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Today I finally after 5 years of thinking about it put my house up for sale! When I bought the place it was a wreck and needed complete renovation and it’s fair to say I was young and got caught up in the hype of the booming property market of 2007~08. At the time I had grand ideas of buying the house cheap, borrowing the money to do the work that was needed, then remortgaging that debt into my now much more valuable house. Then the credit crunch hit!

Luckily for me I did buy the house cheap because I knew someone who wanted to sell fast. Also after the credit crunch hit the Bank of England followed the US Federal Reserves lead and dropped interest rates massively. As I was on a base rate tracker I actually came out on top from the venture. The thing that stands out to me now though is that it could all have been so much different!

Now I’ve finally made the decision to leave my house behind, I’m having to face up to my decision not to sell a couple of years ago. I’ll likely get less for my house now than I would have then. It really has been a roller coaster ride for homeowners over the past 5 years. The good thing is I think there’s something we can all learn from this, especially if your trying to sell your house at the moment.

Don’t Live In The Past

I’m a great believer that you can only make a decision based on the information you have in front of you at the time. Not many people 5 years ago would have predicted the turbulence we’ve had to suffer in the property market. Even those who did chose to ignore it because times were so good.

It can be a difficult pill to swallow when an estate agent tells you your house is now worth thousands, maybe even tens of thousands less than it was 2 years ago! Their can be a temptation to either not accept that valuation and put your house on the market at the price you were given a few years ago. You might even decide not to put it up for sale at all and wait for the market to turn around.

Things Could Get Worse

This is where I feel we can all learn something. Just because house prices have taken a big hit in recent years doesn’t mean they may not have further to fall! It can sometimes be mentally hard to take a loss but there is a saying “better is a bird in the hand than two in the bush”. If you’re selling your house at the moment and receive an offer on your property that is not insulting, but might not be as much as you’re looking for, consider it carefully and without bias from previous valuations! There are a lot of measures propping up the housing market at the moment which are temporary, not permanent measures. The crisis in the Eurozone could also easily cause another credit crunch.

So don’t get greedy! We’ve had an economy and housing market built on a decade of debt. It may take that long or perhaps longer to correct the housing bubble it created. The market could have a lot further to fall! If you want or need to move home and receive a reasonable offer give it proper consideration!