Do you know what your house is worth?

Two elderly ladies I knew well in the 1950s/60s had a hobby they greatly enjoyed, looking around houses for sale! They would peruse the local paper and say happily. 'Ooh, I've always wanted to see inside a house in that road!' It was also acceptable to knock on the door of a house with a For Sale board and ask to come in and view!
They always reported having met 'such nice people'. Of course they did, but the unfortunate sellers must have been so fed up with time wasters.
On the other hand a feisty American, moving to a northern city, saw exactly the row of houses she wanted her family to live in. The convenience, location and size were so perfect that she knocked on doors, left her details and asked the occupants to let her know if they ever wanted to sell. After a couple of months someone did and her family lived there happily for several decades!

I think I might be that little old lady from Richmond Teacher11. Fortunately it's not a shoebox. Did have a very good offer a couple of years ago. But there are some things that money can't buy. Wonderful GC around the corner. I am staying put!!

I keep track using zoopla as I intend to downsize when I retire. I don't have the time for the de-cluttering until then. Last week it's estimate went up £19,000 since the previous week! Obviously I don't believe it entirely but the fact I live a short walk from a future cross rail station accounts for the silly rises. If all the houses are rising at a similar % I should be able to buy a reasonable little place for myself and have plenty left over to help both my offspring get on the property ladder and top up my meagre pension.

After 29 years of living in our house and checking the value estimate on Mouseprice we would never be able to afford it now! Not that I ever want to move as I love my house and I love the area. My daughter has moved nearby and my 26 year old son is still at home unable to afford to move out so I wouldn't want to leave them.

Still, after recently seeing the ridiculous estimate of our house's value my dear OH and I had a rosy glow all day and felt very well off! Ridiculous as we won't realise the value by selling. The big potential problem for us is a mansion type tax or a rate revaluation when the OH is retired as we'll have very little income to pay it.

The Lib Dems paid a horrible price for threatening so unfair a tax, especially in Richmond where a shoebox is worth millions and often owned by a little old lady who has been there for decades.

Not nearly as much as we paid for it in 2008, that is for sure! We bought at the top of a very inflated market here in N.Ireland which has never recovered It was a sellers' market then with estate agents (spit) phoning round everyone who showed interest driving offers up by £30000 to £50000 a time.One house we bid on started at offers around £250000 and within a week had risen to £450000. This is a huge price for NI.

However we love our house and have no intention of selling in the near future.

Agreed, Ana.

I think a lot of them over-estimate, NTO just to get you to sign up with them....

I know what the estate agents says it is worth but as no-one has made us an offer I think he must be wrong!

When I bought my house in 1994 it was the cheapest house for sale in the town. It's now worth 5 times what I paid and would still be the cheapest at about £250000. Two up, two down, cold, badly needs a new roof.

Yes we bought it for £30.000 40 years ago and we think going on others that have sold about £250.000 now. Be careful what you say though I was accused of being smug because I was sitting pretty on one thread after I mentioned it in response to a thread.

We would like to buy a bungalow but you never seem to get the same floor space do you for your money. I am an atrocious hoarder and struggle with downsizing but I know I will have to it ,sooner rather than later.

Pitticity

Yes I am watching Capital , good isn't it.

Yes, I have heard of people testing the market in that way, but that's not so bad as long as they don't actually accept any offers and/or string prospective buyers along.

In fact, I know quite a few couples who put their house on the market just to 'test' what people were prepared to pay for it. Infuriating, I agree.

In their case, it was because they always said they would downsize in their 70s- and move to their holiday home (and therefore avoid tax)- but at the end of the day, they realised they just loved their home too much, and would put most of it in mothballs for most of the time and get help with the garden.

The process helped them realise they just didn't want to sell- even if it would make sense to. I understand (it is the most fabulous home and location) but at the same time, think the other people who had got everything organised around buying that house and had offered the full (ridiculous) asking price- must have been really annoyed, aand the agent too. But hey ho. Know other people who have done the same in the past too.

Then why on earth did they put it on the market if they really had no intention of selling? That sort of game-playing makes me very cross!

Mind you, time wasters can go both ways. I know a couple who put their house on the market, half-heartedly as they absolutely love it and have done for last 35 + years. They asked absolute top dollar for it, beyond the market value- and they sold very quickly- to a family who planned schools, etc- and then, at the last minute- decided they just wouldn't sell!

I would agree that a house is only worth what someone is prepared to actually pay for it.

We moved last year when our house sold - unexpectedly since it wasn't on the market!
We paid more for our new home than I think it was worth in spite of paying less than the surveyors valuation price. It was an executors sale and the family live in much more affluent areas and consequently they think we paid too little. Perhaps that means the price paid was about right.

We have had to spend far more than we even originally thought we would need to spend on it to make it liveable BUT we are so happy with it and so glad to be here. It ticked every box for us and as someone else said it was the location. It will take a little while to recover from everything but we have all we need and our new home is fully accessible including the garden which is the greatest joy.

Thanks for the support Kitty,Anna and Granjua

Yes, it is the waste of time that has really annoyed us. Taken it off the market until early next year. I want a peaceful Christmas, without the continual tidying up!

x

Hmm Wilks ? ACtually same here, prices are much more stable and people generally build for life and don't move regularly as in the UK.

Thankfully, I live in a country where people don't talk about house prices so I don't yawn so much.

We bought our (been empty for 2 years) 2 bed stone built cottage in 1973 - £1250 deposit and £3,250 on a mortgage. Now worth approx. £145,000 which in cash terms is not a lot compared with others but represents a X 32 increase in value. Not that it matters a jot because having been rather cramped when the DDs were teenagers, the house is the perfect size for the two of us and all on the flat.

Still have not finished the renovations, planned when we bought it

Arghhh J52 I so feel your pain. As you know, we went through all that 7 years ago, and lost a lot of money due to a prevaricating ** of a buyer, who asked for 20% on the day signing contracts. He was such a horrible man, we told him to .... go away! That was November 2008 and then of course the market collapsed! We sold immediately again, to a lovely family who also wanted to turn part of the house into a nursery- but THEIR house fell through twice- so we had to give up on them, sadly- as we would have loved them to have the house. And then sold it again immediately to a wonderful Muslim lady who wanted to turn it into a nursery and language school- but neighbours objected- and it took a while to get permission. And despite everyone warning us that she would try to gazump too- she was true to her word- as I was sure she would be.

In the meantime, so many coming and doing exactly as you say- criticising everything in the hope wou will put the price down to take their wishes into account!!! One young guy said he would have to put a huge conservatory at the front and widen the (very large kitchen) then paused and said - hmm that will cost about 250- so he expected it to be taken off the price. We smiled and replied 'this house is obviously not right for you then, and showed him politely to the door.

Soooooooo frustrating. In the end, we did buy the next property once we had the money in the pocket and ready- so we could pull the strings (firmly but reasonably and nicely). Bonne chance x

I agree that it is worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

If you subscribe to Zoopla (it's free) they will send regular updates about property prices in a given area, including by what percentage they've gone up or down. With a lot of information about houses etc for sale. But as j52 says, a particular house is only worth what someone will pay when you want to sell it, and you are at the mercy of 'buyers' who mess you about. Hope you soon find someone with more robust ethics!

Exactly the same thing happened to me a couple of months ago, J52. It does make you lose a bit of faith in human nature, doesn't it, and it wastes valuable time when others could be viewing!

The trouble is, the Estate Agent can only go by what the prospective buyers tell them, and if they say they've already sold their present house (and then it turns out that was not strictly true!), you as the seller have no come-back.

Better luck next time, J52

Crikey, J52, that's a bit of a b****r, for you. Are these the buyers who were interested when we met at MH? If so, that's a real waste of time.