“NibNobs

Rather harshly put but you are not far off.
Thing is though are these houses really "worth" £170k or did they rise to £170k in 2006 or 2007 when banks and building societies were irresponsibly dishing out 125% mortgages to people. The borrowers who clearly didn't know any better at worse ended up defaulting or at best now find themselves struggling in negative equity. That is now were in difficult economic times.
Could it be that the value of these houses would only have been the £130k (and not increased to £170k) if this unsustainable bubble had not been created by idiot bankers?
Well were in 2012 now, borrowing is more difficult and salaries are not going up either. You can still sell your house if you need to move location or a bigger place or whatever but you need to ask the right price (which is lower). The only bit of good news is that the place you're moving to will also have dropped in value (if that seller really wants to sell). Bad news is that your mortgage won't reduce, in fact as a proportion of value it's going up, but that all goes back to the silly lending from banks in the past.
The housing market can get going again, but only if both sellers and buyers start getting realistic about price levels that will work for both.”

“What planet is this estate agent on?

Sure houses in The Cotswolds worth £500,000 to £800,000 are selling to Londoners who can't believe their luck who are selling their own very ordinary terraced houses in Clapham, Battersea and Fulham for double that figure to less rich Russians & Chinese business people.

But most people don't have a house worth anything like that - take your average 3 bedroom 1950s/60's/70's built house in Stroud, Gloucester or Cheltenham worth £170,000. Typically the estate agent will say "you've come to the right agent, we can get that figure, I have a drawer full of ready-buyers" THREE MONTHS later after just TWO viewings (one from the agent's 'best mate') surprise, surprise DOWN goes the price by 10%, then another 10% house finally sells for £130k..... now that's the reality!”

“Matt1006
Your estate agent might suggest you get another EPC, they might consider that a more recent certificate showing a better rating (if improvements have been made) could improve saleability .
However the EPC you had as part of your HIP four years ago is still valid, still legal. If nothing has changed (energy efficiency wise) there is really nothing to be gained by forking out for a new one.
I do agree that HIP's were a complete waste of time and money, much of the content was not accepted by mortgage lenders, so searches and surveys often ended up being paid for twice. And it was a big expense for the seller to find out if their house would sell or not, as if going through a house move wasn't expensive enough already, so many would be sellers were put off the idea.

Now an EPC is worth looking at, yes I know you'd expect me to say that, but an EPC will give good independant and objectively gathered information about the energy costs buyers would be faced with. I'd say that's well worth knowing when you consider the ever increasing cost of energy nowadays.

The EPC system will be going through a few changes from April this year and one of those changes might well be the valid life of a certificate, it may well reduce from the current ten years, but I have seen no firm information on that yet.
So, as of today my understanding is you don't need another (after four years) even if your property has changed, although any efficiency improvements leading to a better rating on a new EPC might make it a bit more saleable.”

“Matt, the asking price is kind of academic. If you asked 50p for your house, I suspect that you wouldn't have a problem selling it.
The crux of this article is an estate agent doing her best to buy and sell houses. If she can't do that, she has no business.

"She added many people put their property on the market in spring when gardens looked more attractive and the weather improved but warned there would be "more competition"."

"All homes last month were sold at asking price and Liz said this was another reason to buy now before more properties go on the market."

Spot the deliberate mistake.”

“North Glos EPC - perhaps you can advise me:

I tried to sell my flat 4 years ago, but couldn't as the market fell to pieces - as required back then, I had a HIP done (what a waste of money that was), which of course included an EPC. I'm thinking of trying to sell again this year - clearly the HIP is not worth the paper it's written on (and isn't now needed anyway), but I will need an EPC - is the one I had done 4 years ago acceptable, or will I need to get a new one done? Nothing has changed in the 4 years that have past, so in theory a new certificate would be exactly the same as the one I already have. What are the rules & regs on an existing EPC, and how long it remains valid???

"All homes last month were sold at asking price" - more fool the purchasers. I've said it before that it is the purchasers who decide how much a property is worth, not the vendors or their appointed selling agents. Particularly in the current market. Bet the vendors are delighted that they've achieved their asking prices (assuming the sales complete, of course).”

“Having read this sensible article, I think I'll sell my house.”

“The more properties that go on the market, the lower the prices will be because of the competition to sell. It seems like Liz might be trying to drum up some business?”

“Liz, old gal, it's always quiet after Christmas, don't you know, so stop whining. {HAW HAW}”

“All homes last month were sold at asking price and Liz said this was another reason to buy now before more properties go on the market.

Clearly our liz doesn't understand the economic law of supply and demand.”

“Subtle is the name of the game ;)”