Alright, I know I'm being unreasonable, but am I least allowed to be mildly miffed?

[KitKat1985]

We put our 2-bed house up for sale a couple of weeks ago. We've basically outgrown it now (originally bought when it was just me and DH, but now we have DD1 and DD2 too). We're also not in a great area and so decided it made sense to put the house on the market now, and then hopefully we should be moved and settled before we have to do DD1's school application at the end of next year.

Our neighbours are an older couple who live in a slightly larger house than us. We've always been fairly friendly, and after our house was up for sale one of them spoke to us and said they were pleasantly surprised at how much we had been valued at and that it had given them something to think about with regards to their own house. I presumed they meant for the future, but no, they've just put their house up for sale too. So now we have direct competition for our house sale.

I know I'm being unreasonable and they are perfectly entitled to put their house on the market at any time they wish, but am I being unreasonable in just wishing they could have just waited a few months. They openly admitted when they chatted to us recently after putting it in the market that they hadn't even thought about selling until they saw our valuation, and they have no immediate need to sell. So am I allowed to just be slightly miffed that they couldn't have just waited a little while for us to be sold first before they put theirs up for sale?

It if theirs is a bigger house they will get totally different people
Interested.

Don't take it badly, you'll get more people seeing your house as a result.

If their house is bigger I assume it's more expensive, so therefore will appeal to different buyers? We've just bought a house and next door was for sale, but next door was £50k more so we didn't even look at it!

There's only a very slight difference in size, so only 10k between the valuations of ours and theirs.

It could also mean you get more viewers? There were half a dozen flats on our street for sale at the same time as ours, and our estate agent said that people might not make the effort to look at one, but would for several properties.

Yes it could be competition as if their house is a little bigger and price difference is only ten k and they may be willing to negotiate then effectively they could be selling a larger house for effectively the same price. Depends on the internal state of the two. I can see why you'd be a bit annoyed, but on the flip side it could attract more buyers viewing.

Our neighbours put there propertyon sale exactly 1 week after us and sold in 10 days ours took 12 weeks. I maintain they stole our buyer as only difference was that it was a lower floor!

This happened in the street I live in. Two almost identical houses up for sale at the same time. All it meant was that whoever didn't get one house put an offer on the other one. We got two brand new neighbours in the space of a month.

So don't worry OP. The estate agents will be pushing for both houses to sell.

When I bought my current house, the one opposite was also for sale. When viewing, I went from one, across the road to the other. A prospective buyer was doing the same in the opposite direction! We each bought a house and are still living opposite each other now! ( even freakier, the occupants of the house I bought moved into a house opposite where I had been living previously!) Oh, and both myself and the other purchaser are both teachers!

Weird!

Yes, it's annoying especially if your house is slightly smaller.

It does depend where you live, there's such a shortage of property where I am that 2 identical houses would not even be in competition.

Apart from size, how do the houses compare? You can still be winning if yours is spotless whilst theirs is very dated for example. Compare both your set of photos, and see if you can make the competition to your advantage. It's not just about the asking price, but also how much money will someone need to spend inside (the cost of a lick of paint is nothing).

We only looked at the we live in now because we were looking at another two in the same street.

We've tidied ours with a lick of paint etc, but their house is probably the better looking of the two (because the DDs have made some marks on the carpet etc).

then I really feel your pain! However, if your is slightly cheaper, hopefully your own sale won't be delayed. Difficult to advise without seeing them, but do look at similar properties under offer or recently sold in your area.

Prices are still going up in my area, so I would not go into rental myself.
It could be a solution though, if you are chain free for the buyer, your house becomes more attractive (and so on, many things can influence).
Good luck, no point panicking just yet, see how the next few weeks go.

You are definitely allowed to feel annoyed.. Good luck with your sale.