Can anyone cheer me up and tell me that they finally sold their house after having FOUR offers fall through?

[lecce]

I am struggling to stay positive here.

First offer, recieved from the first viewers (2 years ago) fell through after OTT survey - I've seen it, it's a load of wank. We offered to renegotiate but FTBers fled, terrified. We took the house off.

This June we put it back on and, again, received an offer from the first viewer. Again, the survey terrified her. Again, we offered to pay for reports and we immediately took £10 k off as per her mortgage valuation. Not good enough - she fled.

Next viewer made an offer then two weeks later told us she had bad debt and wouldn't be able to get a mortage. Next, a cash buyer buying for his 21 yr old daughter and her boyfriend. We were two weeks from exchange and they split up. Now we're back to square one and .

If we sell at £5k less than our asking price (£100k) we will have lost £10k on what we paid, plus the £6k or so work we have done, to say nothing of the fees, surveys etc we have paid for on the two houses we have tried to buy and lost after being dicked around by our 'buyers.'

Is there any point in continuing?

Thank you.

Yes, didn't want to make the OP too long but we have looked into the survey. There is a crack that has twice been the main issue and we have a structural report on it that confirms it is historic and nothing to worry about.

Surveyor's reports always say there MAY be damp but we have had a damp company come around and say that there isn't - they don't write reports until requested by a buyer, apparantly.

We had work done on the roof and the first surveyor said it was inadequate but other surveyors have said it's fine. The other stuff is just 'may bes' due to its being an old property.

The last surveyor (cash buyer's) said it was a fair price. Only two of the four times has it fallen through due to a survey.

We are trying to be realsitic over price (though dh wants to take it iff and put it back in the spring at a higher price -hmm]) but if, as I think I read, prices have fallen by 11%, we are about right now.

Yes, I am trying to persuade dh that we shouldn't raise the price - problem is he thinks I do all my research on Mumsnet and won't believe me . I think that when he looks into it himself properly he will see it is a bad idea. The problem is we dropped the price very suddenly after it had only been on the market a few weeks to keep our buyer and prospective purchase. The fact that they both fell through anyway has coloured the way we feel about the drop and left lingering resentment. Tbh, I think our current price is probably about right and we would have had to drop to here eventually. Really don't think we need to drop further - we are getting plenty of viewers (mainly time-wasters ).

We have about £30k equity and it seems houses higher up the chain are not dropping their prices as we have had to .

When you say an old property, how old is old ? Are there any convenants that apply or is it in a conversation area ? You talk about a historic crack, a possible damp issue, things wrong with the roof and other "maybes " . How many ? To a potential buyer these alert them to problems with the house and how much it could cost to put right. I think you have to think seriously about addressing these issues before remarketing your house in the spring. Buyers want to see themselves in a house not necessarily taking months over getting things right Sorry I could'nt be more positive for you

Lecce hang on in there. We put our property on the market in January of this year and had an offer from our neighbours (leaving in rented) within about 6 weeks. They told us they had nothing to sell and we couldn't believe our luck.

It then transpired that they couldn't afford it without having to sell their flat so after a reduction in price and waiting a couple of months for them to find a buyer we thought we were back on again but their buyer pulled out.

So after two failed attempts and being desperate to move (paying two sets of school/nursery places) we reduced the price further. Our neighbours then told us that they had found another buyer. After starting the whole legal process again their second buyer got cold feet about 4 days before exchange. I just cried and cried and cried.

This all happened in September and we had resigned ourselves to having to rent and rent ours out just to move. Both my husband and I were exhausted of the whole selling process which is antiquated, uncertain and slow.

We had a last minute viewing while we were looking at rentals and the guys that saw the house loved it and made an offer that night. Although they needed to port their mortgage they were serious buyers and we managed to get to exchange within 6 days. We are scheduled to complete on 29th.

I must say that I feel very little love towards my neighbours who conveniently failed to tell us that the property they were selling had only recently had underpinning work done. Had I known this I would not have accepted their last two offers and wasted my time with them.

I guess what I am trying to say is, hang on in there. Do not lose faith. It will all come right in the end one way or another.

I wish you the very best of luck.

i am sorry to hear about your 4 lost sales. it is really difficult and sounds like really bad luck. irritating as that might be!

the fact that you have had 4 sales proceed tho seems to be good news. it suggests that it is not your price that is the problem up to now.

to move on it seems essential that you will have to deal with the things that are coming up on your survey. if you are in the sort of house for first time buyers you have the problem that they can be fickle and very easily spooked. many will not tolerate even small problems. so your aim should be to get the OTT first survey and deal with all of the points. that doesnt mean doing lots of work but by using the existing reports you have or subsequent surveys to settle on a residual list common to all which has to be sorted.

lastly if you have an actual crack which is open and unrepaired then get it fixed. most people will walk at the sight of that and not hang around to hear about your reassuring report. maybe why your viewings dont come to much?

i would also be pressing your agent to get feedback from each viewing and see if any of that might help you.

i dont know if there is any point taking it off the market if you are not doing any work. putting exactly the same house back on after a "holiday" especially with an increased price just looks arrogant - people will be unaware of the 4 lost sales so will be unsympathetic. there are a couple of places in scotland i am not going to look at because the net info available makes them look inflexible and greedy. it doesnt sound like this is an issue for you now but beware for the future.

i wish you a much better run of luck from now on!

Poor you- been there, so stressful, heartbreaking and expensive. Hang in there-we had lots of problems with our Victorian leasehold flat due to survey things but also due to lying time wasting buyers, did sell in the end, closer to our asking price as well. After 3 fall throughs! Re price: sites like Zoopla will keep the old details visible, I think your agent can request that they are deleted. I think if you ask your agent to de-list it, and upload it as new, or use a new agent that gets round propertybee's price tracker which tracks changes to an existing website entry.

Your house sounds good with 4 offers i would keep going and don't price drop. Itis a hard market at the moment and mortgage lenders are also being very picky so you may have to jump though a few hoopsif you have a few survey issues. What have your solicitor / agent said? for example, re the crack, is there an indemnity policy you can buy that will cover the problem in perpetuity? And re damp - it always seems to come up - very annoying !
Personally I found trying to keep the flat clean and decluttered, and all of us out of the way was hard. Butalthough it took ages we got there in the end, and I am never moving again it was worth it.
Good luck!

Rightmove and property bee are useless in that EAs aren't dumb. They completely withdraw an advert and then create a new one for same house. Bypasses any history. Seen it done on 2 properties we were interested in. The only way to "cache" and save a listing on rightmove and still see the pic once the advert is pulled is on my iphone app. Seems to reappear in sold house prices months later on rightmove

Would totally agree with pchip. We bought a house that had had this done, and we didn't worry about it - turned out buyer had taken it off the market for a while for family reasons, but I basically wasn't interested, you just think: do I like this house, can I afford it if you are a serious buyer. Where the survey is concerned, be as upfront as you can, and offer any seriously interested parties all the paperwork upfront. The person who sold us our current home did this (survey said damp, his paperwork said not and was correct) and we were impressed. Also you can have a damp survey done on your own home, you just google surveyors and damp and you'll find a specialist.People have this done all the time for e.g. cellar conversions (we live on a street where lots of people have done this, and know a surveyor who used to specialise in that area).

I was talking to an acquaintance who said that when they sold their last home they had five offers fall through and sold to the sixth person, so there is hope .

Thank you for all the replies- especially the ones that give me hope!

We really have done all we can to address the issues raised in the first survey - the house really is in a good condition (for its age - late Victorian) and what seems to have scuppered two sales isn't a big isue like subsidence but rather a long and niggly list of 'may bes'. We have now filled in the harmless crack (was pretty tiny anyway - no buyer ever noticed it and our structural engineer kept saying 'are you sure it's this one?' and looked really hard for another one - there wasn't one.)

indiegrrl that damp thing you mentioned sounds just what we need - company we had out said they don't prepare paper-work until a sale is agreed so we will look into that. Having said that, last surveyor didn't raise damp as an issue.

The roof has been repaired. It is incredibly frustrating that the first surveyor said it hadn't been done properly - the last two said it had and the last one said what a great job had been done of it. Not sure what we can do to guard against any future surveyor saying something negative about it.

Other issues have been :

• too many period features

• non-sound-proofed cellar

-lath and plaster ceilings may need replacing (they are absolutely fine - only a nutter would come in and replace the ceilings) -wooden windows will need replacing IF (buyers don't seem to see this tiny but significant word) they are not maintained (have been revarnished this spring.)

And so on - nothing we can really do about any of it.

Dh really wants to change agents and go with the local one we were on with 2 years ago. Not sure there is much point as everyone uses Rightmove but we do feel we have recieved bad advice from our current EA and the local one actually seemed like a human being - not as smarmy and greasy as the majority seem to be.

God, this whole thing has made me feel so bitter towards so many people - it is scary. Will keep trying though - we need the space and we are in the ctachment of a secondary school that has the worst reputation ever and has done for 15 yearsish.

well it sounds like you are doing all the right things and the price seems ok. why not get your agent to withdraw and then resubmit the rightmove listing. then give them until spring to sell. if no good leads by then give your local man a go?
fingers crossed for you.