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?

@ecochiroptera I'm currently sat in our rented house! We sold last year and went into rented - no choice as it was a work relocation and no way would we have had time to sell and buy before my work start date. Plus it was 200 miles so totally impractical for viewings, commuting etc.

Yes, it has been expensive and fairly horrendous, but it would have been virtually impossible to do it any other way. We moved from v expensive part of country to less expensive part (not cheap, just less expensive!) so ended up with quite a bit of equity, which has helped. It was v hard to find a rental, we had to take out a 12 month tenancy without a break clause which we hadn't wanted to do and the rent is more than we can afford from income so some of the equity gets spent on that each month.

As it turns out, we're still sat in the rental and are now in the 13th month of tenancy. But it took 3 months of viewings to find a house to buy, 4 months to get thru conveyancing and we're now into the fourth month of getting quotes for renovation costs. All of that would have been a lot worse if we'd been in a chain. Plus we can live in the rental whilst we do the renovation - it's really really expensive but means we have a house in a great location that we can have as we want it.
We also found it really useful to live in the area before we bought - got a much better feel for it than you can get from searching online. And I think we've ended up buying somewhere we wouldn't have known about or considered if we hadn't already lived here?

Can`t see rental being more expensive than mortgage going forward TBH, unless you have paid down a large chunk of the debt.

Good point! Did yours go for around asking price? Now I’m worried that we’re on for too much!

Hey everyone!
How long would you wait for your vendor to find a house? Our buyer needs to move in soon and we don't know what sort of rental to go into ☹️
So nice to read the stories from other people, feels less isolating trying to do this! Also doing this with a little baby!

Name change formerly Whippetquick

After losing 3 buyers since May I now have a fourth so fingers crossed it all goes ahead, surely nobody can be that unlucky.....lost my onward purchase to a cash buyer so now looking for something else. Very limited budget so not much choice. If this one goes tits up I give up and will withdraw from market

Good luck @Ladyofthelake53 I hope its fourth time lucky for you. There really isn't much choice is there? Most of the houses on round here look to have been owned by elderly people so I think people are staying put unless they really need to sell. This time last year was the usual autumn flurry of houses going on, not so much this year unfortunately.

@PinkPlantCase and @mynameiscalypso our house was reduced a few weeks ago which brought in more viewers but they keep mentioning the stairs at the front. It feels like people want something more level access but at our price, which just isn't going to happen in this area unless it's a complete fixer upper. Fewer stairs will cost them at least 10% more.

Oh, FFS

11 weeks in, and they decide they want a survey.
Surely the time for this was 2months ago???

"Now I’m worried that we’re on for too much!"

You and half the country mate.

Busted, am an estate agent, that’s exactly the sort of thing they would say 😂

Take 2, I meant upsize in falling market and downsize in rising market.
@Ladyofthelake53 That sounds like it has been awful, so sorry 💐

New low today: a lady looked round and didn’t even bother coming upstairs 😆

Wow, how rude! I would never do that

Mine has ‘gone live’ today, first viewings booked in for Saturday. The agents are being very positive so I’m keeping everything crossed for a smooth ride.

Hopeful for you @Karmatime 😊 What type of place are you hoping to move to?

Thanks @Stayingstrongish - we are moving into a rental initially as we are relocating to the other (much more expensive) end of the country. If I could lift my house and pop it down south that would be ideal!

FFS, our sellers solicitors want certified copies of ID and proof of address that have to have been sent in the post and can't be printed bills from online accounts - we don't get any paper copies! I've asked if the solicitors will accept a bank statement with our address on if it's been printed by the bank rather than off my computer as that's the best I can do 🤦🏼‍♀️

@Karmatime how exciting! Hopefully Saturday gets lots of interest!

@DeadHouseBounce I am not so sure about rental being cheaper than mortgages. Historically renting has always been more expensive than the mortgage on an equal property. And I would imagine landlords will try and increase the rent to make up for the increased cost of their mortgage. I hope I am wrong for the sake of those that aren't in a position to buy.

@MrsTwentyNine I think that really depends on the position your buyers are in. Why do they need to move? Do they have any alternatives? I would ask your solicitor to enquire on your behalf what the buyers situation is from their solicitor

@Ladyofthelake53 How awful. I am so sorry you have had such bad luck. Hopefully everything will go right this time.

@InTheCludgie Annoying that with the stairs. Not much you can do. But you would think people would look at the details before wasting your time. Hopefully there will be a0 fit buyer happy to get some exercise

@LionessesRules Annoying with them wanting a survey at this stage. Although to be fair we really struggled to book one in. They were all so busy. I don't know if it is still the same.

@Stayingstrongish That is really rude. I would definitely have had a look upstairs. Try not to take it personally.

@Karmatime Good luck! All sounding positive so far.

@123deepbreath maybe ask your employer for a signed letter confirming your address?

So we had two estate agents come around yesterday. And one today. We have one more to come on Saturday. We had to rebook tomorrow's appointment because of a clash with childcare.

They have all so far valued the property at the same price. But I am feeling a bit worried it is too high, because I can't find any 2 beds on the market for that price. Our house dies have unusually big rooms. In sqft it is probably bigger than some 3 bed properties. But I am worried that if the asking price is too high nobody will come see it. Our neighbours sold for 5000£ more, but that was in July.
The estate agent that came today at actually been around for a valuation 3 months ago. Before we put new carpets in, painted the place and got new doors. He was amazed at the transformation. But he valued the property at 40000£ more than he did last time. Which I find very surprising.
How do I know that the estate agents aren't valuing our house at too high a price.
Obviously we want the best price we can get. But I don't want our house to sit for months unsold. That would just mean hemorrhaging money in the additional mortgage we need to pay.

Also generally how do we pick an estate agent?
Bit put off by the one today. When I called him today to ask if he could possibly arrive 15 minutes earlier, he sort of suggested he didn't need to come, since he had already seen the property and valued it. I said it would be worth coming again because we made quite a few changes. And then his tune changed massively after he did come around.
He was the cheapest, but then they are all very similar in price so far.
One of the packages includes a virtual tour of the house and 10 days on rightmove in premium advertising (so at the top). But does that make a big difference?

I picked the estate agent who had done his homework on the house, knew the area, was the most positive about selling it and that I personally liked!
His valuation was the middle of three and it actually sold for more than the top valuation ( July this year)
And they have an excellent sales progressor. VERY important.

@RidingMyBike Thanks for the insight. That's a good point about taking areas into consideration that you wouldn't choose from afar.

We've had another viewing this week and a second viewing. First viewing didn't like that there's only on floor (?? how was this not apparent from the listing that categorises the house as bungalow). EA said second viewing went well but I have a feeling she won't offer. Apparently it's at the top end of her budget and she doesn't think there's enough parking (just 3 spaces....). I'm so fed up with tidying and getting everyone out of the house for time wasters.

It's really interesting how much it differs living in the area to searching online - the road we're renting on actually has some really negative stuff on MN about it(!) which freaked us out before moving, but it turns out that was all down to one thing in the area which has now gone and so the road is totally different. We'd never have found this out without talking to locals!

@ecochiroptera three parking spaces is tons! Does she have a whole fleet of cars?!

Totally get you @ecochiroptera , our last viewing was on a day when DH was working nightshift, trying to get the house ready on my own while refereeing the fighting kids was v stressful, only for the viewers to ignore follow up phone calls afterwards from the EA. They were our target audience too (FT buyer, young family, wanting into the area for the schools).

Our vendor still hasn't remarketed but we've decided that even if he does, we'll hold out on the market until start of December then will withdraw. We really dont want to be 'that' house which sits on rightmove over Xmas.

@Stayingstrongish I know...it's not a mansion either. It's a small two bed, so really a lot of parking for that.

@InTheCludgie If I was the vendor, I'd probably hold out a little too. I'd be concerned about not getting another buyer, especially not for the same price. So the 'problem' (and stress of viewings) is basically deferred to you. But good point about not wanting to be 'that' house. We're definitely starting to think about what we'll do next. We really want to move and hate the area we're in, which is making us miserable and a little desperate. But ultimately don't have a material urgent reason like new job so could easily just withdraw and go back in a few months. On the other hand, some days I'm dreaming of just dropping the price to something silly or selling to one of those quick sale places so we can be rid of it, leave, and never look back.

So, we had accepted an offer just a few days after going on the market. And they pulled out a few days later 🙄

2 more viewings tomorrow… let’s see what they bring. Really not optimistic given the government is doing absolutely everything they can to screw over the market.

The house is priced the cheapest in the area with the exception of one wreck, and there are fewer than 10 (detached) 4 bed houses in that postcode prefix so it’s not a supply/demand issue.

We can drop the price but not sure that’s the problem at the moment. Feels like the whole market has just stopped. Which it probably has. Cheers Liz and Kwasi.

@Halstead sorry to hear that, it’s so gutting to get your hopes up and start making plans and then they’re taken away. I had the same thing happen the next day after the offer recently.