Support thread for house sellers

[Spirael]

Just what it says on the tin, really! I'm sure there must be other stressed house sellers out there? Hopefully we can band together and get some small joy of (hopefully?) seeing our houses sell so we can get a move on!

This is a thread of hand holding and mutual support for the EA dealings, weeks of silence, frantic house tidying, no-show viewings, silly offers and tough decisions. This is not for house bashing and price slating. There are plenty of other threads for that!

I've been trying to sell for a year now. Had a surge of viewings earlier in the summer making the right noises, but all has gone quiet for the last few weeks.

However, we have a viewing booked for later this afternoon from someone who has sold their house and is able to proceed - wanting to move before Christmas. Currently swinging between pessimistic and optimistic, while trying not to look at the house we want to buy!

Anyone else out there? :)

I think we'll be taking our house off the market at the end of October if we've got no hopeful prospect of a buyer at that point. Then we need to decide whether we unpack all the things we've packed into boxes in the loft and actually have our posessions again, or leave them until we can remarket next year!

Still got some prospects for the moment though... The holidaying couple apparently got back yesterday and the EA dealing with them is in the office today. So he's going to speak with them and hopefully persuade them to up their offer. At least we should finally get some feedback, even if not!

In the meantime, a woman is coming down from Scotland to view houses in the area today and tomorrow, with a view to moving ASAP as she starts work in the area soon, and we're on the list. Only found out yesterday though, so last night was spent running around frantically cleaning again.

Hopefully your second viewing will go well, Mis! And more nice-natured, easy-going, cash buyers with money to burn will appear out of the woodwork soon and buy all our houses without quibble. [delusional]

Good luck with your 2nd viewing Mis and hope you get some news from the holidaying couple Spirael or an offer from the relocater. I just don't know what to do - my house price just keeps on going up and up on Zoopla and Mouseprice - I know they're just made up guesstimates but still... Are people still going to be viewing houses now that the weather is getting bad?

We'll be viewing houses whatever the weather (admittedly rentals for the winter) - if folks want to move then yes they'll keep moving. If folks are of the 'houseviewing as a hobby' ilk then no the weather will stop them. So you'll still get serious viewers I would have thought. I'd dismiss Zoopla and Mouseprice and focus on the real indices i.e. Land Registry, Nationwide and Halifax (as they're based on actual sales - though the latter two don't include cash buyers and the former excludes repos) - Rightmove is a joke as it's asking prices and at the mo' there is typically a £60k difference between asking price and selling price. What my EA called the 'reality gap'.

Fingers crossed Spirael!

Right, we are accepting an offer from a v nice lady. And if it falls through we know we have at least 4-5 other people interested at around the same price. Now we just need to find somewhere to buy. ANd now of course the real stress will begin with the legals etc...

Well done Woodlands - great news. How exciting :)

I've just dropped a mail to my EA to say I am thinking of taking the house off and remarketing in spring or to hang on until the houses we like go under offer or lastly to leave it and wait but risk only attracting those who think they'll get a bargain. I asked for their views on this.

Woo hoo! Woodlands

Great news Woodlands! Good luck whatever you decide to do Cuddy

Congratulations woodlands. It's so good/ lucky to have a buyer you. If you hit any glitches later down the line you know you can relate to them and potentially work through it. Several buyers in the wings is amazing in this market, we'd be happy with several viewers to start with.

EA just called Mr Low Offer is dealing with some personal problems (new partners ex husband) so they are not pushing him too hard at the moment but we now have a viewer on Saturday morning. EA advised to keep the house on the market for another 6 weeks.

Nothing's ever simple... Still no answer from Holidaying Couple. Scottish Woman is stuck somewhere between there and here due to the weather, so can't make today and is coming tomorrow instead.

But the EA haven't got anyone available to do a viewing then, so we have to do it at 6:30pm - right when we're normally eating ahead of DD's bath/bedtime routine at 7pm. Oh, and DH might be working late. Not entirely sure how to juggle that one!

We also now have another interested party, I guess I'll call him Local Man, who might be viewing today with EA instead of the Scottish Woman. At least that means our frantic tidying last night and this morning might not have been completely in vain!

Three parties... One of them has to like us and make a good offer. Right? Right?!

Good luck spirael - always nice to not have wasted cleaning efforts. Go in with an open mind. Try to forget any preconceptions about figures you'd like and see how it goes. The weather is pretty shit here (it'll not make the news, not being the south of England...) so there's no wonder your viewer from Scotland is stuck. Look at this pic of Aberdeen - that weird stuff all over the houses - that's sea foam from the storm!!!! frrole.com/o/amazing-pic-taken-of-sea-foam-drifting-i-seanbattystv-glasgow I personally wanted to avoid putting off our sale til next year as I just can't see any reason that the market will get better not worse given how the economy is moving. At least the Olympics gave some sense of optimism - I think once austerity really bites - the sentiment of buyers will be even lower.

Oh my Spirael I hope one of the three potentials is interested. Poor timing for your evening viewing - at least I can kick my kids out of the house for an hour.

Wow-that photo is amazing! Very wet and windy here but not near the beach so nothing interesting like that.
So hard trying to time viewings around small children. Mine aren't that small but still small enough to cause trouble!

That photo of Aberdeen beach is about ten miles from me!

Have got two notes of interest on our house now but solicitor said the couple that came for their third visit at the weekend have just offered on another house, boooo!

Am also struggling to time viewings around small children, everyone wants to come in middle of dinner/bath/bed time!

Good luck piemistress I imagine the market in Aberdeen is still pretty buoyant given the oil money? Prices there always have me falling over in shock when I glance in solicitors' windows . Fingers crossed you get another note - did your agent say to you what their trigger is for going to closing? Up here on the islands it's typically two or three notes of interest.

Sympathies to all of those combining viewings with wee ones. Total nightmare!

Gaaah... The Holidaying Couple, after leaving us hanging for two weeks, have come back from holiday and found another house they like better than ours. So that one, our best chance, has fizzled. :(

Local Man now isn't answering calls, so sacrificing my evening yesterday tidying for today was a waste of time after all.

We still have Scottish Woman potentially interested, but she has now moved the viewing to 7pm, because she's viewing somewhere else at 6:30pm. And somewhere different to that at 6pm. Unless they're all on my street, she's pretty much guarenteed to be late.

I hate house selling!! I've stopped looking at dream house, the chance of us ever getting it is decreasing by the second. :(

Oh nooooo spirael! Don't look until you sell. It's just not worth the heartache and sinking feeling as places you'd love get sold. Put yourself in the shoes of your holiday couple - if you had been genuinely interested in the house - you'd not leave it until after yer hols to inform the seller would you? I'd be too scared to lose the house. I guess it wasn't meant to be and they were not serious. Fingers crossed Scottish lady (who sounds like a serious buyer keen to make an imminent purchase as she's cramming in the visits into one recce trip, and who, as you say, has to move) is the one for you!

At least we're popular this week. After months of no interest, we have ANOTHER interested party, apparently 'hot to go', who wants to view the house this Saturday at lunchtime.

Poor DH, who is so busy and stressed and never gets to see his friends, had invited some of them over on Saturday for a day of relaxing board gaming. Now they're all getting handed a toddler and turfed out the house!

And the Local Man is going to view at some point on either Thursday or Friday at short notice. So now I have to fight against the tide of toddler and have my house immaculate all week!

It's going to be one of those weeks, isn't it??? I found out yesterday I need to have a minor operation under general anaesthetic, booked for two weeks time. Life currently seems to be piling on as much stress as possible!

[goes grey...er]

Oh heck - sounds like it's raining potential buyers down there. The flood of viewings sounds like you have pitched the price ok - as otherwise you'd just not get any viewings. Well done but sheesh, from experience it's a stressful few days. Fingers crossed for you. Also fingers crossed re the op. In a few weeks am sure all of this will be behind you

eek sounds stressful Spirael! I sympathise with the stress of having to keep toddler mess away from viewers. Though the woman who has offered on ours viewed on Friday when DH was in but somehow hadn't had time to do ANY tidying. We even hadn't done the previous night's washing up (yes, I know, yuck). So who knows whether it matters...

We're debating offering on a place which we were interested in a while back but which had sold but is now back on the market. We're not sure if something dodgy came up on the survey or what, but it's very unusual and quirky and we both really liked it when we viewed it this evening. It needs a fair bit of work but is in a liveable in condition. The only problem is the location isn't quite what we were looking for. But it's so nice to see something different from the same two or three different layouts we've looked at endlessly so far.

Woodlands - I'd ask the agent what happened with the last sale. I bet it's back on the market because the mortgage valuation was less than what the sellers were hoping for / or the buyer struggled to get a mortgage. That's what's happening up here. I wonder if the seller still thinks that the price in their head is the right one though...

Good to hear all your updates ladies.

Will keep my fingers crossed for those of you still cleaning/tidying and trying to sell x

I just hope the woman later likes curry. The 'emergency fast microwave meal' in the freezer at the moment is a set of curries/rice/pakoras/etc, so the house is going to stink of it.

Current the plan is to run into the house, microwave/eat those then DD and I will go for an exciting drive to Tesco for half an hour while DH shows the woman around the house. The Tesco has travelators that DD loves, so I'm sure I can entertain her for half an hour going up and down those.

DD and I are coming back at 7:30pm regardless. If the woman is still there or has turned up late or something, then she's just going to have to deal with a toddler being showered and shepherded to bed!

Now, my current deliberation... Do I buy flowers at lunchtime? We have three viewings booked within the next four days, so they should be seen. And I get to have a house full of nice flowers to de-stress by. But is worth it? Hmm...

You definitely need flowers.