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!

good luck anyway! Your house sounds fab but it's probably in the wrong place for us....

All's relative. For a family with couple of school age children and need to commute to London, a 3 bed terrace in a firm catchment area of outstanding primary/secondary schools and under hour commute to London would justify premium price. Because it ticks the important boxes - good schools and relatively easy commute.
The house prices in London commuter belt will always go up; London is main centre of employment and will always be and the commuters will end up shelling out more and more, regardless what the housing market does elsewhere.

Gosh, this all sounds very familiar. We were ready to sell our central London flat just as the property crash got underway in 2008. With our first DC only weeks old and sleep deprivation at its height, the endless de-cluttering, de-personalising and tidying (all to no effect) was particularly hard. We finally sold it 3 months ago for around 50K less than its 2008 valuation. Was happy to be shot of it frankly, especially after several months of having to rent it out and then the inevitable rental void between the tenant moving out and the sale completing.

So all was well in the end for us, especially as the sale enabled us to pay off the mortgage on our current house. Would quite like to move to a bigger house (have 2 DC) but the jump in prices between what our house would realistically achieve and what we would like to buy is more than we are comfortable paying in this climate.

But we are lucky, I know. I hope the rest of you get that sale sooner rather than later.

I am really cheesed off. We had a second viewing on our house, as did our neighbour (same people viewing), whose house is v different to ours size wise.

What I don't get is surely the purchaser has certain requirements, so wondering why the agent are showing them both houses.

Also, I still haven't had feedback. I spoke to our neighbour who I am actually v good friends with and she gave me feedback on ours that she had had from the agent! I am thinking this is pretty unprofessional. AIBU?

My DSis in law has had theirs on the market 2 1/2 years, dropped the price by 20% in total. A few viewings, led to nothing. They have 2 DDs and the house is TINY. She's utterly depressed about it all.

I keep telling her that we bought ours the week after Christmas, garden was a nightmare, needed complete redecoration, no double glazing, old boiler - just to give her hope.

Really, really feel for anyone trying to sell at the moment.

I am lucky enough to be a cash buyer. When I eventually see a house I want my opening offer will be 20% below the asking price.

So my offer would be around £320K for a £400K house. I would expect this to be rejected but I will not make any increased offer at that stage. I plan to let the sellers sweat for a month and then repeat the offer of £320K.

Yes, all this makes me sound like a really nasty person but if I can save £80K by acting like this to a total stranger then I would be a mug not to.

If only everyone could count to three and all devalue at once by about 20% then we'd all be in a vastly better position (except for downsizers of course).

Wow this makes me realise how lucky we have been (so far, touch wood). We accepted an offer on our house 6 weeks ago within 3 weeks of putting it on the market and at the same time had our offer accepted on a house we found and loved... I am just incredibly nervous about it falling through before we exchange.. there is no chain, just feel like it has gone too smoothly so far. DC2 due in Feb and am desperate to get settled before then. Good luck to you all it is such a stressful business even when it seems to be going well!
And I agree, viewings with a toddler in the house are a nightmare, toys in the car every night etc etc, in fact some of them are still there!

Dejavu - I don't think it makes you sound nasty.... well except for the line about making the sellers sweat perhaps!
But realistically, all you're saying is that in the current state of the market you're not prepared to pay more than 80% of the asking price; you will repeat the offer after a month as you know they're more likely to accept it if the house is still on the market a month later. It isn't in the least bit personal. Your prerogative to make the offer, their prerogative to accept or refuse as they see fit.

We offered 20% below the asking price, cash offer, on a house recently - they had another buyer who was prepared to pay more so naturally they refused ours .

I was offered 20% below asking, turned it down, got another offer the next day from a cash buyer for 5% under asking price.

So you can go around offering 20% below and might find you don't get anywhere dejavu :o

It is, indeed, a strategy for people who are not in a rush to move and not to be recommended if the house is your dream house!
Glad you got a good offer so quickly!

Sorry to all of you with houses on the market who are finding it dispiriting. We're in the same boat - it's really dead at the moment, isn't it?

I don't want to sound too Pollyanna but we're trying to see the bright side - DH said the other day that he wanted to keep the house on the market for ever because he loves it looking so nice. Obviously that was deeply irritating but he does have a point - the house looks gorgeous, and it's nice to live in it like that.

(Also I have started using the fluffy towels I got for viewings and they are really nice )

Our other consolation is that the house we'd really like to buy is going nowhere either, and hopefully (since we're upsizing) if there's any drop in the prices, that will actually work in our favour.

No one has mentioned animals in the house, especially during viewings. When I was a buyer a friendly dog or cat was most unwelcome to me during a viewing. Any smells also put me off plus litter trays, pets food dishes in the kitchen and cages with pets in them.

Maybe I'm just a non-animal person and I'm sorry if you all find that offensive, but if you are having trouble selling your house it might me something to try.

My ex and I have had our house on the market since Feb after a difficult split. It's a four bed cottage in a sought after village in the south west, good schools, communtable, AONB etc.

Ex still lives there for £80 a month as he is only willing to pay his share of the interest on the mortgage and I pay my share plus £700 a month rent for DD and I.

We've reduced to £335k from £370k, now looking at £325k. We've had maybe ten viweings and no offers. We would accept £300k (paid £265k in 2003), but if we marketed it at £300k, we would never get an offer close to that.

I actually think our EA is pretty good, they give us all the stats from the websites and we are getting higher click through rates than other comparable properties. They also know we're motivated sellers and are well-respected locally. I really think that in the coutry, there are just far fewer people plus market confidence is way off.

I'm trying not to let my expectations of price be clouded by what I will need to buy again. I live in the local town now and the variablity of schools means it will cost me £230-250k to get into a 'satisfactory' school.

I am trying very hard to be Buddhist and unattached to it all...

Unless someone is desperate to sell (and in area that is not particularly desireable), 20% under asking price would be laughed off I'm afraid. Around here anyway. Neighbour got an offer 2.5% under asking price and didn't take it. They knew they'll get the full price and they were right. Took whole 2 weeks.

We have just had an offer. It was on at 340k and the agent suggested 330k so we reduced it to that last week. The offer is 7% below the 330, so 307.

We have gone back and said 315.

It is soooooo stressful. The house we want is still for sale and they have just reduced theirs by 10k to 375.

Don't know what to do.

We need to be in a specific area and 4-bed houses are very rare in this area.

WWYD??

depends on how much you want to move and what the outlook is in your area.
I would be more inclined to take the lower offer if I lived in Middlesbrough than if I lived in the south-east, for instance!

Rollmops - so what if they laugh?
You make a low offer knowing they're only going to accept it if they're desperate which usually means they've been on the market a long time and not had offers. You don't make it thinking they ought to accept it, just that they might just and if they don't you can come back with a higher one if you want to.

thanks jfly and ladybiscuit - new brochure for the house tuesday - i may post link here for feedback :-)

We are in Hampshire; prices have been cut in our particular area, but the area we want to move to which is literally the other side of the M3 have not been cut at all as the secondary school is incredibly good and popular.

We need to apply for dd2's primary place by mid Jan, so need to move soonish.

Oh yes do suntangirl!

This is what I did (hope this doesn't sound smug - I'm trying to be helpful because I've been where you are!). I put the cat outside, removed all evidence of children, put 1/2 a garage's worth of stuff into storage (seriously), including my massive sofa and bought a new small sofa instead and spent about 15k doing the place up in the last year (new kitchen, bathroom, wood floors). I spent ages studying RightMove and checking to see which properties that were similar to mine were selling fast.

It's bloody hard work to be honest. But I'm in inner London very near a tube so I did get a fair bit of footfall. It must be bloody depressing if no one comes to see your place.

Have any of you spoken to your EAs to get some honest feedback or are there just not enough buyers out there?

We made an offer on a house when we moved for £315k which was refused - our max as the house was in a bad state - some viewers didn't even get past the front door. We bought something else and was quite satisfied to see the house languish on the market for another 6 months and sell at £305k

this is the old listing......

do your worst???

omg that's gorgeous!
The selection of pics is a bit odd, ie 2 of balcony and living room but none of bedrooms? I think you have to see the bedroom to imagine living there

thanks - they couldn't sell it though :-( plus the photos dont really for want of a less wanky word 'capture' it