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? :)

Marshmallow even - fingers are broken today :)

That's what I like to hear toomuch - always striving to be a record beater and to reach new peaks! Felix Baumgartner has clearly inspired you!

I fear my DMIL and DFIL who have not yet put their house on the market (but who obviously have much more experience than us of the market given they've not sold in over 32 years... ) have recently joined the ranks of the 'go to view houses before even marketing your own' masses in the SE.

I did try to explain that any offer they made wouldn't be taken seriously as they weren't on the market but I'm only a dizzy preggo lady who sold her house last months in just a fortnight on the market at well above our asking price. What could I know.... Apparently it will 'sell in a heartbeat as it is lovely and they've always sold houses quickly before' 32 years ago, once

Is this a SE phenomena / idiocy? Are we saved this in Scotland because HIPS mean that only serious sellers go to market (because of the upfront cost)? Anyway if they are the sorts of folks you are dealing with - much as I love them, you have my sympathies.

How annoying Toomuchtea but still good news. My viewers were looking for creaking - there wasn't any! If they're looking for a bigger house around here we are the only option as we've no other competition. Would I want to move to theirs? Probably not as I'd ideally like a slightly bigger house and a project (two houses I like fit that bill) but the EA has about 5 people who would potentially buy theirs. Anyway, we'll see if they ever feedback.

Crikey YellowWellies - hope your in laws aren't viewing near me! I've had enough old couples!

Ok we are so not looking for a project (and this needs a full redec, new kitchen and new bathroom) and we are sooooo not looking to buy until next summer at the earliest.... But look at this house - it's been on forever as the dozy agent has only just realised that putting up some photos of it's sea views and proximity to the foreshore might be a selling point. Ladies never underestimate the stupidity of your EA!!! What do you reckon? www.remax-scotland.com/740281001-2399

Cuddy they are viewing in Bexhill on Sea I believe? If that's your area - apologies in advance.

Yip you are committed but lots of folks do make offers 'subject to finance' or 'subject to sale' up here, but as this is clearly stated in the offer vendors know upfront and can pick and chose who they sell to depending on what conditions are most important to them.

Thankfully not near us YellowWellies! Wish that house was near us. Where we live is the furthest away from the sea!

Toomuchtea - you can bet your bottom dollar that the people with cash will be very picky indeed. Good luck anyway!

I've been lurking as we are looking to sell our house and now see I am doing it all wrong . I've actually made an offer on a house today and as I did it said there was no hope our house would even be on the market for 2 weeks as we are going away. In my defense last time we bought we were FTBs and I'm just so overwhelmed by the idea of buying and selling at the same time. There's isn't much coming on the market around here and I could just as easily see us securing an offer and then not being able to find anything for months and months.
The offer is on a house that has been on the market for 2 months now - we aren't even bothering trying for anything until it has been around for a while as we aren't in a competitive position with regards to moving. I can see though we've maybe been looking at it the wrong way around and that if we had a buyer then we maybe would be in a good position to move quickly on things that came on the market. I guess it's taken a house to come on that we like and can maybe afford to get us moving. We're just a bit clueless really but we are serious about buying!
Anyway, good luck with all your sales and thanks for the tips - will put them into practise when I finally get ours on!

I think that's probably a good idea sunset the average time on the market in some bits of the UK now is over 18 months - hence why many vendors won't consider offers from those unsold.

There is always the private rented sector if there is a discrepancy between buying and selling dates.

We've decided to go into rented as we're expecting a baby next month and just couldn't handle the stress of a chain with a newborn / or waiting to give birth. Also our target market is falling quite fast so it made sense to watch the falls from the sidelines rather than jumping in too quickly and getting burnt.

We're sold now (fingers crossed) and not moving out until January (thank you lovely buyer for being flexible on dates) so it gives us time to have the wee one in the lovely local hospital (2 midwives to every Mum!) and relax and have our first Christmas together as a family before the upheaval of the move. I'm much more relaxed now - knowing that our house will be packed up and moved for us (removals companies are so cheap at the moment we could afford packers without a second thought!) and all I have to deal with is Junior and our bags.

We'll be moving into a lovely new rental for six months whilst we house hunt at our leisure and if anything goes wrong such as boilers or washing machine - the landlord pays.

So don't by any means feel that you HAVE to buy immediately after you sell. Sell first and you could make yourself a much more attractive buyer.

Obviously there are the costs of an additional move (looking to be c£2k for us) to be factored in - but given that our target market is falling by £2k a month - we can see the financial sense of not jumping straight in. Renting is dead money (or so the saying goes) but so is overpaying when buying a house in a falling market, and at least you don't pay interest on rent!

Sunset - get your house on the market ASAP if you are serious about buying the house you have seen. I'm sorry to say that it drives me mad when I find out that my viewer hasn't even got their house on the market. Like Toomuchtea I still let them view just in case but remember when you view that some poor sod has spent hours cleaning and preparing their home and has rearranged their day to ensure that kids and animals are not present for the viewing.

Agree that if someone's property is not on the market they shouldn't view, but what if they are on the market but not sold? For example, if you have to travel to another town to view, while the EA is showing your own property - you could get an offer from someone who views, and if you haven't even started looking in the new town you won't have much idea what is out there.

We have done 2 trips away to look at property, but will stop now until we do have an offer. Not had feedback yet from weekend visitors.

We have viewed three houses at a time when someone was second viewing ours and said ours was the house for them etc. only to find out afterwards that they weren't on the market - we never heard from them again. I do feel bad that I may have wasted someone's time or built their hopes up but if we ever get an offer I will want to second view two of them.

Ah. Feel a bit bad thinking of it like that. Sure I will get it all back in spades when we put ours on the market. Lady had tidied very well when we viewed but her big dog was jumping all over me in the kitchen. I have been very open about our situation too. She also is doing all the viewings and has said stuff about putting it on the market in the spring and sighing over the views and saying hoe they make her question down sizing so she hasn't been inspiring confidence that she don't change her mind if we get somewhere.
I'm going to be controversial though and defend viewing without selling (though maybe not offers). It's a big deal to buy a house and part of viewing is seeing what you can get for your budget so you can work out what the current market is like and if you can make the move. If our house was on the market I would also want to be able to move quickly if we did get an offer. We're also in a bit of a bubble area - in a commuter village near a town where things are going for over asking. Two houses have sold near us in the last month within a month which are quite similar to ours so hopeful we might sell quickly (though not super confident).
If you're all still willing to talk to me after that (as I said I'm learning about this as I go along) can I ask a question? What's the best way to hide cats?

Hope you can decipher that. My sentences get a not long when I type on my phone.

Sunset selling for over asking price is easy - provided you get your asking price right - it's not necessarily a sign of a buoyant market - more of realistic pricing. Price too high and you'll not get over asking. We've (touch wood) sold for a good chunk over asking but we priced realistically. There is a balance to be struck. I'll put a linky of our place up here once we've dotted the 'i's and crossed the 't's but am not going to yet for fear of jinxing it.

Another good way to assess what you can get without viewings is to study an area using Rightmove, Propertybee and the Land Registry - that way you can keep an eye on what is coming to market (Rightmove), how quickly stuff lingers on the market (Rightmove / Propertybee), how many times it's relisted with different agents (often a sign of an unrealistic vendor) or adjustments made to the asking price / how may offers fall through etc (Propertybee) and what it originally sold for and how much it sells for this time, if a sale occurs (and whether it differs from the initial asking price or HIPs valuation). There are other ways to do research which can supplement viewings.

By all means view but I would suggest all concerned know that you are not yet on the market and you shouldn't get offended if you are not taken seriously as you've not quite thrown your hat in the ring just yet, so to speak.

I took offers from those not yet sold with a huge pinch of salt largely because of their attitude that their home was somehow special and would sell quickly. I wasn't reassured by this one jot! There is an inherent bias we all have about our houses that 'ours will sell quickly because we love it' and that it'll take ages to find something as nice, and the reality can be quite different. We are all biased to love our own homes after all!

There's no better way to test the market than to jump in though.

yellowwellies are you not in Scotland? Despite my name I'm a Scot in the SE of England near a v popular town in a not so popular village. I do believe things are going for over asking due to lack of demand (going on sample size of 2 friends) and am already addicted to rightmove (with property bee plugin),zoopla and mouseprice. You can see things through rose tinted spectacles though as I am trying not to think about the 3rd house near me which has dropped it's price twice this week.
I still think though I am less of a time waster than when I was a FTB and we ticked all the boxes as we viewed everything as we had no clue. Viewing this house has made us realise we do need more space and will put our house on the market.
I do feel a bit embarrassed now about making an offer now. I guess it's on the table now and will look crazy if we withdraw it but won't try and negotiate even if they give us the chance.
Am dreading the thought of trying to keep the house tidy enough and finding somewhere to stash all my our junk.
Sorry for hijacking the thread. Hope you all sell soon and don't get viewers like me!

Thanks for the advice too though. Definitely made me see things differently. Hope the move goes well. The selling, renting, buying option does sound sensible.

Why do you need to hide cats? Some people like cats. We viewed a house with 4 cats over the weekend. The cats didn't put us off. If anything they made us like the place more, they were nice cats. Ours is a bit fiesty but the EA put the cat in our photos.

We do not have wet cat food out during viewings (too smelly) and of course the litter tray is changed before viewings.

I love cats too, would definitely make me warm to a place!

I prefer to take the dog out when we have viewings as she would be over friendly and would be a distraction. I wouldn't mind viewing a house with a cat in though.