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Original poster

A 'waiting for viewings and offers' support group?

999 replies

TheWanderingUterus · 17/11/2016 13:24

Not quite ready for the 'in a chain' support group (please please don't let it be too long!), but we have just put our house up for sale and are waiting for viewings. Mostly cleaning and primping and procrastinating, with occasional adrenaline bursts when the phone rings.

Anyone else in the same position wanting to share the angst?

OP posts:
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17
Beckyb1 · 31/01/2017 15:56

sadpandas no words of advice however we have been up since September. We have had another agent in today to market it for us, and the photos he showed us look a million times better. I know its disheartening but we will get there. Hope we both have some luck soon Smile

SadPandas · 31/01/2017 16:07

thanks becky I hadn't really considered switching agents, but maybe that would give it a little boost. I hadn't really considered whether the photos would be putting people off.

Themoleandcrew · 31/01/2017 16:29

Hi. Can I join in? We've been on the market for a week, two viewings. First ones were in and out in about two minutes, the second seemed more promising, but then they complained about the railway line at the back of the house. We've seen two houses we love but can't offer until we sell ours. We are only selling so we can buy one of those houses, if they both go before we can sell ours we'll stay put. I'm getting frustrated already.

Beckyb1 · 31/01/2017 16:29

Have you got a link you wouldn't mind sharing? Also we had 4 estate agents round in September giving the talk of how they could sell our property, after 23 weeks and still nothing we thought somethings wrong, so have figured a new listing with a new agent would bump it up to the top and email a whole new load ofpeople. Fingers crossed it works. The new agent is trying to sell ours asap as we are wanting to buy another property he is marketing. Hope you get some viewers thro quickly sadpandas

Beckyb1 · 31/01/2017 16:51

Your house is lovely, I love the views and the fireplace. The only thing I could think of is the colour in the small bedroom, but again that's me being picky. Are you tied into a contract with your agents? What was the feedback they gave you from previous viewings?

Notanotherpawpatrol · 31/01/2017 17:13

Sad, I missed your post earlier, we've been on for 3 weeks and are considering changing agents as I don't feel they are working for us. After 5 months (unless I had paid a fee up front) I'd definitely be looking at moving.
How quick are properties shifting on your area? If you put an alert on rightmove and save them when they come on the market, you can see how quick houses are selling.
What feed back are the agents giving you? What are the people they are contacting saying about your house? They should be actively selling, even after 5 months, not just shoving it in a window, putting it on rightmove and hoping for the best. Make sure that your agents are working.

SadPandas · 31/01/2017 17:37

I think i'll white wash the box room at the weekend, and maybe see if i can get a new photo of it. DH thinks we should put a desk or a cot in it? We paid upfront for the brochures and the signs etc, but only a few hundred pounds so if i wasn't tied into a contract i think i will look around. Would it be worth telling the current agent that we are going to move to see if it produces anything.

The agent generally tells us that people view and then if they don't answer the phone afterwards they don't get any proper feedback so they don't give us a lot to go on. a few wanted a bigger third bedroom, some wanted more garden, and one said they wouldn't like to live next door to a rented house (that seems to be a thing now). Generally there has been nothing that sounds too damning. Phoned the agent today and they said they think it is a stamp duty issue (which doesn't really make a great deal of sense to me since its not going to be 1000's)

There has been a lot of movement in the last few weeks , houses i have saved have been sale agreed in a matter of days, but they are in a more built up area, closer to more schools and on the right side of town for commuters I think more so than ours, but we are technically in a "nicer" borough and not far from the sea.

I'm losing the will to live a little

Notanotherpawpatrol · 31/01/2017 17:48

It sounds like your agents aren't doing enough. Are they seriously not following up with viewings if they don't answer the phone?! What about trying again later in the day or the following day?
It's also the agents job to sell the house to these people, they want a better view or a bigger 3rd bedroom? But what about these positives (could be south facing, quiet neighbourhood, convenient to xy or z school etc etc. They should be coming back with positives at every opportunity, DURING the viewing, and then making sure they follow up with them a few days later.

contractor6 · 31/01/2017 18:59

sad house is lovely and I like the colour of the box room, but the sofa seems to take over the room. Other tips i was given were to take photos down and magnets off the fridge.

contractor6 · 31/01/2017 19:00

Ps some viewings on ours said the third bedroom was too small, even though we have in the past had a double bed in there!

Beckyb1 · 31/01/2017 19:15

Could your agent make it a premium listing to bump it back to the top sad?

Blackfellpony · 01/02/2017 07:52

What do you guys think of listing as offers over?

We are currently at 115k but need to sell yesterday so are thinking of a reduction.
EA is suggesting offers over 110k but I'm not sure if that will put people off?

Would I be better off listing at 110 (or even 109950) and just refusing the lower offers if there ever is one?

lampfromikea · 01/02/2017 08:38

Well, someone came along at the last minute yesterday and made an offer on the dream house. Substantially over asking price, which we can no way afford to do. Angry
The only silver lining is that they are unproceedable so the EA is going to speak to the vendor today to advise and hopefully we may still get it!

Blackfell personally, offers over annoys me. Mostly because it doesn't give any idea of what vendors want for it or what the value of the house actually is.
Unless you're in Scotland, then that's the norm, is it not?

littlemissM92 · 01/02/2017 09:17

advise please ladies if a house was on at £239,500 how low would u go as a first offer it's 'done' inside not amazing but nice enough we would decorate and make our own but garden would need some money spending on it x

loveka · 01/02/2017 09:25

I agree about the offers over thing. I think I subconsciouslyrics think "oh don't be ridiculous". I don't know why though.

The house we are buying was 'bought' by someone else then came back on the market 3 months later as it turned out the buyers needed a mortgage and it's cash buyers only!

We got a full asking price offer yesterday! Trying not to get too excited though after what happened last time.

Notanotherpawpatrol · 01/02/2017 09:34

I'm not a fan of offers over, I usually ignore them tbh, as I don't want to get into a negotiation game.

summerholsdreamin · 01/02/2017 09:47

Fingers crossed for you Lamp. So hard once you see your perfect home

drspouse · 01/02/2017 12:12

sad I would definitely try and make the small green room look like a bedroom - it currently looks a bit like even the sofa doesn't really fit in there.

More stuff to the charity shed (it's a local charity with a drop off point) this morning and I think we are down to a) tidying and b) DH getting his blooming stuff sorted out that I have left in piles around the house, and we'll be ready for photos.

We need carpet for the attic though before viewings as we were due to have fancy engineered wood put in but won't now, but it's got a bare floor.

My friend with the problems selling has sold! Woohoo! She recommended an open house which would definitely suit us with the two small DCs, we are city centre and she isn't and she said they only do them for city centre houses in our area.

SadPandas · 01/02/2017 12:16

Have had a chat with my agent this morning, they clearly wanted me to get off the phone and stop asking questions, so I guess they find clients a bit annoying Blush. They said they could re-list it as a new property which would bump it up the list, but my H thinks it will just look like a sale fell through and put people off, which I can kind of see the logic to. I checked that I'm not tied into a contract with them so think I might check around and see if there's any better option. It's so hard to know though. DH is going to paint the box room and take the sofa out I think.

OBface · 01/02/2017 12:29

SadPandas I think your house is lovely, comes across in the photos as very clean and bright. Would echo those who say take the magnets of the fridge and perhaps pack some of the toiletries away in the bathroom (though what do I know, my house has been described as bleak by some on here Grin). Could you perhaps shift the sofa around in the spare room putting it under the window? Might give the illusion of more space. I would also seriously consider getting a new agent, yours sound the pits.

Lamp fingers crossed for you.

One week in and only the viewing booked in on the 10th booked in. Had professional photos taken yesterday which are now live and make the house look a lot better. Agent is already on at us to drop our price. Not sure about this as we know we're getting hits on Rightmove (c200 a day -though a large number of these may well be me) and the house we want to buy is also on through them so have a slight concern they want to push a sale through. I think I might wait and see if the new images make a difference first.

Notanotherpawpatrol · 01/02/2017 12:42

Sad I've just had a 35 minute conversation with the branch manager at my agent. I explained my reasons for not being happy and got lots of reasurances. They've put a plan in place and someone will follow up with me today. They made it clear the service they have offered so far is well below what they would expect and apologised.
My point is, a good agent doesn't try and get you off the phone because you are asking questions. They should be reassuring you and telling you how they are planning on selling your home. They don't sound like a good agent.

Our for sale sign went up today, agent assured us they will do more to sell the house. Hopefully it's not all lip service!

Notanotherpawpatrol · 01/02/2017 12:44

OB, mine has been described as both not having enough personality and not being enough of a blank canvas. Confused

How do you see how many hits a house is getting on rightmove? I'm interested to see how many ours is getting!

littlemissM92 · 01/02/2017 12:46

How do you see how many times your property has been looked at?

Lilmisskittykat · 01/02/2017 13:11

Your estate agent can run a right move report that shows site hits and how many turned into click through story photos etc.

Mine sends me one from time to time.

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