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? :)

Yes me Emandlu! Like you the EAs can't understand why we haven't sold. We are priced right, spacious, presented immaculately and within walking distance of amenities and great schools.

And me! Our EA says that no-one wants four bedroomed houses any more. We've lowered the price and, short of dropping again, we don't know what else to do. We had one viewing after the price drop, and nothing else. We're on the point of giving up.

where are you duchess I want a 4(double) bed 2 rec detached, but will settle for semi... Just have to sell mine first - which is 4 bed 2 rec or 3 bed, 3 rec, depending on what you need/want.

Anyone want a six bed in Olney :)

Though I'm not glad that you guys are in the same position, I'm kind of glad we aren't alone!

I want a 4bed Duchess, don't suppose you are in the North East are you?

It's just so frustrating, and there is only so many times you can throw things in cupboards to hide them.

Sorry Emandlu we're in Dorset :). So frustrating but I think we'll have to stay put.

Shame, you're about as far away as it is possible to get

Emandlu, I believe the north east one of the longest "average time on the market" stats in the whole country. I'm looking for a 3 bed in the northeast, but houses don't seem to come up that often!

Have you looked at mine?

Ours is a 3 bed.

Have reduced our price today and can only hope for some more viewings now.

Is it in monkseaton, whitley bay? If so, then I've probably already had a look! Haha!

Nope, It's in the Boro

We've just dropped the price today too. It's our last ditch hope in selling it. We've gone to offers over 90K. If we don't get an offer at that price then I don't think we can sell it in this market and we will have to look at renting it out

Oh, good luck CuddyMum, hope your price reduction works for you!

Good luck to you too Emandlu - ours is a last ditch attempt too.

Had a small panic earlier when the EA said someone wanted to view in 45 mins - anyway viewer's husband tied up in a meeting and they are away for the weekend so will view next week. They're not on the market but the EA reckons they have loads of people desperate to live in their house (on a flood plain)! Slightly miffed that people are not desperate to live in my house.

I'd definitely go for the rental option Toomuchtea. Are things progressing with your sale?

Hello again...I posted earlier in the thread...glad to hear some people have had good news and fingers crossed for those of you who are waiting on a knife edge!

As I said up the thread I have been preparing my late fathers house to market...it has taken months to sort out the legal paperwork, cut back the jungle of a garden and tackle the kim and aggie style interior. We have filled two skips just with garden rubbish, vans and trailers of assorted junk and bleached the place to within an inch of its life. On one weekend we had 20 family and friends helping and we fed them in burgers and beer!!

Finally we are ready and arrangements were made for estate agent and surveyor (Scottish system) to come and prepare the home report...they were due to arrive at 10.30am yesterday.
At 10.22am yesterday water started to leak through in the kitchen from a boxed in pipe, water was trickling down the wall!!!

What a pantomine...given it was my parents house I didn't know where the stopcock was...the estate agent ended up in the loft turning off the supply and helping us empty the tank.

Two years ago when there was serious snow from nov to march I was so worried about dad's pipes freezing...he didn't feel the cold and had all the windows open and the heating off!!
Somehow the pipes were fine.

Since he died I have had the heating on timer and was planning on putting it on constant in the proper winter. And the stupid house choose yesterday to leak...!

The estate agent and surveyor carried on regardles...it was like soemthing out a comedy sketch. Goodness only knows what the surveyor report will say?!

The plumber has been and fixed the leak - which he doesn't believe was caused by the cold. However to be on the safe side they coming back on monday to drain the entire water system....tanks, cistern and boiler...and it will stay like that to spring or until new people move in.

To be honest I cannot imagine anyone viewing the house in the next couple of weeks is going to want to move before christmas so realistically the house could be empy for another five months at least. So no water means no leaks to worry about.

I am slightly worried that people viewing the house might be put off because the cannot run the taps/flush the toilet etc to see the water pressure....what do you think? Would you rather the heating etc was checkable when you view?

Thanks again for all your advice earlier.

Hello too thanks for replying.

Waiting for the surveyor (before the leak!) I was thinking 'it really is happening, we really are selling mum and dads house, soon there will be a for sale board outside' And it was bittersweet...glad in a way that it will (hopefully) soon be over but sad due to the circumstances.
It helps to think of another young family enjoying the house and kids playing in the garden. I live two doors down so it will be strange passing the house when its no longer 'dads house'.

I am glad you wouldn't be put off by the lack of water when viewing - the estate agent hinted that the surveyor suggested the leak won't make much of a difference to the valuation.
Thankfully because dad's house is a 'has potential, needs upgrading' kinda place the slight mark is just one of many others in the kitchen!!
If it had happened in one of the better rooms that would be worse.

Thanks again.

Thanks too - fingers crossed.

Just had a viewer. He couldn't get his round the fact that no one uses the building's car park because it's cheaper to park on the street. He also plans to keep his current property and rent it out.

And our hoover blew up and made a terrible smell just before the viewer arrived. So, not a great viewing.

We dropped the price a few days ago.

Who else has viewings this weekend?

Nothing this weekend but someone blatantly eyeing the house up from front and back! Shame we've no viewings as the house is clean and it's sunny too.

Hi, I have been lurking for a while and we finally put the house on the market on Monday. We have had four viewings so far, though the EA says the market is slow and there hasn't been a lot of interest. We are priced quite high but there are comparable/slightly worse properties on for the same or similar price so I think we can justify it plus we are in no rush to move as haven't foudn a hosue to move to yet. We're also in a particularly bouyant part of London so slightly different market to the national situation. I'm still not very optimistic though as I think we are priced high (£500k for a 3-bed).

Haven't yet found the perfect house though we do have our eye on one particularly lovely house but it's very old abnd very big - bigger than we need and therefore more expensive than we'd like. The problem is, we're moving out of London to a small town with very limited housing stock in a falling market - I've been watching it for over a year and very little is moving so we feel we should take this big hosue seriously as it may be the only suitable hosue for some time.

Best of luck if you have viewings this weekend. I'm away with the children for half-term at the moment so have left it up to DH to clean up, yikes!

Just marking place on thread as I wanted to catch up with how you are all doing. Very glad you have a buyer, Toomuchtea!

We have sent all our paperwork to the solicitors so everything is under way, and our solicitor seemed to think exchanging in 4 weeks was achievable...so we may yet be in for Christmas!

We noticed the house we're buying is still on Rightmove - it is supposed to be off the market! I gave the EAs a chase on Saturday but think I might need to call again tomorrow. My house is gone from Rightmove...I can't quite believe someone else will be living here soon!