Housing market mayhem

[Puddles]

The good wife and I have decided to downsize and move to a part of the country where the weather is a little more clement than where we are living at the moment in Dartmoor.
The estate agent took pictures and a virtual video tour of the house on Monday, the house went on line on the web at midday Tuesday. After only two hours of being live we had people actually here viewing the house with another viewing booked for the next day. Both viewings have resulted in each party offering the full asking price. It means I now have to do a Doctor Beeching act on my model railway and pack it all up a lot quicker than I was expecting and we still have not found a suitable house for ourselves or my trains yet, It is like being on a roller coaster ride and we are just a little stressed at the moment. I really did not believe the estate agent at first when he told us that houses in Devon were flying off the shelf faster than toilet rolls but i do now.

Puddles

[teedoubleudee]

Sounds like the agent valued it too low. When we last moved, nearly seven years ago, we knew what price we wanted but the agent agreed to price it higher. It sold within a week at our desired price. We got what we wanted and buyer was happy because he got the price below "valuation" so win-win all round.

[Walkingthedog]

Don’t think so Terry. It’s a sellers market. Three houses in our road sold on the day they were advertised, all of them above the advertised price.

[teedoubleudee]

That was my point Brian. If the agent had valued it higher then Puddles may well have got a better price. Always ask for more than you expect it to sell for.

[Bandit Mick]

We have also noticed how quickly houses are selling in our area - some barely get a for sale sign up before they’re gone. Our question is - where is the money coming from especially with the current state of the economy and worries about job security. Added to that, we also live in an area of high unemployment anyway. There are claims that people are living on the never never but the monthly bills still need paying every month end. And as for new cars on the roads - don’t even get me started on that one.

[bulleidboy]

Hi Puddles - make sure the new house has a "model railway room"

There are so many deals on new cars - my son has a new John Cooper Works Mini Cooper S - he just pays "x" a month and after five years he can hand it back and start again. If you didn't know you would assume he'd just spent a fortune on a new car.

[Steve M]

Our local housing market is the same, flying off the shelves so’s to speak. mainly driven by an exodus from London cashing in on their grossly overinflated market. Not helped by some of the London Boroughs buying up developments in Kent to meet their social housing requirements rather than dealing with the problem ‘at source’.

[Puddles]

We had three estate agents value the house and we used the agent who gave the highest valuation then put an extra
Lump of money on top as wiggle room for any negotiations, we were surprised that we got the full offer of the asking price from both buyers within two days. Our next home must have a train room BB or I am not going.

Puddles

[Walkingthedog]

That was my point Brian. If the agent had valued it higher then Puddles may well have got a better price. Always ask for more than you expect it to sell for.

Perhaps Puddles did get more than he thought his house was worth. He said he got the asking price. That price may well have been way over what he thought he would get. Anyway well done Puddles.

[teedoubleudee]

Of course the downside of a strong housing market is that the seller now becomes the buyer! The only way you win in these situations is if you sell in a high priced area and move to a low price area. We are finding many people moving up from the south, particularly London to Norfolk where you get a lot more for your money. It may also currently be something to do with the very low rate of Corvid infections here.