Will we ever sell our house- come and join me in nashing and wailing!

[willweeversell]

Have pretty much given up on ever selling our house and now just desperate for a bit of moral support!!

House has been on the market since october 2006 (yes 2006!!). We have had two sales which have fallen through, the first time because we had no-where to go as were 'gazumped' on two prperties we had offers accepted on The second, this january, we got to two days before exchange and had spent over £1000 then the buyer pulled out for no reason (well he wouldn't give one!).

Before the credit crunch we had already reduced the asking price by 10% less than the original price for a quick sale (lololol!!!). Since then we have reduced it by another 7% and the agents are all saying dont reduce any further as it will be way below its 'market' value. We have even suggested putting it for auction but they are dead against that as they say its not a 'typical' auction property. Now with the credit crunch we have had no viewings whatsoever for two months

the reason we have been so desperate to move is one, that the house was originally my dp's and his ex gf and the house has a lot of bad memories as she was bnkers and did sme awful things even when i was 8 months pregnant with DS (she left him btw!)
Secondly, the house it truly tiny and we desperately want a second child, I am not getting any younger!!

The situation has caused more arguments and upset than anything else in our relationship, we feel utterly trapped and powerless to move forward, both in terms of our lives and in the literal sense My dp is so desperate to do 'right' by us and provide us with a home of 'our own' and one where we can settle and stay, last night he was in bits about it all again.

Sorry, thanks to anyone who has read through this, and if anyne else is suffering from this same problem maybe we can offer some support to one another!!

[claricebeansmum]

Tis a nightmare.

We are having to move due to job relocation. Plenty of interest in the house but just no offers or people have a property that they have to sell etc

We have just dropped price by 3% after 4 weeks to see if that will help others further down our potential chain.

We are looking into renting out but that is looking not too good either as we have to remortgage and the rental and mortgage payments are "out".

We are in a good part of London but where we are moving to (North West) the estate agents are adamant that the properties are not over priced and no one is reducing their prices...

So you have my sympathy.

[Fimbo]

Has anyone else in your street sold in the past two and a bit years?

Ours was on for too much when we sold last year and we had to drop it by £30k to sell.

We had about 15 viewings before we got an offer. I was so desperate I even contacted one of those places that offer to buy your house from you. But their offer was something like £40k under the price we eventually sold for.

[Fimbo]

We had lots of people that had still to sell their house or were not even on the market yet.

[Fimbo]

If you are very desperate what about a part-exchange for a new build?

We are in new build now.

[RusselBrussel]

Change estate agents
Go for auction
Drop the price as low as you can go
Rent it out and buy somewhere else (I think this is called 'let to buy') and my friend who was in a similar sitation to you has just done this.

Try some of the above. Good luck

[willweeversell]

Its a nightmare isn't it!!

Can't help but think the market is crashing, the people it will be affecting most are those who genuinely need to move, and would previously would have been able to achieve a 'quick' sale if house was put on at a fair price.

CBM we too have looked into trying to jiggle something with the mortgage, make it a buy to let and release some equity or something and then buy another place but even that door has closed now again due to the global situation.

Hope you get a buyer soon.....

[expatinscotland]

Nothing to add except to wish you luck!

There's lots for sale up here, too, but only the cheaper stuff seems to be moving at the moment.

[willweeversell]

Thanks for all the replies!

Fimbo we have looked into every avenue, can't part ex as our house is too old, have changed EA now on the third We too contacted a buy your house quick place but they were offering 60K less than what its on for, even the man who came rund was embarrassed, they said even they are having to make really low offers as no one knows where prices will end up.....

Even auction properties aren't selling well around here (SW). We are not bothered about making a bit profit, but we still need a bare minimum to go one step up the ladder, at least £30K

[Fimbo]

It's so stressful willweeversell. I feel for you.

I never had grey hairs until we started the moving process last year.

[noddyholder]

I don't ubderstand why they are talking 'market' values.There is no real legislation on price and really it depends on what someone is willing to pay and what the bank will lend.There is no doubt that a major crash is happening and if I was you I would reduce it to as low as you can afford and then try to get the same % off you purchase or rent and wait.Many agents don't want to keep discounting as they can't accept what is happening and are trying to maintain the stats for sales in their area but that is no help to people like you who need to sell.

[willweeversell]

I agree about market values Noddy, to us, at present this house is worth zero in the financial sense as it is essentially unsellable at a price which would allow us to move up. Gutting as we (well dp) didnt buy at peak of the housing market, luckily that means we wont go into negative equity but thats the only comfort. Agree too about the agents, they obviously have an interest in keeping prices high, but surely even they can see whats happening. three agents have closed up shop in this town in the last few weeks!!!!

[TinySocks]

Would it not be possible for you to let out your place and rent another house? (until things pick up)

[selby]

Well, we chose to relocate (for job purposes) from the SW to the NW. Our house has been on the market for 4 mths now with 12 viewings. 3 of those viewings have been 2nd viewings but still no offers. We're giving it another 2 mths before making a decision whether to market it for rent instead. And yes, we are paying both rent and mortgage at the moment.

[figroll]

Not wishing to be a pain, but the problem with renting out your house in a falling market means that its value will only fall further and as we don't know when the market will "pick up" you could be in for a long wait.

I had some friends who did this way back in 1989 - they had bought a house for the (piddling) amount of £50.000 and when they came to sell in 1990/91 they couldn't. So they rented it out, but house prices kept falling further and they weren't the world's natural landlords, so in the end they sold it for about £12,000 less than they paid. If they had cut their price in 1989 they would have lost less - if you get what I mean.