House pricing rant

[Mt563]

Why does house pricing seem so random sometimes? I'm guessing sellers?

I'm getting a little frustrated with houses on the market overvalued but clearly seller is happy to wait ad infinitum for the price they have in mind. Like, over a year on market, clearly overpriced, but no price drop and not open to offers.

I'm looking at 2 houses, next to each other on the same road.
One fully renovated, new everything, modernised layout, about 15% smaller, on at 425. But went on last spring so likely overpriced and/or not accepting offers.
Second one, needs all new windows, boiler, kitchen, bathrooms etc. Layout would benefit from modernisation. On at 'offers in the region of' 500. Given how much work it needs (plus the optional stuff) this price seems well over to me.

Rant over.

Unfortunately this is the free market. Some people can hang out and wait for what they think they deserve, other people can’t. The people opposite me have put their house on the market and taken it off two or three times as they just won’t sell for less than what they want. I think you just have to play the game - get a feel for the market then hang out for something reasonable (semi-desperate seller) .

Different amounts of motivation to sell
Different agents
Different grasps on reality

Is there even any point viewing house 2? I'm guessing they won't move much on price and I'm not paying that lol. Might just wait see what happens. I'm not in a rush. The right thing will turn up, right?!

Yes, if you have the luxury of waiting, then wait. You can still view properties and put in speculative offers if you feel like it.

Well, buy the first one as its such a bargain 🤷‍♀️

I prefer the potential of the second in various ways. And seeing as the first has been on the market over a year, I'm not convinced it's a bargain or open to offers (I'm more convinced the second is wildly overpriced than that the first is a bargain).

I know I'm as irrational as a buyer as sellers are lol. But at least that's private.

It's not selling, it's bragging 😁 but, their circumstances may change and maybe they'll accept your offer, who knows.
Or, you'll get a viewing, realize how delulu they are and forget about it.
I remember a viewing, where the sellers were non-working/low income and the only reason the y had for the price was "we need X amount of money, otherwise we can't afford to purchase 2 properties". Because they simply couldn't earn the money/afford to move otherwise. This property was on the market for years. I can't understand the agents who still work with them.

Just ignore the marketing price, go and have a look and offer what it's worth to you. Don't be afraid to offer 20%+ less than the marketing price. They may say yes. They did for me.

Well yes, if they receive 5 offers 20% below asking, they might realize smth. Send you friends a week later with similar offer 😁and then check again

Quite. I've always wondered if anyone (or EA!) does that. Anyway, in my case I just found something that was clearly over-priced and had been sitting on the market for more than 3mo. I took a punt not really caring whether it was accepted or not. That's probably the secret! I was lucky to catch the vendor just at the moment they realised that their price was too high and they'd given up waiting for anyone to bite.

Unless you view both then you won’t know.
the more properties you view the more you will have a good concept of a fair price.

its normally clear why a property isn’t selling once you go round. Then you offer accordingly.

house 2 may not need all the work you say. You can’t tell from photos or descriptions. Agents sell they aren’t developers/renovators/builders.

Sheesh, living in London, the fact that you can pay that for a whole house is astounding! You’d get a 2 bed flat for £500 round here 😭

I assume sometimes it’s a divorce and one party is being difficult. There has been a family home for sale near me for years! It’s up for 750k houses nearby sell for 550-600k. Assume there is a dispute there somewhere

This is how money works. If anything is owned by someone who will not part with it for less than £500,000 then that is it's value to its owner. If a potential purchaser is interested but is only willing to offer £450,000 then the sale will not proceed and neither party is right or wrong about the value. Another buyer may come along who is willing to offer £500,000 - or may not - but the true value is not established until a willing buyer and willing seller agree on a mutually satisfactory price. Your unwillingness to pay the minimum that its current owner will accept does not mean it is overvalued it just means that you aren't the right buyer and the current owners would rather keep it because it is worth more than your offer to them

I’d only move from my house if I could sell it for a certain amount. I don’t think I could so it’s not on the market - but I do wonder whether sometimes I should put it on at the price I want as there isn’t a house like it anywhere nearby and if I did it would let people know I would sell it for the right price to me.

I assume others with silly priced houses are the same - the house is for sale at the right price, but not really for sale in the ordinary course of business.

The accepted expression for this is "kite flying". It's not a problem. It's a valid strategy for those who have no real need to sell.

The thing is the 2 nd house knows that people will probably prefer theirs as its bigger and they can style it how they like.

Eventually something will break and there will be forced sellers willing to take low offers.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/uk-long-term-borrowing-costs-rise-to-28-year-high/ar-AA22qDN2

Strategy for what though?

Next year 1.8 million 5 year fixed rate mortgages will need to be renewed.
I suspect lots of houses on the market, if the owners are sensible priced to sell.

I get you. When we were lookimg last year lot of doer uppers were priced very close to done up houses. I think some people think tradies still charge 1999 rates😂

Well online auction sites are no differnet. Sometimes there is stuff on there that is massively overpriced.

As with houses the sellers are willing to wait forever to get their price.

You really need to treat something that is vastly overpriced as not on the market.

The sellers are clearly not highly motivated to do a deal, so why bother with them. Just erase them from your consideration and think no more about it.

Won"t people with pricey mortgages just sit tight and try to pay down the debt?

Everyone is sitting tight until Labour have gone.

I thought they were sitting tight until the budget was over, or were they waiting for Spring or something?