Chasing The Market Down

[Spirit]

As Summer draws to an end the penny is dropping for our expat friends...

Oh for the benefit of hindsight..... house went on the market with Halifax at the end of June and we had a viewer with an offer in the first 12 hours BUT the offer was 10,000 less than it was up for - so we said no.

Since then and after eventually sacking the Halifax (soooooo Lazy) we have had a few viewers, an offer from a couple (in their 40's) who, during the process decided that Mum and Dad would be moving in with them but our stairs may be too much for her, as they live in a bungalow at the minute!?!

wouldn't mind but our stairs are so wide you could easily get a stair lift in and more to the point the hallway goes under the stairs in a space that's so wide you could put a proper lift in!! (aaaarrrghhh)

But they also had an issue with travelling to work - the 45 minute journey was insurmountable! (their words) and besides all that........

his mum and dad didn't like the idea they would be moving 1/2 an hour away from them - Needless to say they backed out.

Had a few more viewers since, all of whom loved the house but are either not sold on their own or can't afford a mortgage!!!

We are so pi**ed off with it now we could also willingly burn it to the ground.

We have reduced it 15,000 under valuation, listed it on loads of internet sites (even this one) and are now prepared to accept any sensible offer provided the buyer could offer a quick completion.We have Visas in hand now and had we accepted that initial offer, would have been enjoying our new lives by now. We've stopped wanting to kick the sh*t out of all the timewasters we've dealt with so far and instead started to beat ourselves up for not accepting our first offer.

Sympathies are with you Lynne, do you wish you'd taken that offer of a 10K reduction now?

That's exactly what we were offered and rejected - oh how I wish we'd took it now. We are probably going to end up selling at between 15K & 20K reduction now. - just to get rid of the damn thing (and we're including loads of electricals and white goods)

Somebody is going to get a real bargain (just wish they'd bloody well hurry up and do it)

Like you, we have viewers who love the house, give no negative feedback - so WHY???? don't they buy it.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread....5534&page=7

[TwentyOneEleven]

As Summer draws to an end the penny is dropping for our expat friends...

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread....5534&page=7

I think there's shortly going to be a lot of people wishing they'd accepted a slightly reduced price a few months ago, rather than being greedy and holding out for more in the next few months. Unfortunately though we seem to have become a nation of "I want what he/she got" and the thought of selling for less than your neighbour is one that very few people would entertain! With the probability of further interest rate rises and the general sentiment that prices are too high though, people are soon going to be eager to undercut each other in order to make that sale!

[Guest Shedfish]

an interesting stand-off!

for refusing to buy something that's probably 30% overpriced, and then spend the next 30 years funding someone's escape from blighty, them pesky buyers are the bad guys

[BandWagon]

Many of these people won't learn.

They will drop their price slightly, and the market will fall away.

They'll chase the market down, when it makes sense to cut losses and get out now.

With the benefit of hindsight the peak of the UK market was August 2004 (I appreciate that's a broad generalisation), yet it was also clearly visible at the time.

From now on it's just going to get worse.

[Leeds-Bozz]

Got surveyor coming round Wednesday morning - so hopefully there won't be any problems. Only concern is that the roof has started leaking over our bedroon (typically good timing!). Trying to get it bodged and the small wet patch in the ceiling painted over before he comes LOL.

Just got to love that attitude, haven't you.

[DONT PANIC !!! DONT PANIC !!!]

Many of these people won't learn.

They will drop their price slightly, and the market will fall away.

They'll chase the market down, when it makes sense to cut losses and get out now.

With the benefit of hindsight the peak of the UK market was August 2004 (I appreciate that's a broad generalisation), yet it was also clearly visible at the time.

From now on it's just going to get worse.

Dont you mean better

[iLegallyBlonde]

Might be a good place to go shopping for a house !!!

[BandWagon]

Dont you mean better

Sorry I meant "better".

There I was thinking like that doom-monger Kirstie.

"House prices only go up, we won't have lower prices blah blah blah", what a terrible thought.

Edited August 25, 2006 by BandWagon

[the end is a bit nigher]

We are probably going to end up selling at between 15K & 20K reduction now.

And the rest

[Goldmember]

JD Rockefeller: "Only a fool holds out for top dollar."

[Smell the Fear]

Many of these people won't learn.

They will drop their price slightly, and the market will fall away.

They'll chase the market down, when it makes sense to cut losses and get out now.

With the benefit of hindsight the peak of the UK market was August 2004 (I appreciate that's a broad generalisation), yet it was also clearly visible at the time.

From now on it's just going to get worse.

I'm sure the availability of house price data at the individual property level is exacerbating their agony. Not only do people have to take low offers, but the whole world gets to watch it happen!

[wagner]

Possibly they will get the asking price round 2012 or 2013 if lucky. Like watching the tech shares dropping and wishing they go back up. Once the downward momentum starts it takes years before confidence starts to gather pace. Each day that goes by with more doom and gloom there will be less buyers and more desperate sellers. It just takes a couple of deceased or mortgagee sales to bring down the prices alot more.

[HovelinHove]

Might be a good place to go shopping for a house !!!

My thoughts exactly. In a year or two when the market is hurtling south and some of these numpties have given up their jobs etc, this will be the place to go and make daft offers.

[BandWagon]

Possibly they will get the asking price round 2012 or 2013 if lucky.

I think longer.

Once this monster slides I doubt we'll see these levels of prices for 15 years, maybe more.

It took 10 years for prices to recover from the last crash, that was a smaller bubble and inflation was higher.

I know a couple who bought in 1989 for £380k, they've just had the property valued at £380k (admittedly they've had 17 years use).

That's a fairly terrible investment, especially when you factor in all the pain of struggling to pay the mortgage and compound interest.

20 years anyone?

[Civil Servant]

Err, Bandwagon, isn't your incidental anecdotal there evidence that maybe we aren't as far along the lunatic curve as we hope - if that price you quote now has only caught up in nominal terms with 1989 even after 17 years of inflation, we're nowhere near a crash (although I suspect the example you quote is the exception rather than the rule).

[newaccount99]

wouldn't mind but our stairs are so wide you could easily get a stair lift in and more to the point the hallway goes under the stairs in a space that's so wide you could put a proper lift in!! (aaaarrrghhh)......But they also had an issue with travelling to work - the 45 minute journey was insurmountable! (their words)

"How dare they not buy our house for such trivial reasons....after all they could demolish the house, buy a plot of land nearer work and build a bungalow from the remains of the demolished house......How very dare they not want our house......"

[Converted Lurker]

I think longer.

Once this monster slides I doubt we'll see these levels of prices for 15 years, maybe more.

It took 10 years for prices to recover from the last crash, that was a smaller bubble and inflation was higher.

I know a couple who bought in 1989 for £380k, they've just had the property valued at £380k (admittedly they've had 17 years use).

That's a fairly terrible investment, especially when you factor in all the pain of struggling to pay the mortgage and compound interest.

20 years anyone?

20 year recovery would not surprise me at all, am I right in believing that each house price recovery (well the 2 since the seventies) has taken longer?..still..those in it for the "long term" will be OK

[Broken Fan]

20 year recovery would not surprise me at all, am I right in believing that each house price recovery (well the 2 since the seventies) has taken longer?..still..those in it for the "long term" will be OK

Try extrapulating the peaks and troughs on the home page graph and see what you get. (you can just about draw a straight line through them). Although IMO given the massive family silver selling off, furniture burning frenzy weve been having, combined with peak oil, a mad cabal in charge of USA (and here), I dont think we will ever see a HPboom again.

So anyone out there who thinks they will be immune to the coming recession save/hold cash, wait a few years and step in and clean up in the old BTL capital gains game is thoroughly mistaken.

That is how it is "GOING TO BE DIFFERENT THIS TIME"

[Guest mattsta1964]

I think longer.

Once this monster slides I doubt we'll see these levels of prices for 15 years, maybe more.

It took 10 years for prices to recover from the last crash, that was a smaller bubble and inflation was higher.

I know a couple who bought in 1989 for £380k, they've just had the property valued at £380k (admittedly they've had 17 years use).

That's a fairly terrible investment, especially when you factor in all the pain of struggling to pay the mortgage and compound interest.

20 years anyone?

The perils of buying into the market at the wrong time!

Why oh why has property been allowed to become a 'fiscal life or death' investment when the vast majority of people just want a home and somewhere to raise their family?