Anyone else struggling to sell?

[jeremypaxo]

We've had our 2-bed terraced house in London on the market for 8 weeks now. We're nearly 20 viewings down and still haven't sold. We had one early offer but the buyer dropped out.

Starting to wonder if we'll manage to sell at all before 31 March next year when the stamp duty holiday ends.

Presumably it's just a combination of too much supply (people like us trying to move out of london) and not enough demand (our house would only really appeal to FTBers and I guess people's financial situations may be precarious..?)

It's getting me down a bit, especially when I read so much press coverage of house sales being at an all-time high!

We were hoping to start trying for another baby at Christmas but I'm beginning to wonder if that's practical

Anyone else in the same boat?

Not in the same boat. But I know a ftb struggling to buy. Houses in their price range are in short supply. Not London.If your house has even a very small garden and is competitively priced it should sell. Have you asked the estate agent for feedback.

Not in London but our 2 bed terrace sold within a couple of days.. could it be the price?

Yes we too are struggling to sell. We have a big house with a small garden which is probably why.

Some things are selling in days and some are sticking. Outside space has become a huge priority.

If you are feeling brave post a link. I did and got some great advice (mixed in with some fairly rude comments).

In our area (which is on tube) some houses sell within 2 weeks, others are sticking, quite a few taking 3 months or so to sell and a few on the market considerably longer.

Flats are faring noticeably worse. 2 beds are selling especially with a big garden but sometimes takes 2 / 3 months and a price reduction esp. if small garden. If you look on Rightmove and tick include sold you get a good idea of what's selling and how fast. I think home.co.uk also has area stats with time to sell. FTB are struggling with mortgages but a move away from flats so its balanced out by us, ask EA about your area.

If you had an offer you are probably close but may need to reduce price a bit. Ours has been on a month, 10 viewers, no offers so we are reducing price as well as getting better photos.

I think it may be where your house is perhaps? Friend of mine sold her small 2/3 bed house with garden in Walthamstow within 2 weeks of it going on the market with 6 offers! It was priced at offers over £575K so I'm guessing she got that at very least.

That’s a lot of viewings so there are people looking to buy in your area. What has the feedback been? Have you considered dropping the price?

Yes it may be a ftb issue unfortunately - that or price.

There are lots of houses going on round here at the moment (south east, semi rural) and we have several friends in the process of moving. The ones selling quickly are the houses priced sensibly and fairly. Lots are sitting on the market for aaaages, and are now gradually being reduce.

One of our friends has had some fun and games with their vendor who admitted they put their asking price up because ‘everything is getting a discount with the stamp duty holiday’.

Thanks for the replies. Really interesting to read. Yes, we have dropped the price about a week ago. I'm not quite brave enough to post a link

We were hampered by someone in the same estate putting theirs on the market with a stupidly low asking price recently (a landlord wanting a quick sale). We know it got to a bidding war and eventually went for near the asking price of ours, but it's still listed on rightmove under that initial low price which is making us look expensive. We are still the cheapest 2 bed house in our postcode though. There are about 12 others, and about 90 2-bed properties in total including flats, so lots of competition. A bit different to when we bought in 2014! Places were absolutely flying off the market then.

We have a newish kitchen and bathroom and a lovely garden at the back. Feedback has generally been positive from our viewings or of the unhelpful variety ("we need 3 bedrooms" )

We may have to drop the price again I guess, but I'm reluctant to do that for another couple of weeks.

@sunshinesupermum we're in a very similar area to Walthamstow, although south of the river!

We recently took 15 weeks to sell a 4 bed house in the south east. I don't think that the property boom is universal, properties around here are typically selling in about 6-8bweeks from my rightmove observations

We just sold our 2 bed semi (east of England) in 2 days. Houses here are all going within a week or so. I think it's because many people are moving out of London to the east/south east so demand is high.

Don't lose faith. I hope it sells soon for you

Where do you plan to move to?

Yes, we're trying to sell a three-bed maisonette in a really popular part of London but it doesn't have a garden... a year ago it wouldn't have been an issue. The area we want to move to is so popular we can't even see any houses until we have offers on our place!

We have two under two and although the space is okay for now, I struggled without a garden in the summer with a very boisterous toddler but now thinking we will be here for the long haul. Was such a stress with a newborn to declutter and get the house ready for a sale so feeling a bit gutted that all that exhaustion was for nothing as well

We just accepted an offer last week after three months on the market, I'd convinced myself it wasn't going to happen and then all of a sudden we got an offer. We're a 3 bed with a garden ten mins walk from station and 45 min train to London so was expecting to go sstc more quickly but agent said ftb market is very tricky with mortgages more difficult to get and that bottom end of the chain can hold everything up depending on what sort of property you're selling.

OP your house sounds a bit like one we sold 3 years ago - two bed terrace with garden in south London. It took us 8 months to sell, which at the time I was baffled by because it got such good feedback. However I think, looking back, the problem was that it was the same size as a 2 bed flat, but we had it on the market for more, and the target market (FTBs) just weren't prepared to pay that much. We ended up dropping the price by £20k and eventually sold to FTBs.

FTB are struggling to get mortgages. Currently i think there are only 3 mortgages on the market for 90% LTV. Most mortgage companies are wanting 80%

Keep it on the market and see what happens.

Houses in our village (SW England) are selling like hot cakes, most in under a week. I'm quite surprised at this sudden upturn.

Yep! West Yorkshire, we priced it lower than all the estimates, have had 3 offers, declined one outright (it was £20k less than asking) both the other offers couldn’t get mortgages even though they had MIP’s.
It’s hell. Definite struggle at the moment.

20k under asking is hardly a definition of "Hell" surely?

Depends what the asking price was. May I ask what your price was Samilouwho. if you'd rather not say that's fine!

Could they not get mortgages because of bank valuatoins being lower, Sammilou? If so, then the agent over valued it and the 20K less was not bad/realistic.

@CatAndHisKit

Could they not get mortgages because of bank valuatoins being lower, Sammilou? If so, then the agent over valued it and the 20K less was not bad/realistic.

Exactly, it is generally worth what the money lender says it is, unless someone wants to overpay with their own cash.

We've been on the market nearly 2 months now and have a new build 3 double bed townhouse. Ours is in a cul de sac where properties don't come on the market that often as people stay here, but the two that were listed on our road last year sold within 2 weeks for more than we're on for (we've dropped the price). We've had 9 viewings but no offers. I have to say (perhaps naively) we didn't think our property would hang around. I think part of it is that we're on the upper cusp of first time buyer budget so I suspect difficulties in getting mortgages and financial uncertainty with furlough haven't helped.

Hi, to those asking, we are on at £105,000 valuations of between £115,00 and £125,000. So yeah, 20k under is bad for us.

In answer to DeadHouse and Cat, we were told it was because of their deposit (the people the offered live over the road with parents, they told us so we have no reason to believe they are lying), the bank valuation was at £112,000, so lower than estate agents but we didnt think it was worth that because of the area.

I've been trying to sell a retirement property for nearly a year. I think this sector is really suffering at the moment. The price is very fair and it's a good sized flat.

I don't want to rent it out, I've been a landlord before and found it very stressful. Hopefully one day it will sell.