The property market is driven by sentiment and the events of the last three years have sent buyers and sellers on a rollercoaster of emotions. Whether it was the sharp rise in prices driven by low interest rates and lack of supply post lockdown, or the hike in mortgage rates post mini-budget, there’s always a story to tell and with the British media hell-bent on painting a picture of doom and gloom at every opportunity, you can be forgiven for feeling like the property market is in complete turmoil.
However, this is simply not the case. Yes, rising mortgage rates and the cost of living has put downward pressure on prices but we must look at this pragmatically - the average selling price of property across the Thames Valley is still more than it was pre-lockdown and people still need to move.
We have been living in a bubble where falsely low interest rates and ever-increasing values have led us to believe that anything is possible, but reality has now dawned, and the current market is very much back to ‘normal’, and everyone’s mindset must re-adjust.
Recently I have moved house myself, which now I reflect on it, mirrors the journey for many people who have tried to move in the last 12 months.
Rewind to October 2022 and after months of coming to the realisation that our home was no longer fit for purpose; we listed our property for sale. This was a month after the mini-budget and from what I was experiencing at the office, felt like the dust had started to settle and Rishi Sunak was starting to steady an extremely wobbly ship.
Within a week we had secured an offer £10,000 off the asking price and had managed to secure the house of our dreams. It had the downstairs space, the big bedrooms, the large garden, and was much closer to my daughter’s school which would have reduced our commute to school from 25 minutes to a mere 10 – we were on a roll.
Six weeks later and in the build-up to Christmas, we got the call that every seller dreads “the buyer is nervous about increasing mortgage rates and their family, who were lending them some of their deposit, do not feel confident in the current market conditions, so the buyer has reduced their offer by £50,000”.
Sat in the depths of the winter, with two young children and Christmas only days away, it was all too much so we did what every disillusioned seller does and withdrew from the market.
However, after spending another five months in the house, we were reminded why we had set out on this journey in the first place and concluded that, as much as we did not want to go through the rigmarole of moving home, it was something that just simply had to happen.
Round comes May 2023 and we sit down with our mortgage advisor only to have it confirmed that if we were to go ahead with the move our mortgage was going to cost a whole lot more than it would have done eight months earlier. In essence, a relatively comfortable lifestyle would turn into scrimping and scraping to get through each month for no other benefit than just having a bigger house closer to our daughters’ school.
Our decision took no more than a few minutes to make – we simply had to move and would do anything to make it happen.
We re-listed our home and within three weeks found that although we had priced the property in line with the market, the landscape was constantly changing, and we needed to reposition the price to attract more buyers. We were acutely aware that if we were going to be taken seriously by a seller, we simply had to get ourselves in a position to proceed.
We reduced the price and ended up selling the house for the full asking price only a few days later. This was a prime example of a readjusting market where buyers do not know how much they can negotiate and in typical British fashion, are afraid to offend.
Ultimately, by making a tweak to our asking price, we ended up selling the house for a price we were happy with from the outset and arguably a higher price than if we had held out for longer at the original asking price. More to the point, we had attracted a buyer who had previously rejected the property because it was ‘above their budget’ when actually their budget was well within our expectations. In hindsight, it’s a mad situation for a seller to put themselves in and only delayed the process.
Overjoyed that we were now under-offer we set out on our search for a new home. Whilst looking I kept in mind the mantra that I have always taught my teams – “buyer’s think they know what they need but actually only tell us what they want”.
We had set out to find the perfectly square four-bedroom detached house with the double garage, en suite and large garden only to find that it did not really exist, or certainly not within our budget.
We knew we were going to have to compromise, so with this in mind, we took a different approach and went and viewed every single house within our budget in the area in which we wanted to live.
After a run of three viewings one sunny June afternoon, feeling deflated, we found ourselves driving to the ‘wild card’ property. One that looked tiny from the front, didn’t have the garage, nor did it have the four bedrooms on one level; not even the best estate agent in the world could have convinced us to view. We were viewing out of curiosity because there was just nothing else to look at.
Fast forward no more than 15 minutes and we were absolutely in love.
Was it what we set out to buy? No
Did we have everything we thought we wanted? Absolutely not.
Did it give us the space we needed in a road we really wanted and was it affordable? Absolutely.
Did we actually need that garage we were insistent we wanted? Definitely not!
We wanted to offer on this place.
Some of the best sales I have agreed in over a decade in the industry are those where both buyer and seller feel they have been treated fairly and everyone feels like they have got a good deal. We wanted this house and now was not the time to let ego get in the way. The agent had given us an inkling as to the level of offer that they felt the seller would deem acceptable and had made us aware that that morning they were in receipt of an offer that fell below the seller’s expectations.
After a short discussion in the car after the viewing we called the agent and offered at the level they had suggested would be acceptable.
Half an hour later, it was good news – the seller was delighted to accept our offer and had been attracted by the fact we had a young family, planned to live in the house for years, and most importantly had acted quickly and with integrity.
Our seller’s own integrity was cemented a few hours later when the underbidder then tried to outbid us after our offer had been accepted. The seller stuck to their word and happily moved forward with us, even though they were presented with an opportunity to sell for more money.
Armed with our power team of highly recommended solicitors, surveyors, and our mortgage advisor, our chain moved to a point of exchange within eight weeks, and we moved in time for the end of the summer holidays.
So as a summary from my own moving journey, I can tell you the following:
- Every market makes a market, people need to move, and everything is relative. High interest rates, low interest rates, stable economy, or unstable economy, if it needs to happen and is affordable, ‘now’ is always the best time to do it.
- You have to embrace the rollercoaster and trust that estate agents are giving you the right advice (whether you want to hear it or not) – I get it, there are some bad ones out there, but the majority are good eggs.
- Be prepared and act with integrity as both a buyer and a seller – it could save you money!
- When searching, forget about what you think you want, drill down on what you really need and shop with an open mind.
- Most importantly, just get on with it!
If you have had a failed attempt at moving or are currently sitting on the fence, pick up the phone to us today. We are here to make moving home a fantastic experience.