Advice on House Selling Situation

[user1477259453]

This is quite complicated but would love some advice!! Basically, our house has been on the market since mid October. Got very little interest until.aftwr the election and since then has had a number of viewings, including one second viewing and an offer. We would have happily accepted this offer, but the lady hasn't actually sold her house now. So we left ours on the market, while 'looking favourably on her offer". Today I viewed a house which has been on the market for five months, and I really think it's perfect for us. It hasn't had any offers in that time. I explained our situation to the estate agent and followed with "well I don't suppose she'd entertain offers from people in our situation", and he said well actually I think she'd definitely consider it to be honest. She has just got divorced, she wants the house gone but is just moving into rented so has no particular time frame... So now I'm considering actually putting in an offer (2% below asking). If it does get accepted I might ask her if she'll accept a holding deposit to take it off the market for three months to give our chain a chance. Do you think this is a good idea? And also I'm wondering if she does accept, whether we should offer this as an option to the lady who offered on ours? To be honest we have a toddler and I'm newly pregnant so we could do with a few months worth of break from time-wasting house viewers! If it doesn't work out we're not much worse off, and can just put it back on in January. What do you think??

I meant put it back on in April, but it won't let me change it 🙄.

We are in a similar position, ours launched on Boxing Day and the open day was today (13 viewers here, keep your fingers crossed we get an offer next week from someone proceedable!) but we found The One back in November. Unfortunately the vendor won’t accept an offer contingent on ours selling in X amount of weeks.

I wouldn’t offer a holding deposit straight up. I’d ask if she’d accept and give you 6 weeks (or whatever) to sell. She may provisionally accept but not take it off the market which is fair enough if annoying.

Regarding your buyer, I think that depends on their situation. Has the house been on long, has she had many viewers, ask your agent to assess whether it’s fairly priced and speak to her agent about it too to gauge interest.

Does the lady who made you an offer still want to buy your house, as you didn't actually except it, you just said you'd keep it in mind.

Yes she does as this only happened late December, she had a second viewing after that and put hers on the market a few counties away only last week. I was in two minds to accept but the EA advised not to. I wondering if our seller agrees whether we should give the buyer the se chance.

Don't spend any money on a holding deposit. That is money you should keep for moving costs. If your house is going to sell it will sell. If it isn't - and there is a lower chain - you have absolutely no control over that so can easily lose your money through no fault of your own. Keep yours on the market until you have a buyer in a position to proceed. If the lady that saw it really wants it she will do everything she can to sell hers.

Hello user1477259453 and AGreatUsername
May I ask which areas of the country you're both based? I'm thinking of selling in the south east (home counties) and think the market's picking up?

@Didyousaysomethingdarling I'm in West Sussex selling a two bedroom house. We are also selling a one bedroom flat as a family, in London. We are being told that the market has really picked up, but in my experience of both it is still massively a buyer's market. Because we're being told the market is picking up, people are trying to sell and buyers have got their pick but are still being extremely cautious and spending ages deciding. In London the flat has had almost no interest which is absolutely ridiculous. Here we have had eight viewings and one offer in nearly three months. The month around the election was a complete write-off, but otherwise it's been similar after Christmas as it was when we first put it on. Also, I like to look at all the houses posted in the last 14 days and check how many are now SSTC, which I think is a fair indication of the market (when I did this a couple of years ago you would have significant numbers that went under offer that quickly where I live). The speed of sales is still very slow in my opinion.

Thank you user1477259453. Where I live, desirable town, M4 corridor anything priced to sell, sells within one to two weeks. Family homes under £1 million, if completely done up, sell within a month as long as the sellers are not greedy but anything which needs work and not very keenly priced is not selling. I think it's still a 'stand off' between buyers and sellers. It may improve gradually if inflation and wages increase but house prices stay the same. Time will tell.

@Didyousaysomethingdarling We are in Cardiff. Our area is very popular, it’s not a very nice one therefore it’s very cheap. Houses on the estate go within a week or 2 usually. Ours is slightly different as it’s much bigger and nicer than anything else round here, you can’t find anything as nice for this money in the whole city. So we’ve had a lot of interest (18 viewings booked total) but whether it sells Is another question. Hoping to find out the results of our launch day this week, and have 2 second viewings booked in tomorrow.

Thank you and best of luck AGreatUsername. Keep us updated if you can!