Are you suspicious of a house that's not sold quickly?

[changedmynameagain87]

If it's been on for a few months, does it make you question "what's wrong with it?".

No. I'd assume it was priced too high.

I'd assume it's over priced.

Possibly because something is wrong with it? Eg needs new windows

But also some EAs put a too high price in the first place

How much have other similar properties in the area sold for recently. I can guarantee the potential buyers will know and be using that information as comparison.

Have you had no offers at all?

Oh it's not my house; fortunately I sold quickly and the sale is going through well. However, we have pulled out of the house we were going to buy and so our search is back to the drawing board. The three we've earmarked,purely on photos at this stage, have been on since Feb/march.

We've recently bought a place. Was on the market almost 2 years. We were the only people who put an offer in. Been here 3 months and still have no idea why it wasn't snapped up sooner. It wasn't even over priced.

Overpriced

I'd be questioning the motives of the sellers. We viewed a few that had been on for ages and the sellers didn't really want to sell them, they were just 'testing the waters'. One of the still isn't sold one year on!

We bought last September. House had been on the market for a year with one other offer. EA couldn't understand why it hadn't attracted more interest as apparently everyone who viewed it had the same reaction we did - which was a surprised "oh". The house is a bit unusual, in a conversion and the outside doesn't set you up for inside iyswim.

We think there were a couple of factors in play, one being the unusual-ness of it and the other, as it turned out, the vendor, who didn't want to move and played silly buggers throughout.

One is £700k, we looked around and it's got so much potential to be fantastic, BUT it needs work. EA says they've already factored in the work required when pricing it. Would £645k be an awful offer?

Just offer the£645. Worst thing that could happen is they say no.

Yep I'd say overpriced, and if it's obviously not ( compared to others similar) I'd question what was wrong with it!

We recently viewed a house that has been on the market for a few months. Appeared to have sold then fallen through within days. Didn't make any sense, beautiful house from the pics, popular village etc. Called EA to book viewing to be advised about what puts people off..... the main line railway runs along the side of the garden

Two out of three times I've bought the house had been on the market for ages (over a year).

First one the agent basically talked us into going back and looking at it a second time - it was painted hideous institutional grey/pink throughout and had been trashed by problem tenants so door frames ripped out etc. (It was VERY cheap though! And we knew the NDNs who were lovely)

Second one was just waaay overpriced - had been put on the market just at the start of the crash in 2008. We offered £120K less than the asking price of £350K. Vendors told us to take a running jump - we passed on the message through the EA that we had cash waiting if they changed their mind - they came back a few months later . . .

However when we bought the first house we really really wanted to buy a lovely house over the road that had also been on the market for months - seller didn't really want to sell as had been her mum's house and just found a way to turn down any offers.

Depends. If I could see something which was obviously putting off other buyers, but that I could see past/compromise on I would go for it.
Our current house had been on the market for over a year, and had been reduced in price. There was a couple of minor things odd with the downstairs lay out (which we didn't mind) which I think put other buyers off. I saw this as a positive, because it put us in a strong negotiating position and meant we could afford a nicer house than we could have otherwise.

Are the sellers still living there, or has most of the furniture been moved out? Because if the latter, empty or nearly empty houses can put people off. Its irrational, but they feel "colder" and without furniture the rooms seem (counter-intuitively) smaller.

This one was on for more than a year when we bought it. Think that was also a mixture of things, being overpriced, being marketed as a three bed rather than a four bed (they had one of the upstairs rooms as a second lounge rather than a bedroom) and that it was decorated in a really old fashioned way. The lounge looked like an old people's home with green carpets and chairs all around the walls.

Many years ago I bought a house that had been on the market for 18 months. I was a bit suspicious about it, but when I viewed it became clear. It was minging! The smell of unwashed bodies when you went in, the filth everywhere, it was a total disgrace, I couldn't understand how people could live like that. (and they were a young family with 2 children). I had a private survey done very quickly to rule out any structural problems, it was fine and I bought it, and it was cheap. Once cleaned and decorated it was lovely. Oh you should have seen the loo, that was the first thing to be replaced. It was a symphony of yellow and brown!

The house we bought had been on the market for nearly 2 years (although they did take it off the market for 6 months in the middle of that). It didn't attract many viewings as it's on a fairly busy road but actually due to the large driveway you any hear or see it from inside the house or the garden, I honestly don't understand why it didn't sell quicker but also very pleased it didn't as then we would have missed out.

Id think over priced too.

I just don't have the imagination to see past the sort of stuff Lucisky's describing - I've had friends who've bought wrecks and I've just been baffled about how they managed to see the potential (which was clearly there). I wish I could. So people like me are probably part of the reason some houses just don't sell.

Our current house had been on the market for two years. Empty and increasingly filthy. Turned out developers had offered and spent most of a year faffing but finally decided their plan to turn it into two flats wasnt viable because of the dodgy extension.

As it happened, we saw it online, went to the agent who said it was gone, went to agent down the road and mentioned this one was the kind of thing we wanted if they knew it - agent said "You mean this one that we've just been instructed on as it hasnt sold with the previous agent in two years?" His lucky day!

There was haggling with the price but faced with 200 pages of full structural survey the sellers were eventually reasonable. They did insist we buy them a pub lunch and drinks while we negotiated in the pub garden! Best use of £50 ever...

The market is changing quickly at the moment and while some properties are still siding quickly there's a bigger slow down.

I think only if they have previously had a few sales fall through, other than that I would see it as an opportunity for negotiating. Estate agents sometimes do this vanity pricing crap to win the listing with the clients, then they have the clients under contract and when it is reduced and eventually sold, they still have the comission.

A house is only ever worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

Sorry, meant to say that's why I would put my suspicions to one side.

I would also ask the agents if it is a divorce sale. As they can sometimes be deliberately overpriced to circumvent a real sale whilst everything goes through court, especially if the remaining spouse doesnt actually want to sell at all and is hoping to get the house. That would make me a little concerned tbh.

Parents built their current house, when it came to sell their old one, I told DM that it was worth £575k. At the time I was looking for a house in that price bracket in the local area and really knew what the market was doing having religiously studied Rightmove for 6 months.
3 EA's priced it 700, 695 and 650. So she fairly assumes I'm out.

9 months later, guess what it got sold for?

Also remember that situations change really quickly. The first house we bought had been on the market for ages because it was overpriced and the sellers refused to budge on price. However when they found a house they really wanted to move to they realised that they would have to take a lower offer which is when we jumped in.