How can I sell this f*cking house

[Instawars]

due to a relationship breakdown I need to sell my house. I am still living with ex and it’s absolutely hellish. The house has been on the market for 6 months and nothing in our area is moving.
ive spoke to the estate agent and they’ve said it’s not the price “the market is just slow”. We own as tenants in common so because the estate agent keeps saying it’s not the price I can’t get my ex to sell it at well below market rate to entice a buyer that way.
I am at the end of my tether and don’t know what to do. If I look on right move there are 25 properties listed in our area and only one is under offer- some have been on the market 9 months or more.

I’m amazed he went along with that to be honest.

So what exactly is your AIBU?
Sorry to say this OP but the housing market is about timing and it's a shit time to sell. If you really need to be free of your ex you'll have to take the financial hit!
Can one of you not live there and take in lodgers? So you won't have the responsibilities of a landlord, but the lodger covers a bit of the other person's mortgage share.

It's not just that. COVID prices were an unnatural boom. Houses increase about 5% annually. Shot up 10-20% during COVID with even rubbish being snapped up .
So any correction NOW is a return to the norm. With interest rates on top.

There will always be people needing to buy. People needing to sell like OP. Those who don't need to will sit on their hands and chance.it.

'Even if we have really good value properties people want to sit tight as they don't know what will happen with interest rates etc.'

They clearly aren't good value for the buyers or they would have been snapped up! When you say good value do you mean Spring 22 minus 5% or pre pandemic, 2019/early 2022 prices?

I estate agents want to survive they need to reduce prices to a level that gets potential buyers through the door and making offers. I don't understand why agents still don't seem to have realised this!

If multiple houses aren't selling despite months on the market and only a tiny trickle of viewings, it's the price.
Most agents don't seem to have grasped that the huge rise in interest rates has reduced affordability dramatically. If houses were marketed at affordable prices they would sell. Everything does at the right price. Sure there is a major change in sentiment, that was inevitable but the key issue is the price. If agents want to stay solvent in the next few years they need to market much lower and communicate this to their sellers.

Of course the estate agent won't drop price or his cut is dropped. Everywhere I am houses are dropping drastically because they can't be sold otherwise. Plus easily more than a dozen friends I have currently have there places for sale as people cant manage the high mortgages anymore

OP isn't coming back. She's obviously in a distressing situation living with a controlling bellend, has asked for any advice on what she can do and everyone is piling on saying the one thing that she has said she can't do! For fuck sake ladies, be kind.

You can go to court to force the sale, but also be aware the judge can set a minimum price which the property can be sold for. So that could backfire on you

'For fuck sake'? How rude, for people who have taken the time to comment.
There is literally nothing else to be done.
People have suggested taking in lodgers or renting but with an abusive ex that's it.
OP is stuck.
Whether she likes it or not that's the way the housing market works.
'Being kind' doesn't change the reality.

“Be kind” and lie? 😂 It’s always the price!

Of course it's the price, the EA just wants to get as much commission as possible, also a financially abusive partner is bound to use this as a way to control you and grind you down.
You'll have to find a way to out maneuver him

HOUSE PRICE CRASH AHOY

It's the price.

The only way to force a joint owner to sell is to get a court order.

I agree. It's always the price. There is a market for the house priced at a certain level. The challenge for OP is that unfortunately, this will have a serious impact on her financially.

I get it - I'm a single parent too. Unfortunately as a PP said, there is no other option, it took me some years to realise that the options available to me post-separation were not going to be my preferred ones and weren't going to be fair in many cases.

I’m sorry. I’ve been where you are. It’s shite. We rented ours out for a while. Would not recommend.

Things that don’t need work are selling round me. The cost of renovation at the moment puts people off.
make it look polished if it doesn’t already.
can you afford to be there?
Could you get a lodger? I suggested that, you can imagine how well that went down.

assume you’ve been exhausted all buying him out opportunities?

Agents make their money on volumes, not on tiny margins.

Given the choice between having no sales and a sale 5% less they will nearly always go for sale 5% less.

That's why agents (or sensible ones at least) will always tell you to lower the price.

Also, there is a chance the sale might go out of contract with them or the vendor will get hacked off. So they will always prefer 95% or 80% or 70% of the original price rather than nothing.

If a house has been on the market for some time and has not sold and they do not tell you to lower the price then three possible conclusions :

i) They are an idiot.

ii) They are making so much money elsewhere and have so much business they don't care about your sale, either making it or losing the contract.

iii) Some funny business is going on.

Market is just deader than a dead thing - I've just had a right move scroll and you can tell it's dead - the estate agents are breaking out the "creative" photography to try to resuscitate dead listings.

I'd willing pay 50 grand more if a house listing contains a photo of a table with two wine glasses and some claret on it.

Or a soft focus shot of a running tap

No advice, but I feel your pain. I was trying to sell during the crash in 2008, having to live with my STBEX, and it was hell. It took 3 years to sell. Meanwhile, I moved out, so he had no motivation to sell, as he was sitting pretty.

He would leave the house in a mess, so I would have to tidy up his crap, and clean and garden, before every viewing.

He moved a woman in, and I would have to pick her underwear up off the bedroom floor. I remember one time, he had let the garden get so overgrown with weeds, and someone was booked in to view it. I was on my hands and knees in the mud, pulling out weeds, in torrential rain, it was thundering and lightening, and he came back with his GF, and stood over me, yelling at how I had ruined his day by being there. Truly hideous times.

But nothing lasts forever Op. Hopefully you will be out of there soon. I absolutely wouldn't give him a penny more than he is due - you'd regret it, I think.

I’m reading this wanting to cry
I’m lucky in that I’m not living with my twatty ex but I’m the one stuck in the house we can’t sell. It’s me that will be impacted by the price reduction as I’m getting the equity from the house, which will impact what I can then buy.

We’ve had 4 viewings in 4 months and I know we’re overpriced even though we’re on for less than we paid for.

I wouldn’t mind but I never wanted to bloody move here in the first place!

No advice OP just wanted you to know you are not alone

@DrSbaitso nope. But that doesn't stop posters suggesting mad things!!

people are just trying to help & each suggestion kind of helps to think outside the box, but OP's NEED to check out the legality of suggestions.

Dreaming is nice though... if only it was that simple!

Could you afford to buy him out?

Where I am absolutely nothing is selling, everything is being reduced and STILL nothing sells.

Since we bought (just as rates started to drop) prices have dropped by less than 5%. But rates have risen by at least 2%! Not enough to offset.

Many people aren't desperate to sell. If they can't get the price that they want they'll just stay put. Personally I'm wary of buying in a market like this as unless there's a clear reason there's likely to be something wrong with house... E.g. bad neighbours. So if we hadn't bought I'd have stayed renting