luigi Posted September 27, 2010 Share Posted September 27, 2010 (edited) Went on an assisted viewing at the weekend in Norfolk area. Started off really well when almost first thing agent said was ' vendor is open to offers'. Conversation later got onto our position, said we sold last summer and currently renting, she came back with 'Oooh, you did well then, the market's dead now, vendors are having to accept really low offers'. She said the problem with most is that they can't afford to drop because they owe too much on the mortgage, and not just recent FTBs but people who bought 10 years ago (MEWed it all away). Agreed that the house we were viewing was still overpriced even though it had been recently reduced, but that it was the vendor that set the price and that she had recommended that it be reduced double what it had been reduced by. Later said she remembers the 90's crash when she first started out, thinks it going to get as bad again with lots of repos,etc. Wondering why we she was so refreshingly honest, not in denial or trying to keep up bullish appearances. Turns out she has only been doing sales for last 6 months, branched out from a purely lettings agency, which is bringing in the bread and butter. As her business isn't dependent on making sales, it's just abit of bunce, there's no vested interest in trying to talk things up and she's free to be honest and tell it like it is. What a breath of fresh air, trouble is, it's made me less inclined to try and force the situation with regards to pushing for discounts on optimistic asking prices with other agents who are still trying the bullish spin. Best to let them all fester for a while, see how it plays itself out. If people don't like the message, they always want to shoot the messenger, I'd rather it not be me! Edited September 27, 2010 by luigi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim123 Posted September 27, 2010 Share Posted September 27, 2010 Went on an assisted viewing at the weekend in Norfolk area. Started off really well when almost first thing agent said was ' vendor is open to offers'. Conversation later got onto our position, said we sold last summer and currently renting, she came back with 'Oooh, you did well then, the market's dead now, vendors are having to accept really low offers'. She said the problem with most is that they can't afford to drop because they owe too much on the mortgage, and not just recent FTBs but people who bought 10 years ago (MEWed it all away). I wish I met EAs like that I'm a cash buyer and they ought to be falling over themselves to help me find the right place. But almost everything that they are showing me is 30K overpriced (even on current pricing) waiting for the person who falls in love with it and offers over the odds to get it. As soon as they learn that I am never going to be that person they drop me from their list like a hot potato tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted September 27, 2010 Share Posted September 27, 2010 Can we have some prices here, how much it was on for initially, how much it has been reduced by so we can work out what the EA was suggesting reducing it by? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luigi Posted September 27, 2010 Author Share Posted September 27, 2010 Can we have some prices here, how much it was on for initially, how much it has been reduced by so we can work out what the EA was suggesting reducing it by? Had been on previously for £159,950 with another agent. Marketed in June for £158k, reduced to £155k in September, agent wanted down at £149 asking, then expecting offers below that. Not huge amounts in absolute terms, but the fact she was telling me all this as a potential buyer is what surprised me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted September 27, 2010 Share Posted September 27, 2010 Had been on previously for £159,950 with another agent. Marketed in June for £158k, reduced to £155k in September, agent wanted down at £149 asking, then expecting offers below that. Not huge amounts in absolute terms, but the fact she was telling me all this as a potential buyer is what surprised me! Good stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gilf Posted September 28, 2010 Share Posted September 28, 2010 Personally I have never understood the talking up mentality of the Estate Agents, given the commission in real terms is low I would have thought you would want more sales rather than higher prices. For example the commission difference between your example is about £100, surely it would be better to be getting in £1400 a month rather than £1500 every two months. I suppose it is because they are salesmen and for some reason salesmen can never be honest even when it might actually get them some commission. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheIncomer Posted September 28, 2010 Share Posted September 28, 2010 Personally I have never understood the talking up mentality of the Estate Agents, given the commission in real terms is low I would have thought you would want more sales rather than higher prices. For example the commission difference between your example is about £100, surely it would be better to be getting in £1400 a month rather than £1500 every two months. I suppose it is because they are salesmen and for some reason salesmen can never be honest even when it might actually get them some commission. I think a bunch of them have in recent years believed their own hype and are up to their armpits in "property development". I know a couple around here (Cornwall) who are. So they are in a Catch-22:- they have to talk prices up to sell their developments at a profit, but at the same time they need to get prices down to get some revenue into their agency business. We are starting to get very carefully worded press guff from an agency which is trying to reconcile this doublethink. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustbinlidsid Posted September 28, 2010 Share Posted September 28, 2010 Had been on previously for £159,950 with another agent. Marketed in June for £158k, reduced to £155k in September, agent wanted down at £149 asking, then expecting offers below that. Not huge amounts in absolute terms, but the fact she was telling me all this as a potential buyer is what surprised me! Is 160K to 158K really worth it as a price cut? on a similar note I saw a house 'reduced' from 280K to oieo 270K. not really a 'reduction' in my book Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim123 Posted September 29, 2010 Share Posted September 29, 2010 Is 160K to 158K really worth it as a price cut? on a similar note I saw a house 'reduced' from 280K to oieo 270K. not really a 'reduction' in my book I was thinking the same thing. If I saw a house at 160k that I thought merited a max offer of 145k [1] I would have no problem making that offer. So ISTM that if the vendors haven't already received offers at the 145k mark, reducing the price to anything above this is not going to have an effect. [1] In most cases the offer that I want to make is 125K so I don't bother. tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobajobbob Posted September 30, 2010 Share Posted September 30, 2010 I wish I met EAs like that I'm a cash buyer and they ought to be falling over themselves to help me find the right place. But almost everything that they are showing me is 30K overpriced (even on current pricing) waiting for the person who falls in love with it and offers over the odds to get it. As soon as they learn that I am never going to be that person they drop me from their list like a hot potato tim Join the club. I'm a cash buyer currently renting. Can complete and move tomorrow. I've shown interest and offers on a number of houses, had the offers poo pooed by the agent. The house then goes under offer and 3 months later is back on the market because the so called "buyer" doesn't have any money or needs to sell his/her own place at crazy valuation in order to buy. Has the penny dropped? Are the agents banging down my door, buying me drinks, wooing me with early viewings on all new instructions? Are they f*ck. I can wait. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jplevene Posted October 1, 2010 Share Posted October 1, 2010 I too once had an honest Estate Agent on a viewing and insisted that she show us on all that agent's viewings. She told me that vendors just don't listen to agents on price or price drops, loads of sales are falling through due to overpriced properties and vendors refusing to lower price to anything even near to the Surveyor's valuation. I had one that hadn't seen the house. I arrived before him and as he arrived he very shockingly mentioned his amazement to the overpricing of the property. We both didn't even bother going in. That house never sold, vendor built the worlds ugliest extension, so much so that the neighbours all complained. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris G Posted October 4, 2010 Share Posted October 4, 2010 (edited) Friends of mine was recently in Spain looking at houses and the agent said to them that the market was now bottoming out. The problem was the same agent said the exact same thing to them 6 months earlier! Northern Ireland Property Edited October 4, 2010 by Chris G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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