Trying To Sell

[Rusty]

I have a friend who bought a house in a small northern village six years ago. Paid £50000 for it. OK she has spent quite a bit doing it up (central heating, new windows, etc. etc.) Now she wants to sell. The house is on the market for £270000 and is not selling. There have been a couple of viewings over the past 6 months but the only offer was £15000 under the asking price. What I don't understand is that there is no mortgage on the house and even if we allow £50000 for the costs of doing the place up (which I think is quite a bit more than she actually spent), any price over £100000 would be sheer profit so why not sell for £190000 (orless) and pocket the profit? House prices are definitely falling so it would be easier to buy something else, especially with cash in hand.

I think this is basically the problem today. People who've seen the price of their property shoot through the roof this past couple of years seem to have totally forgotten what the prices were like prior to the crazy increases that have taken place. They still seem to hang on to the notion that if the house was worth "X" thousands of pounds a year ago,then it is worth equally as much today.

By the way, has anyone ever considered that if all the ads. on the TV that are concerned with loans and credit were removed, the advertising breaks would be considerably shorter!! (wouldn't be enough time for a pee-break )

[IPOD]

Paid £50000 for it. ...she wants to sell it for £270000

As a buyer, two words spring immediately to mind when I hear that: F**K OFF.

The title of this thread is wrong; she is not trying to sell, she is trying to take the piss.

[djchewmacca]

As a buyer, two words spring immediately to mind when I hear that: F**K OFF.

The title of this thread is wrong; she is not trying to sell, she is trying to take the piss.

This is very similar to what happened to us.

There's this guy who bought a second house a good few years back for about £15k. He had rented it out for a good couple of years and when the house prices shot up he decided to sell it for £79,000. Obviously he didn't get it. It had been on the market for almost 2 years and he reduced it down to £68k. He kind of knows my partner, he has know her since she was a kid so you would think he would do us a favour by letting us have the house a little cheaper as we are FTB'ers. To be comfortable we could afford to pay £50k or a push £60k. We put an offer in for £50k, he didn't accept even though he would be still making a massive profit, we put another offer in for 60k, he wouldn't accept that. Me and my partner had a long discussion and we decided we would push ourselves right to the limit. We offered him £65k that's 3k less than asking. He turned us down because he had a private buyer who was willing to pay £65k so that he wouldn't have to pay the EA any commission.

I have never known anyone who could be so greedy. People like him make me sick.

Edited October 3, 2005 by djchewmacca

[Algie]

This is very similar to what happened to us.

There's this guy who bought a second house a good few years back for about £15k. He had rented it out for a good couple of years and when the house prices shot up he decided to sell it for £79,000. Obviously he didn't get it. It had been on the market for almost 2 years and he reduced it down to £68k. He kind of knows my partner, he has know her since she was a kid so you would think he would do us a favour by letting us have the house a little cheaper as we are FTB'ers. To be comfortable we could afford to pay £50k or a push £60k. We put an offer in for £50k, he didn't accept even though he would be still making a massive profit, we put another offer in for 60k, he wouldn't accept that. Me and my partner had a long discussion and we decided we would push ourselves right to the limit. We offered him £65k that's 3k less than asking. He turned us down because he had a private buyer who was willing to pay £65k.

I have never known anyone who could be so greedy. He never lived in the house as it's a second home.

People like him make me sick.

well I'd go tell him to put his £65k where the sun don't shine !! He has obviously picked up on the fact that you are very interested in the house and could well have invented the other buyer. Tell him you will give him £60k max and take it or leave and then walk away - if there is another buyer let them be ripped off. The danger of going more than this is you may well find when you go for a mortgage that your lender values to lower than the asking price - it sounds like he is trying to rip you or someone else off

having said all that, I'd actually wait while yet to buy, there are too many signs that things are are on the way down....

[Justice]

i for one in the last crash chased property prices down and lost a ton by not biting the bullet when i should had.

the point here is that this boom is even bigger so the crash is going to be much worse, good i learnt my lesson then and not now

[mercsl]

Rusty,

Why don't you also go and ask her to tell her employer that she was paid much less six years ago and she would be happy to take a nice pay cut What hair brained thinking!

Why does she not have the right to try to get the best price possible for her place?

Yes she might need to cut the price a bit if she wants to sell quickly but on the other hand she may well get her buyer. She has no mortgage so she can wait even. If she stuck it just under the stamp duty threshold it would would have an easier time of it I suspect, she's not north enough of 250k for buyers to pay £270K.

50K+ is hard to save up and you want her to just give it away like a mug. Give away your own place at a bargin basement price and get nominated for saint hood....

Edited October 3, 2005 by mercsl

[khali]

I have a friend who bought a house in a small northern village six years ago. Paid £50000 for it. OK she has spent quite a bit doing it up (central heating, new windows, etc. etc.) Now she wants to sell. The house is on the market for £270000 and is not selling. There have been a couple of viewings over the past 6 months but the only offer was £15000 under the asking price. What I don't understand is that there is no mortgage on the house and even if we allow £50000 for the costs of doing the place up (which I think is quite a bit more than she actually spent), any price over £100000 would be sheer profit so why not sell for £190000 (orless) and pocket the profit? House prices are definitely falling so it would be easier to buy something else, especially with cash in hand.

I think this is basically the problem today. People who've seen the price of their property shoot through the roof this past couple of years seem to have totally forgotten what the prices were like prior to the crazy increases that have taken place. They still seem to hang on to the notion that if the house was worth "X" thousands of pounds a year ago,then it is worth equally as much today.

By the way, has anyone ever considered that if all the ads. on the TV that are concerned with loans and credit were removed, the advertising breaks would be considerably shorter!! (wouldn't be enough time for a pee-break )

Just had a brief conversation with a friend who's put his house on the market a week ago. He's adamant that he'll only accept top dollar or he's pulling the for sale sign down at the end of the month and will wait until 'things pick up in the new year'. ouch.

I think his decisions are being largely dictated by his OH, as he will be whacked for early redemption fees if he does sell soon and he would prefer to wait. never mind

[Van]

Don't worry. She will probably sell at the bottom of the market... like most others who are hanging on at the moment.

[MarkG]

50K+ is hard to save up and you want her to just give it away like a mug.

She's giving up nothing, as she never had it. What _YOU_ want is for some mug of an FTB to stump up an extra 50k for a declining asset so she can get a nice tax-free sum for doing nothing.

[Catch22]

. There have been a couple of viewings over the past 6 months but the only offer was £15000 under the asking price. What I don't understand is that there is no mortgage on the house and even if we allow £50000 for the costs of doing the place up (which I think is quite a bit more than she actually spent), any price over £100000 would be sheer profit so why not sell for £190000 (orless) and pocket the profit?

I've an even better idea why doesn't she sell it for the the 255K she was offered .................jeez go on tell me I'm being sarcastic.....and in anycase you've done a degree course in finance and know selling for 190K makes better financial sense than selling for 255K

Look lads get over it, the "Market" is what the "Market" is prepared to pay at any given time now or in the future. To expect somebody to take less than the Market is prepared to pay, is quiet frankly the rantings of an idiot in my book. Now some of you might not like this concept of asset apprerciation, but thats life. And I'm begining to think some of you guy's are going to have some serious soul searching to do if you ever buy into the housing market and then are confronted with the problem of selling above what you consider to be a moral profit.......yer right pull the other on

If its any consolation, I think she was lucky to find somebody willing to pay just over the 250K stamp duty ceiling, and dumb for not biting their hand off. And like another post implied, she even sounds dumb enough to follow this market all the way to the bottom.

Edited October 3, 2005 by Catch22

[MarkG]

To expect somebody to take less than the Market is prepared to pay, is quiet frankly the rantings of an idiot in my book.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as I see it they're _refusing_ to sell for 'what the market is prepared to pay' and expecting the market to pay more. Who's the idiot here?

[Catch22]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as I see it they're _refusing_ to sell for 'what the market is prepared to pay' and expecting the market to pay more. Who's the idiot here?

Mark I altered my post prior to seeing your latest entry [i was distracted prior to the US opening] Your are indeed totally correct in what you say, I realised after posting originally that I best add that she to was being an idiot IMO.

But multipule idiots don't by definition a financial genius make

Edited October 3, 2005 by Catch22

[Guest KingCharles1st]

i for one in the last crash chased property prices down and lost a ton by not biting the bullet when i should had.

I have that particular T shirt too.

I also saw my ex father in law do eactly the same thing- but he was a selfish **** so I'm now happy to see he lost a packet (the sort of people with a time share in Antigua, but buy Tesco's economy brand cornflakes cos they are "exactly the same" apparently..)

I'm renting and waiting, renting and waiting, ren........

[BuyingBear]

This is very similar to what happened to us.

There's this guy who bought a second house a good few years back for about £15k. He had rented it out for a good couple of years and when the house prices shot up he decided to sell it for £79,000. Obviously he didn't get it. It had been on the market for almost 2 years and he reduced it down to £68k. He kind of knows my partner, he has know her since she was a kid so you would think he would do us a favour by letting us have the house a little cheaper

Nobody owes you a free lunch mate.

Look around here, there are stories of parents who push out kids so they stand on their own two feet without any support, kinda harsh.

[djchewmacca]

Nobody owes you a free lunch mate.

Look around here, there are stories of parents who push out kids so they stand on their own two feet without any support, kinda harsh.

I'm not prepared to spend the rest of my life in poverty just for a house. And why should I pay a top price when most of these people bought really cheap?

[BuyingBear]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as I see it they're _refusing_ to sell for 'what the market is prepared to pay' and expecting the market to pay more. Who's the idiot here?

That too is a function of the market, it obviously wont sell until she adjusts her expectations. Me thinks people on here should read up on game theory.

I'm not prepared to spend the rest of my life in poverty just for a house. And why should I pay a top price when most of these people bought really cheap?

Then don't buy a house, if the property sells for £65k then clearly that's the market value at the current moment in time, you have to accept that, you can't expect the seller to give it to you for £50k because you're a nice guy, regardless of how much he paid for it.

Why do car companies charge thousands for a motor when they only had to buy bits of plastic and steel? That's the system we live under, if you're unable to deal with this then it will cause you some real problems in the future.

I think some people are deluded by the education system and quite shocked when faced with the real world, nobody owes you anything, the world doesn't owe you a property. Even after a crash the days of being able to pick up a good property for £15k are long gone, my parents had to pay more than that in the 70's. You need to accept this, I certainly have, even after a crash you will be paying more than 10 years ago.

Edited October 3, 2005 by BuyingBear

[djchewmacca]

That too is a function of the market, it obviously wont sell until she adjusts her expectations. Me thinks people on here should read up on game theory.

Then don't buy a house, if the property sells for £65k then clearly that's the market value at the current moment in time, you have to accept that, you can't expect the seller to give it to you for £50k because you're a nice guy, regardless of how much he paid for it.

Why do car companies charge thousands for a motor when they only had to buy bits of plastic and steel? That's the system we live under, if you're unable to deal with this then it will cause you some real problems in the future.

I think some people are deluded by the education system and quite shocked when faced with the real world, nobody owes you anything, the world doesn't owe you a property. Even after a crash the days of being able to pick up a good property for £15k are long gone, my parents had to pay more than that in the 70's. You need to accept this, I certainly have, even after a crash you will be paying more than 10 years ago.

You see the problem is this. We simply CANNOT afford to pay these ridiculous high house prices been a FTB'er and I also feel that I am not alone. There are plenty of people like myself who simply cannot afford it. And to get a huge mortgage would cripple me financially. What would happen if interest rates rise? Again, you would be paying more. I would have sweet F**K All to my name. So why would I and any other FTB'er want to buy now? Something really has got to change.

Edited October 3, 2005 by djchewmacca

[BuyingBear]

You see the problem is this. We simply CANNOT afford to pay these ridiculous high house prices been a FTB and I also feel that I am not alone. There are plenty of people like myself who simply cannot afford it.

This will be reflected in the market eventually, a market without new blood is stagnant, once the BTL'er who have substituted for FTB'ers for so long fall by the wayside due to poor returns then the underpinnings of the market will go with it. There are thousands of people priced out, this is good it means the market has overshot itself and will correct, if it was just you alone priced out then that would be a problem but you're not unique.

That house may only be worth £50k in the future, or less, but at the moment it's worth £65k, you can't rush these things, it's like a supertanker turning. The property market is sticky, it's never going to be as liquid as the stock markets even when the fear and panic of forced sellers sets in.

[Ignorant Steve]

You see the problem is this. We simply CANNOT afford to pay these ridiculous high house prices been a FTB'er and I also feel that I am not alone. There are plenty of people like myself who simply cannot afford it. And to get a huge mortgage would cripple me financially. What would happen if interest rates rise? Again, you would be paying more. I would have sweet F**K All to my name. So why would I and any other FTB'er want to buy now? Something really has got to change.

Yes, something has got to change.

1) House prices could fall

2) You could earn more by swapping careers

3) Both of the above at the same time.

It's your choice whether or not you take option 2.

[djchewmacca]

Yes, something has got to change.

1) House prices could fall

2) You could earn more by swapping careers

3) Both of the above at the same time.

It's your choice whether or not you take option 2.

The point is that not everyone can change their career that easy.

And what would happen if everyone decided that they want to improve their career prospects.

Who would do all the lower paid jobs? We still need people to do these jobs.

Personally, I really enjoy my job. I know it's not the best paid jobs but I love it. I have cushy hours, the job's relatively easy and I don't bring it home with me.

At the end of the day, money is not be everything, well is shouldn't have to be. An average wage should be able to buy an average house. I don't expect to buy a massive detatched property. I would be quite happy to settle down in a normal house in a half decent area where my daughter can play.

Edited October 3, 2005 by djchewmacca

[BuyingBear]

Personally, I really enjoy my job. I know it's not the best paid jobs but I love it. I have cushy hours, the job's relatively easy. At the end of the day, money shouldn't be everything.

Life isn't easy, it requires some effort, basically it sounds like you want a property for not much effort like it is some kind of right, is this attitude any different to the bloke who wants £50k profit on this house for not much effort?

Lots of people have improved their own prospects including lots of women who have joined the work force, this has created immense purchasing power (or borrowing power) and is partly why properties have been driven up in the price.

[djchewmacca]

Wanna see a piece of sh.ite?

£59,950

In need of up dating this 2 bedroom end terraced house is likely to appeal to a young family and over looks a green belt area. The property is well placed for local amenities and early inspection is recommended

-------------------

Quote... "appeal to a young family'

I recently had a look at this property. I wouldn't house a dog in it. The whole house needs sorting out. We were considering purchasing expecting just to replace the windows. If we were to buy it, we wouldn't have had any money to sort it out. It's shocking!!!

[Ignorant Steve]

The point is that not everyone can change their career that easy.

And what would happen if everyone decided that they want to improve their career prospects.

Who would do all the lower paid jobs? We still need people to do these jobs.

Personally, I really enjoy my job. I know it's not the best paid jobs but I love it. I have cushy hours, the job's relatively easy and I don't bring it home with me.

At the end of the day, money is not be everything, well is shouldn't have to be. An average wage should be able to buy an average house. I don't expect to buy a massive detatched property. I would be quite happy to settle down in a normal house in a half decent area where my daughter can play.

Ah well if you won't make an effort to improve your situation then expect no sympathy from the market place. Plenty of other people are prepared to work just a little bit harder to get what they want.

[djchewmacca]

Life isn't easy, it requires some effort, basically it sounds like you want a property for not much effort like it is some kind of right, is this attitude any different to the bloke who wants £50k profit on this house for not much effort?

Lots of people have improved their own prospects including lots of women who have joined the work force, this has created immense purchasing power (or borrowing power) and is partly why properties have been driven up in the price.

Well I say my job is easy. It's easy for me as I know the job. But to someone else they would find it quite difficult.

[BuyingBear]

I recently had a look at this property. I wouldn't house a dog in it. The whole house needs sorting out. We were considering purchasing expecting just to replace the windows. If we were to buy it, we wouldn't have had any money to sort it out. It's shocking!!!

I wouldn't touch this market with a barge pole, we're not going to return to any sort of normality until the sellers adjust their expectations, or are forced to by the grim face of reality, that property is the grim face of reality!

Having your offers rejected in this market can be considered a huge blessing in disguise.

Remember though there's always going to be a nicer property and there's always going to be somebody who has more cash, such is life.