Why isn't my house selling - is this you?

[EarthSight]

There's yet another one that's trending at the moment - why isn't my house selling.

If you're wondering this, your house isn’t selling because -

a) Your estate agent is not replying to people when they should. No buyer should have to chase & chase just to ask a question or book a viewing.

b) You've entered into one of those 'modern methods of auction' contracts, which puts off a lot of buyers

c) Your house is too expensive for what people are willing to offer in your area's market.

It's usually the last one.

From tracking the market in my own area for a while now, people massively over estimate what their expensive kitchen or decor taste is worth to a buyer, when buyers might want to put their own stamp on somewhere or might want a hard floor instead carpets everywhere. A seller might love grey neutrals & modern style the house, but many buyers might think it looks clinical or prison-like. You might love your large kitchen and island, but a buyer might prefer a larger living room and think the island is a bit awkward where it is. One person's 'low maintenance garden' is another person's drab yard.

It also seems very common for sellers to underestimate how much renovation and fixing things is going to cost their buyer, so instead of reducing it by 30k compared to the general market, they reduce it only by 5k.

Don't just look at how much people are listing their houses for (they could be listed for a long time), and be aware that estate agents might inflate the realistic selling price in order to get your business. Go on GOV.UK and look at how much houses are actually completing for. There is often a few months' lag before sales prices are uploaded onto the site which is not as useful in a fast changing market, but it will give you an idea of longer term trends.

The market where I am is slow and there are a lot of houses for sale, prices have probably doubled in the last 5-7 years.

the problem now is the bigger houses are vastly vastly over priced and there just aren’t that many people with that much cash flow. All the owners of big houses are empty nesters, mortgage free and downsizing but don’t immediately need to move, so they just don’t drop the price they wait it out. Some houses have been on for 2 years at the current price, since Truss and the market down turn they haven’t decreased their price. So those trying to upsize struggle to reduce as they can’t afford to jump up to these higher prices, so keep theirs high. And on it goes.

The real kicker is vast amount of profit that generation have made for this houses. Some bought for £150k in 1998 and now worth £1.5million.

I don't really believe in 'fatal flaws', the flaw should always be reflected in the price. (Should being the key word!).

However, whilst I agree with everything said on this thread, we are toying with moving (downsizing) in the next 3-4 years and, unless we have found somewhere we desperately want to purchase, we will probably put the house up for the upper end of the range, even though some might say it is overpriced. You want my house (& its great plot and location), you pay the ££. So, point is, I do understand why people price high, but it's not ok to the complain that noone is buying it.

Strong agree on the estate agents. Their conduct can have a significant impact on whether buyers are willing to deal with them.

Also agree with this. Some people don’t have to move and won’t accept any reductions particularly where they’ve been given an overinflated price by the estate agent to begin with.

Estate agents are often a stumbling block with sales.

A lot of sellers also seem to want x% increase on last sold house in their area. What they don't realise is often FTBs overpaid because the market was distorted by home equity loans and stamp duty holidays. The government has a lot to answer for, for messing around with the market as much as it did

This is an good point, the value of property was also artificially inflated as a result of the emergency interest rates brought in after the financial crisis of 2007 to 2009. The emergency interest rates were then allowed to continue for more than a decade. Quite incredible really when you think about it - because property buyers were able to borrow a lot more, in turn house prices boomed for such a long time that people and governments really believed ultra cheap borrowing was the new normal and here to stay. I have to say myself included to some extent.
Now that borrowing costs have returned to a historic normal and the costs of living have risen hugely- its going to be a slow adjustment. I'm not sure if prices will fall considerably - but quite slowly. Or if we will just have a long period of no real growth in values ? Expectations downward are hard to accept and adjust to.

I'm so pleased we sold our rural property (in Wales) last year as - looking at what's currently lingering on the market there - I think we'd struggle now. Ours was a cottage (converted mill) which we'd sympathetically restored over 6 years. We made a healthy profit, selling for 2.5 times what we'd paid, having bought it as a repossession.

If we'd not sold/not made what we did, we probably couldn't have moved back to the south coast of England.

Like many locations, here (West Sussex) things are only selling if very realistically priced or unique in some way and I'm seeing loads of reductions, daily. In our road (conservation area with a mix of grade 2 listed cottages, non-listed cottages and 1980s townhouses), one sold within two weeks because it was priced at 50k+ lower than similar townhouses. The other two are still on - one has dropped multiple times from 500k and is now priced at 360 - 65k less than it sold for in 2022 (and it's had a nice new kitchen installed since then).

Neighbouring street, a non-listed but extremely pretty, cottage (cottage 1) facing onto a square was for sale when we were looking last year - 450, reduced to 430k. 1950s kitchen/decor, no original features internally. Vacant, owner is an elderly landlady with dozens of BTLs.

We viewed and made cheeky offer which was rejected, had offer accepted on a similar Georgian cottage (cottage 2) round the corner (deceased estate, last renovated in the 1960s, priced to reflect that).

Cottage 1 was removed from the market over winter and some renovations carried out - new roof, boiler, cheap bathroom and cloaks, shiny grey carpets and laminate flooring, injected damp-proofing. No new kitchen. They also removed the last remaining chimney 😢 Came back on the market at OIEO 500k. We viewed it and imo it has been ruined/badly bodged with surface-mounted pipework/cables etc - all the new cheap flooring and crappy sanitary ware needs ripping out plus needs new kitchen and chimney reinstated. Have spoken with other potential buyers who reckon it needs 100k+ spending to put things right, and basically it's probably only worth 450 max.

Within about 2 years most people who were on a fixed rate "cheap" mortgage (2 and 5 year fixes) before interest rates started to rise will be off them.

House prices are a function of how much money the banks will lend people, and the amount of cheap money out there is reducing all the time.

I think most people will be off the cheapest ratea already. 2020 was about the last time they were properly low.

We're also anticipating moving within the next year and have settled looking, and in my opinion stuff is massively overpriced, especially at the top of the market. There's a huge gap in the market from around the 700k mark to the million mark with very few houses available for those like us looking to upsize.

Even in our current house pric range I think people are asking for too much, though. The nearest for-sale equivalent to our house in our village (slightly larger than ours and quieter road, but we've got a nicer layout IMO, better finish and way better outside space and a garage) is on for 150k more than we expect ours to sell for. And it has had no interest (small village so you hear about these things).

It's a buyer's market but a lot of people trying to sell either haven't realised yet or aren't keen enough to actually sell.

The market hasn't been dead - based on UK Property Market Stats show - but I would not be surprised if it now goes quieter while people await the budget in November and the threatened property taxes to be applied.

Yes, the reason a house isn't selling is usually because it's over priced.

As @Lyocell, the worst offenders for over pricing seem to be those in the most expensive homes, often owned by empty nesters with no mortgage. I don't know what they are wanting to 'wait out' though as the downturn is only going to get worse imo so they will simply see all their equity reduce in most cases. You can definitely say that one or two generations have become wealthy from house price inflation. It hasn't been said enough that the subsequent generations have been made poor from the same thing and that it has reduced general economic productivity and massively increased the debt burden, which is bound to cause more problems as time goes on.

@newrubylane rates were still at nearly zero all through 2021 and well into 2022. I think that there will still be plenty on low rates until 2027, the smart ones who saw what was happening beyond that.

@TonTonMacoute I'm afraid you're an example of what I'm talking about .

We are selling a house in a small village, it's very competitively priced, we inherited it so don't need to reach a set price to move. No one is even coming to look at it

There are three other properties for sale in the same (very small) village all saying the same

There's a contradiction there.

If no one is even coming to see it.....then it's not competitively priced! Not even close (unless there's an issue with your estate agent).

Houses that are priced sensibly sell within a month, even in the countryside. The fact that other houses around you are saying the same is showing the market just isn't there. If a buyer comes along now and gives you the price you want, they will be stuck in the exact same situation as you if they want to move. Imagine that when you really need to move because of a job.....it's a liability. They may not be booking a viewing as they deem your price so high that they think it's not even worth it, that you wouldn't consider any less. I've seen that in my area - sellers that are so delusional that I just don't see the point of viewing, but many of them would no doubt see their price as competitive too.

@DrySherry There is so much of that going on here in North Wales. It's seriously a Wild West here. Loads of people have bought very unwisely during 2021-2023, and now I doubt they'll even sell for much they paid for it even. Instead, they just want & wait to pass on their very expensive financial mistake onto some poor, unsuspecting first time buyer, or someone like them who simply got over excited and didn't research the area properly. One house I've seen a few says ago is listed for 200k.....I was a bit shocked as it's a windswept, rather bleak, unpopular place that a lot of locals don't really want to buy. Turns out they bought it in 2023 for 170k, when the very must they should have paid for it is 150k-160k.

It's a very working class ,and I think a lot of people rely heavily, maybe almost exclusively, on the selling price to fund their move as they don't have much in savings. It doesn't actually mean their house is worth more though!

An estate agent also told me a while ago 'Well they're having to split it between 3-4 people'.....yeah, but that's not a buyers' fault though! Just because it's been split between that many people, doesn't mean it's worth more! Same with divorcing couples.

@Candleabra Very sweet time to sell. The very height of the covid boom. A lot sellers here still hanging onto that dream right to the end of 2024, and it's only now they've started to sober up. And yes, so expensive to do placed up. I look one builder to see a house and I estimated the place would cost 30k max to do up, thinking that I had overestimated......he said I wouldn't get very far with that and I was looking at more 40-50k. I think many people get caught out like this, run out of money or realise how much it's money pit, and then try to pass the house to someone else so they can make the same mistake.

@Cantseetreesforthewood They were ok in the English county I used to live in. Not good at all here in my Welsh county though.

@Bornagainpiston There really shouldn't be at all. If the pool of buyers is smaller, then the demand is much less and therefore should be reflected in the price. No one wants to be stuck trying to move for 6 months! Imagine trying to move elsewhere for a job!! I understand that this is not how a lot of sellers see it though.

The price aspect still applies - people would be far more willing to buy next to a busy road, or a weird, higgledy-piggledy layout if it were a cheap starter home, but they ask so much for them that they just sit on the market for ages.

@GasPanic Someone in my area bought a house for very, very cheap in a poor area. She hasn't done much to it other than install a fairly cheap kitchen and done basic decorating (very grey and clinical in some ways, but fussy floral wallpaper everywhere too). She's more than doubled the price around 6 months after buying it!!! Been on the market since the beginning of the year and she still can't sell. The place is worth around 40k less than her initial asking price, at the very most, as it has other major draw backs other than being in a disadvantaged area.

'We are selling a house in a small village, it's very competitively priced, we inherited it so don't need to reach a set price to move. No one is even coming to look at it
There are three other properties for sale in the same (very small) village all saying the same
There's a contradiction there.
If no one is even coming to see it.....then it's not competitively priced! Not even close (unless there's an issue with your estate agent).'

@EarthSight is right. If something is competitively priced it attracts competition straight away, ie lots of interest and multiple offers. That is what defines the sales process of something that is competitively priced. No interest=very over priced.

It's not a contradiction it's the dead hand of overtaxation. Cheaper houses are selling because there is a much smaller duty payable, or even none.

If everyone starts selling £400 and £500k houses at half price the whole housing market will collapse. No one will build new houses if they cannot sell them at the price they want. Some developers were paying the stamp duty on new builds to keep the sale price high, but they can't keep doing it.

Whether there is over taxation or not isn't relevant. You still have to operate in the current market. The high SDLT rates, which are not new btw, have had the effect of reducing the value of your property. There are other factors too such as the declining economy and jobs market. They have lowered demand vs supply.

Developers have already reduced what they are building as they see profits falling. I've seen lots of reductions in headline price of new builds, never mind the perks. If a property isn't selling in many months of marketing, it is generally because it is over priced. Hopefully a smaller than 50% reduction will get it sold!

A house yesterday had disappeared from my search bracket so I thought it had sold, it’s been on since May.
It hadn’t gone STC but instead had upped its price from £650 to £660?!
Nothing makes sense, nothing is moving.
We’ve made some 5 - 10% reduction offers and are just met with an affronted EA/Seller 🤷🏻‍♀️

But small rural areas are not normal competitive markets, unlike terraced houses in large towns. So the rural market doesn’t always follow the same rules. Of course price matters, but if your pool of possible purchasers fluctuates from month to month, it might take you three months to sell rather than one.

Say you have a small village. Every month there are between 0 and 5 families looking to move there. Obviously in a month where there are zero people you’re not going to sell. If you dropped the price enough of course, you would start to attract people who weren’t considering moving there at all. This might end up being necessary, but imo it’s preferable to give it a bit longer to see if you can catch one of the families who actively want to live there. In a large town with many similar houses, every month there might be hundreds of potential purchasers, so that’s a different market. You don’t have to wait for purchasers to appear.

It's usually C. A house in our area was sold a couple of months ago for £570k. It was originally put on the market (18 months earlier) for offers in the region of £800k.

Agree, it’s almost like they pluck a price they like out of nowhere.
Similar here, a house is on near us at offers over £625, it went on nearly 2 years ago now at £825.
The house has become so run down and now needs a fair spend, it’s a good area too.

i hope im not one of these people. we've massively reduced our price (the market has changed since we originally STC, our chain collapsed). Im just hoping our onward will take a hit too if/when we are in a position to proceed again.

There's nothing weird about my house. Good location, good garden, good decorative order, etc. suits a family. excellent schools locally.

i guess if it doesn't sell at it's current price then we just won't move.

It doesn't sound as if you are one of those people as you have kept an eye on the market, realised that it has changed and reduced accordingly. Hopefully the reduction is enough to attract interest. I totally agree with you that others in the chain will need to take realistic offers too or everything just freezes entirely.

Struggling to sell my house too. Been on the market for nearly 5 months. I've reduced it twice and I'm getting on average one viewing a week, but the feedback has been so different each time. I've had two offers who pulled out a day later. I've had one very person who expressed a very strong interest, but they have to sell their house first and they're struggling too. Houses on my road went for £25,000 more than what I've now reduced it too. I'm changing my estate agent in a week. I don't know if this'll make a difference, but I'm getting pretty down about this whole selling saga.

Have you gone on GOV.UK and searched sold prices for your postcode & area, for the type of house it is (terraced, semi-detached, detached)? In your shoes I'd be searching the last year, or since January the 1st. This can be exported to excel where you can play around with the figures and look at averages.

If you haven't done that, you have no idea what the general sales patterns are for your area. You're relying on your estate agent's estimation which might have been greatly exaggerated in order to get your business.

It really good that you are getting weekly viewings. It's odd that two people have pulled out though. It suggests that your house isn't competitive enough to stop people having doubts or for looking elsewhere.

Three houses in our area came up within a few months of each other…the two which were competitively priced sold within DAYS, the one which was over-priced (and the sellers didn’t want to reduce) was taken off the market after six months due to little interest.

It's often not about the sellers not wanting to reduce - they often cant for many different personal financial reasons. Because of the current difficult financial situation nationwide -for quite a lot its a case of if we don't get "X" we cant/wont move. Meanwhile those who can price attractively still manage to sell. The market is going through a difficult adjustment due to the normalisation of borrowing costs and the removal of some government props. Plus the increases in cost of living often haven't been matched by an equivalent increased earning. Some people will simply be stuck for quite a few years unfortunately. Particularly those who stretched hard to buy over the last 4/5 years - as the equity they put in, or thought they would gain, is evaporating. Its only just getting going too unfortunately.