Viewing a house that has been on the market for a year

[Cathbach]

What questions should I ask? How much do agents have to disclose?

When I asked the agent on the phone they were just quite breezy and said a couple of sales had fallen through. But it seems a long time? Or is it normal?

I’m a first time buyer, I know nothing about buying property and it’s all so daunting!

My house has been on for 6 months - I ended up with a reduction of nearly 20% off the original asking price!

Our first house, when we came to sell, was on the market for 18 months on and off. We had terrible luck. First purchaser spent months and months and pulled out on exchange day (was buying as a second home to stay in during the working week....those were the days!) The second buyer lost their buyer and couldn't proceed. Then we took off the market for a couple of months over Christmas. Third buyer finally completed. There was nothing wrong with the house.

It’s possibly just bad luck as the agent described. However there could have been something that came up in the survey or searches that put off the previous buyers. Or it could be overpriced. You could push the agent to ask why the previous sales fell through but I’m not sure that they have to disclose if there’s an issue. On the pricing it’s worth researching what similar properties have sold for recently and assume that it should be at least 5 to 10% cheaper to reflect the current market as those sold prices are likely to be from initial offers last year.

We saw a house which had been on the market over a year
basically was totally overpriced and needed a lot of work
the vendor wouldn’t reduce so that was reason - doesn’t always have to be a sinister reason

I've got my eye on one, it's so overpriced. You can see what it sold for 3 years ago and that they've done nothing to me it.

I also know of a lot of sales that have been delayed in the last year because people have lost their job or rates rises making a move unaffordable.

I would prefer to ask the vendors directly at the viewing. 'You have had a bad run of buyers this year, what happened?'

If they slate both buyers in great detail, at least you know they are difficult to deal with.

I think it's perfectly plausible two sets of buyers couldn't get mortgages though.

I'd ask the agent some specific questions - was there something on the survey that led to it falling through? If you ask f2f you might get some idea even if they don't say.

I'd always pay for a top level survey.

Be very careful about all documentation being accurate.

Check out local planning developments.

Ask written questions about neighbour issues.

Basically if you really like it and the price is right, you can mitigate the risk from pretty much everything except an arsehole vendor. Some people do not want to sell! But if the other people withdrew because they found something, if you are thorough then presumably you'll find it too?

I’ve got my eye on one that’s horrendously overpriced - it’s been on 18 months already and is a total renovation job. It needs to come down at least £100,000 (about 12%) but the vendors apparently don’t need to sell and aren’t reducing. I don’t even think they’ve had any viewings in the last few months. I spoke ti the agent and he said they are going to leave the property empty until the market picks up in the next few years!

My neighbors house has been on for 10 months.
He's an absolute arsehole who refuses to reduce the price, that's why it's been on for so long without an offer.

It’s not normal. It means the house is not worth the price they have for it. The sales fell through before probably because the previous buyers couldn’t get a mortgage on it m, or if they could, the bank didn’t agree with the valuation.

Knock a considerable amount of the asking price. Don’t reward the seller. It’s been a friggin year. These sellers beed to just accept their loss in today’s market. You don’t want to overpay in case you end up in negative equity in the next few years, be smart now, not desperate. It’s sellers who are desperate.

Believe me. Nothing is worth whatever sellers are asking for right now.

Good luck.

You should also ask directly in written email (but politely) did previous buyers and viewers have any issues with the house. Did they raise any problems found on a surveyors report. They have to respond with accurate info, legally.

Its likely its overpriced if it sat on the market the whole time.

If it came off STC and went back on it might be that they had a chain fall through or something which might not be anything to do with them.

More often than not it’s the price.

There’s a house we nearly went for last year. Had been on the market for a few months at the time but felt it was too overpriced for the location and some other minor issues that brought the price down. The EA told us the vendor refused to consider less than £1m. During the covid house boom the vendor was told his house is worth £1m so he won’t go below £1m.

Similar houses on the same road, with better gardens, are going for £750k! 1.5 years later, the house is still on the market, constantly changing agents.

It could be the price. But also could be a risk there is something wrong that is not obvious that was only revealed in searches/surveys.

The problem is that you might incur fees to find that out - so that is the risk you take.

Yes it can be normal Op.

The house I bought had been on the market for nearly a year because 2 sales had genuinely fallen through. I think one couple failed to get a mortgage and the other decided to move abroad. Nothing wrong with my house.

The current market is difficult as well. I’m aware of people still having to pull out because of higher mortgage rates. My neighbour’s house was on the market for months. They had over 50 viewings and had to reduce the price twice before they got a sale.

Best thing to do is go and look. My late parents house took a year to sell, initially priced too high for what it was thanks to my brother, we had 2 sales fall through, one at the point of exchange. Nothing wrong with the house as borne out by the surveys done on it, so it really isn't necessarily a red flag. It was 3rd time lucky for us!

We enquired about a house like this last month. The home report ( Scotland) indicated that there's damp in the property which requires a special survey which costs up to £900. It might show that repairs would be minimal or it might be a massive job. We wrote to the estate agent to ask if the buyer would consider paying for this survey but they refused. We wouldn't even look at it and I doubt this house will ever sell.

Two years ago we sold a garden flat which was on the market nearly 12 months. Popular area, long lease, spacious rooms, good condition, priced to sell.

Younger buyers failed to get their mortgages or had no idea about the processes involved or about a requirement for returning paperwork in a timely fashion, couldn’t prove where money was coming from etc. (Money laundering rules) Sales fell through for a variety of silly reasons. Nightmare. All the while we were paying council tax & standing charges on utilities.

Finally a single chap bought it with help from mum and dad and that too took absolutely ages because the third parties were “process ignorant.” It was a nightmare but we got there in the end for full asking price. 🙄😆

Have to praise our estate agent, she kept us up to date every step of the way.

Keep the faith!

It can be entirely innocent reasons. We bought a house that had been on the market for 18 months - EA had changed once in that time. We eventually got our offer accepted with quite a lot of back and forth at about 6% below what it was on at. The seller had had it valued for probate at the height of the market when his wife had died and couldn't get his head round it being worth less than that now. I think it had been valued then at about £100k more than our eventual successful offer! It was a bit crazy as he'd owned it for over 40 years so it was still a massive increase!

It could be people having mortgages fall through or losing jobs. Not surprising in the current climate.

Or it could be surveys showing up something expensive and the seller refusing the lower the price.

I'd view it but look very carefully during viewings and get a full survey done if you do decide to offer. Also ask the EA in writing if anything untoward came up with previous attempts to sell it.

Good luck!

Thanks, this is all really helpful.

My concern is that it is overpriced. It’s hard to be sure because the market seems to be all over the place. But it is not a cheap house to start with (£760k) and we are hoping to use it as a stepping stone to our dream home. This would mean hopefully selling in 3-5 years, so buying at a hiked up price is not really an option!

Im finding that there’s very little comparable on the market, which also isn’t helping and means we also don’t have many other options to view and compare it to.

You need to ask what offers have been rejected and when.

Some people are massively deluded as to what their house is worth and would rather wait it out then sell for less (we tried to make an offer on a house a few years ago and the elderly couple were clueless). They had no mortgage and it was very dated. Structurally apparently it was fine.

Agent told us they were not taking anything other than the asking price because their friend told them what it was worth. Certainly the EA was fed up with them and revealed because they hadn’t got anywhere to move to it was likely to be a longer process than normal. We backed right away and needless to say it was taken off the market. I still keep my eye on it and I suspect they are kicking themselves that they didn’t sell all those years ago.

Recently sold relatives house in a fab location in London but house was very dated. It went for 4% under asking price which was fine by us. Daft brother wanted to wait a bit but we needed to sell and I am SO glad we did in the end.

DM's house was on the market for almost seven months - this was when the market was hot and everything else was flying out of the door. I remain convinced that if we hadn't switched to our genuinely amazing independent EA, she would still have been kicking her heels waiting for a buyer several months later.

There wasn't anything sinister with DM's house - it just had a bit of a weird layout that wouldn't suit many people. There were 4 bedrooms in a dormer bungalow - with three of the bedrooms upstairs. The main one upstairs was the only was that was ensuite, but the bedroom was only 8 ft wide but very loooong - very difficult to fit a king size bed in comfortably because it was so narrow! The largest bedroom was downstairs but that wasn't ensuite. And the two other bedrooms upstairs were smallish box rooms really - suitable for a baby, but then the parents would be downstairs and the baby sleeping upstairs alone?!

Also, the garden had lots of steps and levels, so dangerous for young children.

It was a good solid house with excellent bones, but needed a complete revamp really with walls moved and lots of work to improve the layout.

There were very few people that the house would have suited. That was the biggest problem.

You could pop up a link and we could take a look to see if we can spot a problem? I've had a ton of help from the smart posters on this board.

My grandparents’ a house was on the market for about a year in the end and completed a few months ago.Went to sealed bids initially then just as we were at exchange my Aunt died so had to go to probate.

We had 2 buyers couldn’t get a mortgage on our house which took months of messing around. 3rd buyer had a split chain so potential to go wrong but went through in just under 10 weeks. Nothing wrong with the house, just buyer’s situations with mortgages.

Ask what has happened with surveys and make sure you pay a sensible price if you do decide to go for it.

As others have said, ask the reason from the EA and make sure he gives you a clear answer. We’ve had sales fall through 5 times, two because they didn’t actually complete in their houses, one who wanted contents free, another who said the process took too long.. 3 weeks in, another who wanted 80k off the house just before signing, because the house was rotted and flooded (house is in East Acton, w3)and he wouldn’t share the contents of the survey with anyone including his own solicitor who was frustrated with him as well.. the latter kept emailing estate agent for months afterwards to ask for an ‘update’ after we’d declined ..

House has been on for 18months .. sometimes it’s just bad luck.. each time a sale falls through you lose 3-4 months, longer in some cases as well.

It’s now back on the market and hoping it’s 6th time lucky.. if it doesn’t get an offer before November, we’ll take it off the market for Christmas period and relaunch in Jan.