To feel bloody miserable that my house probably won’t sell?

I've no experience of selling yet but... We bought our house just before Christmas a couple of years ago. We'd probably have been priced out of buying it had it been at another time, there were only a couple of other viewers. And a smaller house two doors down the street sold for significantly more a few months later.

Your best bet .. take it off the market

Get it listed on Christmas day most popular day to look at listings.

If you price it right it will sell - houses always find their value - if you put it on for les s- more people will come in and look and 'bid up' ..

If you need to move quick you might have to suck up a loss.

I had a house on sale from August 2022, I didn't get a serious offer until January 2023, so its not unusual for it to be that long.

We have had four viewings just this week, and the house isn't new to the market (been on for eight weeks).

Some people are trying to buy ahead of the stamp duty increase in April. So I wouldn't say it's a bad time altogether. People get pay rises, divorce, move jobs or schools all through the year and need to look at new houses. They don't know that they're not supposed to be on Rightmove in December.

House prices aren’t tracking inflation. 2022 was at the top of the market and fell back last year. They still haven’t recovered to 2022 levels.

https://www.yopa.co.uk/homeowners-hub/house-price-tracker/

I can’t imagine that many people think, in the stressful run up to Christmas, “I know, I’ll start looking at houses, and put myself through the painful process of sorting a mortgage, selling my own house, arranging surveys, while simultaneously buying presents for my kids, decorating the house, writing cards, going to a million school events, work Christmas parties etc”. I suspect the estate agent meant that over Christmas and new year, when they’re bored with the festivities, people will sit and browse Rightmove with a glass of wine, and will plan to look seriously in early January. I wouldn’t even start to think of worrying for at least 2 months from now.

and the holidays mean over christmas, its not Christmas yet. breathe. see what happens in the new year

Exactly this! If I was browsing and saw you had bought it for 520 for it 2 years ago and are now listing for 550 having done nothing to improve it to justify that, I’d think it was cheeky. You’ve said yourself that you think you paid over what it was worth so now you’re selling for even more again?

The houses that "sold" the first day, these were offers made on previously viewed properties, or offers made blind?

I agree.

Many years ago, I worked as an estate agent. We were open on the day after Boxing Day, and we were SO busy!

I sold 4 houses on the first day. We reckoned everyone had spent Christmas with too many people crammed into too small a house, and decided they had to move to somewhere bigger.

For the three years I worked there, the last few days of December and the first couple of weeks of January were the busiest of the year. Leave it on the market so it's available for viewings straight after Christmas.

This is not the best time to sell, in fact one of the worst.
The best is well after Christmas and traditionally nearer Easter
If your property was all done up when you bought then it’s highly likely you paid for that convenience with a higher price than average £/m2.

Most properties sell for less than the asking with an average reduction of 2% below the asking. At the moment interest rates aren’t great so that % may be worse and I’ve watched many houses in the 700 - 550 range come down a lot because higher priced properties aren’t selling.

The current market is not what it was in 2022.

I think you’re being unreasonable to expect a buyer to pay £20k more than you paid 2 years ago just because you need that money to cover your expenses.

When we were looking at properties I was suspicious of properties that had only been lived in for a few years without any improvements. It suggests there is something wrong with the area/ house. I wouldn’t be paying £20k to find out.

Won't you lose a lot of what you want in CGT anyway?

The market’s gone very quiet, I was talking to a neighbour this morning who works in a local EA, said enquiries on properties are zilch.
Stamp Duty is due to increase in April so there may be a rush after Xmas to get completed by the end of March.

I don't think prices have gone up much in a lot of areas since 2022. I agree nobody will be looking at this time of year.

Give it a bit of time. Ask a friend to ring up and enquire about it. Listen to what the estate agent says about it to your friend.

The market round here is slow, so it might just be the same where you are. But houses are swelling in their good time. As others have said, this isn't the time when people are looking, but they do look between Christmas and New Year, so hopefully you'll have some viewing in the first weeks of January.

100 percent. If the house was valued at 540, 550 is Ok for the listing. You have to have a little wiggle room in negotiations.

So you bought a house two years agon and probably paid too much for it on your own words.. now you’d like to sell it for £20k more to replenish your own savings so have listed it at a further 10k over that.. the mind boggles!

The house is worth what it’s worth, not what you need for your savings.

It is stressful selling houses but you are being too tough on yourself. Whilst people might be nosing on Rightmove at this time of year, no one is doing many viewings with everything else everyone has got going on this time of year. It’s a really funny time of year to put a house on the market.

Any interested parties will see that you paid 520 2 years ago, so I think 540 is a realistic target. If you lived there 15 years people would expect to pay more. Putting it on at 550 seems a perfect starting point.

What are your circumstances in that you are selling so quickly? People will ask the agent that, so he may want to have something up his sleeve that doesn’t paint a bad picture of the house I.e Divorce, downsizing, new job.

Apparently the peak day of they year for hits on RightMove is Boxing Day.
Of course, that might just be people being nosey, rather than people really looking to move. Or it might be connected to the Christmas peak in relationship breakdown...

absolutely. And OP, there may be a house that comes up for sale later that you will like even more. There is never just one house.

Don’t listen to that poster she’s wrong - always price your property at slightly more than you want. Buyers expect to offer under.