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? :)

Nothing came from our mass of viewings last week. :( The woman who cancelled has found somewhere else. Of the two sets on Saturday one doesn't think he could fit his car in the garage and the other has our house as her third choice.

But even if Third Choice Woman doesn't get either of the houses she prefers, I'm not holding my breath for a reasonable offer. Her first choice is listed at £130k and she's apparently offered £100k. That's asking for a 23% discount!!

No other viewings lined up, so back to twiddling our thumbs here. Looking unlikely we'll be moving before Christmas now, unfortunately. :(

Glad to hear things seem to be going well for you, Woodlands. :) Anyone else had any success, or got any viewings lined up for the week?

No new bookings for this week yet. The agents are supposed to be organising an Open House for Saturday but no news on how many potentially interested people they have so far. Am going to ring them today but already fearing the worst, 'oh we've rung around and people like the look of the house but the location's not right'.

Interesting statistics about the age of first time buyers. I am a few years above the age quoted and was classed by NatWest as a first time buyer when I applied for a mortgage with them, despite having had a mortgage before. I was told that as I hadn't had a mortgage for the last three years I was classed as a first time buyer. I don't know if thats a common practice but could explain the relatively high age?

Hmmm whereas I have never bought a house before (other than the one we have just sold) - but wasn't counted as one as DH had had a mortgage 5 years before he met me. So as a FTB I wasn't counted as one and wouldn't have been counted as one in government stats (i.e. Land Registry) nor eligible for FTB stamp duty holidays. So I think the stats get distorted both ways, but the distortion you talk about (i.e. being counted as an FTB twice in your life) would not happen with Land Registry / Stamp Duty figures.

I think the high age is pretty self explanatory for those without rich parents - on an average wage of £25k, (often with student debts of £15k+) it takes a hell of a long time to save up the average deposit on a house given average prices of £160k. I'm not sure there's a need to look for statistical errors when the basic facts are so black and white? There is a clear disjunct between prices and wages and now banks aren't offering daft LTV mortgages - folks are struggling to buy.

I also think there is a disconnect in the market in terms of trends. My EA reckoned 50% of new instructions on their books are downsizing - yet only 20% want to upsize - that's got to lead to a problem for those trying to sell larger houses - and increased competition for 2-3 beds I would have guessed? You've only got to see Sarah Beany's new programme to see this trend in action - the jump from FTB properties to rung 2 to rung 3 on 'the ladder' has just got too expensive and hence her programme shows folks how to make their existing house their forever home rather than forking out the hundreds of thousands needed for additional living space. The truth is the price differential between say a 3 and a 5 bed down south is much more than the cost of the building the extra bedrooms on your own house and it seems folks are realising the common sense of just creating your own extra space! If I were hanging onto a big house - that sort of trend would make me nervous.

As would the IMFs latest economic news.

spirael I agree with toomuch I think if the price or pics were way out you wouldn't be getting any viewers. What is the feedback from viewings?

If anyone is interested the latest survey by the RICS is out. I always find the comments at the end by EAs from across the country very useful. It seems like our target market (Fife and Lothian) is still very much open to offers. www.rics.org/Global/RICS%20UK%20Housing%20Market%20Survey%20-%20September%202012.pdf I think you might have to register to be able to read this pdf now - so if anyone wants me to put up the info for their local market just shout.

Natwest decided that DH and I were FTBs, even though I've had a mortgage before. I think all the banks have their own idiosyncrasies, which contributes to the stats being really quite crap.

Aside from the odd specifics like they can't fit a motor home onto the drive or their 4x4 in the garage or walk 100m up a gentle slope to the shops, the feedback we tend to get is that our house is lovely, the price is right and they can't fault it. However they prefer a different property from the many available in the area and have made an offer on that one instead.

Nothing today, looks like our brief flurry has dried up entirely. I spoke to the EA over whether to remove the house from the market over winter and relaunch in spring, but he didn't seem to think it was worth it.

Not really sure what to do, now!

Spirael - our flurry has dried up too. The teacher who cancelled has not rearranged. Mr Low Offer has disappeared and the other viewers don't answer their phones when the EA is trying to get some feedback. Like you, the feedback when being shown round is that the house is lovely and we've had a few who said the house is too big or that the garden is overlooked. I don't know what to do either. Do we take it off and remarket in spring or leave it on? I'm still keeping the house tidy and lawn cut just in case but it is draining me. It's only a matter of time before the houses I would buy are sold.

There will be more houses you would buy, cuddymum. Probably better ones too.

(as an aside, my son used to go to cubs in olney. We now live very far away though).

My girls went to cubs in Olney too :)

But when after Christmas would you remarket?

I'd keep your houses on the market until you're past the latest reasonable date to meet the primary schools admissions deadline (mid Jan). The agents we are buying off told me today that they are getting lots of calls from people who are still looking to move in time for primary school catchments, and as the deadline gets closer and closer, they may widen their search areas. That is assuming you're selling a house in a good school catchment of course! (the area I am in is one popular with people moving out of london to the country)

We're in an area where the schools are all really good - both primary and secondary and there's still no interest whatsoever.

In fact, the bad news from our EA is that he cannot get any interest in four bed houses at all. He's finding smaller houses are slowly going and the really big £1m+ stuff is selling though. No-one seems to want a four bed family house :(.

You're right duchess - nobody seems to want decent sized family homes even in good catchment areas.

I think people do want the 4 beds, it's just they can't afford them. There was a thing a few weeks ago about how the 'second step' is now far less affordable than first time buying.
Also, we are in a small 4 bedder - really a 3 with a loft conversion, a small garden and only 2 receps - and in our area the step up to a decent size 4/5 bedder is huge. We'd be paying more than twice the value of our current house for one extra recep and bedroom and a bit more garden. We could do it but it just doesn't feel worth it. If we could afford three times the value of our house, on the other hand, we could have two to three times as much square footage as we have now plus an acre or two of garden. I think the things in that much higher bracket perhaps feel like better value so people are more willing to push the boat out.
Plus, I suppose, with the widening gap between the rich and the poor it's the houses in the middle that won't have a natural market

We just bought a 4 bed. There were loads of other people viewing it. Several of the other 4 beds we looked at have also sold. Just not those that are unrealistically priced / in the very expensive part of this area. 4 beds priced between £180k and £250k are selling, but those looking for more than that are struggling. Houses around £500k are also selling, but very little is selling for between £250k and £400k. Those houses just sit on the market for ages; particularly those houses priced under £300k but where the vendors won't take less than the stamp duty threshold.

As Tunip says its the gulf in price between 3 bed and small 4 beds and the larger family homes that is stopping folks moving. Loads of families I know are crammed into properties that are far too small for them - it's not that they don't want the extra space by any means. They simply can't afford them and are stretched to the max as it is.

I guess for many building the extra space will prove to be cheaper in the long run. Especially when an extra bedroom in some areas adds £100k onto a house. From a bricks and mortar and construction cost perspective - an extra bedroom is just not worth crazy money like that. Not when you could build the extension for

We are in a 2 bed looking to move to 3/4 bed. We need the extra space desperately as DH is self employed - the minute he can get back to a home office he saves commuting costs, office rental, etc. (his study is now a nursery).

Lots of houses that would suit us on the market but not really sure who is going to buy ours: I imagined we'd get a 1st time buyer deciding they could stretch to a house instead of a flat, but that doesn't seem to be happening.

We could convert our loft to create a 3rd bedroom but it won't add value to the house & based on neighbours experience I don't think it would make it easier to sell.

And of course ideally we want the bigger space downstairs and a bigger garden too...but we could live without those things if we had to. The home office we really can't.

CuddyMum - no one wants a 4 bedroom family home? We do. We want to work from home because of DH's health problems. So we need work rooms. But I guess that is rare. Most people would be looking for something smaller if they have only 1 or 2 DCs and work outside the home.

I hear murmurings of calling off til after Christmas. Is it really time already? it's the TENTH OF OCTOBER. Don't the EAs have to work, keep their jobs? Or does everyone take off nearly FOUR MONTHS for this "holiday" nonsense?

We're going away tomorrow for 4 days, looking at our proposed area. Leaving keys with the EA to show our property. The EA is always the same guy (so far) and he's heard me tell about what work we've done on the flat and what it's like living here. Hopefully he can do his job.

Anyone else let EAs in when they are not home?

(oops I was only half through when I replied... I see a lot of people DO want 4 bedrooms but there are other reasons your place isn't selling... )

I said no one wants decent sized family homes. I have six bedrooms and some people have said the house is too big as they wouldn't use all of the rooms. My EA has a key and let's themselves in for viewings (pre arranged of course) but when we went away for two weeks we said if you have a viewer just do it. There is no one upsizing here right now. The people in the houses in the bracket below are either moving away, downsizing or spitting up. I am relying on someone relocating to the area.

I am finding this thread really helpful. One point I hadn't thought about before with area is that you have to consider the reselling potential. We have seen some great houses but we have heard from people (and cab drivers) in that town that those are in 'bad' areas. I keep wondering about that, how 'bad' is 'bad' what do they mean etc. But location does seem to be important. Not just for where you want to live but if you want to resell. Maybe things can change but it's hard to predict. My cousin bought a place (this was in the US) in an area that was meant to be up-and-coming, but instead it flopped and he is lumbered with a house he can't sell.)

Where we are selling is definitely a prime location but the EA has advised us to start at £275K which is just over the stamp duty threshold. That could hold us back.

One final question.. when you are expecting a viewing do your DCs get extra 'screen time'? So they don't make an extra mess? I don't do it often, but I am doing that today, because I have to go to work for a few hours and don't want to come back to a tip right before we go away for 4 days (the EA will show the property while we are away).