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

[InTheCludgie]

Hi everyone here is the new thread for those of us who are about to, or are currently trying to, sell our homes!

So we are now back on the market and have a viewing tomorrow morning, plus one for early next week. This week is a bit tricky as it's DS's birthday so have had to say no to a couple of suggested times for viewings.

How is everyone else getting on?

@KimmySchmitt Argh that's frustrating. Having spent yesterday evening and this morning prepping our house for our first viewing, I know just how much effort goes into it.
I would reiterate your preferred viewing days with the estate agents. Did they not ask you before booking the viewing in? Mine did.
Could you maybe go back to the developer and see if they will negotiate. Point out where the market is heading, the fact you are getting ap much worse deal and that you are considering retracting your offer? They will be struggling just as much as all of us to sell their houses and might not want to lose the purchase.

@InTheCludgie I think that would be a good idea. And maybe ask if they can add the picture at the start. Should weed put time wasters.

@Stayingstrongish Hurray! Congratulations on the offers! Remind me did you get any previous offers or are these your first?
How much is significantly under? I am getting the feeling most of us will need to accept under asking price offers. Maybe 10%. Seems the way the market is going. Just bad luck.
Will the amount allow you to move forward with your future plans. Will you be happy then in your current house? If yes, then I would go for it.

So we had our first viewing today. Haven't had any proper feedback yet. The estate agents said they would ask for some tomorrow.
However the person viewing the property, did ask whether the kitchen fittings / white goods were to be included. I don't know if that is a good sign? We were going to include the range cooker and the integrated dishwasher. But not the washing machine and the freestanding fridge. Although we would be open to discuss this, depending on the level of the offer.

I spent all evening an this morning before work, making the house look it's best. So you can imagine my frustration when my husband slipped in the bathroom yesterday and managed to crack our toilet seat. I have patched it up, until we get a new one. But am so annoyed.

We have another viewing tomorrow morning and my toddler just through milk all over pur dining room wall. Feels like a conspiration against me getting our house sold 🙈

I think I'm going to have to withdraw my house from my current sale, personal circumstances have changed drastically and I now need to live in the house. Not what I want but I need to do this before the sale goes any further. I am not sure what I'll be liable for fees wise. Suddenly the EA contract seems complicated.

@FigandHoney DP has been dealing with them (which might explain why nothing has gone smoothly!) as this is his house. He said he just got a text through confirming the viewing. He's a shift worker so the days will differ depending on the week which makes it tricky. We can't have viewings when he's on nights e.g. as he needs to sleep.

Regarding the purchase (sigh!), nothing is ever simple. Our mortgage offer expires before the move-in date but would be eligible for extension. The developers want us to sign the missives really soon, but won't let us sign without an offer that covers the move-in date. Apparently until now this was a very normal situation and you'd sign missives that were conditional on the mortgage offer being extended. I've spoken to my solicitor, the sales office, and the mortgage advisor. Everyone tells me they'll speak to 'their contact' but nobody is getting back to me with an answer. I reckon they're all waiting to see what happens with the government. So basically, we don't have a lot of leverage to negotiate price. Also we've sunk thousands into it already as you need to pay for the kitchen and bathroom well in advance so we've already paid that money. If we pull out we lose it. If it wasn't for that money we'd have walked already.

I feel your pain about family members trying to wreck all your good work! We had a similar situation involving a 7pm trip to B&Q last night... It's so stressful.

@Positivelypatient I'm so sorry to hear that. Can your solicitor help you untangle it all?

@FigandHoney That reminded me of when we first put our house on the market. We spent days painting all the walls, making countless trips to a storage unit to declutter, cleaning and doing everything we could to make the house attractive. The night before the first set of viewings we had just finished painting the walls in the hallway when our son DELIBERATELY sprayed kids' Piriton on the wall. Of course it left a mark, and it was so obvious when you entered the house. 🤦🏻‍♀️ (We sold the place eventually though.)

@FigandHoney thanks, about 10% under, yes. Which makes me wonder if I should be offering slightly under on the house I want? Though it has been reduced already and I think is a fair price. But not sure if I’d be a mug to just offer the asking price at this point! The two people offering didn’t give a reason why they were going so much lower.

@SpaceyCake omg bloody kids eh?!

@Positivelypatient I am sorry the circumstances have changed. But maybe better in this crazy time. Does your contract with the estate agent have a no sale no fee clause. Ours does, although I must admit I don't know if it is more complex than that.

@KimmySchmitt Wow. Sounds complicated with your husband's job. Can you maybe update them on a weekly basis, tell them what days are available for viewings.
That's smthg I never considered about new houses. The fact you need to fork out so much extra money for kitchens, etc. Hope you find a solution

@SpaceyCake That made me laugh so much. Although, seriously how do they always know the worst moment to do these things. We narrowly escaped our son drawing on our walls yesterday. Note to self put away all the drawing pens.

@Stayingstrongish That's a difficult one. We almost kind of priced our house expecting that people might take a shot at offering under asking price. Not that long ago that was very common. It eas what we did when we bought our house. And I do think it's where we are again. Bit if they already reduced their price they might be less open to it. No harm in trying though. You could always increase it if it isn't accepted. I don't think there is that much competition out there of people wanting to buy the same house. So probably less risky these days

So second viewing happened yesterday. And we haven't had any feedback on either one. I don't know how long people usually take to make an offer if they are interested. We made our offers the same day or the next. But that was in a competitive market. And I am not a good negotiator.
The fact we only had those two viewings booked in though and have had zilch feedback has got me very stressed out indeed. I barely slept last night. Currently massively regretting the decision we made in July. We would have been much better off riding this one out in our current house I feel.

@KimmySchmitt would your EA be happy to use WhatsApp? We'd said to ours we were happy to have viewings at any time as long as before DD bedtime chaos. In practice he always WhatsApped to ask if x time on y date was ok, I'd confirm within an hour and the viewing would be booked.

@FigandHoney thanks for your advice. If a listing says “offers over” does that generally mean offers under will automatically be rejected?

Depends what the vendor has instructed EA to do. EA is legally obliged to pass on any offers received. And TBH the vendor would be daft not to at least receive them to consider. We'd reduced ours last year to an 'offers over' price, and got an offer of the exact price which was passed on and we accepted.

@RidingMyBike we're just going to tell them which days suit in advance, it would have worked fine if they hadn't got their dates wrong. Tbh it actually did work fine, they just told us the wrong date. They didn't actually booked viewings for the wrong day (so far!).

@FigandHoney Thank you. I hope you get some feedback soon. It might not even be anything to do with your house, the viewers might be taking some time to consider their financial position given recent events. I sold my flat recently (just before this chaos) and the buyer viewed twice before putting in a note of interest and eventually making an offer. There was probably a week between viewing and offering.

@Stayingstrongish I'm in Scotland so we generally work with an offers over system. The expectation would be 10-20% over the offers over price, with it being advertised accordingly. So if it was valued at 150k you might put it on at offers over 125k. It might be different if you're not in Scotland. Would your solicitor be able to advise? When I bought my last property my solicitor advised a price that was reasonable and not too cheeky (you could just piss them off going in too low). It was still over the 'offers over' price. They then came back and asked me to raise my offer, which I did, and after three numbers they accepted.

@Stayingstrongish I think offers over varies and sometimes doesn’t mean much. I would still offer what I thought was a fair price for the house given the current market. You can always ask the estate agent if they think the seller is open to a lower offer.

@FigandHoney Given that we’ve now switched back to more of a buyers market, people seem to be taking a bit longer to put in an offer. Viewing on Saturday and putting in offer on Monday or Tuesday seems to be the norm where we are, though this can get dragged out by estate agents trying to play buyers off each other etc. And some people will want a second viewing before making an offer.

It may also be advantageous in the long run if they do take a few days longer to put an offer in. It got very very silly earlier in the year with people rushing to offer to beat all the other viewers (we offered within hours of viewing), some of whom may regret doing it so fast, or without a second viewing.

Thanks so much for all your advice everyone. I’m on my own buying a place after my husband left and don’t really know what I’m doing!

Hats off to you, @Stayingstrongish - and ask away. I'm not sure how I would cope with all this without DH. Not that he is more informed or better at all this than me, just that we talk each other down when necessary. And we seem to have divided up the worry - he has sleepless nights imagining our buyers pulling out, while I'm lying there worrying about our onward purchase!

Thanks @manateeandcake ! It’s nice to feel like there is support on here

After losing 4 buyers and a property I was buying I've decided to take my property off the market.

Been going on since May and I've really had enough. Just started a new job so thought I could do without the extra stress.

May try again next year will see how the market pans out.

Good luck to everyone selling and buying x

Stayingstrongish

In same position as you I'm a widow. It's stressful doing it by yourself, good luck x

Dont blame you for stepping back @Ladyofthelake53 sounds like you've had a stressful time of it with four buyers all lost.

We had a viewing for today but they called EA to postpone as they have covid. I surprised myself by not really caring that much and being relieved at not having to make the place pristine for a viewing. Think its a sign i maybe need to throw in the towel for the time being too..

Inthecludgie

Yep another reason why I stepped back its a big relief !

@Ladyofthelake53 thank you, hopefully we can both get through this x

@Ladyofthelake53 good luck with your new job, makes total sense to see how the market goes and maybe try again next year

@Ladyofthelake53 sounds like the right decision for now - I hope you can relax a bit.

I’ve now joined DH in worrying that our buyers are about to pull out. They had their mortgage offer through last Monday and told
our EA then that they would be looking to arrange a survey. EA has heard nothing since. He dropped them an email yesterday and has said he will call them tomorrow.