Struggling to sell house, any others in same boat?

[iflavour]

Afternoon all, we have had our house up for sale for 6months in brentwood, essex. 4bed semi, recently refurbed, 500kprice.

Solid wave of viewers but no offers from those that can move straight away. Feedback we get is "lovely house, price is sensible, but we need to sell our house first".

We have priced the house 10% lower than last house on the street, 12months ago. We have had 4 offers, all about 10% lower than asking, but all haven't even started the sale of their property. We progressed with 2 offers, but they ended pulling out as they found themselves in the same boat (no non-contingent buyers).

I am sensible and realistic that market is weaker, and very open to negotiation to trade at lower level (the value is what someone is prepared to pay).

We have taken house of the market for now and will re-list post the half term return. When re-relist we will drop by another 10%, to see if any first-time buyers can get tempted.

I just wanted to canvas the mighty mumsnet knowledge base on what kinda trends experiences you are all finding regarding selling a house in this market.

Thanks in advance.

Do you have a link for the old listing?

A lot of the houses we viewed would only allow “proceedable” buyers (FTB or those with an offer on their current property) to view. Meant we only viewed once in a position to make a genuine offer.

Dropping price a little will certainly capture the attention of more potential buyers and will also send out a message that your are open to offers. Depends if you are happy to genuinely sell at that lower price or beneath it.

Can first time buyers afford 450k?

Hey guys,

I don't have a link anymore, will post as and when we relaunch.

We are very realistic on pricing, if we find a "proceedable" buyer we will trade at a lower price.

We have lived in the house for a decade and unless we sell at half the price we are still in the black.

Anyway, it is a house not an asset, if i sell lower i hopefully buy lower.

Hi OP, I know the area v well. Which agents are you using? Beresfords’s are generally your best bet. I would also ask the EA to do viewings for non-proceedable buyers. You might find suddenly there are less post a link when it comes up. I’d say it’s likely to be price driven as the market is still v buoyant at sub £500k?

@Pradaqueen afternoon, yes we were with Beresford. They have been very good and will stay with them when we re-list at a lower price.

Just need some proceedable buyers and a little bit of confidence to come back.

Anyone one seeing a better market where they are?

Yep, our affluent northern town - currently - is very hot for property. Often things going over asking price if it's the right location. Not sure how long will this last for though...

I am not near you, but in a small town/village outside Reading. Houses are very rarely coming to market here, and if they are good properties are snapped up within a week or so.

We put our three bed terrace on the market in mid-January, and sold at full asking price within four days.

We had to wait for our purchase as nothing we liked was coming to market (I am ignoring the one we had offer accepted on and then they pulled out...) but ended up buying at full asking price the day after it came on the market (had sold but fell through as they couldn't get the mortgage).

Values were 325k (sold to to chain free buyer) and 425k (no upper chain).

I'm in the same boat. Been trying to sell my flat for a year now, it's depressing. It's in great condition, you could move in immediately. Close to a train station, centre of the town, with parking, no chain.
Had one offer who pulled out again. Lowered the price 3 times now, changed estate agents, but it's like getting blood out of a stone!
Considering renting it out again, I can't afford it just sitting there empty

Ours (3 bed house, south east) sold within 48 hours of going on the market. Huge sympathy for those struggling to sell. The market is clearly varying a lot.

2 bed terrace here in Kent, perfect first time buyer home. Been on the market for 3 months. Had one offer of 10% under asking price, immediately rejected. Not even close with anyone else. Everyone told us houses like ours sell quickly but it would seem it's not the case. We desperately need to move as we need more space and I want to be moved in time for Primary applications this year. I think we've had about 8 viewings in total. And a couple who cancelled or who didn't turn up (infuriating when you've prepped with two kids in tow!!).

We're close to Brentwood and struggling to sell our 3 bed semi. We've reduced ours once and it's currently on at 5k less than an identical house four doors down sold for in December. We can afford to take 10k under the asking but no less as the larger houses we need are not dropping accordingly. Loads here at 525-550 hanging around on the market but anything 475-480k is sold within days. So we're stuck where we are.

@LillyBugg thanks for comments, the no-shows are my number 1 frustrations. Just call. #rantover

I know right?! I just don't understand why you would do that. It's such a waste of everyone's time. At least my house was clean and tidy for ten minutes I suppose!

Hi iflavour. I am in a very expensive area with great schools, transport links etc & it is stagnant here. People are unwilling to pay the prices the area usually commands. The only houses that are selling are those priced on a par with neighbouring cheaper areas. I am like you & very realistic about pricing. We originally priced at 25k below competition & when we found somewhere & our chain collapsed we reduced again for a quick sale to 400k. We had offers at 375k, but were simply unable to go that low because as G1ggloop is finding, the higher priced houses are not reducing accordingly. Around 90% of property is overpriced & while I am happy to take a hit on ours, I can't afford to pay pre Brexit prices plus 10% as so many buyers are still demanding for their houses, which would equate to us overpaying by 100k+, which we simply can't do. Hence the stagnation.

The sensible thing to do would be to withdraw our property & wait till the market levels out & everyones singing from the same hymn sheet, but I already put our lives on hold for a year & I really want to move, so I hold out for properties to become available with realistic prices to enable us to accept an incredibly low offer on ours, but of course they sell quickly to those in a position to proceed..

@Pixiedust1973 thanks for the comment, you have summed up beautifully exactly where we are.

I am starting to think about selling to one of the "we buy any" lot, at a 15% discount and renting.

At least i get to become a proceedable buyer as the market potentially tanks.

(Thanks all the comments so far).

I actually looked into that iflavour & they offered 375k, exactly the same amount as the low offers we had. We had an offer at the time of 390k which we were proceeding with. When that fell through we subsequently reduced our original asking price of 425k to 400k so I doubt they'd go that high now & we still have to buy something ongoing, where they seem unwilling to move on price. I wish we could move to a much cheaper area, then it wouldn't matter, but everywhere we look is so expensive.

My son is a FTB looking in your area. Unfortunately there is very little on the market at his price level (circa £200k) and those that are affordable are going very fast, often above asking price. I guess all those owners of the very few £200k properties being sold are the target market for your property price. It seems to me that there are few vendors selling £200k properties and yet there are lots of £450k properties so they have a large pool of properties to choose from.

That seems very low priced for a 4 bed in Brentwood especially if it's been refurbished. I'm about a 10 min drive from you and property here doesn't really seem to be moving fast and people don't seem to be dropping prices either?
My brother has an independent agency and he said it's very stagnant at the moment, maybe things will start to pick up after Easter.

@ShellsBells76 @Spickle i agree, 1/ looks like decent value and 2/ the 250 sub market is still super strong.

Get the sense our place is in the hinterlands of demand. Expensive for FTBs, not-proceedable for Family types given market.

Well, sun shining today, spring (fingers crossed) could bring out the buyers.

The lower end does seem to be moving faster. I know our EA is selling houses in neighbouring cheaper towns, but everything here is hanging around unless the price is slaughtered, which would be fine if everyone did that..

Had to rush around like a mad thing last night after someone booked a viewing at 930pm for 1030 this morning. Thats the beauty of being on with an EA like Purplebricks lol. We also have another viewing on Saturday & someone new is tracking our house via the app, so perhaps things are on the up? I can live in hope, & no doubt die in dispair lol.

@Pixiedust1973 fingers crossed for todays viewing.

We should back on market next week, then the wait begins. Ughh.

Thanks iflavour. We also have a professional photographer coming out this afternoon to do some new, hopefully much better photos than we currently have. Hopefully that will encourage a few more people to venture beyond just looking at the details online. We're getting plenty of hits on Rightmove etc, but viewing numbers have dropped off a bit recently so we need to get people to look further who had perhaps ruled it out. Everything crossed!

Iflavour have you had Balgores round? I know you said you are happy with Beresfords but I have found although Balgores are your 'typical agent' they are very proactive and take fantastic photos.

@ShellsBells76 hello, yes we did. And they were good, but way to optimistic on pricing. They were talking 575 and 550 worst.

Got the sense they were still pricing things on 2016 metrics and trends. The launch on Monday, 6 offers by Wednesday stuff.

"You have done loads of work on this, people just have to move in, loads of young families will love the location and snap it up"

Cue: me on MN 6 months later.