Should we sell?

homeseller

Registered User
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39
Hi there,

Would appreciate unbiased opinions.

Our situation is that we put our house on the market 2 months ago for 485, brought down to 450 and have offer of 410.
We are priced slightly below all other houses in the area, based on the EAs advice - we felt we dropped the price too quickly, after price changed.

We are moving as we would like an additional playroom area - we have 2 kids and 1 on way,
Houses in the area were selling for 650 about 2 years ago.

We haven't found a house we would like to move to (and can afford) and people around us are telling us the bottom of the house mkt is near. We are concerned about moving and then finding we can't even afford a new home.

Our main questions are:

- do we take a low offer now
- do we hang on to see if any other offers (2 mths in to sale and lots of interest)
- do we wait until we move to a house we actually would like to live in and can afford.

Appreciate any time taken to give replies!
 
Hi there,

We haven't found a house we would like to move to (and can afford) and people around us are telling us the bottom of the house mkt is near. ...... - do we hang on to see if any other offers (2 mths in to sale and lots of interest)

Personally I would hang in there if there is loads on interest and you are not under pressure to close on your next house. Even if price drop further chances are you next house will (assuming yo are trading up) drop by a larger € amount so don't be pressurised by the EA.

Roger
 
What would the new house you have in mind cost? even a rough idea seen you haven't found it yet.

Have you much equity in your current house?

Will you need a mortgage for the new house and if so, have you approached banks about how much you can get?

The offer you have is about 37% below peak price, as a national average i would say that is close to current selling prices (maybe a couple of months ahead of the curve), but without knowing more about the house its hard to say more. In my opinion we are no where near the bottom, a year or two at least coinciding with an approved economy and we might be close to the bottom. There is nothing to indicate that we are near the bottom other than false hope and VI spin.

As said above, trader-uppers wont be affect as much by the drop in house prices, so timing isn't as important as say a FTB.
If i was you i would find out if the offer on the table can be completed quickly, i.e do they have cash or are the mortgage approved, etc.
Then spend a day looking at house in the market, minus 20-25% off all their asking prices and see what you can find that would be suitable.

If the offer is real and there are houses you might be interested in, i would take the offer. Once you accept the offer you can get cracking at house hunting. If you dont find anything you want you can always pull out of the sale of your own house, but there are so many house on the market its hard to think there wont be anything suitable.
 
As an offer it isn't bad but you do need to have a firm grasp of what you expect to spend on your next house and don't simply expect that you will be able to shave 20/30% off asking prices because you will have cash in hand. Alot of vendors simply cannot afford to sell for the prices often quoted here. I would start looking now and test the market yourself. If you find a house you want then make a low offer and see where you stand.
Regarding the loads of interest, you will be surprised how quickly that can fizzle out if not acted upon, so if you decide to reject in the hope that the interest will mean a new offer isn't far away I wouldn't necessarily agree. If people had real interest now they would come in with an improved offer unless like a lot of posters who come they think the offer is made up by the EA. It's not a simple call but you have to look at your next step first before you can do anything.
 
You should take the offer

When prices start climbing again whenever that is it will be a slow process

You should rent after you sell and wait to get exactly what you want
 
Hi there,

Would appreciate unbiased opinions.

Our situation is that we put our house on the market 2 months ago for 485, brought down to 450 and have offer of 410.
We are priced slightly below all other houses in the area, based on the EAs advice - we felt we dropped the price too quickly, after price changed.

We are moving as we would like an additional playroom area - we have 2 kids and 1 on way,
Houses in the area were selling for 650 about 2 years ago.

We haven't found a house we would like to move to (and can afford) and people around us are telling us the bottom of the house mkt is near. We are concerned about moving and then finding we can't even afford a new home.

Our main questions are:

- do we take a low offer now
- do we hang on to see if any other offers (2 mths in to sale and lots of interest)
- do we wait until we move to a house we actually would like to live in and can afford.

Appreciate any time taken to give replies!

I don't think you can make a fully informed decision until you know how much you would pay for the type of house you intend buying and whether it would be possible to then get a mortgage for this amount.

Of course the overriding factor in all of this is can you afford a higher mortgage.

My first reaction is that with stamp duty, solictor fees and all the other costs associated with moving, is there any possibility you could improve the use of the space you currently have?

Is there room for a conservatory/playroom extension in your back garden?
Could you use your attic space?
Could you knock some internal walls to make a more spacious open plan format to the house?
 
Thanks for opinions.
We have received another offer on the house today (v slightly higher).
Both are FTB.

We have been looking at other houses in the area and for the moment, we are def not seeing the discounts that people speak about (only on our own house!)
The next house up from ours was about 850 and now 750 with expectations in that field. Our own house has droped 240 approx so one would assume that the next house would now be 610. We have found this not to be the case as yet.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.
 
If you sell your own house are you planning to move out and rent? You will need to do this in anycase surely if you are thinking of accepting offers now. The buyers won't fancy hanging around another good few months waiting for you to leave your house. Just in case you are thinking the selling and buying might line up nicely, it is unlikely. You will need to rent somewhere else in between so start thinking along those lines.
 
I was thinking today about just how much things had changed in the past three years. I had always warned clients about the dangers of trying to complete a sale and a purchase on the one day. Up to mid 2006, we could still do it but the stress levels were unbearable. After that, it became increasingly clear that events were overtaking both vendors and purchasers ( banks refusing loans, vendors having deals pulled on them) and at least we were trying to complete the sale before the purchase . Now I would advise clients to be very careful- to the extent that they do not sign contracts for either a sale or a purchase until the last possible moment to minimise the risk of liquidation/bankruptcy etc.,etc.

I am not convinced though that everyone has woken up to the new reality - there is no certainty.

mf
 
don't be greedy. Sell it. Apply your hindsight vision at a later stage.


Its not a greed, its about being prudent, if you are taking a big step you need to know where that is going to take you.
 
To be fair - I don't think its greed - its just wanting to do what other people have done successfully before - buy and sell at the same time so that they're not left homeless and stranded in a rising / falling market.

mf
 
To be fair - I don't think its greed - its just wanting to do what other people have done successfully before - buy and sell at the same time so that they're not left homeless and stranded in a rising / falling market.

mf

Being stranded in a falling market is perfect.
 
To be fair - I don't think its greed - its just wanting to do what other people have done successfully before - buy and sell at the same time so that they're not left homeless and stranded in a rising / falling market.

mf

Surely not being a home owner in a falling market is a good thing?!?

I would sell and rent until the PTSB/ESRI house price index shows a couple of consecutive months of no price reductions. There seems to be some idea out there that you have to catch the bottom to not get stung, and just a bit too early or late will be detrimental. However, the housing market does not have sudden bounces back from a bottom, like is often seen in stock markets, due to its iliquidity.
 
Thankyou for this last message.

We have decided to sell up.
We are nervous as we have a family and we do like owning (even partly) our own home.

We will look at some more houses this wkend but otherwise will have a taste of renting again.

It is not about greed - we have discounted greatly - but more about hoping to move without too much disruption and ideally getting towards where we would like too live.
 
Being stranded in a falling market is perfect.

It's not always as straightforward as that.

First off getting a new mortgage, when they do find the house they are looking for, might be more problematic. If you simply move job you may have to wait 6 months to a year for mortgage approval. So even if you think you can time when the market bottoms out, you may not be in a position to act.

A second very real issue for a lot of people is the loss of a tracker rate with a good margin. Typical variable rates tend to be close to 1% higher than a good tracker rate. Over a 35 year term this would mean that house prices would have to fall a further 15 to 20% in order to compensate for the loss of the tracker.

Without knowing details of the OPs income, the current level of Equity in their home, their current mortgage interest rate or their employment/income situation I'd be slow to recommend moving even if I did think house prices had not yet bottomed out.
 
I know you state that you have decided to sell, but you are not committed until you sign the contracts which could take about a month. Your Solicitor sends out the contracts to the purchaser and they sign first.

I suggest you do a lot of work on finding a new place in that time and use the fact that you have a buyer for yours as a bargaining tool to get discounts and get your loan approval.

If you cannot find a deal or get finance for a new place you could still pull out of the sale so that you keep a roof over your head. If you have a good tracker rate at present owning is probably cheaper than renting, and still getting cheaper.
 
In the current market if you want to sell, I'd be grabbing the buyer. Rent and as soon as find something suitable buy it, no one but no one can tell when the market will bottom out. Do not assume that just because some asking prices are close to the boom times that sellers are not willing to negotiate a long way - same as yourself really. Be happy with what you decide.
 
OP I was thinking of doing the same thing ie selling at what I could get and then trying to strike a bargain on a bigger house, but eventually worked out that with my tracker is it actually much cheaper at the moment for me to stay here and wait until things level out than renting. Thank god for trackers!
 
Hi OP,

Congrats - we did exactly as you did and sold up 26% down on December 2006 prices.

I will admit that we had intended on buying elsewhere, and that was our main reason for selling, but since withdrew our offer and are going to sit it out.

Its difficult for people to admit it but houses that look to be great value only do so compared to the unrealistic heights of the bubble.

Sit tight.
 
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