Are They All Mad?

[otters]

I have been watching every day, on right move, an area I would like to move to.

I went to see a house, some 18 months ago advertised at a price of £325K, a look at the outside was enough for me not to pursue it, for that kind of dosh I expected better.

It vanished from rightmove to appear weeks later at £310k. Ah! I thought if it came down again to £300k maybe it could be bought for £275, and worth a look.

After 2 months of no takers it was removed again, only to reappear with a new EA at £329.900. Four weeks later it was STC. I'm now spitting feathers what dip sh%t was going to pay that price.

Last week it vanished from the rightmove website for a day. Back on now for £340K

[200p]

You're wasting your time with that vendor. Quickly move on if you see that kind of pattern.

Develop a quick filter system, and you should just concentrate on the real sellers or forced sellers, and ignore the kite flyers.

I'd say maybe 50% are kite flyers and not in a hurry to move unless the right price was achieved. People who need to move for work (even abroad), probably rent their homes out and or/buy another. Look for divorce or fire sale repossessions if possible.

Edited June 20, 2013 by out2lunch

[PricedOutNative]

Have you not heard; house prices are set to rocket by at least 20% as the taxpayer is willing to 'lend' people an extra 20%!

You need to watch/read the news more....

If you don't buy soon you will NEVER own a house and will be forced to rent for the rest of your days; you need to stop being so tight and max yourself out NOW!!!

[Fully Detached]

I've long been of the opinion that all estate agents suffer from some degree of mental retardation, and so I don't really bite too much at the idiocy that they tend to get up to. But some of the buyers drive me insane.

There's an amazingly large number of people who seem to think that the asking price is what you have to pay, and would negotiate no more than they would for a tin of beans in Tesco. And that mentality feeds through to many of the vendors (probably the same dipshits that paid full asking price when they bought).

A friend of mine is a good example - paid £275k in 2009 for an extended 3 bed semi, ignoring words of caution from nearly all of his friends. Obviously feeling a bit cocky about it the other day, he told me the story of how he'd had to go the full asking price, because the bloke "told" him that he had another potential buyer. Then he did that sucking air in through his teeth thing, and told me that it must be worth £330k by now. When I asked exactly what he had based that assumption on, he told me that one of his neighbours had just put theirs on at £330k, so that must be what it was "worth".

He's spent a lot of cash doing the place up too - but it's still an extended 3 bed semi, and in my opinion, worth no more than £250k. I'm sure some tw4t will come along and pay £330 for the neighbour's place though, just to prove me wrong.

Edited June 20, 2013 by Fully Detached

[Giordano Bruno]

Have you not heard; house prices are set to rocket by at least 20% as the taxpayer is willing to 'lend' people an extra 20%!

You need to watch/read the news more....

If you don't buy soon you will NEVER own a house and will be forced to rent for the rest of your days; you need to stop being so tight and max yourself out NOW!!!

[enrieb]

I have been watching every day, on right move, an area I would like to move to.

I went to see a house, some 18 months ago advertised at a price of £325K, a look at the outside was enough for me not to pursue it, for that kind of dosh I expected better.

It vanished from rightmove to appear weeks later at £310k. Ah! I thought if it came down again to £300k maybe it could be bought for £275, and worth a look.

After 2 months of no takers it was removed again, only to reappear with a new EA at £329.900. Four weeks later it was STC. I'm now spitting feathers what dip sh%t was going to pay that price.

Last week it vanished from the rightmove website for a day. Back on now for £340K

Self doubt, questioning your own sanity during troubled times is something that only sane people do, those who lack the capacity to self reflect are often mentally unbalanced individuals.

[eric pebble]

Have you not heard; house prices are set to rocket by at least 20% as the taxpayer is willing to 'lend' people an extra 20%!

You need to watch/read the news more....

If you don't buy soon you will NEVER own a house and will be forced to rent for the rest of your days; you need to stop being so tight and max yourself out NOW!!!

INCREDIBLE isn't it?!?

[Fully Detached]

It is a fascinating thing 'price anchoring'. Why £250k? That is still an extraordinary amount of money to save. Esp. when you poss. have interest on top.

You're quite right, I'm just becoming used to the ridiculous numbers.

To return to the OP, I'm seeing a very interesting situation in a small town near me. During the boom years there were several new developments built there, which have historically led to a relatively high turnover of houses in the area. In the past few weeks, I've noticed a lot more new builds coming on the market, and the developers are now busily trying to flog these off with the help of New Buy and whatever other props they qualify for.

It's adding up to a little micro-catastrophe. The developers are trying to sell 3 bed semis at about £230k, whereas the local average asking price for a non-new build would be about £180-200k maximum. This is encouraging some private vendors to dip their toes in the market at similar prices, turning what used to be one of the more reasonably priced areas around into one of the most ludicrously overpriced. It's led to a totally dysfunctional market.

There is so much available stock there now that my rightmove search yields 8 pages of results, where 2-3 is about average elsewhere. Developers are not dropping their asking prices, but presumably doing deals behind the scenes (if not, I pity the fools buying at asking price), leading to befuddled private vendors who can't understand why they aren't getting any viewings. Some vendors with more than three brain cells are now seeing the writing on the wall, and dropping their prices. An example of this is my RM email this morining, showing me two new houses for sale in this town:

1. Three bed semi, older build £239,000

2. Four bed semi, built 2008, £199,000

I'm watching this play out with great amusement. I guess something similar will be happening anywhere that developers are starting to use their land banks.

[19 year mortgage 8itch]

It is a fascinating thing 'price anchoring'. Why £250k? That is still an extraordinary amount of money to save. Esp. when you poss. have interest on top.

But why not? Despite any amount of rationalizing nothing major is happening. And you've got herd mentality of it cant go wrong as everyone else is doing it.

Pretty much everyone is in the same place and they just can't see the risks. It's like trying to hold back the tide.

[Allthatglitters]

You're quite right, I'm just becoming used to the ridiculous numbers.

To return to the OP, I'm seeing a very interesting situation in a small town near me. During the boom years there were several new developments built there, which have historically led to a relatively high turnover of houses in the area. In the past few weeks, I've noticed a lot more new builds coming on the market, and the developers are now busily trying to flog these off with the help of New Buy and whatever other props they qualify for.

It's adding up to a little micro-catastrophe. The developers are trying to sell 3 bed semis at about £230k, whereas the local average asking price for a non-new build would be about £180-200k maximum. This is encouraging some private vendors to dip their toes in the market at similar prices, turning what used to be one of the more reasonably priced areas around into one of the most ludicrously overpriced. It's led to a totally dysfunctional market.

There is so much available stock there now that my rightmove search yields 8 pages of results, where 2-3 is about average elsewhere. Developers are not dropping their asking prices, but presumably doing deals behind the scenes (if not, I pity the fools buying at asking price), leading to befuddled private vendors who can't understand why they aren't getting any viewings. Some vendors with more than three brain cells are now seeing the writing on the wall, and dropping their prices. An example of this is my RM email this morining, showing me two new houses for sale in this town:

1. Three bed semi, older build £239,000

2. Four bed semi, built 2008, £199,000

I'm watching this play out with great amusement. I guess something similar will be happening anywhere that developers are starting to use their land banks.

I live in a commuter town outside Glasgow and it's prett y much the same. Builders are doing lots of part exchanges to sell their over priced new builds and are flooding the market with older stock, driving down prices. Sales of older stock seemed stalled and prices are begining to slowly come down.

[Gigantic Purple Slug]

I have been watching every day, on right move, an area I would like to move to.

I went to see a house, some 18 months ago advertised at a price of £325K, a look at the outside was enough for me not to pursue it, for that kind of dosh I expected better.

It vanished from rightmove to appear weeks later at £310k. Ah! I thought if it came down again to £300k maybe it could be bought for £275, and worth a look.

After 2 months of no takers it was removed again, only to reappear with a new EA at £329.900. Four weeks later it was STC. I'm now spitting feathers what dip sh%t was going to pay that price.

Last week it vanished from the rightmove website for a day. Back on now for £340K

I see stuff like this in my place. The fact that it is going on probably tells you more about the state of the market than anything else. Especially if it is being sold by a speculator or agent (which it might well be). I think these guys play around with pricing all the time. They are in a position to see what prices people are paying in an area, whether there is an influx of buyers, whether there is a shortage of certain types of property, whether a factory has just closed and everyone is trying to sell etc. They'll adjust their price point accordingly. I guess the only negative for them is that in the good old days people wouldn't see this. Now there is so much information available a buyer looking for max value will spot this and question. Of course the housing market is inhabited by professionals and non professionals, so there is plenty of chance for their objectives to be met.

The concept of "mad" is pretty subjective. What is objective is whether it sells at that price or doesn't.

[otters]

I have been watching every day, on right move, an area I would like to move to.

I went to see a house, some 18 months ago advertised at a price of £325K, a look at the outside was enough for me not to pursue it, for that kind of dosh I expected better.

It vanished from rightmove to appear weeks later at £310k. Ah! I thought if it came down again to £300k maybe it could be bought for £275, and worth a look.

After 2 months of no takers it was removed again, only to reappear with a new EA at £329.900. Four weeks later it was STC. I'm now spitting feathers what dip sh%t was going to pay that price.

Last week it vanished from the rightmove website for a day. Back on now for £340K

Replying to my OP as it may put the figures below into some perspective.

I have just done a bit of delving on rightmove. The above house was last sold for £325K on 28th Feb 2007, says it all really.

However it also shows the that the property next door sold for £247K in 2009. It is not identical in appearance, but in my opinion is nicer to look at, has the same amount of bedrooms, and a similar down stairs layout.

[oracle]

Self doubt, questioning your own sanity during troubled times is something that only sane people do, those who lack the capacity to self reflect are often mentally unbalanced individuals.

it's also what the really insane people actually running the show demand you do.

they wouldn't like themselves to look abnormal or deficient in any way, would they?....what better way than to deflect blame and guilt onto people that don't really deserve it