Price too high?

Your house won't sell, says Isabel Morton

IF YOUR house is one of the vast number of properties still on the market this September, chances are that the price is still too high and it's just not going to sell. Let me just repeat that one more time: IT IS NOT GOING TO SELL.

Now, just for the record, I'm on your side here. Nobody likes the idea that their property is worth a lot less than it was a few years ago. It goes against the grain. Whatever about it not going up in value, it just doesn't sit right with us that the value has actually dropped. And in some cases, it has dropped by almost 30 per cent.

And yes, I agree with you, there are a number of cute hoors out there who are snapping up bargains right left and centre. And if only we had a few squillion in the bank, wouldn't we be doing the same thing ourselves?

And who wants to be the one who sells their lovely home now, for half nothing, only to find that the values may shoot up again in the next few years?

Nor do we want to be laughed at for choosing the worst year in recent property history to sell our house.

You are right to be sorry that you didn't sell in early 2006 when you could have. And you are right to be resentful of your neighbour who did. And no doubt, you would give anything to swipe the smug smile off his beaming face.

However, just as we had no control over the manner in which property prices shot up over the last decade, nor do we have any control over the extent to which they have since dropped.

So, instead of becoming outraged about the situation in which you find yourself, sit back, remove yourself from the frontline and take a cold, hard look at both the figures and the lifestyle considerations.

This, by the way, is easier said than done. If the property you are selling is your family home, you are naturally emotionally attached to it and presume that someone out there will love it as much as you do. Unfortunately, they may not. Or at least, they may not love it quite enough for your liking.

When you have spent many years living in a house or have put a lot of physical work, time and money into home improvements, it is hard not to feel resentful of someone else benefiting from it all, unless you feel that you have been adequately rewarded.

It is hard, however, to assess what your due "reward" should be exactly. Is it the price your neighbour sold his house for in 2006? A valuation an estate agent put on it sometime last year? A complimentary remark made by one of your guests? Or is it just based on a nice round figure which you, in your infinite wisdom, have decided your house is worth?

Many people get fixed notions about valuations and find it virtually impossible to accept that their property could possibly be worth any less than that particular sum. And for those who boasted about the value of their home, losing face becomes almost worse than losing money.

These are the people who took both the boom and the bust personally. They glorified themselves during the former and are personally mortified now that we are going through the latter. They must realise and accept that they were not responsible for either.

But if the hard facts are that you need, for whatever reason, to sell up and move on, then you must do it, and do it fast, as the quicker it is done and dusted, the sooner the pain will be over. Like removing a sticky plaster, if it is done quickly, the pain may be extreme, but at least it's short lived.

If you don't swallow your pride and sell your property for whatever you can get for it today, then the likelihood is that it will sit there to haunt you for months to come.

You may eventually sell it for the figure you have in mind, but how much will you have spent servicing your mortgage until then? And what else might you have invested in, in the meanwhile?

I know of one couple living under the same roof although they are officially separated. Their lives, and those of their children would be much more bearable if they lived in separate houses, but they feel that if they wait for the property prices to go up again, they will have more to spend on their individual homes. Perhaps they will, but they are paying a very high price for it in the meanwhile.