Moving On - 4 - A weird property market

It's a good job I'm not desperate to move & love my house & it's location. The market is definitely very weird. There has been a constant stream of viewings since the house was actively marketed just over 5 weeks ago. Even 3 lots of prospective purchasers coming back for a second viewing. No one has made any negative comments or seriously queried the asking price. Everyone seems very impressed & positive about the house. So, all very encouraging.

Well, maybe. But, only two of the viewings were by people who were actually in a position to make an offer as far as I can tell. To my mind, as a prospective purchaser, I'm not going to waste everyone's time by viewing untill I have an acceptable & proceedable offer. Whereas Hamptons seem to send anyone, regardless of if they can actually afford a house at this price. They also send not only people who have got their house on the market, but also people who haven't.

How seriously can you take people who aren't committed enough to be actively selling their own property? How seriously can you take people who tell you they didn't get as much for their house as they thought they would & can't raise as much mortgage as they thought they could - Then ask you to drop by £75,000? Frankly it's their problem & they shouldn't be looking at a house so far out of their price bracket & wasting everyone's time. They don't realise that they lose all credibility as a purchaser by adopting these tactics.

From memory, when I was last in the property market in 2003, it's a totally different ball game. Agents then screened purchasers very effectively. They probably do now, but they seem to think that buyers simply want footfall. Maybe they also think that there are so few buyers & so few properties on the market that they just have to basically let anyone view & see what happens.

So, it's probably a waiting game. Not simply for someone who likes the house & want's to buy it - there seem to be plenty of those. What sellers need is someone who can make an offer and actually go forward if it's accepted. I do feel sorry for people who actually have to move for some reason. It must be extremely stressful.