When do you give up?

[WomblerOfWimbledon]

Been on the market since Nov/Dec last year.

Accepted an offer in Feb. Fell through on the day of exchange a month ago because buyer was being difficult (I think he thought he could bag a bargain elsewhere - we are in London and prices are falling).

Put the house back on at a very reasonable price. Viewings came thick and fast for two weeks but since then - nothing.

We are moving for a bit more space closer to a fantastic school that the kids are already in.

Is it silly to keep going? I feel emotionally drained by the uncertainty and my marriage is suffering as my DH and I keep arguing. Tidying and cleaning a small 3 bed terraced house and being scarce for viewings with 3 very young DC is frankly a PITA.

The London property market is shit. Nothing is shifting. We don't actually need to move but we have found our onward purchase and we have done the survey and legals and we love it.

In our circumstances, when would you give up?

Maybe just take a year off.

Have the estate agents given any feedback on the viewings?

@NapQueen yes but nothing that is constructive (i.e. Not keen on the area, don't like not having a downstairs loo - that's evident from the floor plan!).

They've even said usually they'd recommend a price reduction but we've reduced our price loads and it'd be desperate to do so any more.

The market is just terrible here. But I feel like we are waiting for a bus...the longer you wait the less inclined you are to leave the bus stop because you think something is more likely to show up!!!

I feel for you OP, it is so draining trying to sell with young DC. But waiting a year might not necessarily help, I doubt the market is going to pick up anytime soon.

If you drop your price further would you be able to afford the house that you have found? Everything sells at the right price, so I'm sure you would eventually sell.

I don't relly know what to say but you are not alone. Our home has been on the market since end of Feb. Well priced and looked after house. We haven't even had an offer yet :( Loads of viewings and the constant tidying and cleaning drives me bananas.

Maybe drop the price slightly? Estate agent suggested that we should drop it 10 % but that's a load of money! We are thinking maybe put it up for auction see what happens... people tend to get carried away on auctions :D

I feel for you. The sale of my flat fell through in January after I had already committed to buying somewhere else so now I have two properties and desperately need to sell the flat. I have had viewings but no offers and it is really stressful. I am planning on just waiting for as long as it takes. No choice really.

If I would leave it another few months at least if I were you. Don;t give up hope :)

Keep going, it IS worth it. You only need one buyer to kick it all of again.

It took us two years from first viewing to moving in and it was the worst time. We lost two buyers, got gazumped once, found and lost two 'dream' houses. My toddler use to pretend play that 'Annie' was one the phone - our estate agent - because I spoke to her more often than my own mother. And each time something went wrong and I had to face bloody viewings again, I wanted to jack it all in. Tidying and showing people around with two toddlers is not fun.

But now we have moved! And life is good again, it was worth it. We have a more beautiful and more expensive home than the other 'dream' houses. It was hell, but worth it. I'm never doing it again

Thanks everyone. I think I just need to chill out and stop overthinking things.

Just feel a sense of urgency because we have found our onward purchase and done all the paperwork for it (inc mortgage offer which expires in July)...so really keen to get a buyer asap!!

Fingers crossed that the market picks up a bit soon.

I would ask for a reduction on the house you offered on due to the falling market. Then you can drop your price more and sell quicker

The London market is a mess because the top end houses aren't selling. Whether that's a 10m flat in centre of London or a 1m house out in the suburbs, the buyers of those houses are most vulnerable job-wise at the moment and most exposed to Brexit.

Those same houses are still overpriced and looking at 2015 as the benchmark when there was a price rally.

When those houses start selling, the market will recover. If you're buying at the top end of the market, I'd continue to look critically at what you paid to ensure it's still market price (there is a reason those sellers are waiting).

@Geneticsbunny already tried that and it's a no go. Plus my estate agent says our price is already competitive but it's simply a case of nothing moving at all at any price.

@FanDabbyFloozy I thought it was more of a bottom up problem than a top down problem (i.e. That chains can't be linked because first time buyers can't buy at the lower end of the market). Interesting to hear that it could be the other way around!!

Honestly if you worried about loosing the house you already had your offer accepted on then just put it up to auction! Completion time is usually 4 weeks and you can set a reserved price...

If it isn't selling then it can't be that competitive.

Go on...show us your house. Lots of us have experience of the London market and might be able to help.

You can find a buyer if you are able/prepared to drop the price low enough. It sucks but that seems to be the reality at the moment. I'm not in London but we are facing similar.

remember similar from 30 years back. do what we did and drop your price.

I'm having a similar issue. Very little is selling & there is an awful lot of terrible advice going on from EA. Been in this process just over a year now & its driving me nuts! I have 2 older teenagers living with DH & I in a tiny 2 bed plus boxroom house that we bought to be in school catchment area & have put up with for 7 years while we saved hard. We priced our house at 25k below the competition & eventually accepted an offer at 36k below by negotiating a good price on an ongoing purchase.

Unfortunately our buyer lost their buyer so we remarketed & dropped another 25k in the hope of a quick sale. Funnily enough we got LESS interest at the new price. We had offers, but they were from opportunists after a bargain in this sellers market. We asked our vendor if we could split the discount up the chain between us, them & their vendors but they refused & we simply couldn't afford to reduce a further 25k when we'd already dropped so much. Eventually our vendors remarketed & found a new buyer.

After a bad experience with a high street EA we'd stupidly been talked into giving a friend a go who works for Purplebricks & wasted 5 months & £1200 in the process. They were incapable of negotiating or chasing buyers. The last straw was when an almost identical house to ours went sale agreed for 22.5k MORE than ours was on for, so we cut our losses & started afresh with a new EA, putting it back on at the original asking price. We've already had 3 viewings. Have you considered your EA may be the problem? Are you happy with them & how your house is marketed? Is the photography & web presence good? Hopefully we both get more luck soon.