Anyone else putting their home on the market in early 2025?

[newhomein2025]

Just that really - I'm going to be putting my home on the market soon, and hoping to find something to buy too. It's due to divorce, but I'm actually feeling ready to move on and find a wee place just for me and my teenager. I'm slightly dreading the process, and all the associated hassle, and worried that I won't be able to find somewhere I can afford nearby, but excited to start again. Anyone else planning on selling and buying in 2025 and want to keep me company?

@rhubarb007 sorry things are tough for you at the moment. It does sound like all the uncertainty makes it hard to make a decision on things.

@Hermioninny sounds good. Are you just waiting on these viewings you already have booked before you make a decision on offers? Hope the house tomorrow is better than you expect. We have actually gone for one I nearly cancelled the viewing on!

Gosh @rhubarb007 that sounds so stressful. I hope things settle for you soon.

Congratulations @OtiMama, fingers crossed for a closed chain asap.

We have a new viewer and a second viewer tomorrow morning so I’m hoping they will go well. We’ve had an offer from a really lovely couple who have viewings on their property this week and a slightly higher offer from a couple who seemed very disinterested when they viewed, I was quite taken aback to find out they had offered! The second viewers tomorrow have no property to sell which would put us in a good position when we come to offer so I hope they make an offer. It’s been a slow week for new listings but we’ve found 2 to view tomorrow and one I’m actually quite excited about.

If you have found a new property how did you decide to make an offer? Did you get a feeling that it was “the one” or was it a more practical decision?

We viewed 7 houses before making an offer. To be honest, I was fairly sure the house was the right one as soon as I saw the particulars. Then when we went and viewed it, I had a great feeling as soon as I walked in the hallway. Husband said the same. We were v lucky that we got the particulars before anyone else and had the first viewing. We offered an hour later and all other viewings were cancelled. Now in a chain, I just hope it all comes together and it ends up ours 😬

The last time we were house hunting was during the crazy period a couple of years ago. We viewed nearly 30 houses, offered on 8 but missed out, proceeded on 4 different houses but they fell through for various reasons. The house we ended up with was the last one we viewed after a very long search and an expiring mortgage offer. We did have a good feeling when we viewed that one too. It was a practical choice mainly though. This next one feels more like the house we will stay in for a long time.

This will be no. 6 & 7 for us I think! No. 7 is the one I’m excited about just from the brochure, it doesn’t have everything on our list (single car driveway & no downstairs WC) but we could afford to do some work to it and the garden looks fabulous. It’s such a huge decision though I feel like I talk myself out of each house before we even view.

We've got one more viewing this afternoon. They only rang up yesterday, so it's been frantic trying to get the house ready as we were in complete disarray after a busy few weeks of life with 3 children. I've got a full morning of cleaning ahead of me, I just hope it's not in vain.

We're now in our SEVENTH month on the market when you include the time before our chain collapsed. I can't actually believe it. It still doesn't seem to be picking up here despite having hit the promised 'spring market' time. I was speaking to someone else in the village whose house went on about 2 months after ours. Theirs is a detatched newish build (independent builder not an estate) and very different from ours which is a terraced character cottage. I was surprised to learn they haven't had a single viewing request in that entire time. Another cottage for sale on the same row as ours (all the cottages are completely different shapes and sizes, it's not a typical terrace at all, and this one is much smaller and on for less money) has had 15 viewings but no offers.

Despite everything, our vendors are still hanging on for us at the moment. They originally gave a 4 week grace period and we're now into our 7th week and they haven't said anything yet. We've got the same agent and he keeps saying that they're very chilled about the whole thing and not to panic. Much easier said than done!

We have decided that we'll drop the price next week if this viewing isn't successful. It will be a gut punch knowing that we originally sold for 448k (on the market for 450) and now we'll be lucky if we get an offer of 420k. Means we won't have any money to take to our onward purchase to do any repairs.

@Hermioninny for us it was that the house ticked enough boxes and we had a good overall feeling. We know for our budget we are not going to get every single thing we would ideally like. Also I viewed it twice and was still thinking about it which was a good sign. I looked at one which was perfectly nice but I didn't get that feeling and once I said it was probably not the one I never gave it another thought really so know it wasn't right.

@BunnyWilliams hope the viewing today is positive. It's the guessing all the time isn't it, like you wonder if the buyer is going to wait and you just never know. Hopefully the EA is right. I agree about the market, ours hasn't really picked up much as we've come into April either, will be interesting to see in the next two weeks as Easter comes but I also think because of everything happening with politics, Stamp duty etc. lots of people won't be moving unless they have a big need to.

@OtiMama that’s just what I needed to read! We LOVED the second house we viewed yesterday. It’s quite a bit smaller than our current house but location is exactly what we want and the garden is perfect for the kids. We need to decide if the living space is too small or just smaller than we have now but still enough. Going to ring EA first thing and ask for a second viewing. I have a feeling they’ll have offers from other viewers tomorrow though.

Have been lurking for a while and hope it’s ok if I join as I am selling but under different circumstances to most on this thread. My parents have passed away and we are selling their house. I’ve spent the last few weeks with my brother trying to sort and clear. It’s a never ending task. They were semi hoarders and there is 40 years worth of stuff to clear. I also work FT and have 2 DC so it’s been tricky fitting everything in.

It’s a 4 bed house with lots of space in an area popular with families but in the current financial climate who knows what will happen.
Obvious advantage is that it’s chain free but it needs a lot of work. It’s the kind of property that EA’s will describe as “an exciting opportunity to put your stamp on”, i.e. it hasn’t been updated in decades, so expecting any interested buyers to offer below asking which is fine with me. We just want to be done with it all as we’ve a tax bill to settle and have other stressors to deal with (neighbours have been hassling us, demanding assurances we are not selling to developers).

Photos and video due to take place this week but the place is still a bit of a mess tbh. I’m exhausted, DC have broken up for Easter and I couldn’t get this week off work so it’s all a juggle. EA is upbeat and saying don’t worry, people will see past the boxes etc and realise the potential.

Hi.

We had done the same with my MIL house over a year ago as she needed to move somewhere smaller.
It took forever to clear. Several large skips, numerous charity shop trips etc.
Sold immediately, then buyer's pulled out, sold again quickly.
Buyers had numerous surveys and we thought they will ask for big discount as place was leaking water in parts, but nothing 🤷‍♀️

@Hermioninny Definitely worth another look! The one we've gone for has small outside spaces but everything else ticked the boxes and seemed good value for the price. Of course we would love a bigger garden but we would have had to give something else up like the location or number of bathrooms. Just can't afford it all 😆

@Eastie77Returns I hope you manage to find a buyer soon. We would have certainly been interested in that kind of house had one come up for us. I can imagine it's all just a lot of extra work for you along with your day to day life. My mum always jokes about us having to clear her house, it's no joke, they also own a lot of stuff!

How do you judge where to pitch your offer?

We’ve found a property we like, it’s been on the market for a long time and needs a lot of work, but it is liveable and seems to be structurally sound and to some extent the asking price reflects the condition (it’s on for £15k less than next door sold for a couple of years ago). It’s owned by siblings who inherited it, one is living there, so no huge impetus to sell.

I was thinking 5% under asking (which equates to £30k) but it does need a lot done so should we try to go even lower, but equally if they don’t need to sell it then maybe they’re unlikely to accept a low offer (especially the one who is living there who apparently hasn’t started looking despite being on the market for 9 months!)

We were FTB last time and only negotiated a little bit off to deal with a fairly contained issue that came up on the survey, haven’t had a big project like this one before!

Start with a lower offer and then potentially increase it @ampel assuming it gets rejected?

thanks @Twiglets1 I guess I just don’t really have a sense of how low you can go without offending them or making them feel like we’re wasting their time! Or making our buyers have to wait too long either as they’re FTB and really keen. It’s on for 605 so I was thinking 550 might be too cheeky so leaning more towards 575 but I really have no idea!

I honestly don’t think 550k is too cheeky on a property listed at 605k.

If they refuse it you can ask the EA what they would accept.

Let yourself be gradually negotiated towards 575k but don’t just go straight in and offer that. It may well be that they would accept lower than 575k! Even if you ended up at 570k say that’s still a saving of 5k.

Thanks @Twiglets1 I will see if DH is willing to give 550 a go - the agent said to me we should just get a figure over to them and then we can go from there. Tbh I think the agent is annoyed to still have it on the books as it makes their average time to sale look worse 😂

Start at 10% off, you can always increase it.

Last time an EA used those words to me it turned out the sellers would accept a big reduction for a quick sale. It’s always worth a try.

@ampel I presume you have worked out roughly how much it would cost you to do the work and what you can afford? I think that plays some factor in what you offer. It will have been priced with condition in mind but we all know some EA overprice and if it's been on a while it would match that thought otherwise it would have sold. I would drop lower than you can afford so you have room to increase but I would be setting myself a maximum offer in my head too. All they can do is say no and hopefully give you some guidance on what they're looking for.

Per my previous post, me and my brother have inherited our parents house. We are almost in the same situation as your potential vendors except the property hasn’t been on sale for months (will hopefully be going up next week),it is also inhabitable but needs lots of work.

DB lives in the house as the insurance on it as an unoccupied house was sky high. No chain, neither of us are buying. So it might seem to a buyer that we have no impetus to sale but in truth we can’t wait to get rid as dealing with all the admin and upkeep is so draining. We would happily accept 10% under or even more (caveat that we are in London and it’s a large house so priced accordingly) but we are genuinely hoping to sell to a family who will make it their home and if a buyer is proceedable we are completely open to a reduction. We don’t see it as losing money as it was not our money in the first place if that makes sense. Make your offer, you have nothing to lose!

@OtiMama between the 2 of us we’d have the perfect house 😅this one has a great garden but no downstairs toilet which is an essential for us! It’s on for less than our own asking price though so we’re hoping to have enough equity for an extension, although no idea how much that will cost. So hard to get estimates on a house that you don’t own too and we’ve never done any structural work so no contractors that we can ask for a favour.

@OtiMama we have about 620-625 to play with so if we could get it for 550 that should give us enough to do everything straight away, but if we had to pay more we’d just prioritise and do the work over a longer period of time (like do the bathroom to get rid of the avocado suite and carpet add a shower straight away and live with the mostly functional 70s kitchen for a few years). It probably will cost about 70k for all of it so actually 550 doesn’t sound too unreasonable when you add it up!

@Eastie77Returns thanks for sharing the other perspective - I never thought about the insurance point! Hopefully yours sells a lot quicker! People definitely will see past the stuff, or at least I wasn’t put off by the table covered in Princess Diana decorative plates in this house 😂

@ampel I viewed a house when I was buying 3 years ago in which the owner had huge Princess Diana portraits hanging all over the house. Seriously odd.

First prize though went to the vendor who had two snarling caged pitbulls in her front room and advised me not to worry about the smell because “you don’t notice it after a while”

We dropped the price on our house on Friday and got 2 viewings booked in within 24hours.
Unfortunately we are both away for work and our cleaner who was due to come today before the viewings is sick 😫
We left the house very tidy it just won’t be very clean. So stressful the agency completely dropped the ball on finding cover.

Nothing I can do about it now just have to hope for the best! At least if they come for a second viewing it should be clean..

That's great news! If I really like a house, bit of dust and dirt wouldn't put me off, especially if it was tidy.

What did you drop from and to, if you don't mind me asking?

That's great news! If I really like a house, bit of dust and dirt wouldn't put me off, especially if it was tidy.

What did you drop from and to, if you don't mind me asking?