Can I just have a cry on here about my house situation please?

[Cherms]

Suitable houses rarely come up in my search area (once every 5 years) and one came on. We immediately put our house up for sale (literally within one day). Two weeks later we have not had a single viewing. Not one. The forever house is having its last viewing day on Friday and then by Monday all offers need to be in. We can't offer without being sold.

I'm genuinely unbelievably upset. We spent lockdown doing our house up to be in perfect condition and yet absolutely nobody wants to buy it. And that means we will never get a house in our search area (please don't suggest changing the search area. It's not possible. We'd need to stay in our current house rather than ever move outside it)

Which means if another house comes up ever again we won't get that either and I'm absolutely miserable about that. We can't sell and rent because rental houses never come up and also it could be a decade before another house comes up. We really really want this one.

It sounds like I'm feeling melodramatic and sorry for myself but I'm completely gutted. Gutted no-one wants our lovely house and gutted we'll never be able to move. I keep getting weird rises of panic/anxiety about it all.

We're on with the agent that's selling but the forever house will sell whether to us or anyone else. They haven't given actionable feedback as it's just that one room is small. Which it is but the rest is great. And it's a lot of house for the money. No viewings. No interest. Utterly devastated at the hopeless future.

Plus it really is odd the agent isn't arranging viewings for you. These get booked in before houses even go online. They're sleeping on the job or they've given up on you - did they pick the price or did you?

Thank you LondonJax, for saying (almost) the same as me. The Estate Agent could have a vested interest in not selling OP's property, whether that's a "friend" or a backhander.
OP, do try LondonJax's way of discovering. Or just put your house on with as many other Estate Agents as possible. You still have five days to sort this out.
Good Luck

Its not always the price it can be the agent

Our first house we sold we had on with Agent 1 for about 3 months, we had about 4 viewing during that time, no offers.

They were constantly telling us to lower our price but the price was right for the area, its just there was a smaller mid terrace (ours was a semi) with a smaller garden down the road for 10k less and they thought we should price ours lower than theirs.

But we spoke to the owners of the other house up for sale as they were with Agent 1 and they weren't getting any viewings either.

Put it up with Agent 2 at the same price, 6 viewings within the first week and an offer by the end of the week. Very similar photos, no extra styling within the house, no change other than the estate agent.

It’s not as easy as changing Agent if she’s tied into their contract.

either the agent has no interest in selling (due to vested interest in the other property, which is pretty common sadly) or it’s overpriced.

Could you rent out your house instead and still get a mortgage enough to cover the new house ?

Here's what I'd do:

1. Put in an offer on dream house. Explain to agent that you know you are not currently proceedable but you would buy that house in a heartbeat and if the proceedable sale falls through for any reason, your offer stands. 2.) Spend money on your kerb appeal. You say it's an ugly house. Sort this out. Put big, stylish hanging baskets either side of the front door. Buy a tree in a vast pot and position it in the front garden so it softens the ugliness and makes an attractive first impression. Do the same with pots of trimmed bay or similar either side of the front door. Don;t buy tiny token pot plants. Spend a bit of money on big, stylish things. You can always take them with you.
2. Take some really good photos of the newly pimped front of the house. Take them at dawn or 'the golden hour' late afternoon when the sun makes everything look gorgeous. Email to agent and instruct them to immediately update the front of house pics.
3. Discuss an open day. On that day, as well as leaving the house immaculate and neutral, style it a bit so that the living is aspirational. Make it cosy and inviting with a few things left lying around that suggest a good life - a beautiful silk dressing gown on your bedroom door, a gorgeous cuddly toy and story book on your DC's bed etc, nothing in the bathroom but a really classy shower gel. Stuff like this shouldn't make a difference but it does.

I am a terrible housewife and have never had much money to update any home I've lived in, but have always managed to sell at top end of market for full asking price because of stuff like this. There is a game to it.

OK so you say that rental houses never come up. This means you could explore rent to buy. You remortgage your house to release equity to act as deposit to buy the new property and rent out your existing property. Do the numbers and it might work for you.

This is a good idea. Get a friend to contact the EA and see if your house is mentioned

Have you considered writing to people in your chosen area, to ask them to contact you if they may be interested in selling, or even swapping with you? We occasionally get letters through the door

And, if you're feeling brave and can handle honest feedback, name change and post details of the house on here. You may not like the answers, but I've seen really honest, helpful comments on MN

Have not read the whole thread OP but what about - (1) doing whatever it takes to improve the kerb appeal (tidy front garden if necessary, paint door, put tubs with attractive plants, etc. etc.) (2) Lower the price (3) Put it on one of the online DIY sales portals or at least change the agent. The problem sounds as though initial attraction is lacking, so addressing that and giving it to a wider audience may help.

I would reduce the price to a silly amount so if the house is worth 300 put it on for offers over 250 get 20 people through the door and get them all to put in the best and final offers with the aim being that you end up at 300 and if you don’t then you have your answer.

if they all offer 250 then you know, And you don’t have to accept any of them

I've seen other people mention this but not seen you come back on it OP.

Do you have a floorplan?

I don't look at any houses without a floorplan unless they look absolutely fantastic from the photos.

In that case, I go on Rightmove Sold Prices and see when the house last sold and hope for a floorplan on there. If I can't get one though, I probably won't enquire because I know what I'm after from a house and a floorplan shows me all of that.

It’s worth having someone take a critical look at your listing. Years ago I was trying to sell my 2 bed flat. The second bedroom was on the small side and set up as an office. I was very frustrated after many months of viewer’s feeding back about loving the float except the small second bedroom. Someone suggested setting it up as a bedroom to make it clear it was big enough to be used as such and I rapidly had two offers.

This is brilliant, exactly what you should do!

@goldfinchonthelawn

The local property market (that's all current househunters in the area) think you've priced it wrong.

I recently sold my house in a very short time frame, we had 12 views on a open day and 5 offers. This is obviously a snapshot of the area I live in but my house ended up going for over asking by a substantial amount. This is what we did to set ours apart from others. We priced it slightly under what the agent suggested as they had told us houses around here are in great demand so we wanted to attract more potential. We went with an agent that uses a professional photographer, worth their weight in gold as the pictures are going to get the initial interest. We did a huge declutter and even put some of DC toys in boxes on a shelf in the garage. The house is too small for us but we didn’t want to let potential buyers see that. We got rid of any evidence of our dog, (this is something we have been put off by ourselves as the smell of dog in every room can be a bit much) ours only has access to downstairs which is not carpeted so not covered in fur. We put out our garden furniture I even repainted it to look a bit less old to try and show how we use the house, garden size and parking were our main attraction and small kitchen and bathroom were our negatives so we kept those rooms as minimal as possible, I even put all the DC bath toys under our bed to try and make the bathroom look bigger. Good luck

Thank you so much for your advice. Honestly it has helped. It's been a manic morning because I took your advice to list with a new agent and I've signed everything ready for them to make phone calls this afternoon. The original agent didn't tie me in to a contract so have chosen the one who sold the house round the corner from me recently.

I'm also going to call my mortgage broker tonight about the buy to let suggestion because actually the rental amount would be twice the cost of the existing mortgage so would go towards helping pay for the new house. Rental is even more scarce!

I'm also going to think about kerb appeal and staging. At this late stage I'm not sure what I can achieve but I will try. A huge thank you to the stager on this thread who offered help.

I know you all want a link to my house but I just can't do it. I do like the idea of getting a friend to ring up to ask though.

I also know you all think it's the price but actually that's the only bit I'm sure I know about. I'm not an estate agent myself but I'm confident in my knowledge of the pricing market.

And the biggest thank you goes to everyone who said 'I get it. It's OK to be upset'. I really appreciated being able to just feel sorry for myself even when the world is going to hell in a handcart.

Good luck OP.

I agree about decluttering.
Before I sold my last house I decanted a lot of stuff into storage, my house was small, but stripped back to a clean clear look.
We lived with the bare necessities in the house while we were viewing.
On viewing days I made sure the house was tidy, but also set up some staging on the outside patio- cushions, tablecloths, garden candles, hinting at possible use of the otherwise plain patio.
I had viewings most days and my house sold within a fortnight.

Doesn't look like buy to let is an option due to what we'd have to borrow to do both. Spoke to my selling agent who says they're baffled as to why there's no viewings. Which is useful feedback...

Have listed with a second agent now so pinning my hopes on that.

It sounds like your house is the type that would appeal to a young family a second step home, if this is the case I think this is the demographic that will really be affected by the cost off living crisis and they will be thinking twice about taking on a larger mortgage, someone will come along but may take longer than usual.

Could a bridging loan be a possibility?

No. There are no 100% bridging loans, most require a 20% deposit. The OP has said all their equity is in the house they can't sell. Quite apart from the madness of taking on a bridging loan in OP's circumstances.

Second, the seller whose house they want, has a closing date days away and has specified they will only accept offers from proceedable buyers. That means, either a cash buyer, a FTB with evidence of mortgage agreed, or someone whose sale is already agreed and well advanced.

You mentioned its a mid terrace.

Could the houses either side be the problem?

Bad local reputation from TV reports/scene of drugs bust/very run down and neglected/loud dogs/music.

No the next door neighbours are perfect! One of the reasons we've stayed so long. And you'd really only know if you viewed the property so that can't be putting off viewers because no one is viewing!

I think we've overdeveloped it for first time buyers and it's now out of their price bracket. And @LadyVictoriaSponge makes a good point about most people holding tight because of the cost of living crisis. We certainly wouldn't be moving if this house hadn't turned up.

It's always about the price. You can sell anything for the right price.