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?

Well the guy who was coming tomorrow is not coming now. bloody people!!

Going to try stop stressing about it now and if it happens it happens if it doesn't it doesn't (and if we're still here next summer well have a proper garden - sod the parking!)

I think we're going to take the same approach flamingo now the house I like has sold - leave it on the market, don't stress, what will be will be, if we get any offers we will see what is out there to buy at the time and perhaps even leaflet the areas we like. Every month we stay put is another month's mortgage paid off = more equity. Will probably take it off the market when our tie in is over with this agent and go back on next year with a different one, might as well go for a cheaper one!

We are also trying to sell (Hertfordshire/NW London borders). We agreed a price with our next door neighbour (who are renting) back in January. We then looked and found the perfect house in March, only for next door to tell us they couldn’t get the finance. We’ve been on the open market since then - initial flurry of viewings...and then nada. We have dropped the price a little bit but other 4 bed semi houses in our area are dropping more but still not selling. We have the upside of being in significantly the best condition (recently extended and remodelled, everything new) but we are on what is known to be quite a busy road locally.

We don’t know what to do next! We don’t know whether to drop the price again, wait until September, or we were wondering about offering an increased incentive to the estate agent to get them picking up them working harder for us (something like they get £1k extra for every £10k we get over a certain amount). It feels like we will never sell...I’ve even got in touch with Nested this morning...

I agree that the somewhat stagnant market hasn’t become apparent to some vendors - in the 4-5 bed bracket, in our small SW city there are multiple houses that have been listed since last autumn, and in one case since last June. (That one is particularly bonkers though, was bought in 2014 for £230k, listed at £325k - because the vendors had spent £30k on a new roof but done absolutely nothing else - and they just reduced to OIEO £310k. I’d say it was worth no more than £270k as it needs a lot of major work like double glazing etc but as the house next door sold for £320k last year they aren’t budging.)

We do have a lot of new builds locally that are still selling thanks to HTB equity loans but 5-7 year old houses on the same estates are selling for £50k + less. Guess it doesn’t matter if people are overpaying as long as they’re planning to stay a good long while.

Ugh bored of the whole situation here. In a nutshell, sold for full asking, £224,950, offered on one at £283,000, all accepted, got about 90% of the way there, all fell through as we lost our buyer (reasonably legitimately I think, offered a contract abroad but in an industry where that could well happen)
Went back on the market on Wednesday at £219,950 as was concerned house was overpriced. Only one viewing, but one offer in 4 weeks last time. 4 viewings since Wednesday, 4 offers so still 100% success rate. 1 x £200,000 🙄 2 x £210,000 and 1 x 215,000 but they are not really in a good position to proceed.
Have since viewed another house, the one we were buying wouldn't wait (and secretly I was never that keen on it anyway although DH loved it) absolute LOVE new house, but on through purple bricks who appear to be beyond shit. Tried to make an appt for 2nd viewing (first was an open evening) to be told that the vendor isn't taking any more viewings for 2 weeks. It has had extensive work done on it and wasn't quite finished. It was quite cheap for a lovely road. I've a feeling it might be relisted at a higher price which will be too expensive. Ugh.

4 offers tokyo nothing to complain about haha.

Wish we'd had 1 we could take :/

Well yes, but all rubbish ones!

True but better than none! Are any of them willing to negotiate?

I have to say this thread has reassured me we are doing the right thing in selling my late dad's house for less than he bought it for 4 years ago. West London.

3 EAs advised and gave similar prices so went with their advice. Totally overpriced and dropped it a while later. Accepted offer of less than £100k off asking!! But we need to pay the IHT so it can't really hang about.

Market has really slowed in nicer parts of London.

Hope Ddad won't be looking down at us cursing us for being too hasty.

Guess it doesn’t matter if people are overpaying as long as they’re planning to stay a good long while.

I frequently see this comment on sellers' threads.

Why would anyone knowingly overpay for anything? Least of all a house where overpaying will cost you thousands in extra mortgage interest especially if you're planning to stay for a good long while.

@RubyTrees took the words right out of my mouth !

I’ve really no idea @RubyTrees but evidently, people are. Otherwise new builds wouldn’t sell. Maybe someone who has bought one will chime in an enlighten us.

*and

The new builds near us are flying off the shelves when nothing much else around is selling, despite being way overpriced with tiny rooms. I presume it's the incentives like part ex and help to buy (I must admit I'd be tempted by part ex if I was in any way interested in a new build, taking the hit on the reduced price for less selling stress)!

A friend of mine has a new build. She's lived there for 9 months and the area around her is still pretty much a building site. She told me the other day it's been valued at over what she paid for it and I thought what she paid was overpriced!!!

Can I join in? I'm emigrating on Friday. We put our house on the market in early January and it still hasn't sold. We've reduced by 45k and changed agents from online (pretty good) to British Home Sellers (shite) back to our original online agent and now with a local agent as I won't be around for viewings any more.

We last had an offer in May before changing to BHS but they offered about 30k too low and hadn't sold theirs anyway. That family have just been back for a second viewing and are talking to their bank about arranging a buy to let mortgage on their rented out property to enable them to proceed. I'm not sure that they'll be able to afford it even then.

We are in west London and the house is a new build we have owned since new (2012) in a gated development with beautiful communal gardens.

We need to sell by Easter to release the equity for a purchase abroad. We never thought that 8 months on the market and we would be leaving it empty with no buyer on the horizon.

@RubyTrees I totally agree with you too! We looked at a house on for 600k - thought that was totally overpriced plus we didn’t get that ‘feeling’. Been on since May and has two reductions down to 560k now. So not only is that 40k off your mortgage but over it’s lifetime that’s £££s saved in interest payments! So it really doesn’t make sense to over pay.

@Hagfish I think your situation highlights the fact that EAs can offer a price but something literally is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it or what someone can afford to borrow! And FTBs can no longer afford to borrow what they need to enter the market, which then affects the whole way up the market.

@jgm I think you’re right there; the possibility of part exchanging is a big draw (we considered it) and even if someone doesn’t need that, I’m sure a lot of people don’t really think about how to repay the 20% equity loan when using HTB, and a 5% deposit must be an attractive proposition to buy a house and get away from renting.
Here, 4 bed new builds are easily selling for c. £360-£380k whilst their 5-7 year old counterparts are still on the market months after being listed, having been marketed for £325k and now reduced to £315k. So weird.

It is weird - I’d much prefer to buy a house I can ‘see’, I really struggle to work out the aspect / garden size / room sizes / how overlooked a house will be by looking at a plot but that might just be me. I do understand the draw of having something new and being able to choose own kitchen etc though.

But I don't like the feel of most new builds.

I’m sure a lot of people don’t really think about how to repay the 20% equity loan when using HTB

@theluggageslegs, yes, just like people who took on interest-only mortgages who were quite happy to have reduced monthly payments but probably gave little thought to how they would be repaying the capital. The press is full of stories of people who claim to not have known what interest-only meant, and are now shocked to find out that they will be forced to sell their houses to pay back the loan.

I'm sure it's just a matter of time before there will be similar stories about those who've used Help to Buy who didn't read the fine print.

In terms of knowingly overpaying, it comes down to something being worth what someone is willing to pay for it - that works both up and down, if you like. So if you want to be in a school catchment, dramatically reduce your commute to work, buy something before your own buyer forces you into rented, thus causing you to pay an erc, if you're relocating etc, you may be willing to pay more than others would. Particularly if you feel you're likely to be there long term. I wouldn't be keen on doing it but I can see why some people might make the choice.

We went on Rightmove on Friday, had had 2 viewings before we went live. One of those loved it but aren't proceedable, the other is coming back for a second viewing tomorrow. We also have another viewing tomorrow although I doubt it will be the house for them from what the agent has told us about them.

Over the road are sale agreed, they bought for 485 about 15 months ago, had an asking price offer of 550 but we know that has been reduced on survey, we just don't know by how much. We're hoping to cash in on the buyers who missed out on theirs but they are quite different houses so I'm not getting my hopes up too much.

We are looking at new builds but we would use the help to buy. We planned to add the balance to our mortgage after five years and will overpay within the five years to reduce it.

We've only seen one old build that we keep talking about. There's something about it but I'm not sure if it will work for us. Needs a lot of cosmetic work but we could make it bigger by converting half the double garage.

I don't really get help to buy. We got a 5% mortgage without it? Our payments were quite big for the first 2 years but then dropped right down

I think Help to buy is great if it enables people to buy what/where they need when they would otherwise be unable to. I wouldn't suggest anyone do it if they can afford to move without it though. We are looking at a new build, but won't be using HTB. We have lots of equity in our property so we don't need to, but our mortgage will be ridiculously high. Part exchange is a load of bollocks really. All they do is put your house on the market at a price where they think it will sell quickly, if it doesn't sell you still stand to lose the house you put a deposit on. Better off pricing to sell & negotiating other incentives on the new build. The house we saw yesterday was no good so the new build is pretty much our only option now, unless we wait in rented for the market to refresh in spring. Should hopefully get an offer on ours tomorrow from the housing association couple. Fingers crossed for me please?