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!

Tokyo Don't say that. I'm sure you will be fine. We bought for £214,000 only last year, asking price was £239,000. The house was filthy. But all we've done is re floored every room, redecorated every room and all woodwork/radiators, replaced the integrated appliances, fitted a new kitchen worktop and added a breakfast bar, landscaped the garden and added a door into the garage. We are asking £279,950. I'm really worried we aren't going to be able to afford what we want if we have to sell low. Our house is the lowest priced in the area.

oh no jgm hate hate hate shitty feedback like that makes me want to scream STOP FUCKING WASTING MY TIME

surely you have some idea of the type of place you want to live before you start looking

@flamingofridays I know, nowadays a quick look on streetview will show you the area! To be honest I don't think we've had any useful feedback, ie nothing we can change... to top it off I've just missed a call from the agent of the house we love, probably to tell me it's sold . I feel like stamping my feet and screaming 'I want it'!

Ours has been the same nothing we can change either. I mean apart from change the parking into a garden but then sods law dictates the next person to look around it would be unhappy with lack of parking.

I hope it's not bad news from the estate agent. We will hopefully get some feedback from ours tomorrow.

Bad news. After managing to get a good deal on a new build & seeing another possible at the weekend, we got the news on Monday that the buyers are withdrawing their offer "due to personal circumstances". My arse, more like the people around the corner accepted their shitty offer first! We are utterly devastated. Had got ourselves into the mindset that we would now proceed with the new build, because it was the only by far the best option, then we have the rug pulled out YET AGAIN! How much more shit are we supposed to put up with? Have told the EA to reduce us down by another 10k & emphasise that we are very serious, realistic, committed sellers.

Potentially if another similar buyer pops up soon we could still get the new build. Within minutes we have a viewing booked with one of the EA other vendors who has apparently had an offer but turned it down & they also had another viewing last night. Not the sort of buyer that we'd be able to realistically get the same deal on the new build with. Why oh why does it seem like we are the only vendors willing to play the game & reduce in order to sell? Everyone else is being greedy & wanting it all ways! We simply can't afford to pay someones inflated asking price while accepting a 10% hit on our own place that we priced realistically to start with!

oh moving that is so shit, i'm sorry.

I hope you find another buyer soon so you can get the new build (or maybe something you like just as much)

we have still heard nothing from "couple that cant make their mind up" or viewers from sat or yest.

woman with house to sell still has house to sell and no interest.

booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Oh no that's awful moving, fingers crossed you get another buyer soon.

What is everyone's reasons for wanting to move? We actually wasn't planning to but I fell in love with a house (now sold) so put ours on the market for that, and now we're on we're seeing what happens. We need an extra bathroom with 2 nearly-teenage girls, but could at a push get an en suite in our current house but would lose fitted wardrobes in two of the bedrooms.

we want both a garden and off street parking, currently what is our parking could be one or the other, just doesn't suit us anymore.

also, we want to move closer to dps work ideally.

Sorry to hear that @MovingThisYearHopefully.

Didn't your EA tell them that you were seriously considering their offer? I don't understand why they were in such a rush to offer on the other house apart from lack of communication from your EA. Maybe your EA hinted to them that you have declined a similar offer in the past and they felt like they were wasting their time. I think EAs in 50% of cases actually stand in the way of buyers and sellers making a deal... Some EA's are incredibly rude to buyers making lower offers and the buyers just don't want to deal with that EA ever again (speaking from personal experience.)

just got feedback, yesterdays viewer not interested and Saturdays don't like the area. surprise sur-fucking-prise.

I want to scream.

EA is telling us to reduce because the price is "clearly too high for the area" well you priced it you set of morons, not me!!

I am pretty certain they told us a certain price to get us to list with them.

pretty angry now to be honest

Thanks guys. We are well overdue a change in luck.

In all honesty, if any of you don't have to move then don't even attempt it in this market, unless you live in one of the rare buoyant areas!

We want to move because our house is simply tiny. We have 2 beds plus a box & one bathroom with loo & essentially 4 adults living here. My 2 older teen kids are both autistic & the youngest has now finally turned into a teenager & hasn't spoken to DH for 2 years or her sister for 2 months. I have many chronic conditions, as does DH, but because I don't have a paid job (registered carer) I do literally everything at home & have been dealing with it all myself. DH only gets involved when it suits him. He doesn't get the fact that when the offer came it was vital to either be ready, or at least able to take a day off & do viewings asap. He just complains about the unfairness & questions why they did this.. Well because they can of course. I blame him for losing us these buyers by dragging his feet. Its a living nightmare being here at the moment. We're desperate for more space!

The buyer was incredibly difficult to get hold of Building. They wouldn't answer or return calls, would only respond to emails when it suited them. The EA told them we were trying to make the sums work & when he last had contact on Thursday they were apparently fine with waiting a couple of days for our Saturday viewing. I feel they were trying their luck with the 2 houses & simply impatient. Its crazy in my mind to not wait at least for confirmation from us. I know everyone would say this, but our house is genuinely better. The other house is on a busy main road, ours isn't & is near a lovely little play park for their little one, plus has a larger garden.

We are in a rare buoyant market. The house sold quickly and at a good price but it's all relative. We had to pay more for the house we want.

We are moving to a bigger house, more land, off street parking and bigger garden and extra bedroom. We had to make some personal gambles to secure it though, which anyone would tell us we were fools. I'd agree if it falls through, but if we get the property then the gamble paid off.

@MovingThisYearHopefully it sounds horrible.. So sorry you're going through this.

Do you think you can reduce to your true minimum to try and sell quickly? Was it £380k? If you got a buyer in the next few weeks you could still proceed with the new build. Like I said before a lot of buyers are shy and afraid of making a low offer.

Also, have you given an extension another thought? I'm not saying you actually build it, i'm saying you put in the planning application. Once the planning application is approved, this will add value to your house and be easier to sell to buyers who would want to extend because you've already done the hard bit for them.

@Flamingo sorry to hear that. I think you should reduce to 98k and sell quickly. There has been so many bad news articles this week and the market is accelerating in a downward spiral. If you don't get the 98k you want, I would take it off the market and wait until the market recovers, but I know you want to move, so this may be the best option.

dp still doesn't want to reduce, he thinks we should turn parking into a garden for kerb appeal really. I kind of agree, don't think it will change price but might help it sell.

don't know what the fuck to do to be honest - half tempted to take it off the market but then will we ever be in a position to put it back on!

@flamingofridays that is so frustrating. You put your faith in them pricing it right for the area - it's kinda what you pay them so much for isn't it? To make the thing hassle free.

Really feel for you. I had similar in the end we just sold for what we could get just to get rid of the house and have been lucky to live with my parents whilst we've taken a year to look and most importantly save up to mitigate the hit we took.

I just tried to look as the loss as I had to live somewhere for those years and it was cheaper than renting

Bit of a dilemma now. Need advice. Our last 2 viewers have just both made an offer!

One from a really sweet young couple who loved the house so much they came back after the viewing to make the offer in person. They are first time buyers and offered 165k

The other offer was from an older couple who offered 161k but are cash buyers. EA said we should try to get the cash buyers to increase their offer but I really liked the first couple and am more inclined to give it to them...

@Willowcat77 I'd think I'd be inclined to go with the younger couple who loved the house if it were me. But I'm a bit sentimental and would like the idea my home went to the people who loved it the most

you still get the money cash buyer or not and more often then not they don't tend to be cash cash buyers from what you read of people's experiences

Poor Flamingo. Your situation sounds super frustrating! I'm starting to think that lots of viewings but no offers is worse than having only a few viewings... your sarcastic posts make me chuckle though, so thanks for that

I joined this thread ages ago when we weren't getting any viewings The flat was first on the market in April and after the first three months we had only had 2 viewings. We blamed the online agents, dropped the price twice, and lined up a high street agent for when our contract with the online agents finished.
However, in the nick of time, we had a first time buyer come to see it and offer on it on our last 3 days of the online agent. We had a bit of back and forth over the price, and luckily his final offer was the price we had decided we would accept. Super lucky considering we were just about to pay commission to a high street agent.
Now we're going through the surveying and valuation stage... still quite nerve wracking. It's not over until it over!!

Whilst we've been looking for the next house we've come across some agents pressurising us to go to viewings for houses we knew weren't what we wanted. One agent even booked us in for a viewing before they had even sent us the details. I felt bad for the sellers when I cancelled, but it wasn't really our fault :( I definitely wouldn't sell my house with that agent.

In that time we had offered the asking price on a house we loved and although they had accepted it "in principle", it was still on the market as we weren't proceedable. Now the flat sale is moving the offer has now been accepted. Tomorrow our mortgage lender is going to value the house and I AM POOING MY PANTS that it will be a down valuation. I was already worried about it, but now I feel like that bloody BBC article has sealed our fate......

Also, I've been thinking that house buying and selling it a bit like internet dating.... hear me out on this...

Just because people come to see your house and don't think it's right for them, doesn't mean it's not a nice house and no one will love it... it's just not a good match. You just have to hold out until the right person comes along.

And yes, we're all better informed now we have the internet, but now you can see how much the house across the street cost and what their bathroom suite looks like, you start comparing and wondering what if you could find one that was better.... "I'm happy, but I could be happier"

Perhaps we need a eharmony style site to match house buyers and sellers...

Building, the price of 380k & is really very low & only acceptable because we are now desperate with a chain free buyer. We wouldn't be able to go so low with a chain, or get the deal on the new build. It really would be us taking a serious hit. The other houses we'd look at are out of range at such a low price. In my experience buyers are NOT shy about making super low offers, quite the opposite in fact. We tried the price it at the lowest we could afford to accept in the hope of getting at least that figure strategy. It didn't work. We had LOADS of interest, despite it being at Christmas, but offers 25k below the lowest price we could accept. We even had an offer from someone who hadn't seen the house & it was so frustrating that we couldn't accept it. The offers were basically same, & some lower than the "we buy your house in 7 days" companies.

Pricing is such a gamble. Price too high & you get nothing, price too low & people wonder whats wrong & offer even less. Although in the current market, here, it doesn't seem to make a huge amount of difference. Its mainly the wow houses or super low priced houses where people are relocating up north that are selling, or pre extended ones, regardless of location! Throwing selfish neighbours into the mix doesn't help either. If extending etc were realistically an option I'd honestly of gone down that route when we moved here!

Willow, what is the position of the young couple? Do they have a chain or are they first time buyers, which is also desirable. If they have a chain then I'd be inclined to go with the cash offer, if they are also chain free then go with them if you prefer them. Nice dilemma to have!

@MovingThisYearHopefully I'm not suggesting you actually build the extension, I'm suggesting to apply for planning permission with the intention of selling it with planning approval. Often, buyers who would want to extend in the future will be reassured that the biggest hurdle (planning) is dealt with. This is a very common thing to do. Perhaps something to consider?

www.housesimple.com/blog/getting-planning-permission-how-it-can-help-you-sell-your-home

I know you're not suggesting I do the extension Building. I know it would be a good option, but I really don't have the time or energy to deal with the planning process. My exH is the DIY neighbour from hell & his father is an architect, so I have a lot of experience with the planning & building process, and living in it. Currently my commitments, health conditions & lack of help & support really have me at the limit of my capabilities. I can't take on anything else. Things have to change soon!

We have 2 viewings booked in already for the weekend, one of which is at the point of negotiating an offer on their flat & the other is a FTB. I'm holding out hope that the FTB is keen & we can get the deal on the new build. We will be making a financial loss of around 20k, more if we go into rented, (which is likely) but at this stage ive more than had enough. If we get an offer from anyone now I think we'll go into rented regardless & then we can be the people having silly offers accepted!

That sounds promising, @MovingThisYearHopefully good luck with the viewings! Fingers crossed!

@CarolineTheChemist it's exactly like internet dating! But when do you stop? "This house is great... But what if something better comes along tomorrow?" I feel like once we finally have an offer accepted I will still be checking Rightmove...