Anyone just listing and want to join a support thread?

[getmemoved]

We are going onto the market over the next few days, photos taken yesterday. We’re in a new build which we reserved in 2020 (completed 2021). Valuations were slightly disappointing but have gone with agents’ advice and listed at £375k.

Our motivation for moving is to apply for DD’s school next September so we are on a 12 month countdown.

Feeling a huge mix of nerves, excitement and impatience.

My buyers solictor is annoyingly on holiday this week so not had much of an update other than to confirm the searches have already been applied for but no enquiries yet from the contract pack. Hoping once their solicitors back off holiday they'll get a move on with raising any enquiries (shouldn't really be many if any and I've supplied any documents I think they might want). No info about how the mortgage valuation went a few weeks ago, but I'm assuming all fine or they'd have probably said something by now. So back to waiting and praying they don't pull out, I'd really like to have this over with by Christmas. I hate the silence for weeks from solicitors

At least you’ve made the decision. We are still on our notice period so will need to leave our listing active over Christmas which isn’t ideal. In our area reasonably priced houses in the popular areas are still shifting quickly. In contrast those that are ambitiously priced are just sitting there.

We've had 3 viewings on our property (one of which viewed twice). 1st viewer hadn’t sold so wasn’t proceedable but preferred the layout of another property over ours, 2nd viewer came back for a 2nd viewing and said she loved it but wanted to look at other properties as a comparison as wanted someone closer to town centre. She has however come back this week with some additional questions about our parking set up and is considering ours. 3rd viewer liked ours but had a couple of other properties to view so will feedback after other viewings. We have a 4th coming on Saturday.

we hadn’t seen much coming on we liked after missing out on a couple of properties we liked but 2 have come on this week that we like so could really do with someone making an offer on ours.

We know our property won’t appeal to everyone as it’s a 3 storey townhouse but those that have viewed have all given positive feedback but no offers yet!

Fingers crossed it’s all ticking away in the background. I hate the waiting and not knowing what’s happening

Yes, making that decision feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders!
I actually called the estate agent and explained personally why we’ve decided to withdraw. The branch manager was very understanding and appreciated the call. He also agreed that the market is likely to be rather quiet after mid-November.
For the past 2 weeks, there’s been almost nothing new coming onto the market that we’d want to view. All I can see are overpriced properties being reduced, but even after the reductions, they’re still not attractive enough for us to consider viewing.
Interesting what you said about townhouses! We viewed one, and I actually quite liked the feel of it, but my husband wasn’t so keen.
What do you like most about townhouses? And why do you think some people are put off by them?

Ah so glad you feel a weight has been lifted. Now you can enjoy Christmas and then think about listing again next year. It will all work out I’m sure.

when we bought our townhouse we were moving from a 2 storey house that had 2 double bedrooms, a box room and only 1 bathroom and with 2 teenagers it just felt tricky for space and bathroom queues!

However the 3/4 bed detached houses in nicer areas with an extra bathroom and decent sized bedrooms were out of our budget entirely.

For us the townhouse worked beautifully as our bedroom spans the entire top floor and the teens each got a double bedroom
with built in wardrobes and it was in price range we could afford.

However downsides are a smaller garden, limited parking (we now have more cars as teens are now older and have their own cars).

I think our house would suit a couple or those that WFH or those families with teens. However those that have younger children probably wouldn’t buy our house because it would mean the kids being on a floor below and the smaller garden.

Ive loved it here but its just time for a move.

Thanks for your feedback on the townhouse!
Let’s hope you secure a solid offer before Christmas!

Since reducing our asking price, we had 3 viewings last Saturday and another 3 booked for this coming Saturday.

I am still hopeful we might receive an offer, especially as our dream house is still on the market, so there’s still a chance we could make an offer on it ourselves!

Fingers crossed they go ahead and you manage to complete before Christmas!

It’s so hard to know when the best time to sell is. At the end of the day, all we need is one solid buyer who falls in love with our house!

The house we fell in love with was the 7th property we viewed, and even though we’ve seen many more since, it still has a special place in my heart.
But if we don’t manage to sell now, perhaps spring will bring a buyer and another dream house. I’m trying to stay positive and believe that things will work out one way or another!

We've had an email from our EA, inviting us for a chat to discuss ways to boost interest in our house (currently zero).

I know exactly why he's got in touch now - because he knows it's prime time for people to take houses off the market ahead of a relaunch in the spring, and he's on a charm offensive in case we are considering jumping ship. He's not wrong!

So I reached out to the conveyancers I used last time I moved house to see if they would take instruction from me considering my current situation (complicated deed of trust that they drew up) and they have said they would as long as there was no disagreement on it so yay - I have a conveyancer I trust. And I have painted about 90% of my sitting room now (need to check it in daylight to see if it needs another coat) so things continue to progress. The new colour is lovely and makes the room look much nicer.

Quick update on my previous bit of advice after 10 months on the market - I dropped the price and had an offer 3 weeks ago from FTBs at £580k, which was rejected (asking price is £625k). A week later, got an offer of £590k and that was accepted - and this morning have received a third offer at £615k from a family who have already sold thier house. Now it’s time to check and qualify the chain, and think about the risk - shorter chain or no chain wins above price in this market.

point is - price it below what you want and look for competing offers - if they love the house enough you will get what the market says it’s really worth.

It’s great to see that everything worked out for you in the end! It gives me hope that we might still receive an offer by the end of November before taking our house off the market until spring.

We have 3 viewings booked for tomorrow, and we’re also going to see 2 properties ourselves that have had significant price reductions.

Just when we thought we'd packed away the For Sale sign until February....

We had a call today from our EA - viewing on Monday by someone who is selling a flat, and is under offer - their buyer is a FTB. Im being my normal cynical self, our EA didn't really have any meaningful information other than that.

I doubt they will be in a position to put in an offer on ours, not with that financial profile. But I have to withhold judgement and hope they aren't time wasters. Probably had too many disappointments over the months to get excited or even hopeful.

after that, we're keen to pull stumps until Feb.

This is great news and gives me some hope! We priced our house realistically and EA actually agreed with the amount we wanted to market for. We agreed to go slightly lower than we ideally wanted to achieve to get people through the door. Unfortunately it hasn’t produced any offers yet but we are into a few weeks in - hope you managed to make a decision you’re happy with but great news that you had 2 offers

Great news on the viewings and fingers crossed it all falls into place. If not at least you know you are happy taking a break and relaunching in new year - fingers crossed for some positive news

Ha this whole process has made me very cynical too but this could be great. Let’s hope they are genuine and bring some good news

Update on things here. We haven’t heard any more from the viewing we had last Friday - she did feed back to our agent that she liked our house and it was definitely a contender but they had a couple of other properties to see so would feed back after they’d completed viewing said would be within next week or so but they’d be in touch either way.

The cash buyer that had viewed twice who we had written off as although she said she loved the house had decided she wanted to look at some other options as wanted a location closer to town (we are scrimmage pretty close but she does live in another town at the moment ) however out of the blue this week came back to our agent to ask for some clarification on our parking arrangements so a reply was sent on Tuesday but we haven’t heard anything since.

we have another viewing in the morning so have spent most of the day prepping.

whilst I said I wouldn’t view until we had an offer after losing out on a pretty much perfect house as we weren’t sold a property has been relisted with a new agent with a massive reduction - it’s a house we liked but needs work and the original listed price was above our budget. ‘New price is in budget but it needs a lot more work than we originally thoughts. We’ve never done a Reno always hiring finished houses so this is quite daunting but the bones of the house and the area are good

tomorrow morning we are viewing a new listing in a location we like - it needs some cosmetic updating but otherwise ticks a lot of boxes but it’s over our ideal budget so we wouldn’t have much left in the pot for any work.

Nort much new on the market at the moment. Really need to get an offer on ours now

@Timetomoveonagain there are just so many decisions and balances to be struck in this game, aren't there. It makes my head spin a lot of the time.

how much can we trust someone who claims to be a cash buyer?

Should we go with someone who has a shorter chain but makes an aggressive offer, or someone who gives us near the asking price but a longer chain?

do we go for a Reno or a fully out of the box solution?

do we wait until we are fully proceedable before finding the next house, or will we be left scrabbling around having to settle for a house just to keep the chain? Or move to rented and risk paying £000 towards someone else's mortgage for a year!

so many scenarios and no way of knowing what the best choice is, other than gut instinct!

All the very best for your viewing today and that your viewer decides to go for your's. Fingers tight crossed for you.

Over the weekend DH and I have completely changes the plans we had to buy a new build on a new development. Last time we visited the site where the house will be, we found there are two additional enormous developments within a stones throw. Massive bottleneck of traffic and yesterday we found out the local health care provision ie GP and dentists has not been increased and no plans to so 350 new homes and families moving in with zero support plus new planning application for 32 more houses. No go for us!

Meanwhile we have gone back to a previous plan to consider a new build a lot closer to our current home which DH is really pleased about as he loves this area and hadn't realised what an emotional wrench it would be to move away. I too feel the same now.

We have a meeting with the developer on Saturday. The big benefit to us is the new house is significantly cheaper for the same accommodation so we may consider adjusting our price.

If the people who are viewing today are interested we may be able to do a good deal. They are proceedsble with just one buyer in the chain. Cynical me says it's too good to be true so not hanging my hat on that, but it does open up a much better picture to get out of this interminable stalemate

The storms scuppered our Friday viewing, but both interested parties will re-book -- sez the EA. So fingers still crossed, while the apartment we like remains unsold.

Fingers crossed, and if they are committed purchasers they will want to get a booking in to view yours @Papyrophile you must have had it bad in your area. We had high winds mainly Sat and torrential rain, so if it was anything like that, it's fortunate they will see your home in better weather!

It has been very wet and windy all weekend, though yesterday was quieter, but it was much worse further west, but I understood someone not wanting to drive any distance in those conditions @daisychain01 .

This is a similar situation close to where my parents live. Due to boundary lines the properties have been built and planning position falls under the jurisdiction of another council but they are closer to facilities of our local council which means they will use local schools/GP etc and again these services have not been expanded to accomodate the new houses.

Everything crossed for you today that everything aligns for you