Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

House NOT selling... AIBU?

342 replies

AllTheGin84 · 20/06/2019 10:43

HELP.

Our house has been on the market for 15 weeks... had an offer 4 weeks in at full asking price (woah!), then their chain collapsed and they are no longer selling.

Then we changed agent, went back on the market and dropped price by £30,000 (575,000 - £545,000).

5 viewings in a week, no offers, no interest in buying... WHY? WHY DOES NO ONE WANT MY HOUSE?

Its clean, ridiculously tidy, plain and neutral, lovely comments... but no on wants to even put an offer in!!!!! We have a viewing today, tomorrow and Saturday. What can I do?????

HELP ME MN, I AM DESPERATE TO SELL. This is seriously affecting my mental health.

OP posts:
BobLemon · 20/06/2019 12:01

Lol DonQuixote ! Okay, i’ll play:

-the school next door is putting people off
-the corner plot means your “private patio” is the size of a cheese triangle
-the bathroom might be new, but Mitchell and Webb would have something to say about the colour
-too many ornaments. Pack away every third porcelain pig and get rid of all the gurning Toby jugs
-pictures are taken with a super-fish-eye so your viewers are discovering rooms are a lot smaller than you think
-the foundation to eaves vertical crack is off putting

StCharlotte · 20/06/2019 12:01

Okay, what is the parking situation? And how much of a problem is it?

Our house is in a Victorian terrace with little or no off road parking (and no way of creating any in our case). When we bought the house nearly 20 years ago, parking was easy.

Now, every child seems to lose the use of their legs by the age of 17, despite living within TFL area, and they couldn't possibly share a car, so each house has three or four cars (except us it seems, we only have one car). Plus cars are getting bigger (my new car is bigger than the same older model it replaced) and parking here is a total nightmare now.

I happily bought my house 20 years, I would not buy it now.

Original poster
AllTheGin84 · 20/06/2019 12:02

@ContinuityError True... just feeling so stressed out and desperately want to sell.

The feedback is always the same, its a lovely house. NOTHING ELSE... not quite right for us.

OP posts:
Somerville · 20/06/2019 12:02

Two weeks at the lowered price isn’t long. Don’t panic.
Over the next few weeks start thinking about alternate plans. What’s the absolute lowest you could afford to sell it for? Could you rent it out for a year instead and reassess afterwards?

Original poster
AllTheGin84 · 20/06/2019 12:04

No one really even mentioned the parking! Negative feedback:

3 floors - not good for elderly or babies
parking - limited outside

OP posts:
Original poster
AllTheGin84 · 20/06/2019 12:05

No, we really need to sell. I am pregnant and due in 8 weeks - meant to be moving to Switzerland.

HELP :(

OP posts:
donquixotedelamancha · 20/06/2019 12:05

I think our suggestions are as much use as anyone else's.

Okay, what is the parking situation?

Mysterious.

I can tell you that it's a lovely house though. Does that help?

Original poster
AllTheGin84 · 20/06/2019 12:06

Apologies I cannot post the link... Any tips for the viewings today? What do you do to get your house ready?

It's scrubbed to an inch of its life, new everything, fresh flowers...

OP posts:
adaline · 20/06/2019 12:07

It might be lovely, but it might not be over half a million pounds worth of lovely.

donquixotedelamancha · 20/06/2019 12:08

Any tips for the viewings today?

Obviously you are not going to let them see the house, but I would describe it to them in a lot more detail than given here. Would you be willing to give the prospective buyers a rough idea of location?

YogaDrone · 20/06/2019 12:09

We got the "it's lovely, love the street, love the house, just love ...house more because of x, y or z"

It's difficult OP and you have my sympathies. Selling a house is so stressful. I'm not an emotional person but I lost loads of sleep and cried a total reservoir over the course of our move. But we got there in the end and I'm sure you will too Flowers

But, as others have said without a house to comment on it's hard to give you accurate constructive comments.

PlausibleSuit · 20/06/2019 12:09

Without seeing it, all anyone can do is offer the broadest guesses. We don't even know where it is! £575k in Burnley ≠ £575k in Bromley. Anon tips is just another way of saying 'stabs in the dark'.

DappledThings · 20/06/2019 12:10

Apologies I cannot post the link

Then if you want anything useful you really have to post some photos, as a PP suggested, and a vague location. Otherwise nobody can have any idea what the issue is. If indeed there is one given that the market generally is flat and nearly every time it's just the price being too high.

I've said this before but I'll post it again. We had 3 valuations of 599 in September 2017. Dropped to 575 after 6 weeks and still nothing. Dropped to OIEO 550 in January 2018. Accepted 515 in February 2018. The market dropped fast and it just wasn't worth what we wanted to anyone. That's almost certainly it.

bigKiteFlying · 20/06/2019 12:11

I don't think any one can say without a link.

However I'd have a good look at local market - where we are prices are still apparently rising and while houses are on for slightly longer than this time last year they are still selling. Many other areas Brexit is stopping anything muich happening.

Have a plan B - you might not want hassle of renting but is it possible as a stop gap - could your DH start the job and you remain here to have baby and sell house - obvioulsy not best option but if you had supportive family possible? Could you move and cover few months to keep it on the market?

StCharlotte · 20/06/2019 12:11

-the foundation to eaves vertical crack is off putting

Grin

(Sorry OP, I don't know what the answer is but could you rent it out for a while and then see if you get any joy later?)

Daygals · 20/06/2019 12:12

Is a three storey house the norm in your area. It would be unusual here and does undoubtedly bring disadvantages, but here, you get a lot more floor space for your money over three floors than you would over two.

A family hone over three storeys with some sort of parking issue is always going to be tricky but presumably the price when you bought reflected that too.

S1naidSucks · 20/06/2019 12:13

I can understand why you don’t want to show the outside, but you could post some photos of the inside, OP. Strangers aren’t going to recognise the house from those.

Ijustdontcare · 20/06/2019 12:15

One thing that jumped out at me in your original post was the change of agents. Were you getting a lot more viewings with the previous agents? A friend of mine was trying to sell and was getting hardly any viewings and no offers. Turned out the agents were telling people it had sold in the hope that they could buy it off her cheap and turn into a rental. Have a friend phone the agents pretending to be interested in viewing and see what sort of response they get.

Jenasaurus · 20/06/2019 12:15

It could be that buyers are put off by the offer falling through, and the length of time its been on the market. I know its not your fault but I know when I was looking for a house I would suspect maybe the survey had shown something up if a previous buyer had pulled out. Its catch 22.

My son is currently looking for a property and is shocked at how little information the estate agent that shows them around the property has. For example a property they viewed (I went with him and his GF) had been on the market for a while, it was reduced from 380,000 to 350,000 and then to 325,000 but it was an amazing property. When we checked on Zoopla it had been purchased in November 2018 for £440,000 so we asked why the price was so reduced. It had large double bedrooms, was close to London and a sought after area, beautifully refurbished with a very large garden and near the station. The agent looked confused and said it may be because of Brexit!! As the property was over 100 years old and the external wall had been painted, we wondered if it was covering up something. In the end we investigated further and discovered that originally the house had a garden the size of a football pitch and the current owners had sold part of it off to a developer hence the drop in price!

My son did put in an offer but was out bid, but the reason I think it had been on the market for so long was the dramatic price drop and the agent not explaining why it was.

Other viewings with other agents have been equally lacking in information, they appear not to have any information about the property, say they will find out, but some of the questions are pretty standard ones and they should expect to be asked them and armed with the answers.

One odd agent ended up trying to put my sons shoes on when we went in the garden, he insisted they were his, until he then realised they weren't (his shoes were black, my sons were light brown!). Then we noticed he hadn't come in from the garden and he said there was a bee in the doorway so he wouldn't come back in ...very bizarre, the same agent we asked about what looked like water damage on a ceiling, he had no idea about it... well I guess if he didn't know what his shoes looked like, he would find anything a challenge.

Sorry Op, Its stressful selling and I hope you get a buyer soon.

BurningTheToast · 20/06/2019 12:16

Too near to school holidays? Maybe people don't want the bother of dealing with that as well as juggling holidays and childcare. If you're not in a hurry, maybe take it off the market, sort anything that needs fixed such as clutter and then relaunch it in September.

Also, if it's been on 4 months, it might be worth getting new exterior photos taken as your garden will be looking a lot better now.

ScatteredMama82 · 20/06/2019 12:17

Anyone with a 5 bed house will have kids. The thought of permit parking and not having my own drive would put me off. Imagine trying to get the kids out in the rain in a parking space down the road, running back to the house with nursery/school bags and shopping. It may be a lovely house but not being able to park at my own door would put me off, particularly if I'm paying over £500k for the pleasure. Sorry, I assume there isn't much you can do about that so this won't be entirely helpful but it might be something to address at viewings.

Didiusfalco · 20/06/2019 12:18

I can’t help with what’s wrong with yours, but I feel your pain.
We have to sell too, also just dropped the price. It is so tough at the moment, all the tidying and strangers walking round the house is starting to get me down. Houses around here usually sell really fast, I guess it’s just not a good time. I know logically that I just have to gradually lower the price until it tempts someone, but it’s a hard pill to swallow.

BurningTheToast · 20/06/2019 12:18

Apologies - I thought I'd RTFT but hadn't and missed your update re being in a hurry to sell.

I'd still think about new exterior photos though

IvanaPee · 20/06/2019 12:18

had loads of comments that it looked beautiful and the only issue was parking outside!

If nobody mentioned the parking where did that comment come from?

Look, you’re stressed and you’re shouting HELP but what do you want people to do??

It’s clean, it’s tidy, it’s painted in neutral colours according to you...

What can people on the thread say about a house we can’t see and know nothing about?! Confused

MalloryLaurel · 20/06/2019 12:20

You may have to consider renting it out or selling it under it's value because time is an issue.

Swipe left for the next trending thread