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 😫

I think this is exactly what is happening. The average person does not follow the housing market that closely or understand the impacts of changes in interest rates. A FTB might be thinking that a friend bought with similar income/outgoings 3 years ago for X, so they can look in the same price range. Or not understand that an online MIP is giving them a best case scenario for interest rates and their actual mortgage offer is likely to be lower.

Similarly, someone who has only bought in a buoyant market may take the EA's valuation of their house as money in the bank, and be basing their offers on achieving full asking for their own property which is unlikely in this market. Yet I see so many people using examples of these non-proceedable offers as evidence that their house is priced correctly. If the only asking price offers are from people that are out of touch with the current market, they're meaningless. Unless they are cash buyers of course.

People are also overlooking the impact rate rises are having on affordability. When prices were high but with low monthly payments, you could save up a bit more for a deposit by living with family for a few months longer, etc. You can not easily change your income to be able to afford significantly larger payments. Especially when prices are not rising in the way that they were before. Maxing out your mortgage and hoping for the best isn't smart anymore. It's not a matter of living frugally for two years until you can remortgage with a better LTV. Most people are going to have to increase their income to make payments more affordable and for a lot of the population that might be difficult to achieve. No one wants to bet on that happening, which is probably why a lot of FTB are backing out once they crunch the numbers.

Such a difficult market at the moment. So much going on that isn’t helping confidence. Definitely a buyers market.

We moved during lockdown, I told the EA that I would not accept any viewers that weren’t in a position to move, so either they needed to be SSTC, if a mortgage was required it needed to be AIP. No way was I going to get the house ready for viewers that weren’t in a position to make an offer.

Good luck OP, moving is stressful at every stage of the process, but worth it when it’s done.

Sorry, have only glanced through so probably repeating what everyone else has said.

• you're being too precise about the market value. Even if 440 was a fair price for that house rather than overly generous buyers and is still a fair price because the market hasn't moved (unlikely), then a 10k reduction is only two percent and as such your asking price would also be market value rather than priced low to sell.

• your asking price is clearly fine as you're attracting plenty of interest but as above that doesn't mean it's a low asking price - buyers may be viewing it as a high asking price and assuming you're open to negotiation.

• 40k under your asking isn't even 10 percent off so it's a perfectly reasonable first offer, especially if the asking price isn't seen as particularly low. We offered 40k under an asking price of 290k and it was instantly accepted (old stamp duty rules).

This. If your house was genuinely priced below its market value it would have sold by now.

A house is worth what someone is willing to pay for it in cold hard cash. Not what the owner thinks it's worth, not what an estate agent says it's worth, but what a buyer is actually willing to pay.

This is too simplistic as you are ignoring a vital factor, timescale.

So for example, if I owned an expensive dress that I wanted to sell in a market that was thin on the ground fir buyers then I would have two options. List it for a low price and expect a quick sale or list the dress for more and wait for the right buyer to come along and buy it. As someone that buys and sells things on the internet frequently, I can tell you that the 'market price' of an item will vary massively depending on which approach you take. The same dress can sell for £5 on a 7 day eBay auction and £20 on a Buy It Now offering that's live for months. Property can be similar and OP listing her house for a few months isn't that long in property terms of she isn't desperate to sell. If there were a huge number of competitor houses on the market and sales were showing a reduction in price then that would be a different story but I don't think that's the case here.

Was the £440 out of kilter or what you would expect?

Eg our flats normally sell 175-180k but one sold for 210k - no different in layout or renovations or decor.

no one knows why - but if I tried to value at that or even 10k under then it wouldn’t sell or would have people offering 30-40k under asking.

any chance it is price?

Nothing is selling right now as people are waiting for interest rates to fall. It’s only been on the market a couple of months. The only reason to accept lowball offers in a quiet market is if you’re desperate to sell.

A house is worth what other houses in the area have sold and are currently selling for £/sq ft.

Multiple low balls offers from desperate buyers hoping for a bargain doesn’t necessarily signify.

I'm with you @PinkBubblesxx I sold last year fairly straightforward but our move & area we've moved to is really awful we hate it. We've put house on market again after only one year of being here.
We've not had one viewing so far so I'm thinking that EA has overpriced.
I think if you are getting viewings hold out the right buyer will come along & great that you've at least had offers. You could be me, no viewings as yet so no offers! I have faith though someone will turn up

Exactly. Good post. There just as many people who can afford the property at current rates.

'Maxing out your mortgage and hoping for the best isn't smart anymore.'
No, it's pretty foolish to do that at the moment!

You need to be less hung up on what you think 'market value' is @PinkBubblesxx. It's not necessarily the same as it was 6 or 12 months ago when your neighbour's sale was agreed. You may be lucky and get a full asking price offer tomorrow which may go through without a hitch but, on the other hand, you may need to negotiate with one of those offering 10% below AP as long as they are in a secure financial position. They aren't chancers btw, just offering what they can afford/ think is realistic.

I do remember selling our last house. We had 3 agents round who all gave very accurate estimates of what sales price they thought we could achieve. They all said, 'we think it will sell for around £515k so we will put it on the market for £540k to £550k so the buyers feel they getting a bargain'

That's exactly what we did and what happened. We had a few cheeky offers, which we refused, they came back with higher offers. The market was normal. We had around 15 viewings.

Why didn't you market it at the same price as the other house on your estate when that was originally put on the market?

I'm not sure you can count the "asking price offers" if none of them could technically afford them anyway. There's lots of buyers out there who are clueless about what they can and can't afford.

Technically, if they made an offer, those are your only buyers. You will have to negotiate with them until you both agree on a price, otherwise nothing moves.

You can wait it out for a buyer, but the more the EA and yourself tell new potential buyers it's had 30+ viewings yet not take off the market, then it will only make people wonder if there's something wrong with the property.

I disagree with others - you have not priced correctly. If you had, you'd have a sale by now. It could be that the ad and EA's marketing is getting viewings but the actual property is losing offers. Just something to think about.

You might need to let go off this "10k under asking price". I'm not sure what this even means tbf.

In the South East here. Friend put their very well presented 3 bed room house on the market last week, 10 viewings and 2 offers from proceedable
buyers over asking price! House was priced at a realistic price.

Depends where you are though. Property generally shifts fast in London and SE commuter towns even now.

Yes it does depend where you are but you didn't acknowledge that when you said "you're selling at a time when no-one is buying or selling and everyone waiting to see if interest rates come down".

I’m not writing a PhD that has to cover every angle exhaustively.

The market is certainly down in London and inventory is low. And OP is clearly in an area where property is not selling fast.

Ok it just amused me that you jumped on the comment @LindaDawn made saying "depends where you are though" when the same could be said about your own comment.

“Jumped”? I just responded.

Our house has been on the market for nearly a year, we’ve dropped the asking price by £100K and had no offers. It’s a beautiful end of terrace with loads of original features, in a very sought-after area. It’s depressing and I feel your pain. Hope you manage to sell soon.

Not really. Prices have fallen the most in the South of the country and some parts of London.
However, if the seller has a realistically priced and nicely presented property, people are still buying, as the other poster's comment shows. Unfortunately, many sellers are not pricing realistically and many properties are poorly maintained and presented so many homes are not selling and having multiple reductions.

Further to my previous post and still in South East I know of 2 couples selling parents’ homes and one now sold after 8 months having reduced the price and accepting a a further reduction and the other home still unsold after 8 months as they are happy to wait until they get the price they want.

Also, I don't know about every area of London but generally speaking, inventory is very high at present so buyers can pick and choose in many areas.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/available-for-sale-stock-climbs-to-highest-levels-in-eight-years-zoopla.html

'and the other home still unsold after 8 months as they are happy to wait until they get the price they want.'
I guess they are gambling on the market rising rather than falling....

I hope you are not spending any money on solicitors or surveyors or anything else if they are going to do this.

Oh goodness @Mostlycarbon. I agree with the previous poster. Don't spend any money unless they agree to take the property off the market and progress the sale with you. Frankly, my trust would be broken even if they agreed to do this now. They sound the type to mess you around so may be better to cut them loose before they do this.

But consider that the other house was overpriced to start with.
It’s not a struggling buyers market, it’s the sellers not being realistic about just how far prices have dropped.

As you’re finding it all so stressful, would it be worth a conversation with the buyers that offered 40k under?