Predictions predictions predictions, isn’t it fabulous how so many clever people can predict the future of the housing market in 2012! It’s been interesting reading when unqualified individuals and weighty estate agents give us their opinion. Thanks goodness, it is only their opinion. But here’s the downside, when an experienced agent offers their advice, inexperienced house buyers and sellers end up taking it and this could be misleading but this is precisely what keeps the estate agents draws full of overpriced houses. You only have to scan through a major internet portal to and see how long some property just sits on the market collecting dust and not offers.
Now, there are two ways of looking at this; either, the seller is not very bothered about selling and likes to have viewers turning up every so often to disrupt their home life but they like a visitor. Or, new buyers come to the market every day and when they first look online they can see everything for the first time and so to them, they consider everything is new to the market. But, helloooo everyone reading, who wants to be on the market for months and months and maybe years? I predict not many of you.
Everybody knows that property is safe as houses for investment and we as a nation are pretty motivated to get on the housing ladder as soon as we have completed our GCSE’s but here’s the thing. Not even mystic Meg can predict the future, so how can your local agent do it? The way I like to get this point over is this “Put your hand up if you think house prices will rise?” Yes do we all agree house prices will increase? Now “Keep your hand up if you can tell me the date?” See not easy huh!
In the meantime, while clairvoyants, charlatans and the like dish out their predictions, I say we carry on and keep calm, be realistic about property prices and aim not to count the valuation from the estate as money already in the bank!
Next time, I would like to discuss estate agents tactics to gain your instruction; I feel this will provoke some debate. Please email me your slant to Yvonne@hillcrestprop.co.uk. It would be great to get some feedback on this column.
