Rosie Lee

We always watch the housing market very closely. We've sold 10 houses in the last 20 years, in Bedfordshire and Sussex. Prices shot up at an alarming rate over the past 2 years, particularly in London and the South East. Other areas saw slower increases and a few were stable. This has had a negative impact, the market priced itself out and also new mortgage rules mean that in the last couple of months, the number of mortgage approvals have dropped, sales have dropped and prices are now going down.
Your agent possibly doesn't want to give you any bad news, but basically the market is changing to a buyers market.
At the end of the day, there are 2 things that you are in control of when selling a house. Price and Condition. If it's been rented for a long period then the condition is going to need some work. And as I already mentioned, nationally, prices are being reduced! Good luck!

Giantaxe

Really, comparative recent sales are your most useful information. Asking prices are pure fiction until there is an actual sale.

I'm coming over in October to start looking for an English "pied a terre", the start of my "medium-term retirement planning" as well!

Cape Blue

It'll be a Brit-fest - I'm back in Oct and Dec having a look-around with a view to moving back - we'll have to get Sally to be chauffer

quiltman

go look here:

Free UK Sold House Prices - Nethouseprices.com

By putting in the area etc, you can see what prices houses ACTUALLY sold for. The info comes from the UK land registry.
Admittedly it runs approx 3 months behind the actual sale but it means you can find a house on rightmove , say, then check what it actually sold for. It also gives some history of the times the house has been bought and sold.

It then gives you a rough idea of the difference between asking and selling price.

cyrian

Ask your estate agent what he/she thinks are the reasons for the house not selling.
Ask them what they think can be done to improve chances of a sale.
Are the estate agents getting the viewings?
Are potential buyers viewing the house but not following up?
Ask them if the condition of your house is similar to other homes in the area.
Check on nethouseprices as stated above to see how many sales there have been locally. i.e. how buoyant the local market is.
Check on Zoopla and Rightmove to see which estate agent has most houses for sale in your area and consider changing estate agents. (or threaten to )

Vadio

I found the Zoopla 'valuations' to be WAY off.

Two years ago we sold the 1st house we bought after moving back in 2011. It was a 3BR modern townhouse built in 2004 in a small gated development. After we bought it, we painted top to bottom, put in new carpets, and fixed everything that needed fixing. The EXACT same house, next door to ours, had original builder carpets, no improvements and original builder magnolia paint, yet the Zoopla value was roughly £20K higher than ours.

Why? Easy - the Zoopla 'value' was based on the last selling price; next door changed hands at the top of the pre-crash market (late 2006). We bought when prices were going down, but not quite at the bottom. Even adding things as the owner didn't appreciably change the Zoopla value, as they use an algorithm for the calculation.

Rightmove also show actual sales prices, not just what's for sale. Any website that allows a view of prices over time can give you a decent estimate of current value in today's market.

The biggest favour you can do yourself to get the best price is to make sure it's CLEAN. It's amazing how many houses we viewed (priced above £200K) that were absolutely filthy. The one we are in now had been vacant for a year - but they left junk in the kitchen cupboards and drawers, bags of rubbish in the garage, and the carpets had stains all over, plus there was thick dust on all baseboards etc. When we got the keys we were running the vacuum before the furniture was moved in, and had the carpets replaced immediately.

Sally Redux

Ha ha only just saw this

Editha

Before Jerseygirl moderated your clip, I viewed the sales video. The interiors looked computer generated to me, not photographs. Am I right? As a buyer that would put me off viewing. I'd think that the interiors were so awful that they could not be photographed.

mikelincs

It really boils down to luck at times, I once sold my house before the agents had even produced a brochure. They came round to value, as they were doing that someone from the next street had just sold, and the new people wanted a quick turnaround, they rang the agents who told them of our house, they rang us direct and came round that night, looked around and made an asking price offer which we accepted. When the agents came round the next day to put the board up it already have 'sold subject to contract' on it.

It won't happen in many areas, but in the very popular ones, even the property location programmes have major problmes with houses selling before people cacn go for a second viewing, so people are 'expressing interest' straight after viewing so that the agents will come back to them if there is an offer. Perhaps the agents could organise an 'open day' these are becoming very popular in the UK now, BUT the house does need to be in show condition, with any repairs done, and paintwork neutral and clean.

Debra186

I'm in a similar position in that I'm trying to sell my house in Wensleydale after the tenants have moved out. I had all the walls repainted (but not the glosswork) and the carpets cleaned and the garden and hedges cut. I've put it up at ten per cent less than the lowest valuation of three - and yet I've had no viewings since April. Someone is viewing it this week but only because the agent talked them into it along with seeing another similar property, for a comparison. The agent has no idea why there have been no viewings. Property is selling in the area and it's normally a popular place to buy. It may be because it's rather large and mortgages are a lot harder to come by nowadays but it's frustrating to decide to let it go at such a low price and still have no interest.

Debra186

I'd actually be quite happy to move back to my house but I have property in France I need to sell before I can do that. I've advertised on various swap sites for the French property as I'd be quite happy to swap for something lettable in the UK or even an easily maintainable holiday home somewhere. Have you considered doing a swap?

Giantaxe

If it's been on the market that long without any viewings, maybe it's not actually a low price? Really, a house is worth what a willing buyer would currently pay a willing seller, not what someone thinks the valuation is. Did the valuations indicate other recent sales to justify their numbers?

Of course, all you need is one viewer that's interested so maybe this week's viewing will work out...

Debra186

The valuations were done by three local estate agents. At the time, they said the market was moving down south and was just reaching the local area but hadn't quite reached that town yet. I've reduced the price again since April but still no interest other than people downloading the brochure. The estate agent wasn't happy with me reducing the price because he thinks it's already under priced. It's now closely priced to another on the same row which is only two thirds the size of mine and which doesn't have the double garage mine has. Weird. Perhaps it won't sell and when the kids finish lycee and go off to uni I'll end up moving back and opening up a B&B

Debra186

To give an indication of timing of valuations, the highest valuation I got this year was about the same as one I had in 07 and the lowest was the same as one I got the year before that. I set it at below the lowest valuation and I've now dropped the price but it is still ten per cent higher than what I paid for it in 04. Maybe I'll end up selling it for what I paid for it ten years ago.

Giantaxe

I would go back to the agents and ask what they are basing their valuations on. And/or do my own research of comparative recent sales in the area.