About to put our house up for sale.. anyone else?

[DomusAurea]

We are taking the plunge and it's happening - we are selling our house (and relocating 200 miles away but that's another thread I guess) - anyone else? I could do with a collective handhold!

This is where we are now:

• finishing the last small jobs such as painting a ceiling
• having meets with estate agents for valuation
• nervously searching rightmove for possible houses in our relocation area (there isn't a lot!)

Are you going for sale soon? Tell me how it's going!

(we are in the South East)

I don't think the penny has dropped with agents yet. Despite the fact that it's been a lot quieter on the buyer front for a good 3 months. RICS survey says new buyer enquiries have dropped.

A combo of prices being too high, cost of living crisis biting, interest rates rising and banks tightening up lending. A buyer with an AIP from 2 months ago might not be able to borrow as much as they think they can - conditions have changed in those 2 months.

@FortonServices , our agent is very realistic on that front and having problems with sellers not being realistic I think. Agent was talking about one house yesterday who sound like they aren’t receptive to hearing it. They have had an offer but sound like they are refusing it. The people offering are going away next week so coming here this afternoon to look now they heard ours is going back on.

@Volterra
I've heard that too. One agent told me they have a vendor insisting on marketing at 395. His logic is the one opposite sold for that 3 months ago. The one opposite had a driveway and didn't need any work doing. The one currently up for sale has no parking and needs modernising. Agent says it wouldn't have got 395 3 months ago, never mind now. Problem is, if interest rates go up in August, we'll start to see price drops (see Canada, NZ, Australia for example, they starting raising rates earlier than us). The one on at 395 is probably worth 350, will be worth less if he leaves it on the market for a few months and we have further interest rate rises. He's better cutting his losses and seeing if he can get 350 for it now, rather than possibly circa 310 later in the year.

Agree, I keep saying to the agents we are ‘pragmatic’. I would love the same as we had as accepted a lower offer as they were no chain (hollow laugh) and I think it was very fair at the time and recently went through a valuation without any issue) but things change and we’ll have to see what happens now.

We’ve just viewed a house we’re keen to offer on but just need to check affordability with our broker on Monday as it’s top of our price range. We were first through the door on Thursday when it went on the market and second viewing today, but a few months ago it would have had several viewings today and so far as I know, we were the only people there today.

That’s encouraging for you @Doubleraspberry .

First viewing went fairly well and he did ask what they would have to offer to get it but they are having a set of parents move in and I suspect it might not work so well for them. Said they have been really struggling to find anything and I felt sorry for them.

Second is neighbour ‘s cousin who had been thinking about putting house on market and has agent Monday. Then went out with neighbours last night and then said about our buyer’s not getting mortgage hence the early morning knock on the door. He definitely likes it but is well aware his position not currently good.

Not bad considering we aren’t going back on market until Wednesday.

Oooh best of luck @Doubleraspberry - hope it all works out for you 😻

Right, let me give you an update on the six viewers:

One person cancelled
One did not show up
One couple of daily telegraph readers were *clearly mocking about looking for when they retire (we are selling now, friends)
One lovely family really liked the house but they were worried about the flat roof (honestly it never gave us any problems but I guess fears are irrational)
one person really liked it and wants to come again with their partner
One person loved it and called the agent to register their interest and saying will make an offer early next week when they have worked out how much they can offer

We have another viewer tomorrow

I will keep you updated

Regarding price, we went for the most realistic estate agent - we had the following valuation:

x, x+25k, x+35k, x+50k, x+50k, x+75k.

we went for 'offers over x+25k', which I thought was quite modest and our old sold price was x+35k - We'll accept our minimum of x+25k at the moment.

Hello mind if I join? We had an offer accepted on a house a couple of days ago and now rushing to get this place sorted for marketing (didn't expect to find anything so fast!). In addition, we're going on holiday on the 25th for 11 nights and debating having the EA do viewings while we're away (I started a whole other thread on this earlier today).

We are buying in the same area for the kids schools and it's quite sought after as the schools here are excellent so hoping it'll be an advantage when selling our house.

I’m really surprised you had an offer accepted without having sold. Most estate agents won’t even let you view unless you have sold first.

Fingers crossed for you @DomusAurea a couple of those seem to have potential 🤞you only need one!

Sounds positive @Volterra and being marketed from Wednesday should bring more!

People always say this on MN but I’ve never found it to be the case and have bought & sold lots of times including recently. Maybe it is specific to certain areas

I thought that would be the case @KatharineofAragon but I've viewed properties through three different agents recently and none made any comment on us not having sold yet - other than, thinking of one in particular, to give us the hard sell to use their company!

When I first started courting the idea in January, that was the case for most houses. Now it seems it isn't. Market has changed... taking longer to sell...

@Volterra - I missed your post yesterday! That looks good - fingers crossed for your for Wednesday :)

where I am buying some agents did not even let me view when we were not SSTC....

Welcome @InTheCludgie & best of luck for your sale!

@InTheCludgie our EA conducted viewings while we were away at Easter. We sold the house to the 6th viewer and it was so easy because I only had to clean the house once. The house was immaculate for the entire week and the EA just showed people round almost immediately. We have had our offer accepted on a house so we're now in a chain.

@InTheCludgie the EA did all our viewings - made it easier as we just had to be go out for half a day each time (block bookings on Saturdays).

It didn't sell in that phase so we then moved out into rented (work relocation so had to be in new city for a certain date) and EA handled everything - including doing weekly checks on the house and meter readings!

We were looking last summer and all estate agents required us to have SSTC before any viewings. In fact there was a house that had been on the market for absolutely ages so I rang up to ask about it and the agent literally laughed at me and told me that we can talk when we have sold. (We sold two weeks later and got to see the house and it was shit and our sale fell through anyway but that's another story. 😅)

I honestly think this is it for us. We've been here before and I have a strong feeling that this sale will fail and the chain will collapse. I think as a self preservation mechanism I have already started dissing the new house in my head, and if I'm perfectly honest I never really wanted to leave the area we're living in anyway. It's just so nice and now that we were about to move to a slightly less naice area (still nice though!), I've started looking at this place in a different light and really appreciating how bloody lovely it is. It's funny really. If we could find a bigger house with a garden exactly where we are now I would be delighted, but I'm starting to think that maybe staying here wouldn't be such a bad thing. Obviously we'll still move if everything goes ok but staying really wouldn't be the end of the world I guess.

Welcome @InTheCludgie , that’s good news!
@DomusAurea that sounds very encouraging indeed 😊

To my surprise phone went at 9am and was agent with an offer from the couple. Had to explain about next door’s cousin as they told him we had another viewing . We have accepted in principle. It is a split chain as they are moving in with her parents, her Dad is really quite unwell by the sound of it .

It is a risk but as we have found with previous buyer having no chain doesn’t guarantee a sale. As we are moving to be nearer my Stepmum after Dad has died their circumstances have struck a chord with me and I really hope this works out . I did see another MNetter has just moved with similar circumstances and has pulled it off so fingers crossed ours do.

@Volterra, an offer on Suday morning - that's awesome!!!

That’s brilliant, @Volterra . Everything crossed for you!