I can’t see 2 years making any significant impact.

Bet you’ll struggle to find an agent who’s willing to play that game & you’ll get a reputation as being a time waster so when you do want to sell for what the property is actually worth quite a few will avoid you like the plague.

Also when you’re looking at properties to buy you’ll be treated with suspicion & any offers you put forward will contain a warning to the vendors.

Sit tight & wait for either the market to improve, the balance of your mortgage to come down to a level that gives you sufficient equity to move or 100% mortgages become available again (this may take the longest)

Oh & what the-muffin-man says is not really true as lenders are lending up to 95% although its not cheap.

People will know that your house has been on for two years and hasn’t sold. If you drop the price, buyers will expect more off. If you don’t, people will think there’s something wrong with the property. You could rent it out and move to a cheaper rental area. I’d only do that if i had to move though.

We’re in a similar position. a few months ago when we were considering a career-based relocation, we considered selling this place for what we owed on it and wiping the slate clean. the advantage in this case was that the new employer would have been paying £8k worth of rent / relocation which would have helped to kick-start us again.

Agree with what others have said about having an overpriced house on market – its bad for reputation of the property.

In your position I’d consider selling to break even and then rent for a bit. The other option would be to make some mortgage overpayments to gain equity that way. Say, the amount of extra cash you would be paying for your new house.

If i saw a house been on market for a while it was instantly knocked down in price in my head ….

How ever most ofthe time there was a major issue with the house.

I

Waiting for yours to go up 20k may mean the more expensive house you are looking at may have gone up 30k

Yes, but he will have £20k more in equity as a deposit. That is a 10% deposit on £200k.

We are in a similar position, house only worth the same as we paid five years ago, which mean we need to save a deposit all over again to move up the ladder. We could probably move at the moment but we would be scrapping the barrel to pay the fee’s/duty, so if anything went wrong we’d have to pull out or try and get a loan which is far from ideal. A £5k increase in value and we’d be laughing as that would enable us top up our mortgage back to 95% and buy a house worth £100k more than the one we are currently in.

Looking at similar houses on the market gives the impression we could sell for £5k more than we bought, but those houses aren’t selling. We will sit tight until we are sure we can sell at a realistic price as I don’t want to be on the market for ages, the estate agents just seem to tell us what we want to hear to get us on their books.

On the big assumption your moving to a more expensive house then it’s a very bad idea.

Yeah we’d be moving to a house the same or a bit cheaper.

Yes, but he will have £20k more in equity as a deposit.

That’s what I was thinking.

If someone’s really keen on it then we might get it, otherwise it’ll sit for a couple of years until the market picks up and it becomes reasonably priced again.

Not sure if the market will pick up any time soon though. There’s no evidence anywhere to suggest it’s going to. There’s plenty of properties on the market round here at ‘optimistic’ prices that just sit there month after month after month. Maybe they are all waiting for the same gullible buyer? What a waste of time for everyone involved.

My brother, whose an estate agent tells me that the only houses that his agency are selling at the moment are either those that are truly amazing or unique in some way, or those that have been priced realistically (i.e. quite a bit less than 2007 peak values). Even then most buyers are demanding hefty discounts from asking prices.

The trouble he says is that he often feels pressured by the vendor, and competition with other estate agencies to give a high (but somewhat unrealistic) initial valuation just to secure a sellers property on their books. Once on their books and having been up for a couple of months without much interest it’s often a tricky discussion for him to get the seller to then lower their expectations and their price to achieve a sale. Many sellers still have their ‘heads in the sand’ in this respect and can’t comprehend that their property is worth far less than it was a few years back.

Despite the optimistic spin they put on things for the media, things are not looking up any time soon apparently, that’s why a lot of estate agents including my brothers have turned a considerable part of their attention to rental and lettings.

Looking at similar houses on the market gives the impression we could sell for £5k more than we bought, but those houses aren’t selling. We will sit tight until we are sure we can sell at a realistic price as I don’t want to be on the market for ages

I think with the ‘but those houses aren’t selling’ bit you have answered your own question there. Unfortunately I think that you might be waiting quite a few years before the price you consider ‘realistic’ is also ‘realistic’ to someone who actually has hard cold money to spend to buy your house.

It’s difficult I know having got used to 15 years of property constantly appreciating for a lot of people to get used to the idea that all markets, including the property market have peaks and troughs. And usually after a particularly high peak comes a particularly deep trough.

We had a house on the market for a couple of years, not because we wanted to wait, just because the market was so slow.

By the end of it I was sick and tired of having to keep the place tidy, needing to alter weekend plans at the last minute to accommodate viewers, and not knowing whether to plan holidays or keep a weeks leave in hand for moving… I think we ended up getting quite lax about the viewings, didn’t put so much effort in to ‘show it off’, stopped seeing the small things that needed fixing and really stopped doing any house maintenance (like decorating) because we were expecting to move. In the end we have taken the house off the market again and have decided to stay put for a while longer and start a fresh in a few years when things pick up.

Our situation was different as we were really trying to move, but I found that marketing the house long term was a real PITA!!

I thought this was going to be about your caravan.

One thing i did decide when i bought was ill never get into a chain situation …. If i decide to move ill sell up and rent for 6 months while looking !

Stuff the stress of a chain – bad enough just one transaction at a time

Couple i just bought off were the same – they moved into their caravan while looking for their new place ( full on relocation though )

I think with the ‘but those houses aren’t selling’ bit you have answered your own question there. Unfortunately I think that you might be waiting quite a few years before the price you consider ‘realistic’ is also ‘realistic’ to someone who actually has hard cold money to spend to buy your house.

I think my idea of realistic, is realistic. By ‘those houses aren’t selling’, I am saying they are overpriced. The estate agents are telling us we can get £5k more than I think we can get, but looking at similar houses in the street, I don’t believe them. They want to get me on their books, and then will hope I accept a lower offer.

I reckon my house would realistically be marketed at £150k, to sell for £145-150. But there was a near identical house in our street that sold near Christmas that was on for £165. When the sale price gets published that will be a key indicator as to the value of our house. (had an upstairs bathroom but this meant the second double bedroom is now only a childs room, no room for a fullsize single)

If the prices stay stable we should be set to move in 12 months as we are building up the little bit extra we need for a deposit. If the prices drop significantly then we are stuck!

I wouldn’t recommend sitting on the market at an unrealistic price just in case someone bites, unless your house is unique and/or stands out from the crowd (through a buyers eyes not your own 🙂 ) then you won’t be taken seriously. Also, don’t bother looking at other houses or making offers until you have a buyer. If you’re not proceedable then you won’t be taken seriously.

If you’re serious about selling then check out the sold prices in your area on Land Registry, find some comparables, and price accordingly. If the sums don’t add up then stay put for a while and build some equity.