Why would a house still have a for sale sign up when it was taken off the internet several months ago?

[sethstarkaddersmummyreturns]

we made an offer on it in early summer, offer refused as they had a better one, fair enough, house disappeared from listings online shortly after, drove past it today and agent's board still there. (house still empty, has been for over a year)

anyone know what this signifies?

The agent hasn't been arsed to remove the sign? Both times we have bought a house the sign has stayed until either we called the agent to remove it (first house) or gave up on the agent coming to remove it as promised (second house) and yanked the bloody thing out of the ground ourselves.

So if someone has bought it but not moved in, chances are they haven't bothered taking it down - and the agents are too lazy to do it too.

You can check whether the house has been sold firstly by checking www.nethouseprices.com and seeing if there is a sold price listed (with the date of sale) or if there's nothing there (this site uses info from HM Land Registry, but it isn't compulsory to report the sold price on the documentation AFAIK) check out the Land Registry itself and get a copy of the title register to see if it has changed hands.

thanks emsyj, that's really helpful - will check.

Definitely CBA/shifty estate agent. Our old house still has a "sold" sign outside, despite the sale's having fallen through and its having been rented again! Dishonest so-and-sos!

Our neighbours took their house off the market (without anyone telling MIL whose offer has been accepted, but that's a different story!) and the "for sale" sign was up for 3 months, then they must have detached that bit, but left the agent's board up for another 6!

Our sign is in the garage 3 years on (came down before the last box was unloaded!)

I think generally agents just want all the free publicity they can get. People looking to sell often look at who has lots of boards in their area.

it does sound like it is probably sold and they just haven't got moving with it then.
Alternatively it may have been taken off the market I suppose.
thing is I worry about the poor little house because it has a bowing gable end (stone-built so worse than if it was brick) and the roof is not watertight.
I want someone to buy it and make it better - it is too nice a house to let decay. Fingers crossed you are right and they have bought it and will fix it soon. If they have bought it and don't fix it before the winter (or if the owner has taken it off the market and isn't looking after it properly) they are idiots.

I sold my house in July, and have had a sold sign up since then, we are still here owing to one house we were buying falling through due to an adverse survey. I found another house, and should have exchanged last week, but have an idiot in the chain who is holding us all up! They may be on the move soon!