So I got my house on the market late September... I think it was probably a few weeks too late to get it done by Xmas.
I had a steady run of viewings, at least one a week. Feedback on the whole was positive (even IMO the property would 'benefit from some modernisation', new kitchens / bathrooms / windows - but the EA didn't want to put that in the description). It's a niche property, rural south west region, modern(ish) property but a thatched roof.
I had offers ranging from 60k under to 10k over. None were in a position to proceed. Just before Xmas the EA was pressuring me to drop the asking by 15k. I just felt that was the wrong time to do that. I was ready to consider any reasonable offer if the buyers were ready to proceed but I wasn't in any rush as there wasn't anywhere that took my fancy in the location I was looking at and I was hoping new properties would start popping up in the new year.
Long story short. Viewings increased in the New Year. A property I had viewed twice in the Autumn and was sold STC came back on the market just as I accepted an offer 10k under the asking on mine. I had an offer accepted on that property. My buyer is in the home counties region area and had 11 viewings and 3 offers.
So 4 in the chain. The property I am hoping to purchase is vacant. Surveys on mine and the property I hope to purchase were carried out last week.
So fingers crossed...
Loads of viewings as soon as it was advertised, multiple offers over the asking price. Agent is saying wind things up and take an offer, I'm new to this and it seems logical to me to let it go on longer than a week. It's a headache.
I'm new to this and it seems logical to me to let it go on longer than a week.
a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, or something or other - take the offers, you never know when it's going to crash.
I get that, and it's sound logic, but if there's interest in a thing and people are already out-bidding each other...
Hundreds of mortgage products were pulled by lenders right after the outbreak of war with Iran - some of those people looking at their dream house would've found that their deal got much more expensive pretty much overnight.
That will have caused a 'market correction' in estate agent speak.
The house that we are in now, Surrey, did all of its' heavy lifting up until around 2005. It's kind of mooched along since then, being as boring as a house can be. We have spent more on it since 2010 than it gained since then. It's a house, not an investment.
When I was clearing mrs zips mums house I found some newspapers from 2014. Thought I’d look to see how cheap houses were. They looked about the same price as now.
I get that, and it's sound logic, but if there's interest in a thing and people are already out-bidding each other...
The other viewpoint is your estate agent had a client list of potential buyers, they've all now seen your house. The keenest ones will have offered the most and if you don't accept then they'll put an offer in on the next house and you've lost them.
You also run the risk of interest rates going up, it might be the supply side that's driving current inflation, but the BoE has one task (control inflation) and one very crude lever (interest rates). I doubt the people interested in your house are going to have more money rather than less in the near future.
The other viewpoint is your estate agent had a client list of potential buyers, they've all now seen your house. The keenest ones will have offered the most and if you don't accept then they'll put an offer in on the next house and you've lost them.
I think this is good if you've had a flurry of viewings and several interested parties wringing the best out of them and accepting an offer is the way to go - in a busy market like Cambridge with lots of active buyers people have searches set up, potentially missed out previously and are keen to get a deal agreed. Away from that sort of bubble, then if you've only had 1 viewing/offer that's genuinely low rather than at what's realistic then accepting that you need to wait for new buyers to appear, and they have a choice of everything on the market and that you'll need to price and present the property competitively.
Several of my offeree's had already either lost out on previous properties with my estate agent and had been pre qualified - when we sold my dads place we had 2 viewings then nothing, reduced it and had 1 viewing and had to negotiate to agree the sale. Totally different markets.
3-bed Semi in Cardiff. Agent said it would sell quickly, they'd hold an open house etc, assumed they were blowing smoke.
Sold that day for asking price.
Found, offered and secured a mortgage on my new place 4 week later, just before rates rose, I feel pretty lucky time-wise, even if there's a chance I could have paid a little less for my new place.
lots of active buyers people have searches set up, potentially missed out previously and are keen to get a deal agreed.
That and they'll probably already have offers on their house, mortgages agreed, etc. All of which put pressure on them to bid higher.
If you wait for a new buyer to enter the market, even if they absolutely fell in love with your house and were prepared to outbid every other bidder that came before them, they're only just at the start of that process. And they don't have a firm idea of budget (not sold their house, not got a mortgage lined up) all of which will make them more cautious.
Obviously if you wait long enough prices will rise anyway. But then so will the house you're going to look at moving into.
About 4 months for mine. Straight sale with no chains involved.
Thanks @thisisnotaspoon and @scruffythefirst that helps me understand the thinking, even if I'm still not convinced of the logic in this specific example.
Question: how much % lower an offer would you take for cash buyer no chain no obvious complications?
Depends how quickly you need to move?
If you've got your next house lined up, are emigrating on a set date, or need to report to HMP Wandsworth then it might be of some value to you to get it sold quick. if you've not found a house yet then it might put you in a better position to make a similar offer if you're in a simple chain. On the other hand if you're in no particular hurry, or you have already found your next house but the timescale isn't fixed yet then it might not be of any value to you.
I had two offers on mine. One had sold and was living in rented, the other, higher one, had an offer on hers but her buyers were still waiting to sell.
The difference was £1,500 (1.2%) so a no brainer for me. Had it been more it would have been a harder question, had it been a lot more I may have gone the other way, where those boundaries are will be different for everyone, how much the difference is, how risky you perceive the position of the higher offer to be, how fast the seller of the one you want to buy needs you to move, so many factors
Sw London prices peaked c2015 and fallen every year since. Some buyers have paid a premium and are stuck unless they take a loss.
Sdlt partly to blame. Rents on the other hand have increased inflation plus.
Question: how much % lower an offer would you take for cash buyer no chain no obvious complications?
This is where a good agent really helps, the agent needs to go back and forth with the various offers, bidding them up against each other and qualifying their position. After a bit of back and forth one usually comes out on top for price, situation and dickhead factor.
Also depends on what you're doing, taking a big discount for no chain and then having to mess about on your purchase for 6 months doesn't going you anything, but the more houses in the chain the more likely it is to go wrong. Just be up front with them about your timeline.
My first sale had 3 bidders, 2 first time buyers and someone who hadn't listed theirs (ruled out, but they kept up with the bidding). The winner had made a decisive first offer, and decisive counter offer. The looser had less deposit and they matched the high offer rather than go over. Rather than push the decisive bidder too hard for the sake of a couple of K, I accepted. They had all the surveys possible, but only pulled out after my onward messed everyone around for 6 months (She's still messing around, but it's a unicorn house). Second buyer was the only offer in a position to proceed and came in with a strong best and final offer, clearly keen to secure it and in a position to move fast.
This is where a good agent really helps, the agent needs to go back and forth with the various offers, bidding them up against each other and qualifying their position. After a bit of back and forth one usually comes out on top for price, situation and dickhead factor.
I disagree there. I sold without an agent and it was so easy, just being able to talk directly to the buyer like a pair of adults, no Chinese whispers back.and forth, just a quick message on what's app, instant replies. The professionals get so ingrained into the system they can't seem to cope with two grown ups talking directly to each other, when it came to handing over keys the solicitor was totally baffled that I was just going to give them to her. It's really not hard, she knows where I live, she can just come and get them...
I'm in west Sussex in 1930s semi. Some nearby ones have sold quickly, others not.
The ones not selling seem to have been improved too much. Ie rendered in light grey, grey window frames, loft extension, astro turf and patiod garden, lights all round the outside etc. The ones kept relatively normal sell more quickly.
Friend just sold for £600k asking price, listed Wednesday, sold Thursday at asking in Northchurch, so not even Berkhamsted
That happened to next door to me Horatio. I looked at buying it when it came up two years ago, 1890s flat, stone and slate, original floorboards, woodwork etc, needed the fireplace opening up. Also needed new kitchen, bathroom, probably a rewiring. I couldn't get a bridging loan to buy it while I did the work as not enough equity in my old one and would have been uninhabitable for a couple of months , sold very quickly as a project though, but to someone trying to flip it.
They've ruined it. Still looks the same outside, apart from new PVC windows which aren't too bad but inside could be anywhere, looks just like any small, bland flat in any new development, absolutely no character.Laminate floors, electric fire, all very shiney. It was on the market for about eighteen months with two price drops, I bought and am now in the process of renovating next door to it, trying to keep as many original features as possible.
It's not unique, the old ones which have been modernised stay on Rightmove for months and months. People who want new want new, people who want old want old. No one wants the old ones which looks new, worst of both worlds, bland like new but with all the maintenance issues of an old one
The professionals get so ingrained into the system they can't seem to cope with two grown ups talking directly to each other, when it came to handing over keys the solicitor was totally baffled that I was just going to give them to her. It's really not hard, she knows where I live, she can just come and get them...
This! When we last bought we dealt with the vendor and negotiated with him. He had an estate agent, who he'd been on the market with for 18 months, but they were just passing on messages. They added zero value to the buy, and I still remember the terse letter from the EA I got near the end of the purchase suggesting that the completion had better happen soon.
We also sold mum and dad's house for them, and again dealt with the buyer. He wasn't great - wanted a fast purchase and his conveyancer failed to start the searches for a month, and then told him it was our fault. Chain free at both ends too. EA's want to control the process, but put no effort into it. Just ignore them would be my suggestion, but also make a point of occasionally ringing them up and checking whether they've checked the chain status, as they probably haven't!
I used to be a mortgage advisor many many years ago, based in an estate agency, and I've seen that 95% of most people that work in the industry are pretty poor. Some (and it's rare) are phenomenal. As a mortgage person, I often knew more about the sell/buy chains than the EA people did.
I was an EA once. Professional is not a term I would use for a lot of them. But find a hungry one who knows the area and what sells, and you are quids in.
'Selling' in Surrey near Godalming. Was on the market last year for 6 months with 2 viewings. Both liked it but not procedable. So 'selling' in as much as we are trying to sell.
We rested it over the winter and put it back on the market again 6 weeks ago. Same story. 2 viewings in the first week, nothing since and neither were procedable.
We are about to drop the price and change agent. If that doesn't work (and we aren't expecting miracles) we will hunker down and stay put. Financially we would lose too much to justify downsizing if we drop much more.
There is definitely not a lot of optimism out there, or many people wanting to climb the property ladder. The aspiration seems to be to scrape onto a rung of the ladder and sit there.
Everything we have looked at over the last 12 months to move to is still on the market too. Seems to be a total market shutdown, but it isn't really resulting in price deflation because nobody can afford to take the hit. Definitely price stagnation, and certainly not inflation, but not so much deflation either.
I popped onto Rightmove to have a browse and spotted their suggested interest rate on the affordability calculator has jumped from 4.5 to 5.33%.
^ could cause people to lose interest.
An update on ours: on the market to sell (at what I thought was a lowish price) for 12 weeks and we had 4 viewings. On the market to rent (at what I think is a steepish price) for 3 days and we've got 8 viewings booked.
But as I say to our agent - the only thing I know about property is that I don't know anything about property so that's why we employ them.
My niece is selling in Exmouth.
Her boyfriend is selling in Belper.
My daughters boyfriend is selling in Doncaster.
All very slow. The only one with real interest is the cheap one in Doncaster which is just waiting for a survey to be done.
My only exposure is to the Exmouth property market, but its always quiet from October - April, well priced and nice houses will sell quickly, but overpriced or not very nice houses wont and due to the low volume of new houses being listed, it makes these houses seem like they've been listed for ages, which can some times be true too!
Now the warmer weather is here, I've seen the volume of new houses being listed increase, already seen some nice and well priced stuff go quickly.
I was actually looking to buy recently and the recent interest rate increases put me off and now we're renovating when I was entirely against it, I imagine many others who need to borrow more don't want to do so at the current peak of interest rates!
