Is anyone slowly going mad with trying to sell a house?

[nikos]

Seriously down about the whole thing. All agents round here are now admitting that things are just not moving and can't believe we might be here for the foreseeable. Anyone else down and how are you keeping your spirits up?

I was wondering if I could ask a quick question to sellers about offers.

DH and I are ftb with mortgage adn deposit all sorted, in rented so can move as quickly or slowly as needed (within reason!) and we've seen a few houses around the 140k mark that have been on the market since the beginning of the year. The max we can go to is 125k - dso you think it is worth putting a couple of offers in to test the feelers?

Yes of course you should Piggy! What do you have to lose?

When I sold in December 2010 my original valuation was £189,950 and I sold for £172,000. Sellers must have seen what is still happening to the market so should be grateful to find a buyer. Unless you are unfortunate enough to have chosen houses where selling for less would leave the vendors in negative equity of course!

Not now, but went through this recently and is soul destroying as you really have to disassociate from house you are selling, so you end up hating/resenting it. Good luck, (Unmumsnetty hugs cos I know is crap...)

Piggy we offered 15k below asking on a cheaper house than that and it was accepted so anything is possible.

If they've been on the market for 6+ months I think it's worth a go.

We finally completed a sale early this year - 10 mths after we accepted an offer in summer 2010 due to a tortuous chain which broke down twice! Our house in the SW was orginally on the market in 2008 following a job relocation. The credit crunch meant 2 sets of buyers failed to get a mortgage and we became reluctant landlords for the next 2 yrs before putting the house back on the market again at the same asking price that we did 2 years earlier and more importantedly 10% less than similar properties. Cue a shedload of viewings and a string of low offers. We accepted an offer slightly less than our mental minimum figure but ultimately, we are content that we have SOLD which is the important result. We have been renting for the past year and a house purchase fell through in the last month due to undervaluation and the vendors refusing to budge from their near asking price tag. With the events of the past week, we feel that it's a blessing in disguise and we will be sitting it out for the next 6 - 12 mths. We won't be the only prospective buyers thinking this way. I would advise anyone to drop their price if they want to sell anytime soon and go into rented accommodation for the interim.

House has been on the Market a week , it's online, front window of agents office , not been in the local paper yet , and no for sale sign up.
When should I expect viewings ? Is it going to go on for ages ? ( please lie and say " no dear , it'll be easy ")
Don't know when to start nagging the agent.... and turning into house selling witch from hell, I'm looking forward to that stage !

Same! House just went on the market over the weekend...wonder when I might get a viewing? I know it's going to be a nightmare and I am sooooo impatient. We are in Scotland so we have had to pay for the home survey already which is a pain however at least the results were good. Phew....

Can anyone share any experiences of how long it can take for the viewings to begin? (I was hoping I might hear something today but I know that's totally ridiculous!!!!!!)

Have you checked what price similar houses in the area have sold for (mouseprice website is good) because rightmove isnt any good for actual sold prices and in this market the difference between guide price and sold price can be massive!

We have just bought our first house (get the keys today ) and it has been hard work! We have done about 20 viewings and met with alot of completely unreasonable and unrealistic vendors (for example one family had bought from new in 1995 for £70k and done absolutely nothing to it in that time, not even a lick of paint and had it on the market for £225k! We offered £180k to allow for the minimum £30k work it would need and they told us they couldnt except a penny less than asking!!)
Luckily the house we loved the most was being sold by a very realistic vendor who has actually lost £37k on the property since 2004 but she knew how the market was and was downsizing so accepted the hit.

One of the estate agents we viewed with stopped telling us about new properties on the market after we had offered on 2 different properties (6 weeks apart) they were selling as they decided that we couldnt afford the houses in that bracket lol we could easily afford them, we just were not prepared to pay inflated prices and we have been proved right as we have purchased a house bigger and better and in a much better location for the same price that we offered on both.

Obviously you cant reduce the price if it will take you into negative equity but the market wont stat moving again until people get realistic

Doilook and JoJo - we pretty much only got viewings at the weekends. The first weekend we had 3 - all people with nothing to sell who were sitting waiting for something good to come up. Then we had 5 viewers over the next 3 months ... The last lot made an offer which we accepted.

Thanks WhereDidAll...I am totally obsessing over this but just wondering, did people book their viewings a few days in advance or was it more like the agent calling on the saturday morning for a viewing that afternoon?

Our house has been on market now for a month. It took a week for photos & details to be taken for the prospectus, which still wasn't mailed to the EAs customers at the end of the second week. We've had one viewing. One telephone call after the viewing saying it went well and they'd chase for feedback and call us back. Nada. The viewing was nearly 2 weeks ago.

Am feeling very deflated about the whole thing too, feel like they've spun us a line to get onboard with them but are doing nothing to promote our property - we were told they would tell us how many hits on rightmove the property had and we'd get a phone call every week "even when there is nothing to report". DH is of the opinion that because it's school holidays things will pick up when they go back to school. I was all very excited to start with - one of the EAs team told me to be "prepared for the house to sell quickly - people are biting our hands off". Haha. Pfft.

JoJo - both!

Well...3 viewings today, one already said it's no good for them as they are down sizing and it's still too big! The other 2 seemed to like it but who knows! Another one booked for Sunday afternoon. Due to speak to the agent tomorrow so hopefully they will have some feedback for us.

Our agent told us it takes an average of 12 viewings to sell a house so only 8 more to go!! Just kidding....think it might take a lot more than that!

Isn't this a stressful business!

OK so another viewer from yesterday has said that the house is split over too many levels so no good for him. Grrrrr.

We have been on the Market for a week, but had viewings for nearly two. Have had about 11 viewings so far, a combination of booked a few days in advance and some giving is just an hour or twos notice.

The house is always ready to show though, I chuck DS's toys in baskets and only have washing out drying overnight etc.

No offers yet, but then gone are the days of having to put a full asking price offer in on a single viewing, people are taking their time before commiting.

Keep with it everyone, and fingers crossed for all of you.

That sounds promising 11 viewings! After tomorrow's viewing we will have had 4 in the first week which I thought was good but 11 is great - lucky you!! One of ours yesterday didn't call the agent at all, just saw the house on the internet (I assume) and rang the bell! Luckily it wasn't long after the previous person had been so the house was still looking great!

We are trying to keep the house ready for viewing at all times but it's hard isn't it!

Our house is a conversion and split over 3 floors. The details on the internet do say, in the first 2 lines that it is split over 3 floors but I guess people don't always read the details properly, especially if they like the look of the pictures.

We are in Scotland and due to move to the SE in April next year fingers crossed. Not sure what we will do if we can't sell.

Fingers crossed for you too!

Oh Jojo, I hate it when people don't read the details. Our last house was on 3 floors and I lost count of the viewers who said "ooh no, its got too many stairs really". Aagh! Did they not wonder why there were three floorplans in the details? How did they think they were going to get between the levels? Jump?

Very frustrating!! I think I am fairly patient just now as it's only been a week so I'm kind of glad to have any viewers but if that goes on then it will drive me mad!!

We knew the stairs would be an issue for some, especially as conversions in our area can attract older people who are downsizing but we did make sure that we had the 3 floors in the first two sentences! Like you say, there are 3 floor plans which should be a give away. Mind you, another viewer from yesterday said it was too big so they hadn't really read the details either!

We have neighbours who have flats within the conversion who have their flat all on one level but are on the first or second floor and they are older (60+) and happily lugging their shopping up to the kitchen! Suppose that shows stairs are not an issue for everyone (although of course that is my new fear!!!!!!)

Lady coming tomorrow to view on behalf of her Mother. I'm guessing her Mother may be 60+ so we may have another issue with the stairs! Will wait and see.

Sorry to rant on...my DH has a rather more laid back attitude than me so I have to let off steam here!!!

Viewing today from a cash buyer only had two hours notice and house was a tip. Dh and kids all worked with me and we had it all shiney by time of viewing. We let the agents do the viewing so don't know how it went yet.

Sounds good Nikos! Hope you get some feedback from your agent soon. Amazing how quickly you can turn a house around when a viewer is on their way isn't it. Will keep fingers firmly crossed for you!!!

Wow, that was quick work nickos.

I hear your pain of people not reading the details properly, although today we went to see a house that had no details ready but according to the EA we would love.

Get there and it's a bungalow. Having had a conversation 3 days ago asking them not too send any details about bungalows. Painful.

We have a viewing next Saturday . I can't understand why they booked a week in advance , but at least it gives me lots of time to make the place look beautiful .
We live in South Wales , I think it's always slow in the more rural areas.

We usually book a week in advance - have tried ringing on a Sat to get a viewing on the Sun but usually inconvenient, and with two jobs and young children during the week not doable. I thought a week in advance was usual? Give plenty of notice? I would never think of giving just two hours!I would just think that was too rude

Well today's viewer loved the house...if it was for them I think we would be sold but it's for their Mum so stairs might be an issue but they didn't say that and the agent had told them in advance that it was split over several floors.

Will wait and see....hopefully more viewings next week but am expecting it still to be slow until after the summer hols.

Good luck this week everyone!

Mylovely - we tried to put them off but
They were only here for the weekend. They were cash buyers so decided to bust a gut to get house ready. Did mean we have had a lovely tidy house all weekend