Argh am I ever going to sell my house??

[Penalty]

My home is beautiful. I absolutely love it. Have lived here for 14.5 years and it’s my pride and joy. Over lockdown however we came to realise that our circumstances have changed so much that we could think about a move. So we had an offer accepted on our dream home back in early September. EA said he would sell my house in 4 weeks no problem, and on to the market we went. We had 7 viewings in the first 3 weeks, and then NOTHING whatsoever in the past 5!! One note of interest (Scottish thing) but no offers. We’ve dropped the price, paid for a video tour and swanky advert but still sweet nada.

The drop off coincided with the pubs etc closing in Scotland, and actually the first new restrictions came in the week we came on the market which was not ideal, but other properties in our town have sold in that time. Everyone says our house looks stunning on Rightmove so I don’t think it’s that. Our agent is the market leader in our town. Am realistic that house won’t be for everyone be as it’s on a main road, beside a bus stop, and there are ex local authority houses on either side, and it’s a period property so doesn’t have the handy ‘executive box’ style let out that people like, but it really is gorgeous, catchment area for great schools and is, priced to reflect all of this, by people who know what they are doing (EA and surveyor). Our EA can’t understand why we’re not getting interest, except that the market nosedived in October (though houses in our town are still selling).

Am probably (ok definitely) being overly dramatic now, but do some houses just not ever sell??? Am I ever going to sell my house?? If anyone has been in a similar position and has a success story I would love to hear it!!

disclaimer: I do appreciate that all of this is weapons grade first world problem material and I need to get a grip of myself, but am getting a bit wound up!

If you had it valued in Sept and then the market nosedived in Oct, is it possible that your property is now overpriced?

The things you list that might be off-putting are complete deal breakers for lots of people, so the price needs to reflect that. Your buyer needs to feel they are getting lots of house for the money to overcome the main road, bus stop etc.

If other houses are selling in the area, but you haven't had a viewing in 5 weeks then i'm sorry but I think you need to lower the price even more. Especially if you don't want to miss out on your dream house.

Can you post a link?

Thanks, I take all of that on board. I’m not convinced it is the price at the moment though. We had viewings right up until we started tweaking the price. We went fixed price (effectively a small drop) and then offers dried up. It’s now on at 5 percent under the survey valuation. EA says he could sell it for £200k more than he valued it at if it was on a different street in my town. I think that’s an exaggeration, but maybe not by too much. 2 other similar houses also in ‘difficult’ streets sold for price I have asked in past 2 years and mine is much higher spec.

That's a long list of deal breakers for me so no matter how lovely the property I would not view it. Sorry.

It would be a lot of deal breakers for me as well. By the way one mum in our primary was selling a period house near the main road, bus stop outside. It took her nearly 4 years. She wanted a certain amount and she achieved it finally but only after 4 years so 2 months is too early for conclusions, especially with Covid around.There are lots of worries and uncertainty about the future, it’s more difficult to get a mortgage so I imagine people are moving only if it’s absolutely necessary

Thanks, I do appreciate that the market is definitely smaller. In our town the vast majority of period properties are on the main roads, and they either go really quickly or stick for much longer than houses on the new build estates which I think reflects fact that luck has to be on your side as the market is smaller, so just depends when you need to sell. It’s likely to appeal to someone coming out of the city centre just as we were when we moved here.

Don’t fancy waiting 4 years though! I don’t have a particular price I need to achieve which i suppose is helpful.

I'm confused as to how in one paragraph you can say you love your house, it is you pride and joy then say you are wanting to sell it for your dream home.

A house is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. I think you love your house too much to drop the price so why not take it off the market for a bit and wait for the dust to settle.

Frenchfancy you are spot on. Our house is only on the market now because we unexpectedly had an offer accepted on the other place, and they were prepared to let us sell first. When I convinced my husband we had another move in us we decided to move next year, not this. We do have mixed feelings about it. The house we are trying to buy, is next level amazing, which is the only reason we are doing it.

I have taken the agent’s advice on the price every step of the way though - and they are selling just about every link of the upwards chain (seller is down sizing) so it is in their interests to sell it for us, so you’d think they’d recommend it was priced to sell. If it falls through, then I think going on again next year with a v stringent price review will be the plan.

...it would just be nice to be confident that it will sell, at some point...

It will. Eventually. I understand even in a hot market houses take an average of 30 days to get an offer.
My house went on early October. It's a big house for the neighbourhood (most have been divided into flats or are smaller semis). So already it will have smaller amount of potential buyers. It is on a relatively busy road. That's the only compromise - but it is one many do not want to make. Its priced right- on a quieter street it would be significantly higher. Current lockdown isn't helping, and then Christmas. But I'll wait.
Either take it off til after Christmas or wait it out.

Thanks Pipandmum. I hope you sell quickly. Are you getting viewers? Our agent says at our price level average selling time is 3 months! Property moves quickly in our town though and 6 houses at our price point or higher have come and gone since we went on Rightmove, so it’s hard not to lose faith.

It only takes that 1 buyers. I feel your frustration tho, it feels like forever when waiting.

Keep sharing, ask friends to share, do you have a local mums group to share it on facebook etc? and I'll keep everything crossed for you xxx

From your description it sounds quite compromised. I'm not surprised it's proving a little tricky to sell. Good luck with it! It'll happen sooner or later

Unfortunately in a difficult market it's very difficult to sell properties with drawbacks
Anything will sell at right price
I would move to fixed price

If you put a link up you are increasing your potential market by a huge amount.

It is price. If a house cost £100, however horrible it was someone would buy it, similarly at £1000. You just have to get up to the price that someone will buy it at.

Still waiting for links 😃

So its on at fixed price now? I would change thar. I am househunting and that always puts me off. It usually indicates that there are issues making it tough to sell.

You will have to drop the price. It will reach a new audience who had been looking below your price, and wouldn't have seen it with their search filters.

Our London flat (no garden) was on for ages (since May) with no offer. I posted here and was told it was definitely the price. I knew it wasn't- it was the market. Wasn't in a rush to move so didn't lower. Anyway last week we had two offers, both above asking price.

Not convinced nothing will go wrong but we did get the offers. If you're desperate to move lower the price but it might not do much good.

That’s the thing. We did go to fixed price last month, and immediately the viewings dried up, so it does seem to put people off.

The only thing reason we went fixed price was to sell quickly to make the chain, I do wonder if it back fired.

If you really want to move, the only option you have open to you is to adjust the price.

If you drop your price enough to get a few people interested and offering, they may bid the price up

Try not to get too despondent OP, you haven’t had that many viewers, and you only need one buyer.

The market always decides the price.

We have recently sold our house SSTC we were about to take it off the market as we reduced the price and still didn’t get many viewing, then we got a buyer. So don’t give up hope.

Keeping my fingers crossed for you OP.

Without jumping to conclusions, what pride and joy is to you could be a nightmare ton of work to someone else. People wont be able to tell without seeing the link.