Nightmare trying to sell our house

[PinkBubblesxx]

We are trying to get to sell our very well presented new build lived in home and having a complete nightmare with complete utter time wasters 😫 Our home is in a great central but green location in a very family oriented area and is priced fairly (10k under its market value) to encourage interest.

We have been on the market for over 2 months now and had at least 30 viewing's! We have had a handful of offers of chancers offering £40k under the asking price, which we strongly declined. And the other offers we have had, have offered asking price, which we happily accepted. As soon as we have accepted they have either gone quiet and just ignored the estate agent, one offer had to supposedly rush back to Nigeria for a family emergency then not to be heard from again, we've had 2 offers when they have to submit their paperwork and have an affordability check and it turns out they can't afford their offer or even pull out a mortgage! Last week we had an offer from ideal first time buyers and we had our hopes so high that this was the one! They dragged their feet all week to submit their paperwork to the estate agents broker - which we found odd. They then asked for a 3rd viewing which we found highly frustrating but of course entertained it as we want a sale. The day before the 3rd viewing the estate agent had qualified them being able to purchase and had a mortgage in place, so they marked our property as sold over the weekend. This morning they emailed the agent saying they had changed their minds 😫 the agent pressed for a reason behind the sudden u turn and they said the mortgage rate they had now been offered was slightly more than what they thought they would get 😫

So we are back to square one, having to entertain viewings - which are really draining! Especially where we already had at least 30! Me and my partner are at wits end and it's really making us feel so ill and depressed from all the stress of it all as we have found our dream home but feel like it will just get snapped up! We have been messed around with so called serious offers so much that we have lost all hope 😫 Even the estate agency is just as frustrated with the amount of time wasters we have had! We have a prime home in a prime in demand location and £10k under the market value.

Is it just us having bad luck trying to sell our home or is anyone else experiencing the same? As it's honestly becoming unbearable 😫

What did you pay 7 years ago? Can you afford a bigger drop?

I would make sure that the price of your house states offers over the house price so that sends a clear message you won't take anything under.
As the viewings are becoming overwhelming it might be a better Idea to only have viewings on certain days. Might even be good to plan a open day

Your estate agents job to do all of this really and make sure they have a mortgage already in place and I would advise you only allow viewings from those that do hopefully it will thin out those that aren't serious buyers. You can also change agents if you feel they aren't very good.

Selling is stressful and it can take months to get a buyer. Anything can fall through etc I've moved three times so I get it

There is a lot of noise in your op. But it seems the simple fact is you’re getting viewings but no one wants to offer what you’re asking, apart from one couple who quickly pulled out.

that’s the simple fact. The market value is what someone is willing to pay for it. And no one, literally is willing to pay what you wish.

It’s as pp said, hard to sell an old new build.

We've been in ours 7 years and a big reason I haven’t really considered moving is that I know it’ll be difficult to sell as there’s newer ones being built over our fence. There’s loads going up in our area and you can negotiate kitchen, flooring and have them exactly how you want.

I'm in a 3 bed but it’s small really and wouldn’t really house a family of 4. My friend looked at houses here and said to get 3 decent sized bedrooms, you need to buy a 4 bed. The back garden is small too.

Unless you’re in a really desirable area and close to good schools then it’s just an average house in an average place, worth what someone else is willing to pay.

I would make sure that the price of your house states offers over the house price so that sends a clear message you won't take anything under.

Yeah, this doesn't work! Nobody takes any notice of "offers over" or "in excess of". I actually think it's a good thing to save both parties from wasting their time but on here it's apparently really bad form to state the least you'd accept for your house 🤷

I had to accept a very low offer. £70,000 less than my original asking price. I also got a bargain with my purchase. Therefore it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

A good example is the house next door to my old house. It sold in June 22 for £500,000. It was an eight year old house. Identical house, but bigger and better facing garden and a much nicer kitchen has now been for sale (probate) for more than a year and a half. Currently on at £400,000 and still not sold. It's a small and lovely development.

Your low offers are probably realistic and reflect the market for your type of property at this time.

Posting anything here to do with a house it's brutal. You will get slaughtered for whatever you say and don't post your house as everyone is all of a sudden an Interior designer, an architect or an estate agent. I posted mine up and it was brutal, never again

Good luck with selling and the right buyers will come along but it's very frustrating.

If people have offered £385k is there a reason why you’ve not gone back with a counter offer? £405 etc

It's not worth what you think it is.

I agree 2022 was a blip in many areas. Mine included.

The market is telling you what your property is worth. Either listen and accept an offer now or wait to see if things improve / you get lucky. Simple.

Forget the '10k under market value' selling aspect, that's small change when selling a house over 400k. Buyers, if they realise, will just think it's got something odd about it eg awkward parking, odd garden, smaller footprint etc.
Your EA should really be negotiating or advising on counter offers. I would have thought anybody offering 40k under would be using that as a starting point unless they are time-wasters.

how about a big advert on facebook a day open all day for viewing really kill the pictures everywhere.our local facebook page allows adverts 1 day a week.

I feel your frustration! It’s a horrible market at the moment with interest rates still so high (in comparison to a few years back) and large deposits are required. We are also on the market and have had what I think is a cheeky offer. We have turned it down as I know the climate just isn’t great for sellers. We do want to move eventually but we’re not desperate. So we’ll return to market when the balance tips.

Sounds like whoever paid £440k for that other house overpaid OR prices have come down a lot since then.

We had an offer on our house of £615k in 2022 but didn't move as the houses we wanted to buy were all being bid up to silly money. We ended up selling this year for £580k which sounds like a huge drop but is only 6% ish lower.

I can well understand why you reject an offer 10% below your asking price, but it sounds like you are going to need to accept an offer perhaps 5% below if you want to sell it. That's just how the market has changed in a world of higher interest rates.

When we moved, our EA refused to allow any viewings from people unless they had provided evidence of their affordability and ability to proceed.

It cut out all the time wasters, including the woman who was furious at the notion that she couldn't possibly afford the price.

Take £100k off the price and it will sell tomorrow, with your pick of which offer/buyer to accept.

Obviously that would be madness. But it's a useful reminder to keep in mind that these problems, essentially, are ALWAYS down to the price.

• Try and sell at £325k - you'll probably sell immediately with a huge choice of offers.
• Try and sell at £425k - it's not selling, you're where you are now. Stuck, frustrated, buyers getting cold feet and not willing or able to commit.

The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle but your current price is too high for the market, not '10% under'.

If you want to secure your dream house, you need to drop your price or at least be prepared to negotiate with people offering £40k under (which is a reasonable starting point, not cheeky at all).

Agree that a good EA would be using that offer as a starting point to negotiate a deal somewhere between 40k under and the asking price. Assuming OP & the person offering are both open to negotiations which isn’t always the case.

Ridiculous comment! You have zero idea of prices or demand in the area! How on earth can you comment on the price when literally the only information you have is that it’s a new build?

The market changed with the jump in interest rates and with an upcoming election people will be sitting on their hands- the vat on private school fees for instance would make a big difference to the outgoings for some households.

Are they still building where you are?

very hard to sell a new build when they’re still building as the developers invariably have incentives like stamp duty paid or whatever.

i live in a new build where they’re still building and my grumpy neighbour is trying to sell his for 395 when he paid 360 and the new ones are 400. He can’t understand why it’s not selling when it’s “under market value” but the developers are paying stamp duty on the brand new 400k one.

At least you have viewings and interest. You will get a decent buyer. it is a tough time to be selling a house. How much is the asking price?

It's also second hand now - so he has almost no hope of getting anywhere near that price.

Just wondering if you are in London as houses in our area all go above the asking price in the matter of days. It’s been absolutely nightmare to try to find the vendor which is not going to accept even higher offer half way through the purchase…