Handhold? our buyers just pulled out on exchange day :-(

[MissCherryCakeyBun]

just had a call from the agents and our buyers have pulled out.... I feel sick 😥
we were due to exchange today and we have already moved into our new house so have been playing a juggling act to cover everything and now this.
7 months since we went on the market and everything was fine and this just out of the blue. The female buyer (Married couple) has decided she isn't sure about the neighbors.

if I put up a link could you have a look and see what we could do to make it more appealing?

Worth noting its now totally empty of furniture in the house so those photos are a bit different and we have asked for new Garden photos to be taken showing it in the summer

We don't have the funds to dress the house with furniture and we had all the walls repainted and the carpets cleaned after we moved so its all fresh....Its also more expensive than others locally due to new wiring/heating floors etc. in the last 5 years and the very large home office/studio in the garden

I have some nice pots with plants and flowers to go by the front door for more curb appeal too.

sorry for the rambling post just needed to vent
Original Listing.... check notes above about changes :-)

Ive taken on board the constructive criticism and as I said previously the random furniture is now gone and the garden more tidy and a gardener is coming this weekend to spruce up.
as for others up for sale in the area, the actual house size and especially plot size is very large in comparison due to the extension and being a corner plot. I do understand the 2/3 bedroom argument but if your looking for a 3 you wouldn't look at a 2? I say this as a 2 bedroom house owner. the bathroom being upstairs is unusual in the area as downstairs is the default for many houses of this age so that's why its now a 2 bedroom.
It was only on the market 3 weeks before it went to offer but unfortunately due to the buyers having delays with their sale it took until now to get to exchange. we had good feedback on the house at the time it was listed and we are in a dead end street opposite a park with a large garden. many of the other houses currently listed have smaller very overlooked gardens.

The "freestanding" wardrobe is actually against a wall if you look at the floor plan

as for working for Connells DH works for the Connells group but not is residential sales or property but we do have to declare this as Fox & Sons are part of Connells group.

As for the price? we had no negative comments during the initial listing regarding the price and its in keeping with the 3 valuations we got from estate agents.

I do appreciate the hand holds and lovely comments its helped on a sad and stressful day

Seriously? I'd look at those photos and think the whole house needed gutting. The kitchen needs totally replacing and the photos make the house look damp.

I wouldn't even bother doing a viewing.

Sorry to hear that - so frustrating. I wouldn’t worry about there not being furniture, as long as the property is clean and no scuff marks anywhere. Advice when I was selling my late MILs house was it was fine with no furniture as most people can visualise what there furniture would look like in the space - and for many more difficult if the furniture is there.

Make sure you put some reed diffusers in - an empty house soon gets musty and that “empty house smell” without them.

Get the estate agents to update pictures and the blurb to highlight work done with electrics etc. I would also have a serious conversation about the price - it looks toppy in comparison to others in your area which have gone on the market more recently - are they sure in the current market it’s still appropriate ? Are you willing to drop a little to encourage a quick sale ( you need to work out how much it is actually costing you per month to maintain and therefore by dropping £xx you sell more quickly therefore saving £ yy) - good luck

@MissCherryCakeyBun sorry for upsetting you! I only asked as we are in a similar position. Our buyer isn't ready but we don't want to lose our onward purchase. So we are considering options like bridging loans etc. so thought you may be able to help that's all!!

Oh and the neighbors? I have no idea...I do know the "buyers" had 3 large dogs and asked about who owned the fence/wall between us and our direct neighbors as its quite low on our side as we are on a hill so its higher for the neighbor whos garden is a lot lower. its a quiet area with bungalows one side and a lady with one adult son the other.
it could just be a random reason but that's what she told the agents. they were as shocked as us

What a nightmare situation!! I hope you find a new buyer soon. I agree with what others have said, state no onwards chain very clearly. Need to power wash the patio and area around the home office. Tidy up the garden, remove clutter.
Can you add the garden office to the floorplan?

Also is there any possible way you can rent out the house for a few years? I have just put an offer down my first home, and the supply of houses on the market right now is overwhelming, feels very stagnant

I think it wouldn’t be to taste for many people. If you had the funds it could do with gutting. But OP owns it and needs to sell it, so just needs ideas to help is what she needs.

For some people this will be what they want and can afford - hopefully Op finds one.

The pin on the map that takes you to street view / Google maps takes you to the wrong house.

Agree with PP that the carpet pile makes it look damp, I'd brush that the other way before photos redone.

Also cardboard over the catflap - either a new plastic panel on the door or a cheap new cat flap is a good idea - whichever is cheaper!

Is there a problem with the neighbours that you're aware of or did it come as a complete surprise? Wondering if there's a way to mitigate that if there is a problem.

@howdydude sorry feeling very raw today... sadly dad died so we had some money we could use to bridge the gap.

X post about the neighbours. How weird. Perhaps just a load of bollocks and not the real reason (mortgage offer problem or something)

@MissCherryCakeyBun I'm so sorry to hear that. Must all be very stressful for you. I think we are going to pull out of our onward sale sadly. Shit situation. Sending hugs x

@WhistPie thanks for your very constructive feedback if you want to know what the houses look like mouldy have a look at this delight down the road damp house delight

Sending many hugs it's a very difficult situation isn't it

A bridging loan will be more expensive than a mortgage. You will have double household bills for Council tax , utilities will be less but still payable - including the daily standing charge ( which is a pain ! ) and most councils will not give you a reduction on your council tax because the house is empty ( most will only do it if it is a probate situation / move into a care home / significant building work and unable to live in the property) . Insurance on an empty property will be higher than one that is occupied. ( when we sorting out my parents house and it was empty insurance went from £250 up to £770 per annum )

You need to seriously look at your finances and whether you can afford effectively double living costs and for how long your budget will support this. Bridging loans usually get more expensive the longer the loan is outstanding as at the moment you don’t have a fixed date of when it will be repaid - and until you exchange on the sale of your property nothing is guaranteed so it’s a big financial decision and one which could extend for a significant period. The longer the loan is outstanding, interest rolls so how important is it that you get the full asking price for your property to finance the new property - what is your cushion to cover accruing interest ?

Lots to think about and you need to get your calculator out and do some serious financial planning.

I agree there should be a penalty for pulling out this close to the date how awful for you.

As per PP of course freshly cut lawn, could you also jet wash or treat the patio/walls outside to brighten them up and remove the spores, and maybe paint the pergola and the outside table? I think the back garden looks a little dark and unloved

We’re in a similar position - three months down the line with buyers who were supposed to have exchanged and completed the week after we accepted their offer and we only did that because we were assured it could be finalised quickly.

Now we discover they haven’t exchanged and aren’t near to doing so. We reserved a new build and we’re going to lose the reservation fee, plus other fees we’ve already paid. We’ve also sold furniture because we were downsizing, so one bedroom is empty and another partially so.

I thought estate agents were supposed to do due diligence and I would have hoped that part of that was ensuring that people were telling the truth.

Gutted! This was going to alleviate the CoL for us.

You have come here asking for advice. I appreciate it’s a terrible day for you (many people have said that too) but if you start getting snippy people will lose their willingness to help.

I’d go through the post, write down every suggestion in a list and divide them into things you can do (mow the lawn), things you can tell someone else to do (put the outbuildings on the plan, photo of the boarded up loft, what the heck are your estate agents doing???) and things that are what they are (kitchen).

Then have a cup of tea and a think. Then come back here.

Lol 😂 okay

I know what mouldy houses look like, I lived in one throughout my childhood and perceived damp would put me right off!

I know nothing of the housing market in Yeovil, but I'd be factoring in having to replace the kitchen and decorate. The home office just looks like a desk and shelves put into a garage. The cardboarded up catflap says to me it's a house where the owners can't be bothered doing maintenance - if it had to be cardboard, at least do a neat job for the photos and paint it to match the door, a paint match pot wouldn't cost more than a few pounds.

A few pots in the front isn't going to fool anyone

@Aligirlbear thank you these are all very good points.

In our area I'd be rushing to view at that price!

That's crap op. Happened to us about 20 years ago. I hope you get new buyers soon. In our case we were bottom of a chain of 8. At the top was. A multi million pound deal. They ended up buying our house to keep the chain together, then sold it straight on for £5K more the following week!!

You really need to put the garden studio on the floor plans and photos. It's a great feature to have particularly with a smaller house, hybrid working patterns.

Hello! I live not far from your area, if worst case scenario, can you look at renting it out, due to the hospital being near by and the need for decent sized family properties in the area?
My friends were in a similar situation and ended up putting their house on the rental market and within 2 weeks they had tenants in and it managed for them.
Good luck!

So sorry to hear about your dad OP.

I know your area, and if I was a buyer, I would much prefer your house to the other one which was being compared to yours. The fact that the other house is in a nice enough road, but it's used as a popular cut-through which would put me off, also the school traffic and the popular chippy! And you are near a nice park.

The suggestions re cat-flap, curtains, cutting the grass etc are all good - I wish you luck, and hope you find a buyer soon.

Let's all hope the house-buying process is improved for everyone.

In France you sort-of-exchange when you make an offer. The buyer deposits 10% of the purchase price and if they pull out for any other reason than "The bank wouldn't lend me the money against this property", that is lost. The seller makes a commitment with a similar penalty. Then the sale is completed in the notary's office about 8 weeks later.

If the buyer tries to pretend that the bank won't lend them the money, the seller can go to their own bank and if they say "Sure, we'll lend X thousand to that person on that property", the seller can make the buyer accept that offer, or forfeit their deposit. So as long as the buyer is basically not totally insolvent, the seller can more or less bank on the sale going through once they accept the offer.

As a result there are virtually no shenanigans around house buying in France, except when clueless Brits put in an offer on the last day of their holidays and don't realise what they're on the hook for.