DO NOT DESPAIR

It is a hard time for anyone wishing to sell their house, market activity at its lowest level for around 20 years.

This is not a journalist or TV reporter saying this, it is a Chartered Surveyor who has been in this game for over 30 years and who remembers well the property slump of 85/89.

DO NOT BELIEVE JOURNALISTS. 

They sensationalise every report and place everyone in a state of panic. Today (30 April 2008) the reports are that house prices are dropping at a rate of £43 per day! What absolute tosh!

Frankly, neither you nor I care what is happening to the housing market in the south of England. It is what is happening here that is important. In the south, they are having a much harder time because their Estate Agents are an even bigger bunch of lying, thieving, money grabbing rogues than ours!

Our market is bad/unhealthy/worrying, but theirs is a damned sight worse.

The Journalists report on a scaremongering basis, because that is what makes the news. Come the revolution, we can wreak retribution for the pain that they are currently putting us through!

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT – READ ON.

In my day to day work, I visit Estate Agents or talk to them on the telephone and they are having a hard time. Not many of us will shed a tear for them because, after all, they tend to be the people who hype up the market when times are good!

Now, when times are bad, there are some Agents who are very worried.

But, there are a number of Agents out there who are effectively selling houses because they are telling home owners the truth.

That truth is:

IF YOU WANT TO SELL YOUR HOUSE, IT HAS TO BE PRICED AT A LEVEL THAT THE MARKET WILL ACCEPT.

I am a Surveyor. I know that houses continue to sell. It is a buyers market and those owners taking a sensible and realistic approach to price bids are selling.

If a home owner believes the Estate Agent giving them the highest assessment of marketing value, then that individual will only have himself or herself to blame when that Agent rings a few weeks later saying “It’s amazing how bad the market is. That’s why there’s been no interest. We suggest a price reduction”.

Take my word for it, this could have been the plan all along - to get your property on their books by giving a higher valuation and the big talk about how good they are, how the market is still healthy for them, etc.

Ok. Market activity is very restricted but some sensible Agents offices are weathering the storm.

I know which Agents are selling because they are giving their Clients sensible advice. I see the For Sale boards marked “Sale Agreed” for those Agents.

I see the Agents For Sale boards where houses are over priced for the market gradually fading in what little sunlight we get, as time passes!

Here’s something else to think about.

The days of having to make an offer above the Estate Agent’s marketing/asking price are over.

Offers are now made at, or more generally, below the asking price.

IT IS A BUYERS MARKET.

If you make an offer on a house and it is accepted, you have an excellent opportunity to negotiate an even lower price if you can justify further  price reduction.

How do you do that? – Simple – A private Survey.

As I explain to complaining Estate Agents, time after time, I may agree with them that the bid price is reasonable but, as far as I am concerned, the buyer is a lay person, without any professional experience of expertise. The buyer makes his offer based on own judgement of condition.

When I carry out a survey and establish faults and matters of disrepair that they weren’t aware of, and, in fact, even the Estate Agent wasn’t aware of (no big surprise there!), my Client re-negotiates to reflect those defects.

TO SUMMARISE: THE MARKET IS HARD. 

THIS IS THE FIRST TIME FOR MANY YEARS THAT BUYERS HAVE HELD THE STRONG NEGOTIATING POSITION.

I REMAIN PARTICULARLY USEFUL TO CLIENTS WHO HAVE THE FORESIGHT TO COMMISSION A PRIVATE SURVEY.

TELEPHONE MY OFFICE AND TALK TO ME – ALL IT COSTS YOU IS A PHONE CALL AND A LITTLE TIME.