Is anyone else trying to sell a house and feels like poking themselves in the eye with a sharp stick?

[Pinkjenny]

House has been on the market since July. We have changed estate agents, which obviously made no difference as it's not a new instruction. Am sick of it all, sick of the pointless viewers, sick of the useless feedback, sick of always being pipped at the post, sick of the market, sick of my house.

if a house has been on for ages without lowering its price I assume they're not really bothered about selling; after all, plenty of people aren't, they just quite want to move rather than absolutely have to. Most of the houses we have looked at are in this category - elderly couples downsizing, rather than younger people moving for work who might need to move more urgently.

I'm sure if you all drop the price by 100k or 20% you'll get some movement

We dropped our price by 20k.

Within 3 days we had an offer.

Lots of houses round here been on the market for ages and not selling BUT the price isnt coming down either!!!

My house was valued at 175k last October (What I paid 2 years ago).150k in Feb,when I put it on the market - for 130k.
I have now dropped to asking 115k.
I would probably struggle to buy a property for that,but I need to move.
However,I am not even getting viewings.The three views I had,all offered,but all were in chains which failed.The last viewer really wants to buy,but has not had an offer on her property.

I really don't see any way forward.I am in rural Wales.Trying to move to a city.

Mines been on the market twice now. It sold last August after a couple of weeks, then the buyers pulled out 2 days before exchange in January. Back on and had lots of viewings and interest but people havent sold theirs yet. Ive dropped the price by £30k but still not much more interest. Its priced competitively too.

Best bit of feedback ' lovely house, but the land isnt suitable for alpacas'!!!!!!..well the horses like the grass!

I would love to relocate and rent,but could not afford to.
The competition in my area is still at 165-215k for similar,so I am way below already.

Thats tough piranha I'm sorry.

Well ive ditched my estate agent. I really dont think they were doing enough to sell the property. My house is currently off the market until its up & running next week with a new much more pro active (& much more expensive) estate agent. The final straw was when my agent suggested trying a guide price if we got nowhere in a few weeks when he had always been so anti doing that before. I dont want to mess about another few weeks getting nowhere, I want a buyer like yesterday! I simply do not understand them. They knew I was a committed seller & willing to do whatever it takes to sell, yet they were happy just to have it sat there doing nothing. The new agent however was full of ideas the moment he walked through the door. We will be marketing it at a "guide price" of between 190 & 210k. I recently reduced it with the first agent to 199.950 from 204.950. I originally bought the property just over 2 and a half years ago for 195k. It would of been nice to get what I paid for it.. but unlikely now. We'll see how it goes now. Fingers crossed. :)

From Daily Wail so clearly take it all with a pinch (or is that bucket) of salt:
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2003252/Estate-agents-sell-just-1-home-week-property-market-struggles.html

You really wonder how EAs are surviving ... perhaps time so of them got realistic with valuations?

More relevant is the RICs survey.
www.rics.org/site/download_feed.aspx?fileID=9811&fileExtension=PDF

Sales to stock ratio (page 3) now below 1996 levels. Supply keeps increasing whilsts sales keep slowing ... seems as though prices can only go lower.

I have heard they are surviving on rentals because the rental business is buoyant for obvious reasons.

Rentals are doing well here too. My house has only been on a week and we had a block viewing saturday I really recommend it of your agent will do it. We had 4 couples and one made an offer and one coming back tomorrow afternoon. I think it makes people decide quicker if they think they may lose a house. The thing is agents can't do a lot if no one is buying Deposits are still high for decent mortgages so there are still very few first time buyers.

Im considering renting my place out now. Had another Estate Agent out today saying how good the rental market is so I agreed to their lettings agent coming over tomorrow. Will be interested to see what they say. Would still prefer to sell though if possible.

Just had a viewing with the new agent before ive even signed off draft details. :) What a difference a change of agent makes. Fingers crossed they put in an offer! :)

Don't worry Laugs. I managed to sell a house once in my dressing gown (the buyer turned up at 9am, instead of midday) with a baby wailing and two year old throwing up in my bedroom. People do understand, and if they like the property and the price is right, they'll go for it. Just assure them you'll be taking the little darlings with you...

We had a buyer after almost six months on the market, we had him finally.They came and viewed the house four times, each time staying for almost an hour, I have learned everything about them( what they do for living, how many times each of them been married, etc). I cleaned the house top to bottom before each visit, they managed to squeeze us out for majority of our furniture, they had a survey done, nothing wrong with the house, they still love it, they must have phoned us ten times in the span of seven weeks, Generally being very anoying, after all of that they pull out without any explanation, I wanted to hunt them down and kill them, Talking of time waisting. From now on rules; They can view the house twice, only when it suits me, they can only stay for very short period of time, no furniture will be included in sale for free and no I do not want to know there life stories.

Our place has been on for a month now. We went with the EA who gave the highest valuation but who also seemed to be the most proactive and who came with a good recommendation. I think our place is priced right in the sense that the other places in the neighborhood are similarly priced. Nothing is selling here. It's the same houses on rightmove now as it has been for months.

We've only had one viewing.

I think we'll give it a couple more weeks and then take further advice from the EA. Might take it off the market when the contract with them is up and try again in the new year.

zlaya what a nightmare. Can't believe they got furniture out of you as well for free. We are buying a house, due to move 13th July, it's an executor sale and they want hundreds of pounds out of us for furniture and also refused to pay an indemnity insurance.

Are you selling privately? I have kept my distance from our buyer and seller, the estate agent has dealt with everything.

GettinTrimmer, wardrobes in the master bedroom, his and hers inlaid not antique, but very beautiful, all the white goods, all the window dressing and some other pieces of furniture. Some of the things where we were going we did not need, but beside the point, we did our utmost to acomodate them all for an easy sale. We are selling through EA, but they don't seem to be doing anything at all except charging fee.

Gettintrimmer, if I were you I would dig my heels in and not pay those hundreds of pounds, instead if they want sale to go through they should indulge you and give those used pieces as part of the deal, you have nothing to loose call there blaff and see what happens.

I agree Zlaya - we already need to spend a lot of money on updating the property including getting rid of artexed ceilings, which is expensive. I don't think they will give us any of the pieces for free, they consider the furniture to be very good and we should pay, I suppose they will just take it away if they can and try to sell it. We are due to exchange contracts on Monday anyway.

We have to deal with them very sensitively, sadly it was their son's house, he died, and are quite elderly. A young bloke at the estate agents put pressure on me over the indemnity insurance they didn't want to pay, saying how upset they were and please instruct my solicitor to drop the request.

Are your agents supposed to show people round? Next time, I would refuse to give out your number to any prospective buyers and be out when the agents do viewings, but having said that you must have been frustrated at waiting for six months before an offer, really bad luck to have those people exploiting the buyers' market. Good luck to you. Do you mind me asking whereabouts in the country you are?

Newport, Essex, all the best with new purchase keep us posted how you get on with new house, all the best.

As much as I am sad there are so many of us in the same horrible situation, I am taking a little comfort from the fact it is not just me.

We have been on the market since April with NOT ONE SINGLE VIEWER. I know our photos aren't great and we went with the cheapest (read: worst ever in the history of the Universe) EA, but I thought we would get one or two people through the door.

We can't TTC as our flat is really too small for 2 never mind 3 and is completely unsuitable for small people. I am trying not to cry into my cornflakes but tend to feel like it most mornings...

We are lucky enough to be saving money towards a deposit while living here, but its still bloody depressing!

We had estate agents round fri to do the pictures and details.
I've seen a couPle of lovely houses but don't want to view unless we've sold sstc. Don't see the point! Fall in love with a house I can't buy and waste the vendors time when I'm in no position to proceed!

House prices have fallen here in the last year, luckily we bought before the house prices rocketed so our house is still worth more than we initially paid.
Next door is on with the same EA we have gone with and their house sold STC within 3 days!

Just hope we get some viewers now :)

Fingers crossed for you dillydollydaydream, if you get it under offer in reasonable time, the you start looking for your dream house, how exciting, i wish I was in that position, it seem to me me and my family are here to stay for while, because the market around here is so stale, nothing is moving, good luck.

PedigreeChump - can you change agents and get some new photos? quite a few people on here have said changing agents made a big difference.