Is anyone else having a misreable time trying to sell their house?

[Roseflower]

Our house has been on the market since June and trying to sell it - it's so depressing. Our one offer fell through and since then it just been no more offers.

Buyers (this month we have only had FTB) seem to be getting more and more unrealistic in what they expect for their money around here.

I hate everything about selling a house- the horrible estate agents, the constant calls from rival estate agents touting, the time waster people, rushing around like mad tidying up after dd for hours, giving up our plans to get ready for viewings, people saying nasty things about our family home... but worse in the uncertainity of it all.

Be good to know other people feel as down as me for some support. Or even better people who did feel like me but now things have turned out well!

On the market 6 weeks or so ? Relax, nothing sells over the summer, wait until the children are back at school, people are over their summer holiday's etc.
A house on our road has been up for sale 4 years, nothing to do with the price you understand

It is depressing, but like so many things it will pass.

Any idea why it's not been snapped up? realistically priced?

I feel your pain. We were on the market for 18 months and it was horrible. We moved into our beautiful new house a few weeks ago. All the stress of trying to sell is a mere memory ) You have to persevere.

I think we been on nearly 2 months. I know its the summer holidays and its slow, but it doesnt help dd new school is in the place we want to live in so I got a long drive to start doing very soon...

When I first moved in with dp (my very soon to be husband now!) the house was horrible. It was like a living museum for bad taste in decor from the 1920's to the 1970's.

For the past three years I have poured every penny I had, lived in a building site (we did all the work ourselves minus the electics) , had no kitchen, shower, bed, had no free time/ social life to get the house looking beautiful. Im so proud of it and no how much we have sacrficed in money and time. I guess it is hurtful on a lot of levels when people are so negative about our home.

I do not understand why it is not being snapped up it has been done very well inside and has a brand new garden. Everyone who comes in says its beautiful why are you moving.

But all the recent viewers say the 3rd bedroom or kitchen too small (which they are). But thats why our house is the price it is! People seem to what a five bedroomed mansion and they wont get it for their budget. Maybe its just FTB as they have no comparables?

Everything sells eventually. It took us ages but weve just moved out 2 weeks ago. Please be patent. Its just not a good time at the moment.

jonicomelately Congragulations on your sale! Which area are you in out of interest? Did you need to drop your price at all?

oldenoughtowearpurple the price is a major confusion for us. We had valuations that were 60k in difference from three estate agents. The problem is our area the prices are hugely diverse- if we could plonk our house 3 minutes drive across or down from us it would be worth £150k more for the exact same house (we live in the awful bit which is why im so fed up- I never chose to live here and Im currently stuck). But if we drop our price much more we wont be able to afford anything at all where we want to live...

venusonarockbun well done for the sale! Your right I dont think we could have picked much of a worse time to sell. I just am living in area I NEVER would have picked in a million years to live in and I just had enough. Now dd is starting school, noway will I let her grow up here and told dp enough is enough. I feel I only have 1/2 a life here Im sooooo unhappy...

Poor Roseflower - I do feel your pain as it took us a good 4 months to sell our last house. Hopefully it will pick up a bit come September - I haven't seen a lot selling around us over the summer but people always like a nice, up-together house

on since June as well - also had an offer through as buyer couldn't get mortgage ... ho hum .... i feel your pain as i also have a toddler and have to tidy up endlessly, field calls from other agencies, but hoping September will bring something!
I also need to get my dd into school but need to sell to move to apply!
will watch this thread to see what luck others have ...

"I just am living in area I NEVER would have picked in a million years to live in and I just had enough. Now dd is starting school, noway will I let her grow up here and told dp enough is enough."
Why do you think other people will think differently and will want to buy?
You are not selling it very well, the estate agent might pick on that and think as you are desperated to have a high price as well, they can wait.
june to august is a very short time! It will come.
Ours hasn't sell after 6 months (no viewing) 3 years ago just begining of the crisis, it is still rented for the moment.
sorry to be blunt

I dread to ask how much you are asking for a house in such a god foresaken place too.
It's the old location, location, location.

The worse house on the best street, always the way.

mamaloco well its beyond me why anyone would want to be here... but thats my standards not everyone elses. I guess it convienant in many ways as you be in Waterloo in 20 mins, theres good schools and lots of shopping. You get more house for money that you can in the rest of surrey. But its not the countryside which is why I am unhappy. I am not an urban girl at all, but its horses for courses.

We are just asking the average price for the area, nothing over the top. Its not an unsafe place or anything but its ugly and crowded, congested ... I probably wont say too much more why I hate it but its not home and never will be.

iwantavuvezela sounds like we are in nearly same boat! Which part of the country are you in?

roseflower I am really sorry if this sounds harsh, I really do feel for you, but I will ask again, are your expectations realistic regarding price? If the third bedroom and ktichen are on the small side, have you asked yourself whether overall your house is smaller in square footage than those other houses on for the same price and in similar location? Buyers are acutely aware of things like that with the advent of floorplans.

What about school catchment areas? Is your house in a good one, or is that putting people off?

On the positive side, you are selling when prices are at an all-time high. Surely if you took a small cut in price if that is what you decided to do, then you would still make a nice profit and you could bargain hard for a new place.

I just properly read your last post above, roseflower, about price being confusing. Again, I am really sorry if I sound mean, that's not what I intend....but the amount you need to achieve to be able to afford to live in your desired area is a bad starting place from which to decide on the asking price for your current house.

Could you compromise a little bit on where you want to live? That is what we have had to do. We are not looking for a house in our dream location, we are looking for one in a location we can afford unfortunately!

We put our house on the market this time last year. Loads of viewings but no offers. Changed Agents in April and accepted an offer that was lower than we wanted mid-April for a quick sale. Completed last week.

It is such a relief to have it gone, not the least that we've been paying 2 lots of bills plus rent and mortgage for months.

We put our house on the market at Easter and had about a million viewings - everyone said how lovely it is blah blah blah, but I don't want a new build (which begs the question, why are you wasting my time!!) anyway, in July we had enough of the viewings and mad tidying and decided to give our agent their notice. Wrote the letter and just had to drop it in, when we were asked for one final viewing. Couple looked round and offered the asking price the next day.

We have now swapped one torment for the other of actually doing the paperwork and trying to complete the sale.

Good luck, stay positive and most of all, be realistic as it is a buyers market I am afraid!

narmada you speak a lot of sense about not using what we need to acheive as a guide.When I look a nearby houses on rightmove ours is the mostly same size (all the 1930's houses here just seem to have the small kitchen). At the same time it is bigger than the more expensive ones in the nearby "nice" area 1 minute drive away (in some cases a lot as its mainly flats for this price range).

The schools are actually one of the biggets draws to this area there are a lot of good ones, plus you can apply for 6 schools as we on the border of 2 LA's. But the estate agent never mentions this fact to anyone.

I think we might drop our price and go to the local estate agent. At least people on his books are actively looking for this area.

So depressing.....

notnearlyasblondasiwas were you about to take it off the market completly? I heard a lot of people say they suddenly get a buyer when they give notice... but I would be suspicious they aren't jut fibbing to keep us on the books....

Yes I had the letter written to give notice to the agent and hadn't got round to dropping it into the EA's office, but they were expecting it as there are 6 new houses being built in front of us and we decided that no one was going to buy our house with all that racket going on, so we had said we would give them notice when the building started. They called us and asked if they could bring one last viewing through, so I just said yes whatever but I didn't tidy up or clean especially, as I had decided we were staying.

So later that day I was standing in homebase looking at colour charts as I couldn't live in a magnolia house one minute longer and if we were staying I was decorating the way I liked and I got a call with the offer.

I think it was just one of those things, they saw it, liked it and bought it (in theory - is all still going through)

Hope this gives you some hope!

I would ditch the agent then. Can you give us a clue to who it is?!?!! I am guessing you're somewhere in greater london.

If your house is the same size as others locally that are selling, it may well be something to do with the agent. He or she should definitely be mentioning school intake areas - it's a major selling point. Get on to the council(s) and check the cut-off distances, make sure the agent knows you are inside the cut-off distance for good local schools and broadcasts this.

Other things - Do you have good floorplans and good pictures up on rightmove? If not, the EA should see to that too. I wouldn't even bother ringing about houses without these two things displayed because I would be made suspicious by their absence.

TBH though, I would stop thinking about the price differential between your area and the 'nice' area - it is ridiculous, but these things do matter to people and you'll only upset yourself by thinking about relative values!

Its a buyers market. There are just no buyers out there! Our house has been on the market since Feb, one offer (12.5% reduction on asking price) fell through - they pulled out, no explanation.
Since reduced price 12.5% from original. Why do agents value houses so high? There is no way our house will sell for that. Wages in the area are low, we are in a village, too far to commute to anywhere with good employment prospects. DH lost his job, got a lower-paid one but is driving 100 miles a day just to get to work. We need to move, but our agent is not hopeful- ''its a flat market'
We have advertised everywhere, used internet, redecorated, kept the house sparkling clean, reduced the price...to no avail. Even viewers are arranged, then pull out, or don't bother to turn up - again, no explanation.

Its very depressing.

Well I'm a potential buyer - just can't find a house. But we have just put our house on the market and we haven't had anyone to see it yet - so who knows what's going on. The estate agents I have talked to say that the market is always flat at this time of year and this year is not really any different to previous years. I guess we are going to have to wait and see what happens in September.

I would feel less stressed about it if it were not for the need to find a house AND then school places for three kids!!

narmada Im best not say who the agent is- but I can tell you Greater London on the Surrey borders is spot on!

Wiltsmum and artyjools I feel you pain.. all the first time buyers seem to think us sellers are "greedy" with our asking prices from what I read on certain forums but if we are told our house is worth x amount by an estate agent then what else are we to do? Though I wish they would tell us striaght from the word go or it makes us look bad to having to keep dropping our prices

Buyers are just offering what they can afford. Remember it is much harder to get a mortgage now than it has been for years. You have spent a lot of time and money on your house but people won't know that. You can't expect to get back the money that you put into your place in the current market.

There is little for sale and estate agents are often telling people too high asking prices to get the property onto their books. You said there was 60k difference in your valuations. Which one did you choose?

I appreciate we will fall short of recouping the money we paid for this house (Dec 07) and we have spent at least 30k in improvements since then. We are not 'get rich quick' people- we only entered the property market after 25 years renting in tied accommodation to my husbands job.
The aim is to sell first, then offer a reduced price on the purchased property. But no estate agents will take us seriously until we have sold. There is the problem!
Thank you for the comments about September being a better time. We live in hope!

Just accepted an offer on our flat today. It's been on the market since the end of April (if I remember right).
The buyers are 1st time buyers, and keen to exchange & complete asap.
Woo hoo!
Fingers crossed that it all goes smoothly and they don't pull out etc.