Selling you house in 2023 certainly became a lot harder due to higher interest rates, making it harder for investors or any purchasers to make the numbers work. We went from almost free money to things getting a lot more expensive in terms of securing a mortgage in 2023. It’s amazing how much things changed in less than 9 months.
Despite the increased mortgage rates, Liverpool is still very affordable on a house-price-to-earnings ratio. Low HPE ratios effectively mean – it’s still affordable to local salaries as you require a lower percentage of your disposable income to buy in Liverpool. One of the big issues in the current market is the problem of sales falling through at the last minute with many buyers getting a mortgage offer, spending money on their legals to get al the necessary paperwork. But then the problems start when at the final stages the valuer gets involved, and often many valuers are down-valuing properties at the last minute. Valuations are carried out by independent parties not connected in any way to your lender. This protects buyers from over-paying, but equally causes problems in a falling market when they tend to become very conservative.
Unfortunately, when buying, the valuation is the completed right at the end of the process and a buyer can spend time, money and effort getting the final stages almost completed, only for the whole process to fail because of a “down-value”.
I have been buying and selling property since 1990 and property is very cyclical and once sentiment goes the wrong way, then valuations become very conservative as banks reduce their lending in a falling market and make it a lot harder by being way choosier on who they lend to.
Selling is all about ‘certainty’ and using our services gives a buyer some certainty as we are not financing the sale and we are familiar to dealing with short lead times to complete. We also use our own valuation team and don’t have to rely on any bank valuer.
Are you looking top sell your property in Liverpool? If so, we can help, and we will pay a fair and reasonable price. In addition, we are happy if you select your own valuer, so the process is as transparent as possible. At the end of the day, most of our business comes from repeat business and recommendations – so we work hard to be honest with sellers and offer and fair and reasonable price.
If you are in a distressed situation and desperate to sell, then we will pass you on to Government Agencies which would be more helpful to your circumstances. We don’t buy from desperate sellers and particularly if you have a family and you are in the middle of a crisis.
2023 is going to be a challenging year to sellers with rates set to rise even higher and demand is decreased even more once prices start to fall, then it becomes harder to sell in a falling market. This falling market is an opportunity for buyers and a pain for sellers, many who will be disappointed by lower and lower prices. The UK market is a symptom of mortgage rates, and the combination of higher mortgage rates and loss of confidence really effects the sales demand.