Sellers roll call! How many viewings are you gettingin this stagnant market?

[Pixiedust1973]

I thought it would be nice to update each other with our progress as I seem to of lost the other sellers thread!

My house has been on the market on & off since April last year. We found a house we liked, got a buyer before putting in an offer. Had a low offer but managed to negotiate them up & the house we want down to an acceptable level, just! Turns out after many months that their buyer can't proceed so we decide to cut off from our old agents & start afresh with a 25k reduction for quick sale, making us without question the best house in the area for the price! Comparables being 40-50k higher! Im in an expensive part of Surrey btw, hence silly money for very little!

Been on 55 days now & had 11 viewings, 2 cheeky try their luck offers we can't accept because they're 30k below our asking price already reduced by 25k. Id say that given how stagnant the market is we're getting a reasonable amount of interest. Getting lots more hits online since the new year & hopefully its only a matter of time. The viewers we are getting are proceedable viewers, mainly chain free. Probably explains the low offers! Had a second viewing on Friday & awaiting their feedback today. Thought they were keen but the later in the day it gets the more nervous im getting!

I said on another thread a few months ago that prices were falling, but quite a few mumsnetters rounded on me saying I didn't know what I was talking about, and the difficulty with selling was probably due to the quality of the photographs (oh please?!).

But also an object lesson for people who say ‘I can’t sell my house’. Yes you can. Bring the price down until it sells.

@CarolineTheChemist Sorry to hear the situation you are in. This is my first post although I have used Mumsnet for years for advice and amusement. I feel sorry that your DH was taken in by HelpToBuy. It has been a terrible scheme which has put lots of people in your sort of position, enriched the housebuilders and pushed houses even further away from those who already struggled to afford them. Me and my family rent and have done for nearly 18 years now, privately I may add. Some great advantages but often with that fear of having to move home,school and even jobs. Luckily we have security of tenure here for some time, more because the landlord is an imbecile with no clue on housing rights. The reason i was prompted to post was your comment on the 2nd generation having to pay full price. Do you think perhaps that the 2nd generation buying these HelpToBuy houses will actually be paying a lower price and the 1st generation (and Government) will have to accept the losses? The only way that can be avoided is for another HelpToBuy V.2 (Actually probably V 6.3.2 if you look at all the schemes there have been in the last 10 years.). Such a scheme might help you out of this situation but will only kick the can further down the road. Something has to give soon and it isn't going to be pretty for many of us in all sorts of different tenures and situations and employments. let us hope (hahahahahaha) that someone in charge will see sense soon.

Our flat in SE London priced at 375k (2 bedrooms, first floor) just sold within 2 weeks of being on the market. I wonder if the area of London makes a difference as loads of people near me are selling and not having an issue.

We put our house on the market last Friday, went on late afternoon. On Monday had confirmation for two viewings - 1 on Friday and one on Saturday. Nothing else booked in.

The market here seems to have been ok, a number of houses have shifted in our area but worried we may have missed the peak time. Seems to be that houses are either going STC within 5 weeks of going on the market it languishing. That being said a house went on by us in Feb and has just gone STC in the past fortnight. That one had had a price drop and in my opinion was still overpriced at what it sold for. We’re moving in with mil on 1st August so would love to sell before then, but know it can be hit and miss.

House is priced reasonably, targeting FTB. Nervous for what’s to come! Keeping my fingers crossed for everyone on here.

@potof there are micro markets all over London so deffo think area makes a huge difference. Also have to be aware that loads of sales are falling through now. When searching I see flats & houses that went SSTC as long ago as Jan/Feb popping back on rightmove.

our house has been on the market for 2 weeks, had 9 viewings. 2 of the viewings were the same couple.

had great hopes for an offer and now, nothing. radio silence from 2nd viewers and everyone else has said it's too big or they don't like the area (fair enough neither do I hence moving)

not sure what to do. Agent seems desperate for us to drop the price, but after 2 weeks I think that's a bit premature?!

I wouldn't say it was overpriced, a similar house in our street went for slightly less than we want a couple of months ago (ours is in much better condition and has off street parking)

feeling a bit deflated!

PotofMemories - this makes sense to me as SE London seems to be much more affordable and is more an upcoming area. DH's flat is in Clapham which I think is well past its upcoming hey day. It sucks for us, but I guess that was their choice when they bought it.

DH spoke to a local agent this week who said there is a new development being finished this summer with similar flats that will be marketed at 50K less than ours is currently - buyers of these flats will be eligible for HTB loans, so we have some steep competition coming soon...

Thats a really shit situation Caroline. Agree with Jenny re potentially having to accept the losses. Ive been in a similar situation due to a marriage breakdown so I know how you feel.

Congratulations Arctic. Nice to see some good news!

Nothing good to report here yet. Have one viewing tomorrow & another on Monday with a viewer who is proceedable, so fingers crossed there. Anyone else got any viewings booked?

We’ve just had our third viewing. They were just outside getting ready to leave when we turned onto the road, so we drove past and parked a bit further down the street. It looked like they were taking a couple of their own photos outside so hopefully that’s a good sign. Just waiting for feedback.

Our second viewing was this morning and apparently they said it was nice but haven’t come through with anything. The first viewing was yesterday and they put an offer in it £98,000 (house is up for £115,000). Estate agents told them they need to come up from that without ringing us. The estate agents are going to give them a call back to see whether they’re going to up their offer.

Got another viewing booked in for Saturday next week. We’ve been on the market for 8 days so far.

Flaming - personally I wouldn’t want to drop the price only two weeks in to being on the market. For our house I think we’re looking to come out at house sold at the £110,000 mark. I’ve kept my eye on the market over the last few months and that seems to the the price.

yeah we're not going to reduce just yet,

had another viewing over the weekend but they didn't like the location. surprise surprise.

just don't know what to do. cant move the house.... feeling really down and it hasn't even been three weeks yet.

You’d think that they would have a look at the location first. I know moving is a combination of things but if they know they don’t like the area then viewing is just wasting your time and like you say you can’t move the house. I will keep my fingers crossed you get something positive soon.

We had a call today from the EA about the third viewers. Initially they were offering £105,000 and we said that if they could come up to £110,000 then we’d be happy to proceed. Just had a phone call from my husband and they’ve agreed to £110,000, so it’s all go here. They’re FTB and have an AIP already. Estate agents have said that it should take 2 and a half months from now to complete, so looking at end of August. Hoping all goes smoothly!

Hello! Can I join? A bit rubbish here, but I think because our house is on the market for too much money. We live on a popular estate (NW) and the part that we live in have similar, but not quite the same houses on either side of the road.

Two opposite sold very quickly, less than 2 weeks, one for £209K and one for £217K. We are definitely on the nicer side of the street and I wanted to put ours on for £219,950 to hopefully achieve around the £215,00 mark.

However, a lady 3 doors along from us has the exact same house as us and hers is on at £230K. The agent recommended that we match her so we're currently on at £230K as well. She has been on for about 5 weeks. I appreciate that it's only been on since last Tuesday (12th) but no viewings at all yet. The only saving grace is that we want to stay on the same estate and there is nothing to buy at the moment so we can wait. I'm thinking to let this weekend pass, and then maybe reduce a bit to see if we can get some viewings weekend of 30th June if still nothing.

If something that we really want comes up sooner then I'll reduce earlier. What do you think? All calculations are based on a selling price of £210K so we have wriggle room!

TokyoSushi I'm no expert here but the advice I've been given from an estate agent (for the most part who I do trust - as much as you can with EA's!) is that in this market you are better to price your property as realistically as possible rather then over inflating and hoping to be negotiated down. Buyers are aware it is a buyers market at the moment and they'll either try and make a ridiculously low offer or not bother at all.

This strategy worked for us and I noticed that similar properties in our area which were overpriced are still languishing...

Yes I agree, if we don't get any viewers Iined up for this weekend then I think I'll reduce!

Congratulations GetOrfMyBin. Hope all goes to plan!

So frustrating when they come up with stupid reasons like that flamingofridays. We had similar today. Viewing booked a week ago & suddenly today on the day of viewing they decide that our house is too far away from work & cancel. Saturdays viewers apparently don't understand the concept of downsizing! I'm starting to think that its not going to happen tbh. Saw that a house on same road as us but opposite end (not so nice) has sold today. Was on for around the same of ours, but this one is on a main road, ex-local authority, terraced & lacks parking, plus can't park on the road either. Garden is small too. Complete opposite of our house. The only thing that it beats us on is that it is ever so slightly larger inside. People are choosing square footage over everything else nowadays it seems. Madness!

Its so hard to know the best way to play it re pricing TokyoSushi. We thought that we didn't want to mess about & advertised at offers over the lowest we could realistically accept, in the hope of generating interest & offers over. All we got was offers 30k below our competitively priced property that we could simply not afford to accept. Had we priced it 25-30k higher to start with I wouldn't of minded. Nowadays it seems that everyone will look to drop you significantly, regardless of how realistic you are. In your situation I'd of trusted your own judgement & marketed at 220k with hope of selling quickly at around what the neighbours achieved recently, but expecting a bit less given the market is falling. (Well, it is here anyway). Good luck!

Ah fantastic GetOrfMyBin

And yeah it's so utterly frustrating isn't it!!

Someone cancelled a viewing on ours in the first week because it was too close to x street and too far away from y street when in fact it is actually much bloody closer yo y street. Idiots.

We had a viewing today. They had turned up Sunday morning asking to come in but we said no because we were all in our pyjamas and the house was a mess anyway they booked in to view today.

They were fab and had already checked out the area (THANK THE LORD). They need to move because they've had a baby and their house is too smalll now. They had it valued by our agent earlier today so with a bit of luck they'll get their ball rolling and buy ours. They were very positive!

Trying to not get my hopes up too much because I did with the couple that viewed twice and then disappeared

The market for flats in particular in London is defo dodgy unless your priced very very competitively. I’m in nappyvalley and there’s one not far from me that sold in 2014 (which was prob the peak) for 499k, back on the market in Jan this yr for 599k. Reduced numerous times & now at 500k & I wouldn’t pay that for it. Help to Buy can be useful (I have one friend it worked for) but it’s largely just another prop.

Pricing realistically is the way to go, even if that means stating fixed price or similar on the listing. Our house took six weeks to sell thanks to a greedy agent and we reduced it twice by £10k each time. If it had been valued realistically it would have sold within a week, similar properties are flying off the market where we are.

Should have added: £10k doesn’t sound a lot but was about 11% of what the house eventually sold for.

last nights viewers want our house!

however, they cant put an offer in because theres is not yet sold.

should be on the market by the end of the week I assume, and fingers crossed it sells because they are worried about missing out on ours!

That’s great news Flaming! Tentative congratulations

Our estate agent called today - apparently our buyers haven’t started the ball rolling yet as they’re going on holiday today until next Thursday. EA has tried to coax them into getting things started but they’ve refused, saying that they’ll do it when they return. EA has said they are keeping the property on the market and would like us to proceed with the viewing already booked for Saturday so we’ve agreed. EA doesn’t like that buyer hasn’t started anything even though everything was accepted on Monday. Sold sign has gone on outside the house today as well.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’s just a case of they’ve been too busy with holiday and just want to wait until they get back and can focus properly. The next week and a bit is going to be a bit of a nervous wait!

Great news Flaming! Nice to have interest, but please don't take your property off of the market until you have an offer from someone who can proceed. Hopefully these people can get a buyer quickly, but you can't risk waiting for them as it could take months!

How annoying GetOrfMyBin. Have they not instructed a solicitor or anything? I can understand not wanting a load of forms to fill in etc before going away, but if they're serious then they have to do it sooner or later. I'd be questioning if they're committed to buying. I don't think you have any option but to remove the sold sign & continue with viewings until they prove they're serious.

Positive news this end. We have 2 viewings booked in with proceedable buyers. One is tonight, & we're doing that one ourselves. The other is on Saturday. Fingers crossed one of them likes it enough to make an offer!

Thanks and fingers crossed everything goes smoothly for you bin

Don't worry moving it's still firmly on the market. We declined their initial offer as was 2 grand too low. Quite a bit slab off the asking price. We told them to come back to us when they sold which will hopefully be soon but as far as I can see their house isn't on the market yet. Hopefully this week.

Thats good Flaming. I don't understand people making offers before they are capable of proceeding. Don't lose hope though, we had a viewer a few weeks ago in the same position. I didn't take them too seriously because they weren't on the market, but after 3 viewings they were (at the time) smitten with ours & put their own house on with our agent at a low price in order to sell quickly. Their house is stunning & at the price was a steal, so they got an offer very quickly. We excitedly waited to hear from them with an offer on ours...

A few days later we finally heard that they suddenly, as if by magic, produced another £125k & had offered on a different place in not such a nice location, but had already been extended. We were gutted. Even our EA was surprised. Hopefully you have better luck than we do. If they are able to price theirs low enough & still afford to buy yours theres no reason why they may not sell quickly! Ideally they'll use the same agent as you so you can keep track of whats going on better. Ill keep everything crossed for you anyway!

We had a positive viewing last night. They want to have information & pricing on the extensive work done by next door. DH is going to catch the neighbours later & ask them. We have another viewing tomorrow too, so positive stuff. Just the small issue that there currently isn't anything on the market that we could look at.. Hopefully that changes soon, or ill be out doing leaflet drops again lol.