House for sale keeps returning to market

[Rockbird]

We're looking to move, or at least were before I was threatened with redundancy . Anyway, there's a house we've liked for the last year or so but we weren't in a position to move. In that time it's been under offer/sold stc and then back on the market about 4 times, it's just reappeared again!

Obviously no one here can tell me exactly why, but does anyone more knowledgable have any thoughts on whether we should avoid this house or what? It's become almost comical waiting for it to keep coming back!

Is expect something keeps coming up that’s down valuing it or making it unmortgageable and the vendors are not willing to budge on price

I'd hazard a guess that something serious is showing up on the survey and either it's unmortgageable based on that or the sellers aren't willing to negotiate on the price to reflect the work needed.

There's any number of reasons but I cant think of any good ones. From hidden structural/ damp issues to over bearing sellers.
You could have a look around and see if you can spot the problem but I would definately keep your heart out of it.

Maybe a survey has thrown up some serious issues. I’d be cautious.

Sales can fall through but that many times? I’d guess that there are issues that show up on a survey and the owners won’t move on the price.

Yes I'd bet an issue has shown up on survey and venders not willing to reduce price or fix problem. Some people can be very intransigent with the price of their property. I would steer clear tbh.

It may be nothing as just unlucky (my family home came back on the market three times through no fault of the house just flakey buyers) or it may be that something keeps being flagged on the searches.

I'd speak to the agent. if there's something major that keeps being an issue i reckon they'll tell you rather than waste more time getting someone to that point and then them finding out

It isn't necessarily something that bad. It could've just been chains falling apart when someone else dropped out.

You're pretty much all saying what I think. We will talk to the agent but I don't have a good feeling about it. The house is perfect for us though.

Our house did that - complex estate issues that were resolved on the fifth attempt when we bought - half our neighbourhood seems to have offered on our house in the three years before we bought it

is it moving agents each time? We've moved agent and it came down for 3 weeks while they fannied about and then went back up (at a reduced price). No issues with the property (that we know!), but a crap agent.

My friend offered on a lovely house, nothing wrong with it at all. Only when the vendor pulled out, did she find it had been sold 8 times and the vendor pulled out. No local agents wanted anything to do with it, so she had gone with an online agent this last time.
Friend was so mad, she spent money on surveys etc and the vendor them pulled out.
So it could just be a crazy vendor.

I’d speak to the agent and push for an honest answer as to what’s happened. All the previous answers here sound sensible! Always possible it’s just coincidental, but more likely there’s a fundamental issue.

We had an offer accepted on a house that had previously fallen through, what we found was the agent was absolutely rubbish! The house was a repossession and the bank and agent didn't really care about getting it sold. The agent mainly dealt with rentals and anytime we rang him he "was in a meeting" 🤨 he was just lazy and it took that long we kept looking and seen our dream house and pulled out.
When our solicitor informed the bank's solicitor the agent rang us 3 times and emailed us!

I can think of several reasons, and all of them are bad news. I would avoid that house like the plague.

Have you looked online for any proposed developments nearby, waste incinerators etc? Checked for flooding? Any businesses next door/at the back/opposite that might cause smells, noise or other problems?

People don't always find out about these things until they have made the offer and solicitors are involved which might account for a change of mind.

We have found lovely houses over the years and many have had reasons why we wouldn't buy that were not immediately obvious but discovered after research (by us).

A house we looked at a few years ago did this. There was a mineshaft in the garden and had been refused for a mortgage by a few lenders. So it was cash buyers only.

Is it vacant, or is the seller living there?

Sometimes it might be that the seller can't find the right place to buy, or they have lost the house they wanted. Maybe they are a couple who are splitting up and one of them doesn't want to sell.

Or as others mention, the survey brings up nasties and people are pulling out of the purchase at that stage.

We looked at one like this - it was a divorce house. The husband was still living there and doing everything he could to frustrate the process. It did eventually sell - took 4 years though.

I can think of several reasons, and all of them are bad news. I would avoid that house like the plague.

Not necessarily. It could be something structural or the mortgage valuation, the estate agent should be straight with you as it will only cause them more work for you to discover this later.

It could be that the owners are finding it hard to find the property they want to buy. So they are waiting to go under offer before they look with ernest, but then exhaust the market so have to take it off the market to allow the market to refresh. Ask the estate agent what the venders plans are? Maybe they are trying to buy a distance away which is making it difficult. Or are buying something unusual.

Perhaps they have taken it off the market to allow someone buying it to get an offer themselves. So accepted offers from buyers who are unpreceedable. But then the chain hasn't got up and running.

You've just got to ask.

From experience, don't go there. The agent will lie and you will end up incurring costs to find out the same as everyone else who pulled out.

The house next door to us had that happen, it needed work done and had had some significant subsidence. The owners got some work done at one stage. On two occasions when it was being surveyed I let the surveyor have a look at our property as the two were built at the same time by the same developers (we'd had no subsidence).

In the end it was built by someone with experience in the building trade who had the confidence that he could sort the necessary work out and wasn't put off by things that probably had been stable for at least 50 years. I think they'd been interested in the property from the start but had initially missed out!

I'd certainly look at the property, but go in with your eyes open, ask questions and aim not to overpay if it looks like the house for you.

I’ve just pulled out of a house purchase and found out I was the third! Structural issues no one disclosed. The mortgage company would only lend in stages.

Ha! There is one like this near us. Gorgeous house, very expensive area- but house suspiciously cheap.

It has a Victorian drain built into the foundations. The whole house rests on it. It’s essentially a stream which goes underneath and you can hear it when there is rain. Very beautiful though. It drains into a large pond/lake out the back.

People keep offering on it. Mortgage lenders always say yes, because it’s such an expensive area and house should be worth double the asking price. BUT it always stalls when the buyer realises they need specialist buildings insurance which comes to a couple of thousand a year.

They’ll never sell it.

I think that this year it could be down to reasons other than failed surveys. I've known of several chains breaking down due to redundancies and financial issues. It might be something more but it's not for certain.