How long did it take to sell your house?

[9Alwayshappy]

My house has been on the market for 15 months. We reduced the price by 5% in March, and I've had a few lowish offers since but declined all of them. I'm not in a rush to sell and happy to wait it out for the asking price, but the property is currently empty and i'd like to offload it sooner rather than later if I can.

If you wanted full price, how long did it take you to sell?

How long is a piece of string? An empty house will be getting less appealing, looking uncared for maybe a bit damp and musty. I wouldn't keep waiting, prices are apparently falling if anything. Lower the price again, or think about Auction. The house could get vandalised or squatters move in, I would want it sold.

Put it this way, we sold my Dads flat in 2022. When it didn’t sell after about 2 months we reduced the price by 5%. When it still didn’t sell we reduced it by another 5% a few weeks later. That attracted more interest & it sold.

15 months sounds a very long period of time to have only reduced by 5%. As a potential buyer I would see that and assume you are not a motivated seller.

That’s a very long time to have only dropped 5% of the asking price. I think after maybe 3 months if there hadn’t been many viewings I’d have dropped 10%.
What’s the market in the area like? Maybe unlist it, wait a couple of months and then re list it.
If you would rather offload it sooner then drop the price!

To add, not many buyers are going to be willing to offer full asking price in this market @9Alwayshappy unless the property is in a particularly desirable area

We've always priced slightly above what we 'needed' to get for a house, on the assumption that people will offer below asking price.

As a buyer, I'd be put off a house that had been on the market that long, as you start to think that there has to be something wrong with it, otherwise someone else would have snapped it up in that time.

15 months on the market is very long OP - you need to reduce if you want to sell asap. Just cut your losses.

15 months is a very long time for a house to sit empty and for it only to go down 5%.
Remember, a house that is empty is losing it's appeal very quickly. Buyers will be thinking "I bet the water pipes have seized up/the boiler will be dead etc etc". They'll be anticipating all the extra costs of getting the house up and running again. And even if you sell it tomorrow, you're probably looking at another good few months before someone moves in.
Sorry, but 15 months on from vacating, a house just isn't worth full price any more. It's only worth what someone will pay.

I'm on the other side of this, offered on a house that the sellers are seemingly in no rush to sort the sale on. House was put on the market over a year ago, my offer was accepted 6 months ago and the sellers still haven't submitted probate, the house is sat empty.

It annoying me that the seller is letting it rot. Depending on how much more damage there is by the time to exchange/complete my offer might have to go down again to cover the costs of fixing those rotten beams (and yes we have report that prove the wood is rotting due to the damp which we can't get fixed until we own it so over 6 months of unnecessary water ingress has occurred).

I will tell you this though after a year on the market no one else seems interested in touching it with a barge pole, its become the bane of the EA and people think we are mad for sticking with it.

Yes they can keep the house forever and just let it go to wrack and ruin but honestly whats the point? you'll be paying tax on it so losing money and it will not increase its only going constantly down in value.

Three days. On market on the Wednesday. Six viewings on the Saturday. Three offers on Monday. One under asking. One asking price, one over asking price. I accepted the asking price offer as they were FTB with mortgage agreed.
To be fair it was a beautiful family home and the EA priced it just right. He said it would sell quick and it did.

I've sold 3 houses. I've never sold any of them at asking price. If it's been on the market 15 months it certainly sounds like it is overpriced.

Sorry OP but the longer you leave it the less it is worth.

The bottom line is that the orginal asking price is now outdated. Its prob not worth what it was due to being left empty and a falling/unsure market. Waiting around for asking price is madness.

I'd drop it by 10% at least, give it a month and if no one bites, drop it by 20%.

Our house sold at full sales price before it went on the market. We priced reasonably and our house is in good order with all major rooms being recently renovated.

I think house prices have reduced more than most people realise and therefore people are unintentionally overpricing their properties.

The house we're buying was reduced by 5% and we got another 5% off, it needs a lot of work and the location is like marmite. So after being on the market for 8 months, the sellers realised our offer was appropriate.

I think you're likely overpricing your property for today's market. However, if you're not in a rush, why not take it off the market and wait for the market to improve?

If your 'full price' is utterly overpriced it won't matter how long it took other people to achieve their realistic 'full price'. Ours went full price in 6 days but it was priced right.

Deluded.

If nobody wants it after 15 months then it is seriously over-priced. Longest I have ever taken to sell a house was 9 weeks and that was in a slump.

About 10 days to receive offers on my last house, sold last year. 6k above asking price.

Is this a probate property? Has it not been maintained in the time it's been empty? The longer it sits empty the less appealing it gets. You're not going to sell it at the price you want, op.

If you don’t need to sell why not rent it out? At least that way someone gets a home for a while. There’s a huge shortage of rentals.