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Original poster

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

176 replies

nikos · 04/08/2011 18:16

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?

OP posts:
mrshotrod · 13/09/2011 19:55

Yes. Going mad. Have sold, again. third time lucky.......!?!?? Don't dare look at any now till we know this is going to go through. Hate it all. Just want to move.

mrshotrod · 13/09/2011 19:57

PS - It's taken us a year now. Two collapsed chains, damp proofing work (had to move out) pregnant, toddler, now also a new born. HELL ON EARTH at times. Big sigh. Good luck to all.

SybilBeddows · 13/09/2011 21:19

Nondom - re the garden, you could sneak in there and do it yourself. If it was just the garden you probably should but tbh the window and car are probably more of an issue Sad

JoJoMummy321 · 14/09/2011 09:57

We have not had a viewing for a few weeks now although have a note of interest from a no-chain cash buyer who still appear to be interested so we are keeping our fingers crossed.

However if this one falls through we will be worried! We could drop the price and are happy to if that's what it takes but you can't help but wonder if people are just not interested at the moment. We have to sell as DH has new job and we need to relocate.

It's not a nice business this is it...you feel quite helpless too.

Zeeky · 14/09/2011 15:42

Jojomummy - ditto! DH had new job & we need to relocate asap. No interest for over a week now. Our house is immaculate & in a great location so don't understand why no-one even wants to view it. Unless it is just vastly overpriced...

dizzyday07 · 14/09/2011 16:49

We've just decided to go dual agency - mostly as our original agent is a pile of pants! Not sure if this will help as we've been told by both that locally it's lower priced houses (under 250k) that are selling.

Zeeky & JojoMum - we are relocating too! Maybe we need to start a seperate thread where we can all share our property links in case we could buy each others houses :)

JoJoMummy321 · 14/09/2011 21:46

Dizzy that's a great idea!!! Anyone relocating to Scotland? Lovely house going for a good price!!!

Zeeky · 16/09/2011 08:55

Dizzy & JoJo we're moving from Berkshire to Northamptonshire. Any good?

dizzyday07 · 16/09/2011 09:32

We are in Shropshire moving to the Hull/Beverley area of East Yorkshire

MiddleOfTheStreet · 16/09/2011 22:07

Please keep your fingers crossed for us: we have 3 viewings tomorrow.
I am sending dh and ds-s off, as I have to do them myself. Stessing out already... I really don't want to lose our dreamhouse.

singarainbow · 18/09/2011 15:11

Hi,
Jumping on the thread. Our house has been on the market since mid July, had a handful of viewings, even got an offer which we accepted, but the next day the buyer changed his mind. We have not had a viewing for about 3 weeks now.

I have hassled the EA every week, we even got their pictures replaced by ones we took so we had more time to make the best of the rooms. We have reduced out price twice, its now £7450 less than the original.
We are trying to remain calm, as we have no upward chain, as we are hoping to emigrate (if we sell the house)

I dont know what else to do, because we need to reach a certain price to clear debt, mortgage and have enough funds to emigrate..and thats only the basic costs with no money spare for house deposits over there.
Now breathe.............Sad

JoJoMummy321 · 21/09/2011 16:50

So...this is where we are up to...

Buyer put in a note of interest a couple of weeks ago and then went on a business trip to Singapore. While he was away his Mother was dealing with things on his behalf. Estate Agent had a call from his Mother saying an offer was coming. It didn't come and it turned out there had been a small delay in the completion of his sale. (These false starts have happened twice but we think his Mum was just getting a bit ahead of herself perhaps!!).

He has now finalised the sale of his house and is back in the UK. He called our Estate Agent on Monday late afternoon to say that he was sorry for delays, had been away and he was going to make an appointment to see his solicitor.

We've still not heard anything. I was hoping the phone would ring today but it hasn't. Am I being unrealistic? Once he has spoken to his solicitor how long do you think it would take the solicitor to get in touch with our agent to make an offer?

We are going mad with this...can you tell?!!!!!!

drcrab · 21/09/2011 20:05

An update too: we've got a complete chain! Person at the end has bought a vacant house instead of the house of a couple who seem hellbent on putting stupid offers that go no where! Smile

Have notified solicitor. Husband dealing with mortgage ... Fingers crossed.

Doilooklikeatourist · 04/10/2011 12:08

Any good news anyone ?
We've had an offer , it's 17.5% less than asking price , so we've asked for something a bit closer to our asking price.
It's from our first viewer , back in late August . Cash buyer . Fingers crossed she will come back with a better offer.

singarainbow · 04/10/2011 12:49

We acccpeted an offer last week, lower than what we wanted, but not low enough to refuse. The "buyers" then went AWOL, when they were finally contacted they have put another offer in on a different house, and are pulling out, not sure when they were going to let us know...Hmm
Thats 2 offers accepted, since its been o the market, and twice the buyers found something else....
Back to square 1.

Zeeky · 04/10/2011 14:21

Dropped the price by 50k on ours. Had lots more viewings as a result but still no offers :(. I showed a young couple round on Friday & they seemed to love it. They were originally buying a friend or ours' house but friend ended up taking a higher offer from someone else. They booked a 2nd viewing over weekend, so we were very hopeful. But then they cancelled & have now decided they don't want to live in our part of town :(.

Also had a second viewing yesterday, & again was hopeful of an offer today, but just heard from EA that they have a few other houses they are second viewing so we are in a shortlist of a few properties.

It's so disheartening isn't it...

gallicgirl · 05/10/2011 20:52

very interesting reading here.

DP and I are looking at relocating from SE to NW and it's been a bit nuts trying to work out what order we need to do things in.

I keep obsessing and looking at houses I want to buy but have finally realised that's the last thing to do and we need to get this house straight to put it on the market to sell first. I thought we might sell reasonably quickly as house is in a decent state and we're thinking we're going to market at a realistic price. However, your tales of woe have made me worry a little bit.

I forget who made the comment about the website hit but there's probably some poor souls in the NW wondering why they've had 50 hits this week but no viewings! At least I know now it is unfair to go and view a house on the off-chance it might still be on the market next summer when we'll hopefully be in a position to move.

wallpapercabbages · 07/10/2011 17:25

Just found this thread and needed to share, our buyer just pulled out after 2months, so the house is back on the market, Xmas is coming, I want it sorted and we are now back to square one, sooooo frustrating!! Arghhhhhh

toucancancan · 08/10/2011 19:50

Just found this thread too, and need to get off my chest. We're in Scotland and we've been on the market for 20 months, we've had about 6 viewers in total - only two this year, and those were before April.

Not sure what on earth we can do other than sit tight. The place is on at a very reasonable price but we're aimed at the first time buyer market, and there doesn't seem to be any around. I am slowly going demented, and feel very down. We're painting a couple of rooms this weekend to refresh the place and try to keep our spirits up.

I'm hoping things will pick up in spring....

ElderberrySyrup · 09/10/2011 17:05

surely all you can do is reduce the price, to compete for the few FTBs that are out there?
I get the impression that in this market it's not enough to be reasonably priced - you can be lower than all the comparable houses, or lower than all your valuations, but buyers will still think you are too expensive because they feel the market as a whole is overpriced. I know there are fewer FTBs around because of the mortgage drought, but there are also lots of people with finance hanging on for further falls and ready to jump in as soon as they perceive houses are cheap enough for them.

toucancancan · 10/10/2011 18:44

Yeah, I think we will get xmas out of the way here and in late winter review our pricing....

Spirael · 10/10/2011 21:24

Can I join? House has been on the market for nearly three months now and we've not had a single viewing or even any interest. :(

We've reduced the price by £5k to put us under the stamp duty boundary, but that hasn't seemed to help - even though we're £15k cheaper than the couple of other houses for sale on the street. And we have a conservatory and they don't!

I guess we're being caught by the lack of FTB's around.

Doilooklikeatourist · 10/10/2011 22:34

I think were going to give up trying to sell , and just stay put.
The house we wanted has had an offer we can't match , and there is nothing else we like the look of.
Good luck everyone , we might try again in a couple of years.

photoretoucher · 12/10/2011 22:31

What a shame we can't all buy each others houses, as said earlier.

I agree that it's really disheartening. At least I'm getting viewers. Not all suitable ones though.

The funniest one was the chap that looked shocked when he was told the house was built in 1892. Didn't he get the hint before he came to view.......... "VICTORIAN 3 bed semi"

Spirael · 13/10/2011 08:38

I'm trying not to lose heart, we need to move as we want another child but can't fit them in where we live currently! Our salaries are strong enough to afford bigger, we just need to sell our current place so we have the deposit money.

This weekend I think I'm going to attack the back bedroom. Put all the books into boxes in the loft, move all the bookshelves into the garage and redo the photograph of that room. Hopefully it'll appear bigger! I think at the moment it's putting people off because it looks like a single room in the picture, when really it's quite a spacious double.