Did you think you'd never sell, but it was ok in the end?

[MerlinsHairyBeard]

Has anyone ever worried that their house won't sell because of a particular issue out of your control (I'm thinking inconvenient parking set-up, arsey neighbours, shared driveway access, proximity to something not-so-desirable, that kind of thing...) but it did all work out ok in the end?? I need happy ending stories to give me hope that we're not doomed to be stuck here forever!

OMG yes! Quirky difficult to sell house, shared drive, lots of things about it I didn't like (it was DH's house I sold mine and moved in). Then we had the buyer from hell but we clung on to her because neither of us thought we'd get another buyer easily. Then she dropped out one last time after right royally fucking us around.
AND THEN THE VERY FIRST PERSON WHO VIEWED IT AFTER WE PUT IT BACK ON THE MARKET BOUGHT IT!
And she was in a hurry too, so we bit her hand off and legged it into a rental. Which we're still in! But will complete on a LOVELY house any day now (everything crossed). 😂
Do not lose hope!

@MerlinsHairyBeard how long have you been up for sale?

We had a Maisonette and everyone complained the ceilings were too low in the loft conversion and the garden was not directly accessible and there wasn't parking. Then one day 2 childless, petless, smoke-free shorties who loved kayaking and didn't mind having a garden that wasn't directly accessible from the flat to store their kayaks came and viewed and they fell in love with it. Sometime's it's just about the right fit, one thing's for sure - it's a numbers game, the more people you have view it, the higher chances of an offer.

Well you can't just say that and not tell us what is wrong with your house! 😂

But yes, my house is quirky. Its old, has shared access round the back, and is next to a small village school. We were concerned the shared access would put prospective buyers off. To be honest, it did put some off. But I had to keep reminding myself that we bought it and fell in love with it, despite the issues, so someone else will.

We did accept an offer from a couple who love it and the sale is proceeding slowly (although the shared access has raised some complicated issues)

Yes. Very beautiful old but small cottage, downstairs bathroom, national park so very strict planning, door onto the street, expensive area (even though we were low priced). We had it on for seven months with regular viewings but no offers. Then we were abroad for my brothers wedding when estate agent called, so they did a viewing even though it was not viewing tidy and that person put in an offer, even without showing their husband and we exchanged 12 weeks later.

Yes...our last house had so many 'issues' I thought it would never sell. When we bought it as a repossession, it had previously been for sale for about six years! Although we'd fully renovated it, there were certain things we couldn't change/improve -

It was a two bed, detached, 400 year old converted mill with numerous steps accessing the front entrance - there was an undercroft with storage at street level which extended partway beneath the front of the cottage. As a result the front room (kitchen) and hall were actually at first floor level.

We had large (half acre) gardens, but the majority of outside space was accessed - up more bloody steps - through our walled courtyard which led off a lobby. Therefore there was no direct garden access - or nice view over the garden we created from scratch - from the reception rooms or kitchen, so not ideal for keeping an eye on toddlers etc.

Whilst we had that half acre, due to raised ground levels and an old leat at the front boundary, there was no facility for parking on our garden. Our driveway was actually opposite the property on the other side of a quiet rural lane. This hadn't bothered us, but - like the garden - thought it wouldn't appeal to buyers with young DC.

The property also had an ancient septic tank and a private borehole.

We knew that it was very niche and didn't expect to get many viewings or sell quickly, but surprisingly - whilst being right about the lack of viewings - we accepted an offer from the fourth (iirc) people to view.

They were cash buyers, already completed on their sale, and whilst they had a humongous camper van (for which they planned to dig out part of the garden to create access to more parking), they had no DC so the garden failings/access to front entrance via tons of steps didn't bother them.

The sale did progress fairly slowly due to deliberations over the septic tank and borehole, but all eventually went through in 16 weeks...and god, how we cheered!

2 years ago I sold a flat that I'd previously rented out. It developed damp issues (we're talking bubbled plaster & then black mould) so I put it up for auction as a doer-upper not wanting to have the bother of renting anymore & certainly not wanting the bother of finding tradespeople to do the work that was needed.

I'd had the flat for 10 years, bought for £115k, spent around £6k initially replacing carpets, putting a window into the bathroom, new shower, redecorating the entire flat, new cupboard doors & new white goods in the kitchen. Spent around £20k over the 10 years while rented out replacing carpets, white goods & general maintenance, Rented out for 10 years at around £900 increasing to £1,200kpcm by the time the last tenants moved out. It was empty for some months because of the problems with it & I couldn't rent it out with those issues. So I sold it at auction for £130k. I felt it was a good deal.

I’ve been on the market for nearly 4 months. I have a Victorian 2 bed flat,overlooking a park and with big communal gardens but I’ve only had 6 viewers in that time. I’ve had 2 offers but they have been about £25k off the sale price which is ridiculous.i hadn’t appreciated how hard it would be to sell a leasehold. Also there has been a bit of an ongoing dispute with another leaseholder and the management company with challenging the service charge which I know is putting some people off. I’m worried I’m never going to be able to sell it. I’ve lowered the price a couple of times. It’s really getting me down but just have to keep my fingers crossed 🤞. Good luck.

Not on the market yet but I'm dreading it! Really hoping reading some of these stories that I'll be pleasantly surprised and someone will love it despite all the flaws, like we did.

We've also got shared access with the nextdoor neighbour, who is completely awful 😖 We didn't realise how awful until we moved in, of course. Hopefully any prospective buyers won't either, as long as we can stay dispute-free between now and going on the market. The shared access is a pain as you know but I'm hoping people will be able to see past that. We've done a lot to increase privacy in the garden with planting, fencing etc so 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

The house we bought a few months ago, had been on the market for ages. We viewed it to rule it out but walked in and loved it. We are very happy here and it was the right choice for us. The original asking price was very optimistic. We offered slightly under the reduced price and felt that what we paid was reasonable.

I thought my house would never sell, it was a victorian cottage, shared access, downstairs bathroom but lovely big bedrooms. So many people viewed and you could see they weren't keen - it's a dispiriting time. But then one young couple walked in and the woman said 'this feels like home'. I had to reduce the price but I sold! Took about 6 months from putting on the market, so not that long really but it felt like ages.

edited to correct typo

Oh I am sorry you have awkward neighbours that you share the access with. We are lucky in that ours are fab and we are good friends. We have honestly not had one single issue over the access that we share and its never been a problem. But its difficult convincing others of that.

The couple buying our house have been a little concerned about the access and have we have had to do a statement of truth as to how the access is used and provide an indemnity policy for it (which was already in place from when we purchased it) They said that just because everything is good now and there are no issues that it doesn't mean it always will be. Our argument is that you can say that about any situation and any house where you have neighbours! No-one knows what their direct neighbours are going to be like when you first move into a new house. There are all sorts of issues you can have with neighbours (noise/disrectful parking situations etc) Its a chance everyone takes when moving into a new home.

But ultimately they fell in love with our house, as we did when we first viewed it and despite their initial concerns, it hasn't put them off as its a compromise they are willing to make to buy our house.

There WILL be someone out there that will like your house, and want to buy it, but it may just take a little longer.

Think about what it was that drew you to buy it in the first place, what did YOU love about it? Why did YOU buy it?

A few years back our old house previously flooded twice within 6 months. Literally over a foot of river water in both times. The insurance was great and fixed it up, took 9 months and then we put it on the market not confident at all. Literally took a month to sell and completed within three months. We were obviously brutally honest about its history, the buyer was local so knew the area and didn’t seem concerned in the slightest. He was a cash buyer without a mortgage. Also he was wealthy and someone said he was planning to Airbnb it (very beautiful period house in a tourist location). Feel very fortunate and now live on a hill away from any rivers.

Horrid one bed maisonette with relatively short lease, missing freeholder and on an unadopted road.

Listed in Feb didn't sell until July

To be honest I think we were just lucky and got some naive first time buyers (which is obviously what we were two years previously!) but still can't believe we sold that flat sometimes

It feels like we won’t ever sell. The house itself is fine but it’s next to a building site (which has been dragging in) and we have been on / off the market for the last 4 years!!

lost 2 buyers who pulled out due to the building works. Most recent one a week before exchange 😭 I’m so fed up.

We bought a weird house which had been up for sale for a while with one lost buyer previously. There is a house for everyone. The house we bought has a weird layout upstairs with two bedrooms inter linked with one not really having a window. But we were desperate for a 4 bed and under 300k. The pros are that the downstairs is huge and great layout and has a spare box room which is a perfect music room for us. Our daughter who has ended up with the dark room lives in the dark so its not too much of a problem. I do wonder if it'll be a problem selling in the future but there's a house for everyone 🙂