House NOT selling... AIBU?

[AllTheGin84]

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.

Is that the one with no internal pictures @Bluntness100?

As someone else said, maybe do an open house. If quite a few people turn up then it can get competition going. If hardly anyone turns up then you need to look at price/pics.

I don't understand why you won't post the link? Some people love going on rightmove and having a nosy around houses nearby with no intention of buying. Makes no difference if you post here and you might actually get some constructive ideas.

Firstly, in your circumstances, I think you'd be better off renting it out until you know how you feel about Switzerland - living there might be quite different from the thought of living there!

Secondly - although it's hard to offer advice without seeing it, as everyone else said - normally if you are struggling to get viewings it is the price (you seem to get viewings) but no offers means an issue with the house (could be the parking or the three floors).

I also live in Gloucestershire and houses near me sell very quickly unlike the poster much earlier on the thread! Just depends where you live.

@RedToothBrush, we don’t want you to buy it. We want someone who appreciates character and will love it as much as we do.

It's obviously too expensive.

Do you really think you can find a buyer and get it all sorted in 8 weeks? I think renting is probably your best option.

To be frank, your house is only worth what someone is willing to pay. You need to be patient, summer is never a great time to sell either. I've been in your position, then just as I'm panicking someone offered the full asking price

we don’t want you to buy it.

Good. We are just about to buy somewhere with parking (but also has lots of on street parking next to it).

Just cos you don't understand the obsession with parking, I really don't understand the obsession with period property. Its a responsibility that comes with a price tag, and I actively want to avoid a money pit.

I only came on here to give suggestions once I’d seen the Rightmove link. Btw, I wouldn’t part with that much money when there’s little or no parking.

parking - limited outside

Well this would put me off for a start. For that amount of money I would want off-street parking and not have the annoyance of coming home and finding nowhere to park.

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

It is frustrating that these are things that they know before the viewing (make sure they are clear on the details though!) but they come anyway - I had one say they didn't want my house as it had a downstairs bathroom, I did tell the EA that I had not relocated it between her writing up the particulars and them turning up!

I would take the negative comments and ask the EA to ensure they cover these before booking viewings - "great, just so you know, it's a lovely town house, over three floors with x on the ground, x on the first and x on the second floor. The parking is permit in the town but I'm sure you know the area. See you there!" - that sort of thing, not say "ooh, you won't like it because it has three floors" but just make sure this is noted.

I've no idea though why someone would go and look at a three storey house if they think three storeys is too tricky with kids etc. People can be quite stupid I think.

A friend of mine had someone comment that there was hair in the bath plug hole. He told the EA to tell them it wasn't part of the sale....

I will also point out that's a very expensive house! It's harder to get mortgages now

Having read more info I think the price may well be the problem - £30k drop to £545k isn’t all that much. If you’re determined not to drop the price then obviously it will take longer.

You should at least consider the idea of renting it out if you’re desperate to move.

My house was posted on here once by a prospective buyer - nobody came round and the comments were interesting!

@AllTheGin84

There are random wierdos everywhere . I would say that Rightmove is just as likely to attract them as anywhere else. If you want to sell then you need to get your house 'out there' and mumsnet is just as good a place as any.

And if you want advice then you need to post a link otherwise there really is no point in this thread.

The thing is, OP, you only need one buyer. You loved your house enough to buy it, someone else will too. If you have to rent it out, it’s not the end of the world. Better to do that and wait for the always cyclical property market to improve.

I can't see if anyone else has pointed this out but I think you need to be there for the viewings.

Paint a picture of the lovely life someone could have in your house.
Sell them on the location.
Massively down-play the parking issue if it comes up.

I will also point out that's a very expensive house! It's harder to get mortgages now

The way the housing market has developed over the last 10 years with prices flat in many areas over that time period, meaning that less equity has been made due to rising prices, means that the pool of people under 40 able to buy a £500,000+ house is shrinking year on year, whilst older people are looking to downsize shrinking the pool of people who want to buy a larger house in that age group too.

It means that this is a price band which is being particularly flooded by supply and demand issues. This is a problem thats only going to get worse.

Plus its the wrong time of year completely.

£30k off to £545 is nothing.

I certainly wouldn't be putting in an offer at asking price around here full stop, unless I really had too. Offers under are pretty normal as its a buyers market not a sellers market.

Its not what you've asked about - but do consider carefully getting off the property ladder in the UK for move to Switzerland.

I've lived here for going on 20 years, and have known dozens of families move back to the UK for all kinds of reasons. It's a great place to live - I have no intention of moving myself and have bought property here. But it's not for everyone, particularly those with DC. Childcare if you've no family nearby (or within flying distance) can be difficult and expensive. The education system is very different - not bad or worse, in many ways it's better - but it's certainly different and may not be for you or your child (who will be essentially streamed for university at the age of 11, if you don't get into the right school you have drastically reduced chances of going to university). Equally, I've know many families who are fully integrated and love it here.

Ignore me if you or your DH or both of you are Swiss and/or have already spent some time living in Switzerland. But just something to keep in mind. I've seen far more people return to the UK after a few years than settle here, beautiful as it is.

Drop the price. The appraisals are speculation. It's worth what someone will pay.

Firstly, in your circumstances, I think you'd be better off renting it out until you know how you feel about Switzerland - living there might be quite different from the thought of living there!

We rented our house out when we were posted overseas - although we didn't return to it, it was useful to keep a foothold in the UK (we were back within 18 months for various reasons).

Currently have a house on 3 floors with no garage - a garage had been DH's must have but the location and the house itself made him rethink (plus the price). So there will be buyers out there.

someone came round to my house from seeing it online/forum to have a 'nosy'

Did you let them in? Did you tell them to make an appointment with the EA? Seriously, they could have done that from seeing it on Rightmove.

YABU to ask why your house isn’t selling but refuse to post any photos. We’re not bleedin’ mindreaders.

Just upload some photos if you refuse to post a link.

Is your estate agent fully aware of the area? If they're doing the viewings do they know about the local schools' reputations, how long it takes to walk or drive to them, where the supermarket is, how easy it is to park at the station? The type of question a buyer might ask in passing but the reaction to the questions can make a difference. Because too many 'I'll have to check with the vendor' or 'I'm not sure' will make buyers fed up.

Because when we were looking to buy we went to a house where the estate agent took us round. No real enthusiasm, more like 'this is the bathroom, this is the kitchen - big enough to eat in as you can see' type of thing. We asked about the local schools as we had a toddler DS at the time - they weren't sure because they didn't have kids but they'd heard they were fine. We knew that but as it was a family home and obviously kids lived there we had hoped we'd get more in depth type of information but the vendor didn't do the showing so we couldn't.

The estate agent came from the next town so wasn't aware of the fact that there was a cut through nearby that knocked 15 minutes off the walk to the nearest supermarket (and came out near the infant school).

We liked the house but it took the estate agent a couple of days to come back to us with answers to some questions about council tax and a shared drive plus we still had to research schools etc.

By which time we'd seen the house we now live in, similar quality, similar price but the vendor showed us round. She sold the area to us - told us about a nice park 10 minutes away which she took her kids to (estate agent didn't mention it at all), the little cut through I'd mentioned from this part of town, which takes us past a field full of lambs and little things like the fact that ducks came into the garden in the spring (we viewed in late summer) and that the local school had a gardening club and even the reception class got involved in planting bulbs - which we thought was lovely. Really made us feel like it would be a dream area and a lovely home rather than just a house.

We saw our current house the morning after we met the estate agent for the first house - we left an hour later and put in a full asking price offer. Had we had a vendor showing us around we may have gone with the other house - it was immaculate whereas our current one was clean/tidy but lived in. But the vendor's enthusiasm for the area sold the house to us.

Sometimes it actually helps if you're there just to get those answers done quickly. Estate agents can't love your home like you do. I've always shown the houses we've sold over the years.

If you can't post the link, can you at least post the pictures of some of the rooms eg living room, kitchen, bathroom?

I suspect it's the body in the bath...

OP without a link no one can give you any useful advice.

Thank you for all your feedback, we had a viewing today and will await their feedback.

EA saying in the South its free slow and my friend who is selling her property who is more central (London) has reduced twice. Maybe Brexit is the issue?

We can't drop the price more than £545k unfortunately :(

I understand that people want me to post a link... but not looking for anything on the house. Just tips on selling, what to do before - should we do viewings etc... and just general feedback on how people are finding it. Help with keeping morale high!