Hardly any houses on the market near me

[Jellywife]

After years I’ve finally convinced DH we need to move. Was delighted to go to a viewing of a house that was nice but needed a kitchen extension to work for us, so probably not the one. Realised now there’s basically nothing else out there that hasn’t been on the market for months?! I haven’t bought a house in well over 15 years, is this just the time of year?

Time of year and uncertainty around a Budget we’ve been waiting what feels like a million years for, with random speculation causing mass uncertainty.

Spring will be better

Very bad at the moment.

hoping next spring will be better

We are looking at listing our house- wondering now if I should wait until the new year.

Do you need to have a buyer before you start looking?

I wouldn’t list now.

it’s quiet time.

declutter, repaint, do whatever you need to do to get it to sellable.

I would list in the new year, not many people are house hunting in the run up to Christmas. When we were house hunting earlier this year a couple of people would only take viewings of you had a buyer, but most were ok with just being on the market.

It's the Budget. There's been a few of these treads and to be honest I'm quite surprised. If you didn't get your move out of the way before the budget, if property wasn't on the market in the summer, it's not going to come on now unless people are really desperate to sell

I have right move alert set up and six flats in my building have been on for ages, since the summer and they had no luck. A local estate agent says expensive houses are not selling because everyone's worried about CGT being put on residential sales and also, bit leftfield as it hasn't been mentioned, but what if stamp duty goes up?

Post some letters through doors of houses you like- people could be wanting to sell and might prefer to do a private sale…

Concentrate on making your home as appealing as possible. Have it improved & ready to go after Christmas. I think people start looking again towards the end of January. I’d get in slightly before the spring as a lot of houses come on the market then & you’d be in a stronger position to put an offer in if you already have interest in or hopefully even an offer on yours.

You should always put your house on the market February - April. If you see a house in November, assume it's been on the market for several months.

It's advised to put your house on the market before you start to look.

This is incredibly helpful!

One agent told me they had around 20 properties matching our brief primed and ready to list in January- I suspect this is bullshit but do people actually do that? Get the agent sorted etc and then go live months later?

The one we looked at had been re listed as the chain had collapsed. I suppose uncharitably I’m hoping it won’t sell now before Christmas by which stage it will have been on the market for over 6mo and they might take an offer that would give us funds to extend 🤔

I feel your pain, OP. We’ve been wanting to move for about a year now but haven’t been able to as we’ve been waiting on something the land registry have been dealing with. Two years we’ve been stuck waiting on the land registry to do their thing and finally, yesterday, we’ve had it confirmed that it’s all done and we can sell…only there is nothing on Rightmove other than a small bunch of very overpriced houses, most of which have been on for the last 12-18 months. It’s so frustrating.

You can file estate agents in the same drawer as used car salesmen....

Fingers crossed but then someone will offer lower on yours. The market is terrible at the moment there is nothing on here in Hampshire and it’s normally crazy busy.

Well apart from landlords selling up, flats everywhere for sale.

They do get them ready to list. Early Jan/even very end of Dec. People.want ta change, start looking. Might as well.be prepared.

Yes! Feel like what if I don’t see one as nice as the one we viewed I’ll regret it but also really uncomfortable making such a big decision with so little to compare it to…

Sort out your house first. Declutter, refresh if needed, including the outside. Look at it with a critical eye.

Your house will be worth what someone will pay for it. An offer on yours will show you what you can realistically afford to buy. The EA estimate is not necessarily what you’ll achieve.

I disagree with the Feb - April rule.

There's a case for putting your house on the market at any time. Scarcity might be a good thing if you are selling. Isn't the busiest day on Rightmove Boxing Day? I've bought and sold 16 houses at various times of year...twice moving during Christmas week. There is no hard and fast rule.

Estate agents really don't take you seriously unless you have an offer on the house you're selling. You'll likely be up against cash buyers so the better your position the better your chance of getting an offer accepted.

We’ve had 2x EA estimates which were the same, I am planning on putting things in storage for photos. I’m a bit of a nightmare neat freak to live with but people do often ask how it’s so uncluttered with kids so feel comfortable on that front- although their bedrooms probably need a bin liner and a cold heart applied liberally