Is there a new thread for “Anyone putting their home on the market in early 2025”?

[IWasBornIn1989]

The other thread is full 😏

@MadameSzyszkoBohusz sorry you haven't had any viewings. I think the market is just tough at the moment, doesn't always mean you're over listing if the buyer just isn't there.

@MadisonAvenue glad you got some feedback. That first lady may well come back. Our buyer didn't say much after their first visit and then a couple of weeks later asked to view again and made an offer.

I agree, I would just be honest to that other viewer and say you want more, no point wasting anyone's time if you know it's a no.

Thanks - yeah this is what I wondered although as we’re not in a hurry and not even seen what interest is like we wouldn’t accept a low offer as that will affect what we can buy and if we can’t get the right house then we won’t sell.

ive not bought a house in 10 years so this is going to be exhausting!

We had a call from our seller's agent the other day to update us, apparently things are progressing well with their onward purchase and supposedly we're aiming for an early August completion but I don't think that's likely 😂

None of the searches are back yet on our purchase, we've not had a report on title from the solicitors etc so I think it was very much estate agent talk!

@MadisonAvenue our buyer was the first person to view our house, nothing was said at all. Three weeks later they came back and said they noticed the house was still on the market and would we accept an offer of £X. Did a second viewing and offered. It's a strange old process.

Just had a call from the agent - still no viewings, very little interest, and he thinks we should reduce by price by £50000 to put us in the lower price bracket on Rightmove.

That brings us to £650000, which is just about as low as we could and still be able to afford a worthwhile onward move. ☹️

My lovely in-laws had offered to give us a cash gift towards the new house. We’d initially decided to put it towards the new mortgage, but the solicitors want copies of my in-laws bank statements for several months and copies of all their income for proof of origin. My in-laws are naturally reluctant as that feels very intrusive and it’s not even the bank that wants to see this.

Is this really a requirement? It might be that we have to say thank you but no thank you to my in-laws which would be a real shame!

Yes they will. It's for the anti money laundering checks.

We had two viewings booked in today. One cancelled and the other one has made an offer which is £20K under our asking price. The estate agent tells me that anything around 95% is a good offer and worth considering. Leaves us with a whisper thin margin on which to then buy somewhere. Was supposed to be viewing something tomorrow but that’s been cancelled now as they have accepted another offer. Arrgh.

As @canyon2000 said, it is a legal requirement to comply with money laundering regulations.

They have to check the source of funds is legitimate.

I finally heard from my solicitor after constant chasing, and have now had the report on title, all the searches, etc. - and all looks positive. Nothing of any concern. Enquiries have gone off to the vendors solicitor, which the estate agent will follow up next week to ensure they’re on it - and then from what I can gather, we won’t be too far off. My aim is still an end of July completion.

Survey also now complete, the surveyor rang me (I’ll get the actual report on Monday) and said the house is in really good condition for its age, nothing majorly concerning at all. Windows on the old part of the house will probably need replacing at some point (which I had guessed when I viewed tbh) - they’re upvc double glazing, and over 30 years old, but all the locks and handles work and there’s no misting of glass of anything.

Fingers crossed!

We accepted an offer on our house on monday 🥳
Spent the week waiting for the vendor of where we want to buy to get back to us to then get a call Friday to tell us they are taking it off the market... Absolutely gutted. It's the whole reason we put ours on as it was perfect for our family long-term.

Oh no! What will you do? Is there anything else you like for sale?

There's only 15 houses for sale in the village we want that are in our budget but only 2 of those are ones we could consider. Going to look at both next week 🤞

My house has been on the market for 9 weeks now and I've had very few viewings. Two offers, but both pulled out before I could even accept either offer. Literally at my wits end! I live in a highly sought after area, 2 mins walk from an outstanding school. Has anyone who's posted on this thread managed to sell their house yet?

We’re just coming up to three weeks on the market now. We’ve had two viewings, last one was a week ago now, no offers and no other viewings booked in.

We’re also in a sought after area and houses would usually sell within days on our estate, there are only a handful for sale at the moment and some have been reduced as there’s just no movement.

Everyone says it is down to price. But if there are comparable houses on the market and you price much lower, prospective buyers might think there is something wrong with the property?

Same here, till March this year houses in my area would sell within a few days, maybe a couple of weeks at the most. Since then, everything that's come on the market has stayed on the market. You're right - many houses (including mine) are being reduced as a desperate attempt to sell. They say it's a buyers market at the moment, but I think it's not even that. There's just no market at all.

I hope you manage to sell your house soon. It's such a painful process :(

That's right, I've got to the point where I simply couldn't reduce my property any more as it's already at a bargain price as it is. Any less and I won't have enough money to put towards my onward purchase.

It’s crazy how the market is so different in various parts of the country. It’s definitely a seller’s market here, lots of buyers and not much to buy. We had 26 viewers in 2 weeks and sold for 6% over asking. It then took us 7 weeks to find our onward purchase because we missed out in 2 bidding wars and ended up at 9.5% over asking to secure something on the 3rd attempt. I’m a bit concerned we’ve stretched ourselves too much but there’s not been one new house marketed that meets our not very particular criteria in the last 3 weeks. Are people cautious to risk upsizing in the current economy? Is it the interest rates? I can’t see things returning to less than 2% rates for a very long time.

The thing is, a house will only sell when someone is prepared to pay a certain sum of money for it. That sum of money might be lower than the estate agent suggested; it might be lower than the vendor’s expectations and it might be lower than the price the vendor needs to achieve to fund an onward purchase.

Buyers don’t care what your bottom line is though. They only care about what they’re prepared to pay.

We sold our house last year within a week of it going on the market. Neighbours put theirs on the market a few weeks later and it’s still for sale. The market is just bizarre.

I hate this market. I sold for 2.5% under asking and lost out on a property where I went in at asking and they decided to take it off the market as ‘there were no serious buyers’!!?!

now have a second I like and am currently at 5% over asking in a bidding war, a week after if became available.

the whole system sucks

Hi all, hope you are doing ok. Random question that I would appreciate some advice on if possible. The seller of the house we are buying invites is round to look at some furniture the other day. We went essentially to have another sneaky look at the house but there were a few bits we liked. However, I think they are taking this as an opportunity to sell us everything, i.e. she keeps asking if we are interested in the light fittings and curtain poles. They are ticked as excluded in fixtures and fittings but I can't help thinking they just want to sell us all their stuff. It's not old, and reasonable quality (as she pointed out many times). I don't know how to respond, the stuff is helpful but I don't want to pay her loads of extra money!

@Everintroverte I hate it when they literally won't include anything without charging. Ours did that on our current house and we refused to pay for a curtain tie back as we didn't care. She did actually remove them and left a hole. I couldn't believe it as what did she do with them when she left the matching curtain pole (which we also had to pay for!)

If there are some things you are interested in, I would offer on some but ask them to throw other things in for free. They probably don't want to take them but are hoping to make more money.

Our house sold less than 4 weeks after it went on the market but we only have one interested party. Market is deffo slow here too. We are just waiting on our contract/pack to review and sign. Our buyers have there's. Hoping exchange isn't too far off now.

Thanks @OtiMama. I think its making it worse because they are downsizing, so we know they don't want to take everything. They have been quite clear about wanting to leave big furniture items (beds, TVs and sound bars) that they wanted us to buy. We politely declined as we don't need them and now they are asking about curtain poles, light fittings, bathroom mirrors, electric fires etc. She even mentioned about wanting to avoid the cost of paying someone to come in and remove, but is happy to pass on the cost to us! Will just keep politely declining 😂.

Hope you arent too far off getting sorted, have you started talking about dates?
I think we should complete on my partner's house in the next few weeks (all being well). The seller for our joint purchase also dropped in today that they want a six week deadline on exchange! So stressful.

We finally have a viewing booked for the weekend - but both the houses we were interested in sold over the weekend!

Oh no @MadameSzyszkoBohusz! Still, hopefully the viewing will go well and some more houses will come on the market during the week. Is there much going on where you are?