to be pissed of with selling our house

[worldgonemad72]

desperately trying sell our house at the mo, we've knocked 15 grand of the asking price.
We were supposed to have a viewing today, the house is immaculate and they haven't turned up
This is the 2nd time our estate agents have made an appointment for someone to come and view and they haven't shown up.
Fuckers

I also think the expensive parts of a house to replace make a big big difference to asking price. Obviously this is just common sense, but when I was house hunting I was amazed at some of the houses and the kitchens and bathrooms they had. 3 bed semis in the same road with almost identical asking prices, but one with a minging kitchen and bathroom and one that had just been replaced. Nobody is going to offer anywhere near the asking price if the first thing they are going to want to do is to replace one or both of those rooms.

ah, in scotland we still have home reports. so my flat is on at 'offers around' what the independent surveyor valued it at.

i don't expect more than that, as i know that mortgages will not be availalbe for more than the value.... but dont' expect me to even consider offers of 20-25% less than the survey value.

so annoying, I feel for you :(

Why do people expect to get a price above current market rates? As someone said, mortgage companies do surveys and will not lend on an overpriced house, so if it's overpriced, it's not going to sell. 3 viewings in 6 months means it's overpriced, IMO.

I feel enormously for those who are stuck with negative equity but that's the nature of a housing crash. It seems the industry is still in denial about how much prices have fallen (and will still fall) and are still talking of a 'recovery' in the region of debatable rises of 0.1%...

Rent your houses out, look for decent, long term tenants, give them favourable rents that cover your mortgages and long leases. Presuming you don't need to sell to buy again. If you have to buy again then you have to realise you will have to downsize or move to a cheaper area.

At the end of the day it's only worth what someone will pay for it. In the current market that could well be 20/30 % below 'Independent survey valuation' Friend in scotland just bought for 250 k,house next door went for £400k in 2006 Great if you are trading up( and have a secure non public sector job) (reare in Scotland

I think some houses will take longer to sell, not because they are overpriced, but because they are a bit different. Our last house was a nice 2 bed 1970's terrace in a nice road, surrounded by LA housing. We knew it wasn't everybody's cup of tea. It was central so would suit a young person, who needed access to station, wasn't there much and was just looking for a convenient place to crash. It took us 6 months to sell - we had about 10 viewings - one man came 5 times. But eventually the right person came along. My point being, it's not always about price, but finding the right person, which can take time.

Hi

Thanks for all the messages, im not sure about the price being too high, we are selling it for less than we paid. There are 2 other houses in my street for sale, a 2 bedroomed for 10 grand less and another semi for the same price as ours. that 1 has just been renovated but has a shared driveway and a knackered old garage, ours also has a conservatory.
ive spoken to the estate agents and given them 2 weeks before we go with someone else.

The price is often key. Within the last month, 3 houses in my street/adjacent street have gone up for sale - all nice, 3 bed semis with garage, space to extend etc, priced within 10k of each other - and for probably 2007-ish prices. One is a 'project', one is in good condition but could do with some redecoration/updating, the third has had a (very cheap) refurb. All are now under offer.

A couple of other houses in surrounding streets have been up for £10-20k more for several months and not sold.

However sometimes it isn't just price. DS's friends parents bought their house near me 18 months ago. A house in the same road, same size, condition, almost identical in fact, went up for sale at Easter for £90k more than they paid. We thought it was overpriced, and no chance of selling for that price in current market! Sold board went up last week....

im not sure about the price being too high, we are selling it for less than we paid

That really means nothing! You need to come to terms with that. Houses are only worth what people will pay, and prices have fallen.

Our estate agents sent a 65 year old woman to have a look at our fifth floor flat. They actually told me on the phone that she'd asked to look at bungalows only because she couldn't cope with stairs, but they were sure she'd love it . She didn't.

The only selling point to the place, really, was that it had a seperate laundry room down the hallway private to our flat, so no horrible washing machine noise. This was in the estate agent's detail. Had a call from the silly bint who'd shown someone round saying 'He really liked it, was thinking of making an offer, but was put off that there's no plumbing for a washing machine in the kitchen'. 'The washing machine is in the laundry room down the hall.' 'Ooooooooh is there a laundry room? What a clever idea!'

TWAT. And she walked holes in our kitchen lino with her horrible cheap high heels.

Bloody useless bastards.

I would get someone you trust round to look at how clean/tidy your house is, and look at the estate agent details, and tell you if they are any good.

I went to an 'open day' recently at a house. So a day they knew, weeks in advance, they would get lots of viewings. They had not bothered to tidy all the rooms. The husband was in the study with paperwork all over the floor 'tidying' when we arrived several hours into the open day.

It sounds like you have an awful estate agent. Part of their job is to work out who is a serious buyer and who is just being nosey!!

Easy snuffle - would expensive heels really have made less of a mark?

What the hell do you have on your floor that gets holes punched into it just by walking on it?

yabu, who knows why they didn't turn up.
illness, death in the family ect

BTW, it's likely to be the price.
We put ours no the market end of Feb, firstly for the ridiculous price the estate agent gave us, then two weeks later we reduced it to the bottom part of the range (seems to be all prices ranges nowadays, which I guess is fair enough).
Anyway, 3 weeks on the market, we got an offer at our asking which was accepted and we exchanged six weeks later.

Other house that went on around here at the price the agents gave (the top end of the range) are still on the market and now their asking is lower than what we achieved and they won't even get that.

The market is declining and declining quite quickly, depending on where you live. Three of the houses that flag up in the area we are moving to, with our specific requirements, have all been reduced by around 50k in the last 3 months and yet still there are no takers.

Oh yeah, we also didn't use a high street agent, we used an online one and the total cost to us for selling our house was a princely £500

makes me feel a bit better, we have been on the market for just under a month and had three veiwings! we hav already reduced it by £5k as I though in the current market the agent put it too high. I am not in a real rush but I do really want to move out of here and we already waited for ages til we were ready to move. I can see this taking a long time. Its on basically for what we paid for it 5 years ago but we also spent £about 18k on it when we bought it so we will be taking a loss straight away

Chic - even cheaper lino

What if you drop a plate or a knife snuffle?
Will you end with a marked floor.

Would last but a day in my house, I am the definition of clumsy!

Breadandbutterfly - cash buyers do have to tell the Land Registry the price, everyone does, that's how the level of Land Registry fees are assessed.

Am trying to imagine 65 yr old (who needs a bungalow) going up 5 flights of stairs wearing cheap high heels - he he. But i do know what you mean about the lino. We had some of that - holes everywhere.

Yup, by the time we went we had holes all over it (this is some years ago now, we did eventually sell it). But was brand new when punctured by the clod hoppers. I'm probably just jealous cos I can't wear heels cos DH is a short arse

YANBU OP

I hate it when people whose houses aren't even for sale come round and have a nose. One womn wanted a second look but wasn't even selling her house. I told the estate agents in no uncertain terms that it was a waste of my time and she can come back when she is selling.

It used to take me about 3 hours to declutter and clean and hide stuff and I had a toddler to look after and all so this nosey cow fancied a look. Grrrrrrr.

Seabright - you missed my point. The price cash buyers pay is not recorded on the 'property price' websites. They may have to tell the Land Registry - but, like auction prices incidentally, the price they pay is not available for anyone to see. Which is why the official records of sold prices overstate the averages - all those sold at the margins eg for much cheaper prices as distessed sellers or cash buyers, are not available for the public to see.

OP - if it makes you feel any better, there is one thing worse than a potential viewer not turning up. And that is an unexpected viewer turning up and demanding, nay shouting and swearing, to be let in for a viewing.

We had this in our previous rented house. In our last week as we were getting ready to move out, the agent asked if they could send potential tenants round. We said OK, and had a few round. They'd asked about 1 tenant who wanted to come at a time that was inconvenient and we said no. They said they'd get back to us. Lo and behold, the woman turned up anyway and got v v aggressive when we wouldn't let her in. I told the EA who apologized profusely; she was clearly the tenant from hell.

That said, my ex-landlady was the landlady from hell too, so they would have been ideally suited.

My sympathies. We were up for sale two years ago. In six months we had 32 viewings. Two serious but unreasonable offers to buy (One bloke wanted us out in three weeks, and was going to reduce his offer by 2 grand for every week we were still there. Oh, and he wanted to by pass the solicitors. Second chap came around four times to measure things, dithered, added up the cost of the furniture that wouldn't fit and expected us to reduce the price to pay for his new bed, sofa etc). Several offers were made before they were sold, or they were then turned down for a mortgage. In the end, after one viewer turned up complete with inlaws and dog, we took it off the market. We are staying put until the Market improves, but I bloody hate it here.

It might not have been the viewer.

When we were house-hunting we specified that we had to have a downstairs loo because we had elderly relatives who visited that couldn't manage stairs.

We were sent to view a couple of houses (not having seen the photos) that had downstairs loos but six steep steps up to the front door, or with the only access from a parked car through stepping stones in the back garden. We realised we should have said "we must have a downstairs loo because we have elderly relatives who visit that can't manage stairs but that also means that they can't manage stairs to get into the house either." but we had foolishly thought that would be obvious to the Estate Agent.

On both these occasions we knew from the minute we pulled up outside that it was a no-no. But we viewed the house out of politeness, knowing that there was no way we would be buying it even if the rest of it was completely perfect.

I did wonder whether it would have been better just to have driven away and not viewed at all, especially when we saw how keen the sellers were to show us their property.

So it could be something that is nothing wrong with your house but doesn't suit the buyer that they don't know about till they see it.