waaah, no one wants to buy my house

[hoxtonchick]

i know selling your house is meant to be one of the most stressful things to do, but whenever we've done it before it's been very straightforward....

we've only been on the market for 6 weeks, had a fair few viewers & 1 lot had a 2nd viewing, but no offers yet. i am the most impatient person in the world, but we need a quick sale as have found dream house & need to sell ours asap as other people have offers on it too.

we're with the pushiest agents, & have already dropped the price by £50k. dp & i were just discussing going multi agency and sacking the first lot if they don't sell it by the end of the week.

all advice/commiserations/gin welcome .

Am quite suspicious about Foxtons and their buyers. Suspect - but no real proof of this - that some of the people that "miraculously" turn up after weeks of silence may be friends and colleagues. Also, have you noticed how often Foxtons boards say "Sold" and then, suddenly, are back on the market? Spoke to someone who "sold" through them on my street just before Christmas - got a very low offer which they accepted after months of nothing - because they wanted to move and, psychologically, isn't it great to be get it wrapped up just before Christmas? Then, ever since beginning of January, the "buyer" has been dragging feet - didn't instruct solicitor or surveyor... so, whoever made this offer, hasn't spent any money but Foxtons has given this neighbour the idea they are doing something... Now, it's up for sale again.

glad to hear similar opinions about Foxtons!

They represent everything that is wrong with the Estate Agents industry; greediness, misleading information and total lack of morals.

FXXX FOXTONS!

We put our house on with Foxtons in Islington over the summer. They were useless. Over-valued it (we knew they had, quite massively actually, but we had a 'wait and see' attitude), didn't get many people through the door and never returned our calls (that was the most annoying thing, actually - they took 2-3 days to return our calls and I felt like I was haranguing them constantly). Swapped to a local agent and they had 15 viewings in 2 days weeks, 5 offers (3 over the asking price) and the house was sold within a fortnight. Mind you, the housing market has changed since then, but even when it was booming, Foxtons were still pants.

should say 15 viewings in 2 days (one weekend)

well i rang them. sign going down tomorrow, off the website immediately. they have a viewer booked in for sat, & the guy showing him round is dropping the keys off.

who did you go with motherfunker? i was quite impressed with currells.

Fantastic! It's funny how they always have a viewer for you when you ring them, isn't it?

Savilles on Stoke Newington Church Street. They're small, friendly, dealt with us fairly and honestly. I was impressed. They managed to get a lot of people through the door.

dp has been primping & preening (the house ) all weekend, & dd now has the palest pink bedroom a girl could wish for. she is delighted! i will take a pic when i've been to ikea for storage solutions & post it here.

we are back on the market. hope you all like these pictures better . i plagued the photographer....

ooh hoxy - you've made your bed

cheeky

Your house looks lovely, hc! But no picture of the shed...?

but seriously, those pictures are nice.

good luck with the sale

hello maomao - wow, where have you been?! are you still in london? would love to see you.

these agents are pickier about pictures than foxtons....

hullo, hc! I am a very infrequent MNer, but am still in London. Seems like you are headed elsewhere? If so, that sounds v. exciting for all of you!

Hox, what did you have it on for back in Oct?

I have a friend who put her house on market for 365k back in Sept. She has jsut had an ofer and accepted for 325k. The annoying hting for her is the vendors of the place she wants ot buy will not budge. SHe too had plenty of lookers. I don't understand why there are so many people out there looking.

I have two other friends who have been unable to sell and both have opted to rent out their current homes. I am thinking of moving this year but I suspect I will be here for a while yet.

I didn't realise Hackney has gone up so much. I used to work in Angel.

House looks very smart.

it was on at 800 in the autumn drosoph, but we quite quickly dropped it to 750. foxtons notoriously overprice things though.... a number of things sold round here in the past few weeks around the same price as ours. whilst ours was off the market . i think it really is sensibly priced now. our road is slightly less desirable than others in parallel roads, but is bigger.

hackney is really quite smart now. well, bits of it.... hope your friend sorts things out.

maomao, i have e-mailed you .

Hox or anyone - a question:

We are thinking of selling later this year. I suspect looking around and the experience of my friends that Estate agents vary wildly in their valuing.

Is it therefore better, in this market, to look first find the place you want negotiate hard (thinking htey will take the offer as the market is so crap) and then price your own place to sell quickly hopefully having found the perfect house at a price much lower than they wanted.

Not sure if I am making any sense!

I don't think people take offers seriously unless you are yourself under offer. That's been our experience anyway. We were gobsmacked at how long it took us to get a proceedable offer on our house - from June to January in an area that traditionally sells within a couple of weeks - so if we were chasing something we'd already seen it would have been terribly stressful.

hoxton you should sell it now as it looks lovely and the price now seems a bargain for london!

oh i do hope so noddy. and you are my property guru .

dros, we had a tough time in the autumn when we found somewhere we really wanted & they wouldn't accept our offer until we were proceedable. couldn't sell this place fast enough so lost dream house. so this time we're not even looking at anywhere else until we're under offer. learnt the hard way... where are you thinking of moving to?

we have a viewing tomorrow, & another hovering in the background apparently. fingers Xd.

Not sure. My friend is moving to Hayes, Kent where there are grammar schools and a goodish comp. Sounds tempting. DP wants to stay pretty close to London and I guess I kinda do too. we currently live in Streatham and getting a bit fed up of the crime or my middle-aged perception of the crime.

A friend of mine told me today that despite earning over 50k he can't get a mortgage as they want 25% deposit and as he would be looking for somethign in the region of 250k that is a lot of bucks. He only tried one lender but still he is a low risk (civil servant) and has a good credit rating.

I suspect we will stay here and wait till the market works itself out of this situation.

secondary schooling in london is scary isn't it. and our oldest is only 6....

We are on the market in London too. We have been on for 4 weeks and no offers yet but viewings have really picked up this week. We have offered on another place at 15% below their (very reasonable) asking price. They have said they will accept our offer if we get an offer on ours in the next 10 days... Heres hoping.

There is a house on a very nice street near us that is being sold through Foxtons. While similar houses on that street are on the market for around £1.5m, Foxtons are selling this one for £2.5m . It is no nicer, or bigger than the others. Foxtons are mad.

Sorry that was a bit of a ramble. Am obsessed with discussing London property at the moment!

give us a link to yours artichokes . really hope it sells quickly enough for you.