The decluttering, cleaning, vacating, pandering, nailbiting antics of the stressed out house sellers

[Spirael]

Starting a new thread, since our old one was almost full!

Anyone suffering the stresses of trying to sell a house is welcome to join us; anyone here to tell us our houses are crap and/or overpriced is not.

Talking about perhaps Easter school hols :)

How exciting MrsJamin! All sounds very positive. Easter hols sounds good.

The agent is adding our house back to Rightmove today. After our buyer pulled out, I just needed some time to sit back and think. The other interested party are putting their house with our agent tomorrow. Potentially, if the house I want to buy is still available, we would all be dealing with the same agent. Am trying to remain positive that we will receive another offer soon.

How is everyone else getting on this week?

Just had photos and home report done this afternoon. Surveyor thinks that my neighbour has been up to shenanigans to get a high valuation...Im a bit pissed off tbh, his flat will look like a bargain next to mine...its been valued at 20k more than mine.....

I havent done this before...cant believe how stressful it is.

I finally saw the house with the tenants in. Gorgeous setting but the house was disappointing. They have had an offer but the interested party haven't sold

My agent has been stressing me today as our buyers want to know when they can be in. They are aware dh is away till Tuesday but until then I can't do anything.

No news here. Couple who looked for a third time this week but no news. Really disappointed.

Rubbish here. No viewings booked. After a great start this EA has run out of steam. I've had the same poor £50K-under offer passed on to me 3 times and I know the viewer can't come up much more so it's not even worth making a counter offer. Unfortunately, I am sole agency with him till the end of March. I've asked him to come and re-do the external photos as they were taken in the snow, and told him that I won't reconsider price until 11 March, then will give him 3 weeks at the reduced price. I shall go multiple agency at the end of March, but not sure which to go with as some local ones are really aggressive.
I'm away for the first week of April and am thinking about holding my own open day on 16 April and inviting all the local agents to bring prospectives. I would keep a log of which agent showed which client around and pay their sole agency fee on completion. If nothing came of this, at least I could then choose to sign up with a couple of the nicer ones. Anyone done anything like this?

Fergus - hopefully people will recognise the correct valuation of yours and your neighbours property. I guess you are in Scotland.

Augusta - it's awful when people view 3 times but you hear nothing. We've had that a few times and literally had no feedback!

Springlamb - Your EA ought to have had the common sense to come and redo the photos without you asking. I'm not sure about the open house thing - sounds a bit complicated but it's worth perhaps you viewing houses with your local agents and for you to see if you get a good feeling from them before committing to another sole agency agreement. In my experience, multi agency doesn't work. I'd avoid the pushy estate agent chains. They are a pain in the rear. I get daily calls from little, chirpy young lads on a daily basis from these sorts of agents.

Sailorsgal - what are your plans if you can't find anything to buy? Will you rent?

I've just noticed a house down the road with a new For Sale sign up - no details on the Internet yet and I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing having competition so close by. I've no viewings lined up for this weekend and to be honest I'm not looking forward to doing that big clean right now!

Cuddymum We will be staying with the outlaws inlaws.

Now that I would NEVER do Sailorsgal! I'd rather live in a bus shelter!!

Hi All, could I join you please? Our buyer pulled out this week after getting the survey back and I am feeling very despondant about the whole thing now. (Luckily we hadn't found anywhere to buy, and were also going to be living with the 'outlaws'. We get to avoid this now, so not all bad! Massively frustrated that our house is now seen as 'damaged goods' because of the fact that they weren't even prepared to discuss the results of the survey or give us a chance to proove that there aren't any issues! Arrr the stress of it all!

cuddymum feeling much better, got proofs back today, looks like a great bit of marketing. Gotta love those wide angled lenses!

We've no viewings this weekend and none last weekend either. All seems to have gone quiet. Should we drop the price ? It really irks me that we are marketing now at £14,000 less than we paid 6 years ago but every house we view has apparently gone up in value. Is a drop seem as desperate?

SadPander I feel for you. Our buyer pulled out with any reason - we are gutted!

Fergus I'm glad you're pleased with your photos. Ours are great too - we had a fab photographer. Saying that, we've not sold...

Augusta we've had no viewings either and it's all very frustrating. Don't drop your price just yet. Perhaps, drop a little when you go with a new agent. I regret dropping the price of our house. I know it's a cliche, but I do feel we are giving the house away. In my mind, I thought that by making the price attractive, people would make sensible offers but no! Everyone is after a bargain.

I've just been to see another fixer upper but just not feeling it. Am getting a fed up looking to be honest. I'm acutally liking my own house a bit more.

Hello ladies, can I ask a question here please?

I am planning to advertise my house with an online agency, which means I will have to do viewings myself. I work full time and I have two small DC... DH will take out DC if any viewings on Saturdays, but is it essential that DC are not there if the viewers come in the evening? I'd rather keep them in our bedroom watching TV quietly but I wonder if that is an acceptable practice? Another option for DH to take them to the car in their pyjamas and sit there freezing until the viewing is finish.

Any advice please?

Are you moving areas sailorsgal or are you looking for a bigger doer-upper? As they say, the right thing will come along when you least expect it.

I've spent ALL day having a really good clear out and thorough clean of my two teenage kids' rooms - 5 full bin bags later and I feel much better!

Hello littlecrystal! I'm sure it'll be okay if your kids are little. I prefer for mine to be out - teenagers tend to take up more space and fill the room with attitude. If it's not too late, your DH could take them for a spin! When are you going to advertise your property?

Ittlecrystal, you can do what you like really but if you want to heighten the chances of selling your house I would try and make your house as impersonal as you can- having your children there is likely to make it very personal and I would feel quite uncomfortable like I am intruding on "your" space. We told the EA that the last time someone could view our house was 6.30- we stayed out of the house at a friend's - this was our first viewing and they made a great offer after seeing house for third time. It was especially important for us as its a 2 bed terrace that would mostly appeal to people without children.

CuddyMum my kids are almost 5 and 2. Sending them out with DH limits our evenings viewings but I guess I will have to adjust somehow. I am hoping to invite Housenetwork for taking the pictures on coming Wednesday or Thursday.

We viewed our first property today. I know we shouldn't do it, but we did. Two more viewings lined up for the next weekend.

I maybe too over optimistic, but I hope that our house will sell quickly (large 2 bed terrace in South London....).

Not too optimistic - especially if property moves quickly where you live :)

I am not sure about 'moves quickly' but it has many advantages against other 2 bed houses... But I shall see this soon.

cuddymum We could live anywhere with dh's job but didn't realise until recently how hard it is to give up everything and move area. Ds loves his school and is even upset about leaving this house so will be staying close to where we are.

Great to hear from you Toomuchtea! I'm glad you're settling in. Look forward to your updates! I cleared a further 3 bags and sorted out the pantry yesterday. Not too bad - the oldest food item was 5 years old.