I hate selling houses (even more than buying them!)...

[Heathcliffscathy]

we put our house in the market in sept and the first people thro the door offered us asking price...the sale fell thro last week (no reason given) so we have to restart the whole process having lost a (crucial) month...

the papers are all doom and gloom and we just really want to sell it (we can't live in it as it's in the countryside, originally we intended to move there, but it hasn't worked out, and we can't leave london, it's crippling us financially).

every day i wait for the agent to call,it's like when you really fancied someone and you had a sick feeling in your stomach waiting for the phone to ring...it's horrible...i know we probably won't sell before xmas and then there will be a massive crash and we are screwed...

no point to this post other than to express my tortured mind...argh, i hate it so much!

thanks for getting this far if you have...

My SIL's house was in Birkenhead if that gives any northerners some hope?

Skate - yup all in place to move with 2 mortgages, plus paying my parents back on the bridging loan they're stting up for us. We are going to be completely and utterly skint at the end of each month. But we're gathering in all the forgotten cheques etc and saving saving saving for the next month.

2 lovely, lovely friends last night gave us a whole load of Tesco vouchers for when we move cos they knew we'd be tightening our belts. Will keep them to pay for Christmas dinner in our lovely new house!!

Muddha-technically speaking we're in B'head (although like everyone else in our part of town we leave B'head off the address ) and houses in our part are not selling at all. She must have got very lucky or the house must have been a bargain!

Ditto everyone, just wanted to join in.
This thread is so useful, as you do start to feel that its just your house.
We had ours on sale since June. Had 3 viewers & last one made good offer. But he was a fussy git & 6WEEKS later, just as a bout to exchange, he pulled out. Still didn't worry as 2 other houses in our street have sold in the same period.
But, what happened? Only 2 more viewers in about 4 weeks. Swopped agents after having a row with our one (whoops), but this hasn't worked either. Had about 6 viewings from people on their books already, but no offers. People on books for a long time seem a bit time wastery tbh. Been in papers twice now, but no viewings as a result. The market has just stopped doing anything in the past few weeks, quite suddenly. Could do with house prices dropping (some have come down £50k-£100K here at top end of market recently), but only if we can sell ours.
Help! 2 bed terrace with DS & DD, big dog,2 cats & neighbours who wake us up at 6.30 everymorning (inc weekends) is driving us mad & now have to apply for DD to go to school by NEXT MONTH (for admission next year - crazy) and don't know where to send her
ps don't know who minis, K or Fxxx are? - are they secret societies?

macneesh FWIW I really don't think there is going to be a crash - a slowdown yes but not a crash. All the economic signs seem to back that up. Isn't the advice to buy the worst house on the best street rather than the best house on the worst street? i.e, some houses by virtue of their location will always be desirable

Same experience here. An early offer was dropped 2 months later. We then had loads of cancelled viewings and recently no viewings at all. It doesn't matter what you do to improve your house if no-one is coming to view it! Our Agent said yesterday that the market was very subdued and that the other estate agents near him had all shut up shop early because there was no business.

Sorry to be a pessimist, but I always thought that the economist who predicted another price crash was right. In which case the sensible thing to do would be to sell, bank the cash and then rent and ride out the downturn.

According to the BBC Website, prices here (Winchester) have dropped by 7.1% in the past quarter. Do we wait for the hoped-for January surge or cut our losses and drop our price by 15% or more?

We dearly want a bigger house to accommodate a growing family but are stuck! If the market continues to stagnate or goes on to collapse, we could be stuck here for years

Lets hope I am proved a pessimist who does not deserve a half-full pint glass.

macneesh, we would be first time buyers. Dh is a keen 'amateur' financial analyst. It appears there has been a division among analyst as to whether the marrket is actually going to crash or whether it's just a downturn. I think you have made a very valid point, I don't know how the economy can stay so bouyant when the world political stage is so strained at the moment. We have been 'sitting tight' for 18 months despite many people telling us that we are silly and that we could only have a downturn at worst.
Considering the news report this evening, I think we may have taken the right path.

Mudda - what a nightmare isn't it!? I'm not going to worry though unless it looks like we won't sell by next June!! Please - we can't still be waiting by then can we?? Like you, each month is going to be tighter than tight and we'll be living pretty much hand to mouth. It can be done though - lots of people are far worse off than we are and with a bit of discipline we can certainly chop our Tesco spending by a couple of hundred pounds a month!

Dillydally - our agents are selling other houses, literally round the corner! One has just sold but it was £10K cheaper but also much smaller house with much smaller garden, hence the reason I don't feel ours is overpriced. I just don't understand it.

Joanie - like you, we need to have moved in order to sort out school issue for ds1. We are lucky that the property we are buying is my parents so we can move anyway while they move to their property that they already have and we cover their mortage and ours.

I so wish we'd sold last Jan and moved into rented so we weren't in this nightmare situation now. I'm not dropping our price anymore - we've got one of the biggest and most up to date properties of the 4 up for sale on our row and ours is the cheapest!

Despite all the pesimism on here, I'm optimistic. I have to be.

Had letter through from Estate Agents this morning:

'With two recent increases in mortgage interest rates, people are asking is this enough to bring a slow down in the property market. Suggestions made by Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, earlier in the summer have encouraged purchasers to take great care when buying a property, and we would certainly endorse his views that it is dangerous to buy purely on the basis that prices are expected to grow by 10% each year.

Despite these concerns there is still considerable evidence in Altrincham that the market remains active. The overall economic picture remains strong and there continues to be an excess of demand over supply with relatively small numbers of new houses being built within the region.

For your property, as with others in the district, prices have risen considerably over the last two or three years and it would appear that this rapid growth in prices will peter out over the course of the coming months. We have had low inflation for a number of years and this is likely to result in a more stable market. We do not, however, anticipate a crash or a significant fall in property values as has been suggested in some quarters.

I hope you find this assessment of the housing market in Altrincham of interest to you. If I or any of my colleagues can be of any help to you with regard to any of your property matters either now or at any time in the future please do not hesitate to contact me.'

This is the agent we've been for 4 months and have sent round precisely ZERO viewers!!!!

What is going on? They're all bloody talk and I'll be ringing them on Monday for stern words!!!!

Well we had one viewing on Friday, nothing this weekend - but at least I got to see a real life buyer ( they do exist ). Then of course she had a small baby with her in a sling so maybe she was just looking for something to do...

Skate,

Estate Agents have a vested interest in promoting the impression of a healthy property market even when this might not be true. Around here all the Agents I have spoken to are finally conceding that the market is flat and are "unsure of where it is going".

Looking at this from another angle, falling property prices is excellent news for anyone wanting to get on the property chain. It is also good news for anyone wanting to move up the property ladder - assuming they can sell their house first of course...

Everything is definately on hold until after Christmas now, we are trying to sell a flat in London to move back to Scotland (will have to get clued up on house buying in Scotland) we are not wanting to increase our mortgage just buy a house for what the flat is worth. DP has been applying for jobs up there so that is the first thing then we have to sell this flat, find something up there and move - no stress there then!

HarrassedDad - Oh, I know that!! The very reason they keep telling us there is no point taking it off the market and back on in Spring! Cos they don't want to lose us off their books!!

However, they are right that it's not completely flat because there are sold boards still going up quite a lot round here. Going to call on Monday to see what they think about ours. There are very similar houses to ours just round the corner that have sold - they are slightly cheaper (£10K) but they are also smaller (e.g. have box for 3rd bedroom where ours is more like 9.5 x 9.5) with smaller gardens.

Try a different estate agent, and speak with them to see who the market is appealing to at the mo, is it people moving newly into the area? or people currently resident? if it's people moving newly to the area, you could see if they're from a particular part of the country and get the estate agent to place an ad in that area? also is your agent putting your details on the web, as in our area, those on the web are selling faster than those who aren't? hope this idea helps?

Skate - sorry, didn't mean to be patronising or anything!

I can't believe the rubbish that Estate Agents feed us sometimes. Still, even they seem to be toning it down a bit lately. One Agent, who shall remain nameless, periodically publishes a portfolio of properties along with a blurb called 'market comment' in which they usually snide at the doom-sayers and newspaper 'property crash' headlines. In their latest portfolio, the 'market comment' is strangely absent.

Being in the same boat as you, do you think it is better to keep your house on the market or take it off until spring? If we stay on, will we be tarnished by having been on the market too long?

HarrassedDad - oh, no offence was taken! Just realised my reply sounded a bit like I thought you were patronising but it wasn't meant to come across that way!

I just don't know what to do. Part of me thinks it's best to take it off the market and put back on in a few months so it doesn't look like it's been on forever. BUT, I think people will notice anyway as we are on a main road into town so people will see the board has come down and then 'oh, it's back up again!'. Also, it's not costing anything more to keep it on the market over Xmas, keep it in the paper, on the website etc and there's always that chance that the ideal buyer will see it over that period.

Since I think the problem is more with the market than the agent, I think we'll just leave it on and see how Jan/Feb/Mar goes and then reassess the price if nothing happens by then. Our house will be exempt from Council Tax from Jan to June so really want to sell by then so reassessment in Mar seems reasonable.

Isn't Jan supposed to be the busiest for viewings?

Anyone had any luck over the weekend.

Us - zero viewers.

we've got a viewer on Friday whoo hoo (not very hopeful though)

We have only had our house on the market 4 6 weeks & I hate the whole selling bit already!
Yesterday 4 instance, we were supposed 2 have someone coming after lunch, so I cleaned the whole house up & only let the kids have minimal toys out and then waited & waited & waited!
At 7pm we got a call from the boyfriend to tell me that the girl was called out at work & they wanted 2 come in the evening instead.
I was kind of fed up after staying in all day with 2 retchy children, waiting 4 this after lunch viewing that eventually happened at 8pm!

Just adding sympathy here - after 2 1/2 years (yes years ) on the market we have finally given up on selling our flat and are renting it out. It's been a nightmare from day one so I have huge sympathy for people struggling in the property market. Hang on in there - you will move eventually1

Just checking in to see if anyone has had any viewers lately. Just seen your post wilbur, 2.5 years I've been on for 4 months and thought that was ages. I'm already thinking of giving up. Hope someone has some good news out there.