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? :)

Is a bit. I will have to commute for any work I want but hopefully no more than 40 minutes. That is the compromise.

How did your viewing go Spirael, were you there, or did you leave it to the EA?

Spirael - we are still on the market too. It's been 6 months and we've reduced the price as low as we can. Remarketed with a new agent and the brochure looks great etc. Feedback from viewers is lovely house BUT too small, too big, overlooked, used to live in the road and were having a look, not on the market, etc. I'm beginning to wonder if we'll ever get a sensible viewer who actually wants to buy our house. I cleaned the house top to bottom (again) today just in case - I must be mad. I almost dread the next call advising of a viewing, just knowing it will be another time waster. Rant over!!

Photographer booked for next Wednesday and I have NO idea how we are going to get house clean and decluttered in time. We are moving out of London butcan't decide whether to just move a further bit west for a slightly bigger house or go way out east and get a lot more for our oney ut a totally different way of life - small town life, long commute etc.

I can't believe anyone will actually want to buy our house, it's such a state - i'm really hoping the london market is as buoyant as it's supposed to be.

Well done on exchanging financialwizard!

Gravenwithdiamonds - you could buy my house :)

Well, that was probably the most positive viewing we've had! My husband (who seems to be naturally lucky :P) handled it, I took the toddler out to go grab takeaway having spent my entire day intermittently working (from home) and cleaning/dressing the house.

Apparently the couple made all the right noises, were impressed by the room sizes (they thought they were smaller! ), liked the fact we have off road parking, liked the conservatory, loved the kitchen and were impressed by the amount of storage room the house has.

Unfortunately they're leaving early tomorrow morning to go on holiday for two weeks. So we're not likely to get any feedback or (tentatively optimistic) progression until they get back.

Can I join? Been on market a few months now, three viewings, all liked it but two not in proceed able position yet and third planning to look at others so prob not that keen . Have another viewing tomorrow. House is empty as we've moved away for work and are now living with in-laws so feeling quite desperate to sell! I really hate this.

Fingers crossed Spirael and Johnnycomelurky too

Where are you cuddy? we are lookng in very specific areas but I'm open to ideas

Olney in Buckinghamshire - lots of people commute to London from here. It's a market town in Buckinghamshire. We're on for £435k - 6 beds :)

Sounds lovely! We are looking at Suffolk or Surrey/London but best of luck

Can I join? We are abroad and getting the house ready to sell, every time I think we are getting closer theres more to do/fix Dh showed me all the boards that need replacing on the deck yesterday and last week we were pricing new carpets as the whole house has to be done. It's all painted ready inside and out, and we've been getting rid of excess furniture.
EA's charge 6% of the total sale price. Which is daylight robbery. They do all the showings, we get out and leave them to it. Dh has even moved to dat shift for this, as people viewing and walking in on him sleeping in the day would be bad

day not dat

6%

I watched a program the other night based on the book freakanomics - written by Americans, apparently estate agents get on average 10% more when selling their own properties than when selling yours !

Good luck, where are you off to leaving? :)

I'm not sure if it's impressive or depressing that my house is so much better presented, with all the niggly DIY and decor finish off, since I started trying to sell. Are others finding the same?

For some of the changes (modernising the door handles jumps to mind) I wonder why I didn't do them years ago!! Others, like rearranging my lounge this weekend to make it seem bigger and appear more conventional, are going to be a bit of a PITA to live with.

But if it gets us a sale, then so be it! If it doesn't, you'll find me rocking gently in the corner.

We definitely should have put off road parking in and if it all falls apart we will do that.

The main negative for our house though has been the size of the garden, have just had to wait patiently for that 1 buyer who loathes gardening.

We did also finish off some small DIY jobs though, ie filling in some holes in the ceiling where Dh had hunted for the joist to hang a pan rack. They had annoyed me for 3 years and took 1/2 hour to fix!

But agree that it's depressing that house looks amazing to sell. After a viewing I was always so in love with my house but then all the hidden crap would appear and remind me why I want to move :)

I hope you find a buyer soon Spirael :)

We definitely should have put off road parking in and if it all falls apart we will do that.

The main negative for our house though has been the size of the garden, have just had to wait patiently for that 1 buyer who loathes gardening.

We did also finish off some small DIY jobs though, ie filling in some holes in the ceiling where Dh had hunted for the joist to hang a pan rack. They had annoyed me for 3 years and took 1/2 hour to fix!

But agree that it's depressing that house looks amazing to sell. After a viewing I was always so in love with my house but then all the hidden crap would appear and remind me why I want to move :)

I hope you find a buyer soon Spirael :)

Well, evidently they liked our house... They made an offer via email this morning before going on holiday!

Unfortunately it's a bit too low, so we've rejected. But we have made clear we're willing to negotiate and throw in the bits of furniture they were eyeballing. As long as we can meet in the middle of their offer and our asking price, then we're good to go.

Sounds like they'll have email/phone access once they're not in the air, so we may not have to wait two weeks. Now busy crossing all fingers, toes, legs, etc!!

Woohoo! Great news! Fingers crossed for you.

Fab news :)

Wow! Gives us all hope! I hope they follow up with a good offer.

Wow! Fingers crossed for everyone else.

Well done Spirael, fingers crossed it goes quickly.

Bumbez we are moving back home to UK. I can't wait. (happy dance)
Dh check prices at the big hardware store, deck is going to cost at least $300 with him doing the work with my interference help.
Carpets about $2000 installed if we move all the furniture and rip out the old stuff and take it to the dump. Poor Dh has to do thins on his holiday week off work.

Fingers crossed for you Spirael.