Sellers roll call part 2. Who is still on this treadmill?

[MovingThisYearHopefully]

I thought it was about time to start a new thread as this one is close to 1000 messages.

Who is still here & what is your story?

Heres me: I have been trying to move since April last year. Had a buyer, buyers lost their buyer in October & still haven't got a new one. We remarketed at a low price in November in order to continue buying the house we were at point of exchange with, but were unable to get enough to move on & lost the house in February.

Prices are definitely falling here in Surrey. Realistically we're looking to get 10% less than our original asking price, if we're lucky. Getting viewers has never been an issue, regardless of price. This process has been stressful beyond belief & almost split me & DH up. Surely our luck must change soon?

One thing that seems to be helping us get more interest than other properties is that we have now agreed to go chain free. Is this a possibility for any of you struggling? If offered significantly less than asking price then as far as I see it you are within your rights to say chain free was based on near to asking price & not affordable at a significant amount under! Worth considering perhaps?

If you've signed to give them sole agency or sole selling rights then another agent finding a buyer within their contract period leaves you liable to pay both agents commission if the original agent finds out.

Hi Raa. I'm dread to think how long it may take. You read so many horror stories. We were hoping our EA, (who also does lettings) could help us out but he said "short-term lets are not really a thing anymore". When I said that we couldn't afford 6 months rent due to our buyers giving 20k less than asking, he said we needed to honour it still. Which we want to do, & if things go smoothly with the new build its fine to do short-term like Air B&B or v expensive short-term lets, but when accommodation is amounting to around 2.7k per month it is not something we can do indefinitely! Having said that, our buyers are not seeming to be too speedy, plus they have their own buyers to contend with too, so I don't see us being at exchange for a couple of months. I'd imagine their buyer is in rented & would want to give a months notice, so if the new build is running to time it may not need to be too long, or possibly even tie in. Unfortunately we are in Surrey, where it is super expensive.

I think your best bet is to start afresh with a new EA tbh Waiting. I hate it when EA tell you to price low to apparently get lots of interest & potential buyers bidding each other up. In this stagnant market it simply isn't going to happen!

Great news Flamingo. I hope Beautician can also find a lender prepared to lend to her.

Anyone having any luck? Any viewings this weekend? Still not heard from our buyers broker/lender/surveyor to arrange a valuation. I know we don't want them to rush, but I do worry when its delayed. Last time that happened it was with our ex buyers buyer & turned out they couldn't get a mortgage...

Our bank took over a week to send out the surveyor for our new build @MovingThisYearHopefully so fingers crossed it's just normal delays.

I've just had two viewers who seemed to love it, first one has their property to sell so can't offer but said they would want to and the second said they're away to make a cheeky offer but can 100% go the asking price so pleased, hopefully it'll be accepted and I can stop having to keep everything show ready. Really lovely couple too, they'll fit in so well on the street.

My solicitor has been frantically emailing saying that as TW haven't sent missives they can't market the property and to hold my ground and tell them to pause the marketing until they send them to him, pretty sure we've signed a contract somewhere but can't seem to locate it! Dh says we did sign something and to stop stressing so I'm away to call the sales office to try to get a copy. So bloody complicated!

So second agent came round room photos etc. We had a frank conversation about what happens in next two weeks if current agents find a buyer and then they find a buyer. Answer nothing you have to go with your original agent as legally and morally that’s the right thing to do. And I triple checked they won’t try and charge me fees. They won’t only pay if they sell it. And they aren’t going to start marketing it until my two weeks with agent 1 is up. So that’s ok. Have reduced price with them and also agent 1 so they have a level playing field agent 1 reckons now he can sell it in 10 days..I hope so, his fees are cheaper ! Fingers crossed for a shed load of viewings over the weekend.

No viewings booked this weekend. We've managed to find a mortgage. Not that's it's any good as we can't sell. We lowered the price to offers over £264,000. That's the lowest we can go and the beautiful 5 bed house (the only one we wanted has now sold). I give up. I think we will leave our contract to run now and get used to the fact we are staying put 😢

I am sitting and waiting for someone to phone back from my EA. Been about 2 hours. My house went online just over 2 weeks ago, I found out when I had a Right Move notification. There was a viewer this week who isn't interested, but I only know this because I phoned to ask what was going on. I have lost my job, completely out of the blue, today as my bosses have decided to scale down and do everything themselves with no warning. OK, it was a dire wage but I needed that income. My house is empty but I am still paying a small mortgage on it. I'll reduce the price if I ever get to speak to an agent, but realistically I'm facing having to rent it out (very inconvenient as I can't drive so can't deal with issues) or go to auction. Or face being repossessed. I'm in a very rural area with severely limited public transport where we live now so I'm job hunting but there just isn't much option when you can't drive (medical, had an episode this week so at least another 6 months). And the cat decided to bring in a nearly but not quite dead bird.
It is not being a good day at the moment.
Sorry - just needed to vent. No idea how I am going to break this to DH
Oh - and the house is priced appropriately compared to similar properties.

Well price reduction with agent 1 has prompted a viewing for Monday. And agent 2 has 1for Tomorrow and 1 for Monday! Wtf!

Auntpetunia I thought agent 2 were waiting before they started marketing your house? Yay for the viewings that's great news

Apparently this is them waiting. They aren’t going to put it on rightmove but they’ve called a few of their clients who are proceedable! So now I’ve got 2 tomorrow and 1 Monday with agent 2 and 1 on Monday with agent 1. I’m gonna have to keep my whits about me when I’m booking appointments! Agent 2 knows if I get an offer via 1 I have to take it unless his people have offered more then I’ll hold out for the two weeks...god this is stressful. I think I preferred No viewings ! (Not really I want this sold !)
Good luck everyone.

Its not the new build survey were waiting on madhatter, its the survey on ours. They're usually pretty swift on old builds from my experience. Oh well, I expect it will be next week, then I can go back to moaning about having to move into rented again lol. That sounds very positive about your viewers. I will keep everything crossed that one of them wants it. Always some issue or another with paperwork. Our developer has spelt my name wrong. I also need to make sure they're using my correct title ffs.

All sounds very positive AuntPetunia. Do be careful about crossing agencies though. If any of the new agents viewers are keen to offer make sure nothing official happens until after your first contract expires. It can get really messy when you switch agents. I had someone come over with agent 2 who had viewed previously with agent 1. I was glad when she didn't buy it tbh.

Glad you managed to find a new lender Beautician. Sorry about losing the house you liked though. It may be worth doing a leaflet drop on similar houses in the area if you have any luck with yours. You might find someone is considering selling & jumps at the chance to do a private sale.

So sorry about your job BayTrees. Were you taking that income into account in a mortgage for an ongoing purchase or were you moving into rented?

Oh moving don’t. I feel sick now with worry I was under the impression nothing would happen while I wait for agent 1 to finish. But when I clarified he said we won’t actively market it we will just call a few of our mortgage people. I think they do like someone earlier in the thread had and help people who have bad credit or difficulty getting mortgages ! I’m gonna just hold fore if one of agent 2s offer then I just have to say I need to wait until 21st and then hope someone from agent 1s offer as similar or more so I can accept happily ! Arghhh what have I done??

We've sold in 24 hours from the house going live the agent called yesterday and said they were holding out for Home report valuation but they'd had a lower offer then the couple upped their offer and it's been accepted.

As we're meant to be doing a part ex with TW I can see why they held out for the same as they offered us, they'll now bow out and make us agree the sale directly with the buyers which puts us in a bloody horrible position as they want to complete in line with their buyers in October yet we'll have to wait until November when our house is built, the entire reason we wanted a part ex was to avoid having to negotiate anything, we'll get a notice two weeks before TW want to complete and then if their quality person doesn't pass the house they can delay it, we can't move into rented or stay with relatives so I'm not sure where leaves us. Really don't want to be messing the buyers around, they're so lovely and want it to go as smoothly as possible. Argh. Fucking house moves.

Plus I've not heard anything further from my solicitor who was frantically telling me to take it off the market until TW send missives to him. Maybe if he'd answered my emails earlier in the week rather than twenty minutes before the viewer who offered I would have. What a mess I literally have no clue what's going on!

madhatter I’m confused I thought part ex meant the developer bought your house and you didn’t haven’t to get involved with viewers or buyers and just then waited for your new home to be ready?

It's so confusing, that was exactly my thoughts. So TW came out with a surveyor a few weeks ago and an estate agents to value, went through f&f and told me that day what they'd offer us and we agreed. We signed the fixtures and fittings list and the reservation contract which states this offer and our agreed price for the new build.

We went to see solicitor who said next step missives, at this point we got our full mortgage offer through and TW said we had to market property asap and the missives would come later, we questioned this and argued (with unanswered emails to solicitor) but agreed to let them market as what they said about getting it up etc made sense. So it went live Thursday, viewers Friday and an offer of the same amount TW gave us has been agreed by TW.

Twenty minutes before yesterday's viewing my solicitor saw the emails and had a wee fit saying TW cannot market as they've not sent missives or signed any contracts etc, but he hasn't seen the reservation contract which only states the amount they offered us, not terms for that just terms for us buying their property. Dh says that's a contract so to go ahead and this is where we are now. I sent a copy to solicitor and he's not got back so I'll wait til Monday and go in but TW called today to check with me it's sold as they had viewers lined up for Sunday, apparently their legal team will be in touch with our solicitor but for us not to worry as they'll be sorting everything re sale and completion dates and we won't be moving til the house is ready.

I'm just going to trust they've done this before as I can't take the stress of thinking we've messed up.

In the space of 48 hours we've gone from having no offers on the house to two. The first one was a stupidly cheeky offer which we batted away and the second one was from a couple who were buying a cheaper house down the street that feel through due to a bad survey and they've made it at the level we wanted (and had agreed with our last buyer before she inconveniently lost her buyer) from a buyer who is exchanging on their place today and keen to complete in October (so we can move forwards with our onward purchase) so all looks good. Am keeping everything crossed that their survey on Thursday is ok (last buyer's was ok with only a few items we had to negotiate on but am aware surveyors have different approaches) so we can finally get things motoring.

Congrats on getting a buyer so quickly themadhatterswench. You'd like to hope that TW know what they're doing. Get onto TW & I'm sure they can reassure you. Sounds like its your solicitor who is a bit crap tbh. Have they got experience of doing conveyancing with new builds & PX? Seems to me like they don't. You may be better off talking to other solicitors/conveyancers with new build experience, but not TW own solicitors. They wouldn't be working in your interests. We are with Crest & they suggested their solicitors, but were not pushy about it. They seem really on the ball & are telling us more than our own EA.

This is where we are at. Had a request for contact details to give to the surveyors/valuers on Thursday but heard nothing yet. Hubby & I went to the building site on Saturday for another spy. House has windows in now. The ladies in the office said our buyers have requested their searches & paid for their valuation. Just surprised I haven't had a call yet to book an appointment. I have heard that some lenders do a desktop valuation, where they don't even visit the property. Perhaps they're doing that? I'd be surprised, but not bothered. Just surprised that this is a thing even! Maybe they're doing that & having a proper survey done later perhaps?

Anyone else have any news?

Sorry crossed posts. Oh wow dinkystinky, thats amazing news. Just what you needed to happen. Seems like everyone is pulling out all the stops to get things done quickly. Everything crossed for Thursday.

No news from us. We were considering reducing (again) today but the house across the road from us - same style - has just gone up for sale So I’m holding off until their listing goes live to see what price and layout they have. Kinda hoping any viewers they have may spot our for sale sign too?

hi everyone dinky hope all goes well, and jgm I hope you get some more interest soon!!

we came back off holiday to a sold sign which was weird! with all the will we wont we with the mortgage it still doesn't feel real.

anyway, mortgage application submitted, does anyone know roughly how long it takes them to value the house and decide?

our buyers have booked in their valuation for weds, but no idea what time so need to chase that up as I wont be there!

hoping after mortgage (hopefully!) sorted that it will be quick and easy as the people buying ours are in rented, and the one we are buying is empty.

Had 5 viewings in the last week, but no real interest. Was hoping the couple from this weekend were interested as they spent a lot of time here but no such luck. Starting to feel like maybe I need to let the house (we almost bought and is still SSTC to us) go 🙁

Well reduced on Friday and both agents are working flat out. Agent 2 has 4 sets of viewers through on Saturday one offer for 10k below but as I’ve just reduced by 15 I’ve said no. Agent 1 has more viewers in last few days than last 5 weeks so am hopeful. Moving date is 3 weeks time so would like to know it’s sold by then.

Would you recommend taking on a second agent? Does it create some competition?

well our mortgage application is submitted, now have to pay £499 fee. boo. more money!

hope it all works out!!