house prices drop 10% in 4 months..

That wasnt a 'price' that was an offer, the price is what you actually sell it for. There are many reasons why a house wont sell, prce is only one of them, have you asked for feedback, it might be something you could fix rather than just relentlessly dropping the price? Many years ago I visited a house 3 times but then decided not to buy, I was amazed that even though I was obviously interested enough to visit 3 times, the agent never called me to ask why we didnt make an offer, what we didnt like, or if a small price drop might tempt me, or anything at all.

thanks tumble..

the feedback seems to be silly things.. the agent tells me 'they really liked the house' everytime..

no jokes.. this is the feedback from one of the agents..

'she really liked it but was loking on behalf of a friend' 'he really liked it but looked at 7 houses with us today' 'she really liked it but after looking at 5 houses said she wasnt sure if she wanted to move'

i blame the agent more than the viewers! now i am with 2 agents so fingers crossed.

the house is brand newly renovated to highish standard. the only thing i could think of to put people off is the small back and front garden, downstairs bathroom and that it is unfurnished, particularly wardrobes in the bedrooms (fitted or otherwise)

i cant change the garden / bathroom so maybe i should think about furnishing it for the sale..

A few things occur...go and see some similar nearby houses ..what standard of decor are they compared to yours (inc furniture)...what sort of gardens..and do yours look good or like they need some heavy digging? ....what prices (similar?)...also, an empty house can definitely look cold and unloved and also give rise to a 'fear'..."hmm, how come they cant sell it (since its unfurnished obviously they moved out) so whats wrong with it"? I think you 'know' almost straight away if you want to buy a house and you are less likely to get that good feeling when walking around a set of empty rooms.it seems cold and unloved to most people who dont have the imagination to see how they could look*..thats why they have show homes with nice furniture and dressed up to the nines, and not just an empty house.

Personally I'd prefer to see the empty rooms to get an idea how much space there is for my furniture.

Indeed you might, but most people wouldnt, or even if they think they would the psychological effect of looking at an empty house might well make them think 'yes my furniture might fit but I didnt like it anyway"!

i feel a very exciting ng game developing here. can we have some sort of sweepstakes ?

I guess you will sell for 150,000.

a pure guess mind you.

My impression is that even those watching pretty closely have not yet realised it.. Most 'watchers' are high on the opium of the Halifax figures.

'Fraid so. I've taken, what I believe is, an enormous hit. But it's that or sit tight and watch the market descend further into the cellar. But for me there is a silver lining as I am moving to a different part of the country where the price differential (in my favour, obviously) is keeping pace. So where properties are losing value where I am selling, they are also losing value where I want to buy, and the differential that was there a year ago is still there, more or less.

Once I've moved, the market can do what the heck it likes, as I shall be staying put for several years at least. The market can yo-yo down then back up again in that period.

MM

That may all very well be true in the general sense. But in *this* market situation, right now, the market is dead because first-time buyers have been frightened away. Without them, not a lot can happen.

MM

Exactly so! I would as well. But I have a feeling that Tumbleweed could be right, too, certainly with regard to some viewers. However, the problem is that one doesn't really KNOW!! I, too, had all kinds of positive feedback, either from viewers or from the agent. The only negative feedback I got was 'the house is too small'. People simply will not tell what they really think as they do not want to ruffle feathers or hurt one's feelings.

I have now sold subject to contract, and to whom? Why, a couple from two streets away! I didn't need to 'sell' the locality, the catchment area, the proximity to a town, yet still in a village, and so on. They already knew all that. Living two streets away, they know the area intimately. All they wanted was to move from a 2-bed to a 3-bed house and carry on with their lives, and my property fitted the bill. I've already forgotten about all the esoteric viewers out of area, Northampton, Middlesex, Surrey, even.

Also, maybe the most valuable lesson of all: Try your damndest to sell locally if at all possible. I should have leafleted every house in the village months ago. It would have cost me a couple of hundred quid in printing costs, but I reckon I would have found half-a-dozen would-be buyers for whom moving to the other end of the village wouldn't have seemed like too daunting a prospect.

MM

In message , Peter Pann writes

Whilst your price may have dropped, it is almost certain that your "value" has not.

Estate agents are notorious for telling a seller what they think he needs to hear to get the business. They are not actually providing a valuation, rather they are proposing an asking price. In a rising market this is generally fine, and you can even argue that they are doing the right thing in attempting to forecast the foreseeable future.

However, if this has happened, (and you can be sure it has), and the market slows, or stops, your "value" will not rise to meet your "price", so your price has to drop to meet your value.

I remember buying a wreck in 2001 for £40K, thinking that after spending £25K, it would sell for £80K - a nice little profit.

In the event, the work was more extensive than expected, took a year, and cost £45K - but it sold for £150K. It's now worth around £230K.

This rate of rise has to stop, and if your agents were continuing to forecast the same rate of rise, and it has stopped, your situation is no surprise.

"Jonathan Bryce" wrote

Agreed - and not forgetting that furniture can "cover-up" untold problems that you'll find later after you move in ...

,,,that the surveyor ought to notice, but almost certainly won't.

You'll find his small print will cover that. I am aware of one instance where in an attic the vendor piled his junk against the chimney breast. The brickwork was crumbling and the surveyor wasn't able to see it. Naturally the small print included inaccessible areas.

The first house I bought, the surveyor didn't bother to open what was "obviously" a cupboard door. It led to a medium sized bedroom with window and wash hand basin. He also didn't notice that there were four layers of linoleum in the bathroom, and that the "orange peel" fragments at the edges of linoleum were the wet rot fungus escaping yet again from the latest layer of linoleum.

"Sam Nelson" wrote

You'll generally find that surveyors :-

(A) Won't move furniture because (1) it is heavy and he is on his own; and (2) the current owners may not be happy (eg if something is damaged in the process!); and (B) Won't pull-up carpets etc - because he is not a carpet-fitter and so is unable to replace fully-fitted carpets properly; etc etc

... and each of these is declared in the Report.

...thus making surveys a complete waste of money. Anyone here could do such a survey; 'looked at the wallpaper, looked alright, looked at the carpet, its a bit tatty, owners wouldnt let me in the roof in case I put my foot through the ceiling, wouldnt let me have a piss in case I sprayed it on the floor, its summer so the central heating wasnt on, so in summary I was unable to ascertain the actual condition of the walls or floor or roof or plumbing so if there are any problems with any of them them I cant be blamed. That'll be 1,000 please.'

This is probably because they are based upon completions. This is going to be three to four months behind what happening to offers.

tim

Probably because it's common to get negative comments back.

I once told a seller that I though the fitted cupboards took up far too much of the room that they were in. I got a grumpy "I like my cupboards" back and a sour look as I inspected the rest of his house.

tim