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?

@Ladyofthelake53 wow. I am so sorry to hear that. Wishing you all the best with the new job and with trying again next year.

So we've had a very strange experience. We've gone off the market as I said. Now the EA has contacted us saying that they've got a BTL investor who desperately wants to view and is gutted that we have gone off the market before they had a chance to do so, which so weird as our house is really not a typical BTL property. We have agreed to let them view this week but I don't think I'll put any effort into tidying etc. Tbh, I don't really fancy dealing with someone who isn't emotionally invested in the sale. I know it's ridiculous but I'd rather sell next year for less money to a family than now to a LL.

@ecochiroptera I know what you mean, I wasn't overly keen when told a BTL investor was interested in viewing my place, would sooner have sold to a 'proper' buyer so to speak. However, once it became apparent that no other fucker was interested in buying my property I thought he may as well have it if he wanted it. BTL guy wasn't interested either as it turned out!

I took another walk by my (maybe) new house today and again felt put off by the state of next door. Am also feeling as time goes on that it'll be a bit of a money pit, not helped by the fact that a couple of more 'done up' houses have come on to the market recently. Our new house was on at o/o 260, we paid 301 and will need to spend at 35k on it over time. The new houses just on have new bathrooms, windows, kitchens and are o/o 270 and 280k.

Is it wrong that part of me hopes I don't get a sale soon so my vendor remarkets and I'm free to look more seriously at something better? I know I could just pull out the sale for no reason but that just feels wrong after vendor has waited three months for us so far.

@InTheCludgie I think in the end you fo need to do what is best for yourself, as horrible as that might be. Do you think if you did end up proceeding with that house you would massively regret it once it is yours?

I did consider pulling out of the house purchase as we were nearing exchange and the economical / political situation was getting worse and worse. I didn't pull out because I would have felt really really guilty. Plus my husband really wanted the house. But now that we are going through this pain of struggling to sell our house, I really wish we had pulled out. And it is putting a massive dampner on my enjoyment of the new house. It's not a great start.

On the other hand I always prefer to do a place up myself, because then I can do it exactly the way I like it.

@ecochiroptera It does make you wonder if this BTL investor is just a way of the EA to keep your house on the narket a little longer.

I don't think you need to get the house looking absolutely perfect for a BTL investor. There main concern will be getting the numbers to work. I am guessing they will mainly assess the property for the amount of work that might need doing before letting. Although they aren't your ideal buyer, I still hope you get an offer

@manateeandcake I understand why you are worried. That being said, we did wait until we had a mortgage offer before commissioning a survey, because we didn't want to waste the money. And then we struggle to find a surveyor who was available. Might be a similar situation? Don't lose hope yet.
But wow this is a roller coaster, aye?

@Ladyofthelake53 Good luck with your new job and enjoy the calm of not selling your house.

Thank you everyone for your reassuring words earlier
Unfortunately we still haven't heard anything back yet from the people who viewed our house. And also no new viewings in sight.

After no viewings at all last week we had two this week, radio silence from one and the other said the lounge is too small -_- I guess this week isn’t going to be the week we find a buyer.

I was thinking about knocking 5k off just to help push it along but I don’t really know what’s best. I guess nobody does

Have finally managed to both find a buyer (tho at very reduced price) and have an offer accepted on house I wanted! Feels too good to be true though so trying not to get hopes up too much, especially after previously having two offers quickly taken away.

Congratulations @Stayingstrongish ! Great news.

Thanks, @manateeandcake, hoping the long journey to getting the keys works out!

This is interesting:

www.theadvisory.co.uk/propcast/postcode

You just have to enter your postcode, no need to register or anything. Apparently I'm in a 'very hot' area where it's still a seller's market.

Mind you, it seems to think that pretty much everywhere is 'hot' apart from London and a few random spots dotted around the UK. Sending lucky thoughts your way if you're in one of those...

@JesusInTheCabbageVan Had a wee dig around behind that site and found this. So those figures are based on sales agreed July-September (before the chaos), and demand was already falling then... I don't want to be negative (like some persistent PPs), just think it's important to be realistic. Speaking as a seller, I'm expecting lower offers than I would have wanted two months ago. Speaking as a buyer, I'm hoping to try to negotiate money off my onward purchase. Things have definitely changed.

Also that site wound me up, 'enter a full UK postcode'... But only if you're in England or Wales.

True enough, it's hard to get truly up to date stats anywhere I think, due to the time it takes to complete a sale.

Congratulations @Stayingstrongish. Hopefully your buyers love your house so much they won't drop off this time.

@JesusInTheCabbageVan I had a look at that site and it says that the market is very hot where I am. But I am tracking all similar houses to ours that have come on the market since end of September and less than half of them have sold so far. So the market is definitely cooling down here. Would be impossible to get actual live figures though.

@PinkPlantCase Knocking 5k off might help if that gets you into that bracket in ehich people are looking at the moment. No idea.

Got a call from the estate agent today to give me an update that there is no update. They still haven't had any feedback from the 2 viewings last week. Frustrating.
She said that hopefully politics will calm down now and give people more confidence to buy. She also mentioned that some people might potentially interested in viewing our house but are currently on half term.
Oh well. Just need to plot on and hope. Although I am struggling not to have sleepless nights. And tempted to just knock tge asking price right down/ sell it to one of those "webuyanyhouse" websites 🙈

@FigandHoney Ha, I think you were on to something! The investor was mysteriously ill today and couldn't view. I've told the EA that this is it and not to contact us anymore.

I know ultimately we might be better off knocking down the price to something ridiculously low now than sell for a even less waiting in spring but I need a break. We want to move somewhere a lot cheaper anyway and have only little left on our mortgage, so it doesn't matter that much to us. I have been keeping a close eye on where we want to buy as well and nothing has come on in weeks that I would even want to view. So nothing lost, really. I will continue to follow this thread since I am kind of invested in everyone's stories. Keeping my fingers crossed for you all.

Hello fellow sellers (and stayers). I checked out that site and it’s apparently very hot where I am too. As far as I can see very little has come into the market in the last few weeks and the 2 that were similar to mine are both SSTC. I accepted an offer 2 weeks ago so it’s early days. The mortgage valuation was done last week. Buyers were supposed to be coming this weekend to measure up but they are now away so that’s postponed. I’m just hoping things progress but they are selling too so I’m worried it’s all too good to be true! In terms of price, if I had to re-market I would definitely expect to take a reduction and would be ok with that. We are not looking to buy straight away for logistics reasons and I think if there’s going to be a downward trend it will be nationwide so it’s all relative.

Our EA had a reply from our buyers to say they are in touch with a surveyor and will come back to us with dates. So they haven’t disappeared. The stress is going to be the death of me!

If this sale falls through I think it’s unlikely we would be able to move to the area we want to be in for DC’s secondary schools, so the pressure is intense.

@FigandHoney we’ve decided to knock 10k off as 5k wouldn’t be enough to get right move to advertise the change in price.

We bought early 2020 pre covid and even the reduction it’s still quite a bit more than we paid for it

How is everyone getting on?
Not a lot is happening here, had a viewing on Friday which was led by the EA. They liked the house but said the stairs at the front were in an 'awful state' which I thought was a bit unwarranted.

We're likely going to alter the price tomorrow, will speak with vendor EA to see if they would be happy to accept a corresponding drop in our offer.

Not brilliant news on our purchase. The loft conversion has no building regs so our solicitor has had to notify the lender that our house is only three bedrooms and not five. We await their consequent reduction in valuation… We would then have to get a quote for any remedial work to get it to meet regulations and ask for that as a price reduction (assuming the vendor was willing to drop the price in line with our mortgage offer if a reduction occurs). So really it’s looking likely our purchase may be doomed. Our vendor is hugely motivated as she wants to buy a very specific house, so we shall see what happens.

At least we’re not in a chain and our sale creeps snail-like to exchange, as it has been doing for at least a month.

We exchanged yesterday.

No one was more surprised than me - I spent the previous weekend thinking it was all off. On Monday morning I was genuinely expecting a phone call from the EA saying "they've pulled out", but no...it all kicked off (in a good way) and by 3pm we had exchanged on sale and purchase. Completion in two weeks.

It was certainly a busy day!

@FuzzyPuffling hurray! So glad it has worked out for you 🥳

I am trying to press ahead with my purchase, completing solicitor paperwork and desperately hoping my buyers don’t pull out.

Great news Fuzzy.

We look to be progressing too. Had a week of back and forth, with purchasors Solicitors denying receiving things, and claiming our Solicitors were ignoring them, they have finally agreed that they have all the required paperwork, and can start discussing exchange dates 🤞

stayingstrongish this was totally me last week. Honestly, I was convinced my buyers were getting cold feet - extra queries, most of which could either have been asked a month ago, or had already been asked.

My fingers are crossed that you'll get a sudden burst of positive activity, as I did.

Still creeping along here. Not yet signed missives so trying to hurry that up so we can get the kids sorted for a new school.

Had some surveys for quotes for removals. Might just sell the kids to pay for the removals which would also sort the school issue...

Joking. Obvs.

Feel sick though. Move date is now end of this month!

Congratulations on exchanging @FuzzyPuffling ! Surely they would be silly to refuse a reduced offer @Doubleraspberry - anyone who subsequently offers and requires a mortgage would just come up against the same issue you have? Means they would need to hold out for a cash buyer or someone with a massive deposit orherwise doesn't it?