Worried about multiple listings of the house I am buying

[Cutestbaby]

I just wonder if anyone had any experience with this and what was the outcome.
I made an offer on a house that was accepted.
Since then I found out (via zoopla archive) that its been listed 5 times in the last 4 years with various Estate agents . I emailed current EA to give me more info. Looking at the archives asking price was quite exaggerated in the first few years.
Just worried and not sure if I should pull out early on?

Do you mean it's been bought and sold five times in four years or, it's been listed multiple times and then taken off without selling?

Either way it's a bit odd. Run for the hills if it's been bought and sold so often

I'd want a good explanation, EA's aren't known for being very honest though

My neighbours house was like this. They were getting a divorce, she didn’t want to move, he wanted the house sold. In order to play along she would wait for an offer and when they came to survey she would point out that all the stuff that was wrong with it (nothing much but it was off putting) and the buyers pulled out.
Another house in the road was a probate sale but the siblings didn’t want to sell it so they kept getting cold feet or argued over the price.
I would want an explanation before I spent any money and got too invested.

The issue is the seller, not the property. Ask how far down the process it has gone before now.

Listed but not sold?

Or listed and sold?

It would concern me. The first, would stroke me as someone who isn't really committed to moving.

The second suggests something wrong when people move in. Which could be anything. Bad neighbours to something wrong with the house and anything Inbetween. But if it's sold that many times, I would surprised it hasn't been picked up, if there's something wrong with the house.

I think pp mean 'under offer' not actually sold - I'm be amazed if it was sold (completed) many times.
I've been with hte same agent, so that's differenet, but my house has been on/off the market for over a year purely due to a terrilbe, game-playing buyer. He stretched every stage out as much as possible, but every time we had enough and gone back on rightmove, he did just the next step (or appeared too) only to stall again after weeks. Agent not been great either allowing this to happen several times.
It's all because he couldn;t arrange finance for a while after switching from his cash buyer offer.

They may have been as unlucky as this too - maybe several buyers couldn't proceed so it went back, or just change their mind for various reasons. If you liked the house, I can't see why should it worry you - unless all these buyers did a survey and there aer serious issues. Which you will find out soon if that's the case.

Thank you all!
And apologies listed but not sold.

I suppose divorce might be a possibility, it is however a couple in their 70's that is selling. I also thought that maybe there are issues with the survey. Just don't know what to think.
It is also reassuring to see that others would be concerned about this and not just me being paranoid.
And yes I am really worried about EA's honesty but not sure how else to try and find out really. I thought of contacting previous agency's that listed it but that might be a bit OTT and not sure if they would even keep this info or even give to me if they did.

Ok assuming the house is not next to an A road, is not slap bang in the middle of a flood plain, does not have 20ft of visible JK, is next door to a branch of steptoe/petrol refinery or something very obvious I’d be concerned also if this was going to be my new home. However, I also think that there could be reasonable circumstances for this to happen. For example buyers pulling out rather than the vendors being the issue. Maybe one half of the couple wants to downsize/move to a bungalow and the other doesn’t? Maybe family members are pressuring them to sell up? I have a neighbour who does appear to be slightly strange and whose house has been listed for nearly 6 years now with pretty much every EA in the area. It is an awkward house to sell for many reasons. The price has steadily declined from the ridiculous original price to the current (fair) price. He has recently received an offer for the full asking price from a relative of another neighbour. He does not want to sell to them at the full asking. All very odd. Aside from more online sleuthing such as the LR record (check for awkward covenants/restrictions) I think you have a couple of options before you start to incur costs on the house you want to buy. 1. Is the EA responsible for the sale currently one of the names who has listed the property previously? If so, formally request the reason the sale fell through/ price change etc. 2. Call one of the other listed EA and ask for houses in the price range. Drop into the conversation you are trying to buy said property and are worried given the history that it might fall through and so you need a back up. It might open up a conversation? Good luck!

One of my neighbours- a lady in her 70s - kept listing her house and it kept going under offer and every time she'd pull out because she couldn't find something she wanted to move to.

This was before all this mad panic going on at moment.

She eventually let the sale progress on the 6th try. No idea if she cost her buyers money.

I'd check they've found somewhere!

Possibly with people at that stage of life, it might be as someone mentioned, not finding the right place to move to. If they have been in their house for a long time and are downsizing, it could be that they are torn and get cold feet about going, or don’t have any motivation to go unless they find the perfect thing to move to.

I think there will be either an issue with the sellers being fussy, for example taking too long to find a place for themselves and several buyers losing patience and pulling out. This happened to my friends, a total waste of time.

Or there is an issue with the house, could be the survey, could be the deeds, something that comes up at a later stage after accepting the offer.

I'd be very cautious, OP, it's not a good sign IMO.

It would concern me but wouldn't necessarily put me off making more enquiries than normal.

If they've lived there a long time they could have trouble 'moving on' mentally and physically. Even if they've had offers accepted, they might be similar to a divorcing couple in deliberately making it look like they are interested in moving but they aren't really (although why then list in the first place....)

I think you're doing the right things asking the agents about how far along things have got. I guess it depends how much you really like the house as to how much you'll be prepared to put up with - you already know it's going to be difficult!

@Netaporter brilliant idea regarding LR check just purchased via hrmc and seems to only have an old covenant of the type of house that can be build on land. Nothing untoward.
And yes, I could say for some location might be undesirable, there is a train track running behind it, not right behind it but in a distance. But it's a quiet village location so lucky to see a train.
I had an explanation from current EA and they are blaming pandemic stating various reasons. Seller vulnerable didn't want viewings, could not find home they liked, buyers pulling out. But this doesn't explain 2018 and twice in 2019. Plus just before it was offered to me due to the previous buyer unable to purchase EA said that they lost their job and couldn't borrow and now saying they had a chain collapse.

I am just really worried as its just me buying and I have kids. But it's in my price range needs no work and where we want to be.
I am genuinely grateful for just talking it through with everyone here and bounce some ideas off.

How much is the house now and how much was it originally on for? An overpriced house would just sit on the market for years. There’s one near me, probably misled by some estate agent who over priced the property

We offered on a house which had been previously been listed twice and not sold. We got as far as instructing solicitors and submitting the mortgage application and they pulled out on us with no explanation. They were an older couple who had lived in the house since it was built and who wanted to move to a new build. They seemed very genuine during viewings and keen to move.

In the end we extracted from the agent that the developer of the new build was being pushy and we reckon our sellers just threw their toys out the pram, as they didn't want to move into a rental until their new build was ready.

They listed again about 4 months ago and it went SSTC again, but has now completely disappeared off the portals as if it has been withdrawn. We drove past it the other day and their car etc was still on the drive...so assumed they have flaked out again.

@Saltyslug I believe it was overpriced then as it is the same amount now and there has been a considerable rise in property prices.

Well I think I received a plausible explanation from the seller and they assured that they are very keen to move. So I decided to give it a go. Fingers crossed it doesn't turn out to be a horror story.
Thank you everyone

What was the plausible explanation?

Positive news

@GreyhoundG1rl, in a nutshell mainly health issues and pressures of selling

[quote Cutestbaby]@GreyhoundG1rl, in a nutshell mainly health issues and pressures of selling[/quote]
Fair enough. Hopefully things will go smoothly from here on! 🤞

This has just happened to us. It's the sellers. An elderly couple intending to downsize. They accepted our offer and only then started looking around for something else that had to be perfect. We had a strict timescale which they initially agreed to and then changed their minds and took the house off the market. When I went to Zoopla to the old listings, it seemed like it had been up for sale regularly over the last five years, but not sold. It seems to me that the sellers weren't fully invested in the sale.