RentaBear Posted May 5, 2014 Share Posted May 5, 2014 As even the media are rather bearish at the moment, it seems possible that the HPC we've all been waiting for is about to happen. Assuming that most people on here actually do want to buy a house at some point, when is the best time to buy on the way down? I guess the two main options are to haggle hard soon, and hope the seller has enough fear/foresight to see that prices will be lower in the future, or to just sit and wait and hope to buy closer to the bottom. I can see pros and cons of each option, but I'm interested what the rest of you think. Ta. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RentaBear Posted May 8, 2014 Author Share Posted May 8, 2014 One of the places I was watching just dropped 10% and switched from 'Guide Price' to 'Offers Over' - does this usually mean they'd accept the OO price + a tiny bit, or are they still expecting to get near to the guide price, but are desperate to get people to bother viewing / bidding? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Bear Posted May 10, 2014 Share Posted May 10, 2014 One of the places I was watching just dropped 10% and switched from 'Guide Price' to 'Offers Over' - does this usually mean they'd accept the OO price + a tiny bit, or are they still expecting to get near to the guide price, but are desperate to get people to bother viewing / bidding? I guess so much will depend on how much interest there is/how many viewings, etc. Some people have to learn the hard way that 'offers over' does not guarantee that anyone is actually going to offer it. Ditto with 'fixed price'. Also obviously depends on the state of the market in your area, feeding frenzy or stagnant. Relatives of mine recently had an old aunt's house on the market for ages - NW Scotland. EA was honest enough to admit that the market was completely dead and it could take an awful long time. It was at least 8 months with barely a sniff - they eventually accepted an offer way below AP, and thankful to get that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RentaBear Posted May 11, 2014 Author Share Posted May 11, 2014 I guess so much will depend on how much interest there is/how many viewings, etc. Some people have to learn the hard way that 'offers over' does not guarantee that anyone is actually going to offer it. Ditto with 'fixed price'. Also obviously depends on the state of the market in your area, feeding frenzy or stagnant. Relatives of mine recently had an old aunt's house on the market for ages - NW Scotland. EA was honest enough to admit that the market was completely dead and it could take an awful long time. It was at least 8 months with barely a sniff - they eventually accepted an offer way below AP, and thankful to get that. Cheers - we did actually view both the one that dropped 10% and switched to OIEO and another one which was still the price the first had dropped from. I guess the OIEO thing had worked for place one - we met another lot of people on our way in, and there were more folk due to arrive just after we left. Very nice place, but not quite right for us unfortunately. Second place was a bit of a shocker in terms of presentation, but sleeping on it, could probably make a very nice home for us with a bit of cosmetic work. The price though is IMO going to be the issue - we were shown round by the vendors who seemed nice but oblivious to the fact that other places within 5% of the price were immaculate. Not sure what to do now - and I guess the estate agents will be after me for offers on Monday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hirop Posted May 16, 2014 Share Posted May 16, 2014 (edited) I would say the best time would be with a wedge of cash at an auction house, in the absolutely belly of the beast when mortgage finance is rare and expensive due to interest rates being many multiple of the current clownshoe bank rate. With a healthy deposit now, and the patience of a saint you could pull it off. It might be a few years away but it might be next month. But repo fever flooding the auction houses is what you need. Thats not what we have just now, not by a long way, as all us folks who are enabled in this market (us lot with our big deposits and decent salaries, could if we wanted to is what i mean to say) can still borrow and buy if we want. When the rates make us too scared to exercise that choice, well then it will repo-time for any forced sellers. London and SE - no idea if this will apply proportionally or not, and if so if it brings houses within reach of mortgage free buys. Rest of country will be fine, good family houses for normal salary multuiples again. Edited May 16, 2014 by hirop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RentaBear Posted May 18, 2014 Author Share Posted May 18, 2014 I would say the best time would be with a wedge of cash at an auction house, in the absolutely belly of the beast when mortgage finance is rare and expensive due to interest rates being many multiple of the current clownshoe bank rate. With a healthy deposit now, and the patience of a saint you could pull it off. It might be a few years away but it might be next month. But repo fever flooding the auction houses is what you need. Thats not what we have just now, not by a long way, as all us folks who are enabled in this market (us lot with our big deposits and decent salaries, could if we wanted to is what i mean to say) can still borrow and buy if we want. When the rates make us too scared to exercise that choice, well then it will repo-time for any forced sellers. London and SE - no idea if this will apply proportionally or not, and if so if it brings houses within reach of mortgage free buys. Rest of country will be fine, good family houses for normal salary multuiples again. I'm not that patient TBH, I think they'll keep the financial repression going for a while with low interest rates and I'm extremely worried of being 'bailed-in' and having my deposit fund simply stolen to 'save' the banks just like they did in Cyprus... I put in an offer at 15% under asking on a place which I think had an over-optimistic asking price, and had it rejected within about an hour. Didn't get a counter offer at all, just an its too low, which IMO is a bit arsey! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StainlessSteelCat Posted May 20, 2014 Share Posted May 20, 2014 I'd agree with the previous poster about patience. Even in a falling market like we have in North Wales, there are plenty of deluded people out there. Also plenty more who simply cannot sell at a lower price. It took us two years to find the place which was the perfect combination of us liking it, price and desperate seller. Property Bee revealed all to us. The seller had started off at £140K, and then reduced it by £5-10K month. By the time we saw it, it was at £115K. We offered £90K and settled at £95K. Every other place we saw wouldn't/couldn't budget from £5K off - even on places at £150K. In my experience, most people are simply not up for negotiating even a small amount off their asking price because that's all they ever managed themselves. Seriously, it's a pitiful reflection on the nation as a whole as we simply don't routinely haggle or negotiate for anything - and so don't expect it. Avoid anyone who has been on the market for years. They have no real intention of selling the house and are simply hoping to win the lottery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StainlessSteelCat Posted May 20, 2014 Share Posted May 20, 2014 (edited) double post. Edited May 20, 2014 by StainlessSteelCat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RentaBear Posted June 3, 2014 Author Share Posted June 3, 2014 Well, looks like I'll have to be patient anyway - had further offers rejected - I was hopeful they might take 10% off, but they rejected that and 93% so I'm walking away. Estate agent sounded a bit dispondant to me - these were the only bids that had ever been made on that place... I guess some people really do only believe a good price is <5k off the asking, regardless of the actual ticket price! Other places in the same area at similar prices are not shifting, I guess we'll just watch and wait for the owners to become increasingly desperate! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RentaBear Posted June 11, 2014 Author Share Posted June 11, 2014 And now they've relisted at offers over 97% of the original asking price - I literally laughed out loud when I saw it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hp72 Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 A huge house near to us has been up for 11 months now at £1,150,000. Actually a large place (>500m2, 1 Acre garden, 70's Architect design comparable to Frank Lloyd Wright) We tentatively enquired about an offer <£999,999 and was told "We're taking it off the market and putting it back on at £1,300,000 as prices have risen. It's my pension you know." Insane! We'll wait for a year or two and then offer <£800k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RentaBear Posted June 22, 2014 Author Share Posted June 22, 2014 Well, I wish you a lot of luck with that - I'm just hoping a fall in prices won't just cause supply to dry up. The place I was bidding on just went SSTC - looks like there are still plenty of bigger fools than me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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