UK House prices: News & Views

[TheFox]

Local estate agent has said it could take up to two years to sell, but I worry about the train wreck coming down the track at us......I don't think we have 2 years!

 

 

I think that Van is right,well he has made a good point despite been a little OTT, the house will sell at the market value, you might have reduced it but as it has not sold it has not reaching that point yet.

If you think that there is a "train wreck coming" and the value will drop much much further wouldnt it be wise to get out ASAP. Sounds like greed and fear is playing a part in this

 

As your house is the high end for the west country and people love looking around nice houses then how about holding an open day could get some interest? chat to people never know where it would lead

there is a lot of migration from the the capital to the west country you need to be marketing it in the south east there is a fair chance your buyer could come from the London area.

 

You could try west country auctions with Fulfords or a London auction put a reserve on it that you would be happy with if it doesnt reach that you will have at least an idea of the true market value!

 

All the best

[jami dodgers]

1. Thanks Bubb, I'm trying not to lose heart, but it's difficult when one just wants to get on with the next exciting chapter in life

 

Before I put it on the market, I arranged viewings/valuations from all the "big players" with reasonably close offices. Not one could tell me honestly that they had a suitable buyer on their books. Not one came up with a decent marketing strategy and they valued it at anywhere between £1M and £1.5M. In the end I went with what I thought would be the best of the bunch, but as soon as the 12 week initial contract period finished we shifted to a local co.who have sold properties for me in the past.

 

They have three offices and we are right in the middle of their triangle of offices! They haven't been able to arrange a single viewing since, but they're trying and I'm hoping it may just be a dead time of the year.

 

Good luck with your viewing

 

2. Van. Yep, guilty! I do have a typical non forced seller's atitude, but wouldn't you? Everything I own is in the property except a bit of fizzical I bought a number of years ago, which has done me proud, after reading energyi on ADVFN, a good poster but he doesn't post on there very much any more, I wonder where he could have gone? . I'm nearly 60 and the house represents our entire retirement pot. I'm trying to be realistic in what I believe to be a toppy/topped market but I still owe it to me and mine to get as much as I can.

 

You might well ask, why did we leave it so late? The answer is, we didn't have a choice because of personal circumstances.

 

3. The Fox. As I think I've inferred already, if I thought that just slashing the price would bring about an immediate sale I would be very tempted but it's a niche property and will only appeal to a very limited number of buyers. Have a look and see what you think, the link is posted further down.

 

Yes, greed and fear are playing a very large part in this, but don't those 2 sentiments play a part in everything we do?

 

The open day is a good idea and the E.A is already suggesting that for around or just after Easter time.

 

I've been reading and hearing alot about the migration from the the capital to the west country, but targeted marketing in the south east seems impossible. It was one of the reasons I originally set up meetings with the Savilles and Hamptons etc of this world, with their many London offices, but there seemed no structured cross feed between their various offices and no way they could suggest of targeting London specifically.

 

For all their fancy corporate-speak, it seems to me, without exception all estate agents nowaday rely on just one thing, the internet.

 

Am I allowed to post a link Bubb?

 

Here's the house in question. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-36720124.html

 

We had a meeting with the EA yesterday and agreed a further reduction in price. We're getting plenty of hits on the ad, but no-one is clicking thru' to request further details or viewings. We agreed to change the lead photo once a fortnight to try to keep the ad fresh, so the first three photos will take it in turn to be the feature photo.

 

Thank you for the suggestion about Fulfords, I'll keep it in mind.

 

Any way, there you go, enough of my troubles, but thanks, it's good to chat it over with you guys.

 

Cheers,

 

jami

[drbubb]

Am I allowed to post a link Bubb?

 

Here's the house in question. http://www.rightmove...y-36720124.html

 

We had a meeting with the EA yesterday and agreed a further reduction in price.

We're getting plenty of hits on the ad, but no-one is clicking thru' to request further details or viewings. We agreed to change the lead photo once a fortnight to try to keep the ad fresh, so the first three photos will take it in turn to be the feature photo.

 

Thank you for the suggestion about Fulfords, I'll keep it in mind.

 

Any way, there you go, enough of my troubles, but thanks, it's good to chat it over with you guys.

 

Cheers, jami

sure.

Actually, now that I have seen the follow photo, I want to develop a thread around your property.

Are you willing to allow that?

 

Looks like a good spot for farming. How much land have you got there?

What are the transport links? ... And to where?

Why do you want to leave it? Andres Duany might love that place as a core around which to build

an Agrarian Urbanist environment experiment.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czHQERc8OiM

 

BTW, I think you might have a good idea where EnergyI has gone.

[drbubb]

BTW, Duany doesnt like skyscrapers much:

 

My Conversation with Andrés Duany: An Ardent Critic of the Skyscraper Flies into a Rage about the Asian Skyscraper Boom

 

By Mark Lamster | August 21, 2011

 

TWIN PEAK: Dubai's Burj Khalifa is nearly the same height as the destroyed Twin Towers stacked on top of each other.

 

In reporting my story on the recent history and future of the skyscraper for the September issue of Scientific American, I thought it would be interesting to speak with the architect and urban planner Andrés Duany, an outspoken critic of tall buildings. Though Duany is not a celebrity, like “starchitects” Frank Gehry or Zaha Hadid, he is one of the most influential figures in his profession, the de facto leader of the New Urbanist movement, which promotes town planning principals that privilege pedestrians and are environmentally sustainable. With his partner, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, he is responsible for Seaside, the picturesque Florida town made famous in the Jim Carrey film The Truman Show.

 

I spoke to Duany while he was caught in a Miami traffic jam, which may, at least in part, explain the sense of antagonism I felt from the very beginning of our conversation. Duany finds the current skyscraper boom to be an almost personal affront, and rejects outright the arguments others make in their favor. “There’s an argument for density. There’s an argument for diverse neighborhood structure that supports transit and that is self-sustaining. But there’s not an argument for tall buildings that need elevators,” he recounts.

===

/more: http://blogs.scienti...kyscraper-boom/[/font]

[jami dodgers]

Actually, now that I have seen the follow photo, I want to develop a thread around your property. Are you willing to allow that? Yes, I'm happy for you to do that if you wish

 

Looks like a good spot for farming.There is good farm land all around it.Both houses and all the outbuildings are ex agricultural, built from local stone.

 

How much land have you got there? It comes with 8.8 acres, enough for a couple of ponies.

 

What are the transport links? Excellent. It lies North East of the M4/M5 interchange by Bristol and is 8 mins from Junc 14 of the M5 and 12 mins from Junc 18 of the M4..Bristol Parkway railway stn is 25 mins away on the main London to Swansea line, with London Paddington an hour and a half by hi-speed train. Bristol and Cardiff airports are an hour away and Heathrow is an hour and a half.

 

Why do you want to leave it? The wife and I have lived there for 27 years but our needs have changed . Kids have grown up and left home, my parents who lived in the smaller of the 2 houses (the one on the right as you view it from the lake) are no longer with us and we're rattling round in a property that's much too big for us.

[jami dodgers]

The property is so hard to value accurately because it's unusual.

 

Two detached houses, (proper houses, not a house an annexe).

 

A number of outbuildings with full commercial / retail planning permission. We ran a car conversion company for 10+ years (luxury limos for arabs) and a Rolls Royce wedding hire fleet.

 

Recently the wife (who's a professional watercolourist) and I ran an art gallery and picture framing business, hence the retail permission.

 

8.8 acres including a pony paddock.

 

Half acre lake.

 

Rural location.

 

It's not for everyone! We need 2 parts of the same family who want to get together to run a small to medium sized business, who have kids that want a pony or two and whose dad is a keen fisherman. LOL.

 

The potential downsides of the property are:-

 

The original farmhouse, which is now 2 houses and 3 flats is a near neighbour, behind our property, although ther's never any hassle from there and at least it means our property isn't isolated.

 

There is a public footpath running diagonally thru' the grounds. It doesn't worry us but I can see some potential buyers being put off. We ran a tea room in the art gallery and the path used to bring in customers!

 

When it sells we're going to buy a narrowboat and travel the canals and rivers of the uk during the summer and a small house in NZ to stay during our winter (their summer). Well, that's the plan LOL.

[Van]

 

2. Van. Yep, guilty! I do have a typical non forced seller's atitude, but wouldn't you? Everything I own is in the property except a bit of fizzical I bought a number of years ago, which has done me proud, after reading energyi on ADVFN, a good poster but he doesn't post on there very much any more, I wonder where he could have gone? . I'm nearly 60 and the house represents our entire retirement pot. I'm trying to be realistic in what I believe to be a toppy/topped market but I still owe it to me and mine to get as much as I can.

 

 

It's not a toppy market - most of the UK regions have been depressed outside of London, and in under these conditions the most unique properties will be the hardest to value and to sell. I think you have had your head swayed by the headlines figures that try to present the UK market as being overall still resilient, but that is only because it has been able to hide behind the strength in London.

DrB has posted some very good charts that show the UK markets if you take London out of the equation.

 

But yes, I agree that you owe it to yourself to try to get the best price you can. The problem of course being that you are no different to every other seller in this respect, and if you aggregate this mindset across all sellers then the people who are worse off are those who are buying from you - your children and their generation are suffering the consequences of your decision.

 

On a philosophical level, I'm convinced that the UK attitude to housing at every level - government policy, lending practices, the selling & buying process, our policy on social housing and benefits, and the typical mindset of buyers, sellers and homeowners and renters alike, is a very large part of the reason why Britain will continue to decline in comparison to other countries. When you direct so much of your resources to what is essentially an unproductive sector then you have no right to expect to be amongst the world's most prosperous economies.

[jami dodgers]

Van, I can't say much, except I agree with every thing you say!

 

It's all a house of cards looking for an excuse to implode, IMO.

 

From my reading, here and elsewhere for the last 5 or 6 years I wish I was out already, but I couldn't do it sooner and that's all there is to it.

 

When it finally sells, only half of it is ours, the other half has to be invested for my mother who's now in a local nursing home with dementia.

 

Out of our half, the plan had been to give each of the kids a substancial deposit to buy their own homes, but that depends on what we get and the way things look like they might be going, I'm inclined to invest it for them, rather than rush straight out and spend the money. They're both renting and seem happy enough, they certainly don't make efforts to save or better their circumstances.

 

I don't really see why we should beggar ourselves to give them a leg up when both have said we can go whistle when it may come time for them to do for us what we have been doing for my folks for the last 6 years.

[wee Jinky]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119370066239175607.html

 

you never know

[jami dodgers]

http://online.wsj.co...6239175607.html

 

you never know

 

Indeed, you never know, St Joe is winging his way to us at this very moment Apparently I have to bury him head down, face out by the sign and say a heart-felt prayer, that bit should be easy

[wee Jinky]

i should have added what a lovely property it is and am surprised that there is so little interest shown.

The only other suggestions I have would be to try advertising it abroad (for free if poss)its exclusive enough to stand out

Try auctioning it off with a reserve of your choosing

or consider a swap for some London based property (dont know if the fees from 2 transactions would be damaging or if a direct swap for a Chelsea flat would negate that) A quick word with a London based EA would clarify the feasability

Must be some Londoners looking to "escape to the country" so shove the details in their face and take their selling concerns away

I do realise this may be jumping from the frying pan into the fire

In the meantime I'd get digging that hole

Good luck

[jami dodgers]

i should have added what a lovely property it is and am surprised that there is so little interest shown.

The only other suggestions I have would be to try advertising it abroad (for free if poss)its exclusive enough to stand out

Try auctioning it off with a reserve of your choosing

or consider a swap for some London based property (dont know if the fees from 2 transactions would be damaging or if a direct swap for a Chelsea flat would negate that) A quick word with a London based EA would clarify the feasability

Must be some Londoners looking to "escape to the country" so shove the details in their face and take their selling concerns away

I do realise this may be jumping from the frying pan into the fire

In the meantime I'd get digging that hole

Good luck

 

Thanks, some good ideas there.

 

Cheers,

 

jami

[frizzers]

That place looks idyllic. (I love lakes)

[jami dodgers]

That place looks idyllic. (I love lakes)

 

Well "Cuthbert" a publised author like yourself ought to be able to buy it out of loose change

[jami dodgers]

Indeed, you never know, St Joe is winging his way to us at this very moment Apparently I have to bury him head down, face out by the sign and say a heart-felt prayer, that bit should be easy

 

Just coincidence ?! Four hours after ordering our St Joseph we had a viewing booked, the first by this estate agent and the first viewing for four and half months! They are a cash buyer and it seems ideal for them, but we'll know more after the viewing on Saturday at 3pm.

 

I must make sure I've got St Joe planted correctly by then

[drbubb]

Just coincidence ?! Four hours after ordering our St Joseph we had a viewing booked, the first by this estate agent and the first viewing for four and half months! They are a cash buyer and it seems ideal for them, but we'll know more after the viewing on Saturday at 3pm.

I must make sure I've got St Joe planted correctly by then

 

Is it a prayer ritual, or something ?

[jami dodgers]

See the link in wee Jinky's post above.

 

 

http://online.wsj.co...6239175607.html

 

you never know

[drbubb]

The Catholic saint has long been believed to help with home-related matters. And according to lore now spreading on the Internet and among desperate home-sellers, burying St. Joseph in the yard of a home for sale promises a prompt bid

. . .

Demand for the statues has been growing. Ron Weissman, who sells the statues at Good Fortune Online, says about six months ago he switched to online transactions because the increase in calls -- from about two a week to 25 calls a day -- was too much to handle.

 

What are future historians going to think when they dig up all those St Joe statues a few hundred years from now ?

[jami dodgers]

Indeed. Mine cost the equivalent of 2 pints of beer which I've given up anyway as part of my New Year resolutions.

[BoldAsBrass]

Indeed. Mine cost the equivalent of 2 pints of beer which I've given up anyway as part of my New Year resolutions.

 

I'd only consider listing that with someone like Savile's or Staggs or Chesterton Humbert. I know this end of the market quite well - the people that run those agencies KNOW people. Although your place is not real 'top of the market' - it is close enough to mean that it is not going to be sold to someone who spends their life looking at Rightmove. Or driving around villages in the country looking in local Estate Agents' windows.

 

People looking to buy at this end of the market ring 'someone they know' at one of the agents I mentioned above and tell them what they are looking for. If, as a buyer, you ring someone at Humbert's and tell them what you want - and they haven't got anything on their books that suits - they will know what Savile's have on their books and will do a deal with them. It is how the £1.5 million + market works.

[jami dodgers]

I'd only consider listing that with someone like Savile's or Staggs or Chesterton Humbert. I know this end of the market quite well - the people that run those agencies KNOW people. Although your place is not real 'top of the market' - it is close enough to mean that it is not going to be sold to someone who spends their life looking at Rightmove. Or driving around villages in the country looking in local Estate Agents' windows.

 

People looking to buy at this end of the market ring 'someone they know' at one of the agents I mentioned above and tell them what they are looking for. If, as a buyer, you ring someone at Humbert's and tell them what you want - and they haven't got anything on their books that suits - they will know what Savile's have on their books and will do a deal with them. It is how the £1.5 million + market works.

 

Thanks Bold as Brass, that's a very useful insight. I'll see how this viewing on Saturday goes and there's another one bubbling. If no joy, I'll give a go.

[drbubb]

An Irish Folly... which ran straight into a banking crisis

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqlgsZV44nM

 

"A year passes, as Sean waits... and waits."

 

Sean Simon fell in love with the ruins of Cloontykilla Castle as he played there as a boy. He has now purchased the prpoerty and intends to turn it into a spectacular, theatrical mock 16th century home.

[borassic]

Ruins, castles, chateaux, all really worth just a nominal sum? I wouldn't live in one or attempt to restore or refurbish such a vast project.

 

Castle Grant in Grantown on Spey has seen numerous suicides, bankruptcies and mental breakdowns in recent years!

[cranberryDog46]

Average London House Price to 500,000 by 2020 according to some "think tank"

 

they don't say what assumptions have been made to reach this conclusion.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2276792/Average-London-house-cost-500-000-2020.html#axzz2KaCAR6D4

[borassic]

Just back from lovely Kilburn.

 

A very roomy two bed flat over two floors just off the High Road went for £540 - sold in a day. Looks like a new high for the road in recent years. Gascony Ave. The buyers? A couple of posh birds' daddy is buying.

 

= insane.