Timewasting from sellers

[timewastersellers]

I've readily heard about buyers viewing houses they have no intention of buying as a hobby, but do people have experiences of it also often working the other way around with sellers listing houses they aren't serious about selling?

We saw a house we were interesting in buying, listed with a new agent last month. It had previously been listed with a different agent for 9 months with no SSTC offers on rightmove and regular price reductions. Circumstances changed and we are now in a position to put our house on the market and relocate to the area. The price was well within budget and we would have potentially offered a little over the listing price if we really liked it. The EA (possibly vendor?) has not let us view at any stage, the house is still listed on rightmove as available, since the end of April, but the seller is 'considering an offer, so we can't view'.

Not wanting the efforts of getting our house market ready and our EA, I posted on a few facebook property groups to see whether anything suitable was coming to market that I'd missed on RM. My first stipulation was 'my budget is max £500k', but I got a few responses with links to £575k properties. Is it typical of the market to pitch for 75k over what they would accept? (the broad area is north - east Yorkshire).

It's not common OP but I have come across the odd similar situation before when a property was (is still) for sale on RM and has been for more than 4 years but not accepting viewings. very odd.

I have heard before of people speculatively putting a property for sale to see if they get interest, perhaps that's what's going on here - or perhaps a divorce and they can't agree on a price.

The people offering £575K properties almost certainly know that they are chancing it and that they are over priced. There are some that have really skewed views of what value to 'want' actually means. I looked at something at offers over £800k, turns out the vendor WANTED £1.3m!! Total waste of time for him, agents and viewers.

Re. North Yorkshire, things are selling quickly when realistically priced.

Listing a house for 800k and expecting almost double the price is insane!

Fortunately another potential house has just come up on RM this morning, hopefully this agent will let us book a viewing. It's listed as 'guide price' though so not sure whether it will go to best and final offers and silly money.

It happened to us back in early 1980. We put in the offer, was accepted, surveyor did survey which was all good. After about a month we got a call from the vendor saying they would have to pull out due to wife's job, very apologetic. Obviously we then had some costs but shrugged it off as couldn't be helped.

Started looking again and then discovered through another agent that they had pulled out of several previous sales with one excuse or another.

Could never understand why someone would do this, are they bored, mental or just horrible?

Usually these days you need your house on the market before you can get viewings on other properties. It doesn’t sound like you’ve done this so as far as they are concerned they’re screening you out as a potential timewaster.

My council charge double council tax for second homes. But will waver the additional second home council tax rate if the house is on the market.

We had a gap between buying our new home and selling the old so had two houses for a while. It came as a shock when the bill came through, but as we were on the market it was adjusted back down to standard rate.

I wonder if some second homes are on the market to save council tax.

We've instructed an EA and our listing is ready to go live, it's a FTB house in a sought after area, which typically sell within a couple of weeks and we would accept a low offer on our house for a quick sale if we liked the house. We don't want to lose our buyer if we can't find a house to move to. We asked them if we can book a viewing as soon as we go live and get viewings on our house booked in. If they want us to be under offer before viewing, then that's fair enough, but that's not what they've told us. Them being so vague about the process for securing a viewing has put me off asking to view other properties with them. Even if we go ahead and list our house for sale and get an offer on ours' tomorrow it sounds like we're still not allowed to view.

The vendor is apparently considering an offer, which I assume means it's less than the listed asking price, otherwise what is there to think about? Seems odd to turn away other potential higher offers whilst he's thinking about this one, but of course it's his house and he can do what he wants.

The EA we're using to sell our house said it's unusual in a slow market to turn away viewings and potential business. Hopefully something suitable comes on the market with them.

@Hotafternoon the system is ridiculous that buyers can lose out financially if the seller just decides they don't want to sell anymore, sorry that happened to you.

Back in 2011 we were looking to relocate closer to where we'd lived before selling in 2007. Our house had sstc within a week and our buyers were very keen to get to exchange ASAP.

We saw a house that looked perfect and arranged a viewing (along with two other potentials - we were travelling 150+ miles so wanted to make it worth the journey). On the day, the EA messaged to say he hadn't been able to get hold of the vendors and would let us know when he had. We pushed our other viewings back and awaited a call from the EA, intending to go to that one last instead of first. The EA eventually called saying he'd still not been able to contact the vendors who he guessed were on holiday. The EA hadn't been informed and didn't have a key. They said they'd let us know when the vendors were back.

A couple of weeks later we were heading back to the area as my parents lived nearby, so tried the EA again - still no word from the vendors so we gave up and heard no more. I kept an eye on the house though and it was still for sale over a year later. No reductions.

Interesting point, can councils enforce against this?

Serious sellers are begging for viewers, demand is way down in many areas.

Yes I had this happen twice. The first was a house that apparently got sold quickly, then back on the market, then withdrawn and then back on the market for £50k more in a couple of years. The other one the EA refused to let me view and I wondered if it was being kept for someone.

Did it eventually sell?

I offered 500k on a guide price of £500-525k they came back with a counter offer for £510k and will
wait for me to sell. They were on for 550k a few months ago!

Are you actually in a position to make an offer on it? Have you sold your property? If not, that’s likely the reason they aren’t letting you view? I don’t see how they’re wasting your time?

Not really a big drop in this market, we are slowly heading more towards reality, but if you get less than you expect for your house you may have to drop your offer again?

In 2010, we agreed a price on a property that we wanted to buy and had instructed solicitors to get the ball rolling on the purchase. No chain above the house we were buying.

We were almost ready to exchange ok the house we were buying and were going to live with my in laws for a month or two, because we didn’t want to lose our buyer.

The the seller decided that they didn’t want to sell after all, as ‘in five months our son will be doing GCSEs and we don’t want any upheaval’. I’m, why is your house on the market then, and why have you agreed a price with us?! It’s not like the GCSEs timing is new news to you! Argh.

We did exchange on ours on time and did buy another house. The house that they didn’t want to sell then went on to be sold at about £40k below the price we’d agreed with them, so they lost out on that and we made a better decision. It wasn’t meant to be, I think.

@WhoWhereWhatWhy that's reassuring to hear things worked out in the end, but yes, it's a crazy system where you can get so far into the process and have the seller/buyer change their mind. It's also frustrating when EAs don't update their listings to reflect when properties are under offer, so you waste time enquiring about them (a couple I've seen have even exchanged contracts, but are still showing as available). If the EA was leaving them up there to try to tout for business that would be one thing, but to just say it's sold and not ask what you're looking for or how far along in the selling process you are just seems a bit pointless.

Was wife’s job as a surveyor, perchance?

There are two in my area like this. Both are nasty separation cases. One in house blocks viewings, won’t sell. Wont accept any offer. Other gets court order to sell, they then appoint new agent, same process begins again.