Selling Property

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GG.
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Selling Property

Post by GG. »

What a pain in the arse it is. Last time was pretty much 8 years ago so I've forgotten the frustration.

I've come to the dawning realisation that we are not like most house buyers. Given all the information available online, we know pretty damn well before we turn up for a viewing if we're going to like it or not and/or if it suits our requirements so our viewing to bid ratio must be something like 2 : 1.

Every time we have to deal with people viewing the number of "oh its not big enough" or "I need an extra bedroom" is ridiculous. Funnily enough floorplans tell you exactly how big somewhere is and why bother viewing somewhere if it has less than your minimum requirement number of bedrooms :roll: I guess sometimes agents strong arm people into trying to see it, however, I think most of these are enquiries via the portals...

Typically we bought in what was then quite a buoyant market and are selling in the doldrums. Quelle surprise... however, the one positive is that we have actually had some viewings since it went on at the end of last week, which I wasn't taking for granted given Rachel from accounts has the proverbial sword of damacles hanging above every house buyer's head until the end of November. I suppose that doesn't count for much if they've all decided they need 4/5 bedrooms but can afford to pay for 3 :roll:

I'd rather have people who are in some respects just dreaming and whose budget is 85-90% of asking because at least you can talk turkey on compromising in the middle and we can try and chip our seller to compensate. If the requirements are just totally different then what can you do :?
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Simon
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Re: Selling Property

Post by Simon »

Link it here so we can critique your abode.
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DeskJockey
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Re: Selling Property

Post by DeskJockey »

Are you staying in London or heading out to pastures new?
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Matty
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Re: Selling Property

Post by Matty »

To be fair, Estate Agents are dickheads for using wide-angle lenses which can misrepresent rooms, but not excuse for the rest.

I think many people aren't interested, they're just nosy.
Simon wrote: Mon Oct 13, 2025 4:50 pm Link it here so we can critique your abode.
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GG.
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Re: Selling Property

Post by GG. »

Sorry guys - I'm going to be boring and not post it on here. Seems incongruous given it is on rightmove, I know, but just prefer not to right at the moment. If any of you are in the market I can of course PM it to you...! No doubt you would be very underwhelmed given the £/sq ft ratio...

After thinking quite hard about moving out we've decided to stay local - only a little more than 3 miles SW of where we are now (and actually 2 miles as the crow flies).

Naturally we put in an offer on a place before we had ours on the market - actually when it still had scaffolding up - so have added to the stress in needing to rush to finish it off and list it for sale. Now feels like a sit and wait exercise and try to convince our sellers to be patient...
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240PP
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Re: Selling Property

Post by 240PP »

Mine’s on the market at the moment. Not much interest, a couple of viewings and a company wanting to buy it as an Airbnb. The agent is saying it’s a very odd situation right now, very slow whatever the type of property with a few very quick sales but no real pattern to the market.

I guess a few buyers are waiting for the Nov budget. Some of the big lenders are planning to offer 7x salary loans too.
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GG.
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Re: Selling Property

Post by GG. »

Yes its an extremely difficult time to sell a property as it has been quite clearly signposted that a dramatic change of some description in the next 6 weeks is possible if not probable. Particularly so in the London market as given where prices sit on the distribution curve, the effect will be most extreme here, particularly at the upper end.

To use gen Z terminology it is all kind of wild really in the size of the potential swings both for and against us that could happen if they do some of the things that have been suggested (i.e. abolish SDLT, apply a mansion tax on property value or levy CGT on our sellers gains (they've been there 25 years and the house is now worth 2.5x what they bought for so if they do that almost certainly the sale will fall through as we couldn't increase to cover that tax and they almost certainly wouldn't sell and just pay it))...

We're ploughing on in the knowledge that even though we've got an offer accepted, we're not in any danger of exchanging ahead of the budget so if needs be we can revisit if necessary.
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GG.
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Re: Selling Property

Post by GG. »

*Cues big brother voice* End of week three in the house, ahem... on the market.

We're up to 8 viewings now, 2 more tomorrow of which one is a second viewing. No offers as yet. :?

Seems to be garnering a good level of interest but in a slow market people are very picky. I think the potential carrot of properties out of people's price range but that may come down encourages a lot of dreaming. That being said you'd expect low ball offers on ours as a result but I think that perhaps hasn't happened as we're 70k into a Rightmove band of 250k and therefore not "visible" to people looking in the band below.

In my mind that means if you went for a price reduction (which we wouldn't do yet anyway) then it would have be sizeable to get you down into the next band (i.e. 7.5% reduction). I think if we had to go there that would mean, accounting for purchase price, stamp duty and amounts spent we'd be looking at a loss on London property that we've held for 8 years. Pretty shocking.
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GG.
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Re: Selling Property

Post by GG. »

240PP wrote: Tue Oct 14, 2025 6:59 pm Mine’s on the market at the moment. Not much interest, a couple of viewings and a company wanting to buy it as an Airbnb. The agent is saying it’s a very odd situation right now, very slow whatever the type of property with a few very quick sales but no real pattern to the market.

I guess a few buyers are waiting for the Nov budget. Some of the big lenders are planning to offer 7x salary loans too.
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Re: Selling Property

Post by IanF »

GG. wrote: Fri Oct 31, 2025 1:43 pm *Cues big brother voice* End of week three in the house, ahem... on the market.

We're up to 8 viewings now, 2 more tomorrow of which one is a second viewing. No offers as yet. :?

Seems to be garnering a good level of interest but in a slow market people are very picky. I think the potential carrot of properties out of people's price range but that may come down encourages a lot of dreaming. That being said you'd expect low ball offers on ours as a result but I think that perhaps hasn't happened as we're 70k into a Rightmove band of 250k and therefore not "visible" to people looking in the band below.

In my mind that means if you went for a price reduction (which we wouldn't do yet anyway) then it would have be sizeable to get you down into the next band (i.e. 7.5% reduction). I think if we had to go there that would mean, accounting for purchase price, stamp duty and amounts spent we'd be looking at a loss on London property that we've held for 8 years. Pretty shocking.
I’d have thought 8 viewings to be pretty good going.. my parents are considering selling and their neighbour’s house has been on the market for 9 months with only 3 visits.. similar story with property I looked at in the Chilterns, still on the market. neighbours - 3.5 if you got a good bonus this year and near Wellington College

I’ve looked at rental vs purchase (£3-4kpcm mortgage/rent with a high LTV) and there’s very little in it (some properties are listed for rent or sale, which is handy!), especially when you consider any issues are the landlord’s to deal with and you can move with minimal notice after initial period (if you fancy a change - typically happens a lot after kids have left home (well full time education) and you get itchy feet)..
Cheers,

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Explosive Newt
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Re: Selling Property

Post by Explosive Newt »

The house next door to us has finished being re-built and is on the market. I was chatting to the builder and they had a flurry of interest when it first went on and then nothing.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/ ... el=RES_BUY
IMHO they have gone a bit cheap on the kitchen/bathroom for that price bracket of house
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Re: Selling Property

Post by Rich B »

Explosive Newt wrote: Sat Nov 01, 2025 11:21 am The house next door to us has finished being re-built and is on the market. I was chatting to the builder and they had a flurry of interest when it first went on and then nothing.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/ ... el=RES_BUY
IMHO they have gone a bit cheap on the kitchen/bathroom for that price bracket of house
i think the inside is fine, it’s the tiny lifeless garden and weird cladding (that looks like they couldn’t be bothered to remove the drainpipe to finish on the back side) that would put me off.

(#closes eyes and hopes Newts house isn’t identical and i’ve offended him!)
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Mito Man
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Re: Selling Property

Post by Mito Man »

Yep the cladding is really weird. It’s like it’s a house that now identifies as a shed.
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mik
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Re: Selling Property

Post by mik »

Why does it say “Size : Contact Agent”?

That seems rather stoopid….. :?
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Beany
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Re: Selling Property

Post by Beany »

Mito Man wrote: Sat Nov 01, 2025 1:11 pm Yep the cladding is really weird. It’s like it’s a house that now identifies as a shed.
It made me think of pokey industrial business parks outside of dying northern market towns.
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Mito Man
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Re: Selling Property

Post by Mito Man »

Beany wrote: Sat Nov 01, 2025 1:32 pm
Mito Man wrote: Sat Nov 01, 2025 1:11 pm Yep the cladding is really weird. It’s like it’s a house that now identifies as a shed.
It made me think of pokey industrial business parks outside of dying northern market towns.
It is giving off vibes of an agricultural building that has been converted to a house but not done very well. Baffling if it was a ground up build though. Loads of these types of structures popping up around here now going for 7 figures :|
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Explosive Newt
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Re: Selling Property

Post by Explosive Newt »

Mito Man wrote: Sat Nov 01, 2025 3:42 pm
Beany wrote: Sat Nov 01, 2025 1:32 pm
Mito Man wrote: Sat Nov 01, 2025 1:11 pm Yep the cladding is really weird. It’s like it’s a house that now identifies as a shed.
It made me think of pokey industrial business parks outside of dying northern market towns.
It is giving off vibes of an agricultural building that has been converted to a house but not done very well. Baffling if it was a ground up build though. Loads of these types of structures popping up around here now going for 7 figures :|
More or less spot on. This whole area was a petrol station and that building was the original shop (with a flat above). He took it back to the walls and re-built it as you see now. The houses either side are proper new builds and much nicer.
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jamcg
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Re: Selling Property

Post by jamcg »

That cladding will look horrendous in a couple of years time, locks like the composite stuff which claims to be uv resistant but ultimately still fades, plus if it fails anywhere it just traps damp against the brickwork, or in most cases it’s used- block work- because it’s used as a quick build short cut
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Simon
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Re: Selling Property

Post by Simon »

Rich B wrote: Sat Nov 01, 2025 11:49 am
Explosive Newt wrote: Sat Nov 01, 2025 11:21 am The house next door to us has finished being re-built and is on the market. I was chatting to the builder and they had a flurry of interest when it first went on and then nothing.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/ ... el=RES_BUY
IMHO they have gone a bit cheap on the kitchen/bathroom for that price bracket of house
i think the inside is fine, it’s the tiny lifeless garden and weird cladding (that looks like they couldn’t be bothered to remove the drainpipe to finish on the back side) that would put me off.

(#closes eyes and hopes Newts house isn’t identical and i’ve offended him!)
@Rich B nails it. It's the garden, or lack thereof. Anyone buying a 3-bed like that will want some sort of outside space, especially if they have kids. That place has nothing. Should have been built a few metres further forward to allow space for a back garden.
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Mito Man
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Re: Selling Property

Post by Mito Man »

I feel like it’s targeting an older audience because the garden is totally maintenance free. I know a few people who concrete slabbed their entire garden when they got past retirement age but you’d probably want a bungalow if moving into something entirely new :?
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