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.

Good luck with your new pictures Tau. You can post them here if you want any advice. Saying that, I'm pleased with my pictures but am not having much luck!

I've just ordered all the stuff for my living room makeover to take my mind off selling. The sofa will be here in 4 weeks. I'm hoping the law of sod will kick in and that we'll get an offer whilst we're redecorating!

Well our buyers pulled out this morning. They live around the corner. I want to go around there and give them piece of my mind. They were chasing for a sale last week.

bloody timewasters.

Ugh! That is awful... and stressful. Sorry, sailorsgal.

That is rubbish sailorsgal. I know its no consolation but at least you hadn't found anywhere and spent money on surveys, etc. It must be disheartening to be back on the market though. However the sun is out and spring is meant to be good to sell your house so let's be positive :)

Well have a viewing tomorrow. They wanted to come today but I need 24 hours at the bare minimum to get anywhere near the show house I had a few weeks ago.

Still here. Losing the will to live. Can't be arsed to poo-pick the garden.

I'm so sorry sailorsgal, that is crap.

DD had her secondary school place letter this weekend, she was thrilled to get a place at her first choice....70 miles away. So am hoping for some movement here, as after Easter DH will be working....70 miles away too.

I have a viewing tomorrow, but not holding my breath as the last 2 have cancelled, then I'm going to start talking to other agents about going multiple-agency from 1 April.

Sailorsgal I'm so, so very sorry - have they given you any ideas as to why or do you think they got cold feet?

We have a viewing this weekend - but at the same time I found out the Assistant Manager at my EA, the person who I have dealt with since the start, has "retired"! Yeah right!! Anyway, I've asked for the Branch Manager, who hasn't bothered to speak to me at all, to make contact with me. Additionally, they want a person from another branch to conduct my viewing on Saturday and he's never even been here and won't really know the area.

Lastly, I have been successful in getting my property history removed from Zoopla!

Springlamb I hope you get some movement soon. Good luck with the viewing, I hope they show!

Anyway, the sun is out and the lawn is cut!

Ah well, I've spoken to the manager of the EA that I'm with. He just can't understand why we've not sold and said our house was the most saleable house that they have on their listings!! He's going to get the chap from the other branch to come and see my house prior to the viewing on Saturday and I have also asked him to ensure that he gets some sort of feedback straight after the viewing. The EA also said he was due to do 7 valuations next week in one of the areas that we want to move to!

They said they wanted something smaller. I've got a feeling they are getting one of the new builds on the same development, just something the EA said. Good luck to them as they are packing the newer ones in.

I don't understand some people, I really don't! Why make one of the biggest decisions of your life and then pull out? The conveyancing law needs to change to stop people doing this. I hope your ex-buyers are squashed in like little sardines in their new build :)

I've just wasted my whole day taking photos to replace the ones the EA had made. Since I have no talent for photography the pictures are only marginally better than the initial ones.

And I couldn't be bothered with buying new neutral sheets and curtains etc... it's too much work as it is. If people are honestly put off viewing a house by someone else's bedding and furniture, well, then we just won't sell the house!

I decluttered a bit -moved all the plants from the front room, decided that the pics looked horrible and empty and placed all the plants back for a new pic...

And yeah, I won't be going with this EA again. Next time I want one who can take photos, is able to write an accurate description in correct English, and who knows how to measure a house and draw a floorplan!

Tau - I agree. Surely people can see past some of these things. Are you not tempted to get a high street agent in and try to negotiate on their fees?

We're hoping to put ours on the market this month. We've spent the last couple of months sorting the house in preparation. We bought our house last year but we're renting it out until we've sold ours. Slightly anxious about putting the house on the market in terms of keeping on top of the tidying and selling at the right time (with the rental agreement with the tenants, we can't move any earlier than September).

Eek!

Evening, we accepted our offer and now waiting on offer we made...,

Hope you hear soon Augusta :)

hi, offer we made on house was rejected so upped it by £10,000 and still rejected. Vendor apparently wants asking price or as near as possible. Well- obviously everyone does!- but we really don't think it is worth that as needs some updating. So now we don't know quite what to do as we had been limiting ourselves to one area but now we can look further afield and probably get more for our money. I just don't understand why vendors won't compromise! We have!

QuackQuack, don't you have to pay extra tax or something if you have two houses and sell one of them?

Just posted new pics of our house - some are unnecessary because the estate agent left some of the old pics on. The new pics are just taken by us, so not exactly professional or good quality, but I do think they show the house more accurately (and more attractively) than the original photos.

Hi Augusta... maybe the vendors of your chosen house are like us... if we don't get something near the asking price, there is no point in selling the house because we would then never be able to afford anything as good as our current home.
We would end up living in a cramped little house, or something that needs heaps and heaps of work to make it liveable, or in an area where we really don't want to live.. so we'd rather not sell and stay here than accept a low offer!

Which is fine, Tau if your asking price is fair, achievable and reasonable. If it isn't, you are simply wasting everyone's time which is why so many buyers are so frustrated.

The litmus test for the value of a house isn't want you want to achieve in order to buy up, but what it is worth to a buyer.
Also, what you lose on yours you invariably gain on your purchase.
You either want to sell and so are open and flexible or you don't.

Hmmm.. Nice cuppa, you have a point.
Now obviously I think that our current asking price is totally reasonable.... and since all estate agents we had to give us an estimate suggested a much higher asking price I can't imagine that I am wrong. We don't even want to buy 'up', but we have no intention to accepting an offer that is so low that we'd have to live in a worse place... we aren't masochists!

But about Augusta's naughty seller: if sellers want to ask a far too high price for their house, that is their right. Perhaps they just want to give it a shot and they simply have no urgent reason to compromise.
They may not be quite as desperate to sell as their buyers would like, but it's their own interests they are protecting.
They may be wasting a buyer's time, but they may also feel that the buyers are wasting their time by looking at a home that is on the market for much more than they want to pay; it all depends on your point of view.

That said, I think that the house we would like to buy is horribly overpriced - has been on the market for quite a while too, so I reckon I'm right. If we (ever) sell, we will make an offer on that house way below their asking price. If it gets rejected, so be it. We won't buy it then, and go for another house.

Well I have gone out twice now for viewers who didn't turn up and then cancelled this morning. If they don't come this afternoon as rearranged they can get bloody lost!! The EA said they are very serious about viewing our house but if you can't cancel with plenty of notice. Some people are plain rude. Rant over.

sailorsgal - no wonder you are cross! How rude.

I hope our viewers show on Saturday. The EA is sending a person from another branch to conduct our viewing and thought it would be okay if they just turned up a few minutes before to look around. Erm no! They can make some time and come and see the house properly, especially as they are not from the area!

Tau, you gave me a fright for a second but there's no capital gains because we'll be selling our main house. Also the tax is based on profit, and as we bought at the peak of the market, we'll be happy if we break even!

Sorry sorry sorry, quackquackchicken! I didn't mean to frighten you. Glad that capital gains tax won't be a problem for you.

Our rightmove ad has been totally updated... have a look if you want. We won't be making any changes again because we are fed up with estate agent work, but feel free to look anyway.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-25594281.html?premiumA=true