Taking our house off the market. It’s too annoying.

[sellotape12]

I’m fed up of having to leave the house every Friday and Saturday, or estate agents turning up early. Or then being super loud and waking the baby from his nap. I’m fed up of having to frantically tidy with five mins notice. This whole process has made me re-fall in love with our existing house.

FYI we live in a pretty popular neighbourhood of London and have a modernised mid terrace. We’ve had 41 viewings, no offers, all feedback has been “we’re thinking about it”. Everything we look at to buy as onwards is being price-pumped to try offset the falling market. Or it looks ok then you realise it needs some renovation work and with 2 year waitlists and spiralling costs, it’s no longer a good deal to renovate.

The reason we wanted to move was a busy street but tbh the volatility of this market and lack of options has made us realise our current place has more of good thing about it. So solidarity with anyone else who’s thinking of coming off the market!

@sellotape12 congratulations on your new mental relationship wit your house!!! Lol -

Ignore the feedback, we are viewing at the moment and it’s always down to value for money. I.e if your house was 5-10% cheaper then I could get over the small 4th bedroom or the dated kitchen. 41 viewings means your agent has done well marketing the house but a terrible job at convincing you of the real value of your house. We are seeing houses discounted 20% off the record, this is how grotesque the gap is between what sellers think it’s worth and what is the sticky price point on the market. Your onward purchase will put you on the other boot where you will likely secure a discount yourself versus public price

It probably won't be too png before log burners are banned in built up areas because of the pollution they cause.

41 viewings is very wearing. I don't understand why people are such timewasters and view properties they could rule out by reading the listing, looking at the photos and driving by the house to check the exterior and location. Your EA might need to be screening them a bit better too. Maybe they could ring around anyone who seemed interested to warn them it's coming off the market if offers aren't forthcoming.

“If we cut any more we can’t move onward”

the market didn’t care what price you need. It’s obviously too high.

If any of the issues like "the loft isn't converted" or "the kitchen is wooden" are reasons why the viewers wouldn't consider your house then they shouldn't have got through the door. Those are all issues that the property listing should have made clear.

It's probably the fault of the estate agent. We dealt with some useless ones. The one that couldn't tell me if a house had low beams or similar, so "we'd just have to view it" sticks in my mind 20 years on. It turned out to be 3 cottages on different levels glommed together, so there were 4ft tall doorways. There was no way my 6'3" husband was going to fall in love with it and put up with cracking his head on a daily basis. So a massive waste of time all round.

Twats.

I feel you, OP, we're in the same boat and taking our house off the market next week. We've been on for 7 weeks now and I'm so fed up with the endless cycle of cleaning and tidying just to have another time-waster traipsing around our home. Just this afternoon we had flakey CFs cancelling the viewing they wanted so badly (absolutely had to be this Friday and we changed our plans to accommodate them) with under two hours' notice, just when I had finished cleaning.

'Chancers wanting to nosey', as you described it, has been our experience with about half the viewers as well. Our listing and pictures show exactly what you're getting but so many people seem to have done zero homework, know nothing about the area and apparently can't even be bothered to read.

We're not in the UK, but it's the same difficult market here and we'll just try again next year. Hopefully, interest rates will start going down in the new year. I'm so annoyed with myself that I wasn't ready to move last spring. Our neighbours' practically identical house (but with fewer original features) sold for €200.000 more than our current asking price within two weeks and we're still here two months later without any serious and proceed-able offers.

Most of these people aren't "time wasters". There are still plenty of buyers out there who are eager to purchase a house but a lot of the stock isn't great at the moment, and with news that prices are falling people are reluctant to compromise too much when there's a chance they might be able to get something better in a few months. Unless the price is low enough to mitigate the risk.

A lot of viewers probably think your house could be an option but they need to see it in person to determine if the compromises are worth the price. There's a house that just came on the market today that DP and I might be interested in. Based on the photos and floorplan the room sizes are just on the edge of what we'd consider acceptable but we don't know for sure unless we see the space. The bathroom also only has a shower which isn't ideal. We definitely wouldn't pay asking price, and if the rooms are smaller than they appear we wouldn't be interested at all unless there was a big price reduction. But viewing is to determine if the compromises are workable and at what price. If we decide it's not for us or the value we'd place on it is too far from the seller's asking price that doesn't mean we were "time wasters". I think some sellers expect viewers to have the mindset that this is their dream house and the viewing is just to confirm it but that's not usually the case.

Sounds like a nightmare 🤦‍♀️ we've just taken out off the market too. Viewings are very annoying and market very slow. Always feel the need to keep our house to "viewing standard' but CBA for time wasters!

Sick of estate agents talking people into viewing our house... I guess they're sort of doing their job but the pointless viewings are annoying if our house doesn't even fit their criteria/they can't afford it etc.

TBH its London and I think you'll get more of this type of thing (from my own experience).

Properties tend to be closer together, and EA's can easily upsell another viewing to someone 'this meets your criteria and is real close'
Everyone wins, the EA can give the impression they have lots of business, they can tell the seller they are getting more views (even if those views are bullshit), the buyers get to see double the properties but it only takes 10-20% more time (as most of the time is spent getting to/from)

So these visitors are literally seconds, your property isn't the main one that they have come to see, you're an additional. As a result they have paid scant attention to the listing, or not read it at all.

That's the only real explanation I can think of for the no interest, or shitty comments, or comments on things that are really apparent from the listing.

It does remind me of a friend though, who very loudly took her house off the market claiming they loved it all the time and didn't want to move anyway. The next week a previous bidder bid asking price and it was accepted in a day, and she was looking forward to moving, as she had outgrown the old place!

It's amazing that people just don't wanna lose face, in this case her problem just was she didn't want to sell the house for less than the asking, so had to pretend to do these verbal gymnastics so it appeared not about money.

It must be EA agents who are chasing people to view your property, despite them having very little interest in it, to get their viewing numbers up. You’d probably ended up with few only, if that.

i.e. EA tried to drag us to view basement flats, when we were very clear that we won’t consider it under any circumstances. But they just keep doing it.

Price will be another issue, people are expecting more for the money. We have neighbours who’ve been trying to sell for 3 years for the price no one is willing to pay, it was overpriced even for covid boom. But they are still trying…

I feel you @ScreamingIntoMyPillow it’s like this everywhere at the moment. And as for prepping your house / flat only for people to cancel, it’s just a chore isn’t it? We’ve heard that from lots of people we know.
I’ve only skimmed recent replies but a few people are missing my point – I’m not after tips to push a sale through. I know I can reduce the price, or I can get a third agent; my point is I don’t want to. Emotionally don’t have the energy anymore, and secondly, I’m realising that I don’t really want to sell our house. This is the point of the post. It’s a bit like we went into marriage counselling with our house and then we realised there was romance left in it after all! So it’s a good thing.
-end-

Sounds like the estate agents need to better filter those they deem eligible for viewings? Are all in a proceedable position? They need to have either sold theirs, be cash or first time buyers and/or have a mortgage in principle. If they don’t meet that criteria, ask the estate agent doesn’t let them view. That should cut down viewings

Also, could you do the viewings yourself? We did that after weeks of never ending viewings. Made it so much easier

I think taking your house off the market for now sounds good, especially for Christmas. The only thing I’d be mindful of is (that if it’s on RightMove as well as with your local agent) that it comes up as being “relisted” and I think people take that to mean there’s something wrong with the property or that you’re desperate and can come in with some really cheeky offers. Just something to be mindful of

Good luck!

I’ve been where you are @sellotape12 (not in Peckham are you, Clementine and Cuthbert sound familiar 😆) - it’s horrible having your home space invaded by people who then slag it off.

I am torn between moving (for no real reason) and not moving. A lot of the houses I look at - only online - are smaller than mine or have other issues that are worse than what I have currently. I do not live in a mansion, just a nice 3 bed but the rooms are bigger than some of the newer houses and an older house would cost more to maintain. I think I am going to look at a small extension and to brighten up a couple of rooms.

If you've had 41 viewings and no offers seems like something is wrong somewhere. So it's either price or something wrong with the house thst wasnt obvious before viewings. But put some rules in place. Twenty four hours notice of viewings. But it's disheartening.

Sounds like the right option for you. Spend some of the saved stamp duty on a gorgeous holiday!

Depends if you have to pay for your wood 😉

We sold our house this year and hated the viewing stage. We asked for 24hrs notice but even then, it was a nightmare trying to keep it showhome ready. On top of that, we had two sales fall through because the buyers couldn't get a mortgage despite their agreements in principle. So we thought we were done only to end up back on the market and booking in viewings again. Towards the end, we stopped worrying about everything being pristine and just left the house tidy but obviously lived in. The feedback was the same regardless, nobody complained about the state of the house.

Oh god, yes!
We had planned to sell when our youngest finished at the catchment school and buy something bigger/ needed work.
Frankly I cannot be bothered. Our little house will do. So instead investing what we would have spent on stamp duty making it nicer

It’s a tricky time to sell unless you have to. Economic climate, uncertainty about jobs/mortgage rates/recession/falling house prices etc etc makes a lot of buyers twitchy and wanting a bargain to proceed. 40+ viewings with 2 agents and no offers when the price is fair tells its own story - I’d stick for now.

Normally I’m on the side of the buyers who fairly expect a lot for what they’re going to be paying but this is definitely them BVU!

Aren’t they about to be banned by Sadiq anyway?

41 viewings and not a single offer is very unusual . I think you’re doing right to take it off now, it’s unlikely to go.

however once you get some breathing space I’d start to consider why , you’re obviously getting interest, that’s a lot of viewings, but when they view something is putting them off ie is it smaller than the photos make it look, or in less good condition. The reason it’s worth trying to work it out as if you may change your mind again and wish to list at some point in the future. 41 viewings and no offer is not the market or they were all time wasters, it’s something else.

😂😂😂

This made me laugh. I think people in london are afraid of doing literally ANYTHING to a property and because there are streets and streets of very similar (or identical) ones people just get super picky. You should have given them a lecture on air quality in the capital and sent them packing!