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Original poster

How long has your house been for sale?

42 replies

SomeLikeItHot · 20/08/2008 14:06

Getting fed up now... we had an offer accepted on a gorgeous house 2 months ago but can't seem get anyone to view ours never mind put an offer in!!! We've got it on with 2 estate agents, its on rightmove and we've not had a single viewer since it went on 10 weeks ago!! Now i know with credit crunch etc its all crashing but i did expect to have had at least 1 viewer by now!!!!

Please someone give me sympathy and tell me they're in same situation!!!

OP posts:
PerkinWarbeck · 20/08/2008 14:12

you probably don't want to hear this, but here goes.....

we went on the market at the start of August. we had daily viewings for a fortnight, then an asking price offer. BUT - we priced our flat very, cheaply realisticly for a quick sale. Basically, our agent advised us that though prices appeared not to have fallen in the past 6 months, nothing was selling. Monitoring the market for a while before we were selling proved this to be correct. We needed to sell fast, and so chose a price to reflect this.

So, if I were you, I'd swallow my pride and drop the price, or stay put.

Original poster
SomeLikeItHot · 20/08/2008 14:20

We suggested that to estate agent because we got new house cheaper than expected so we can take less than what ours is valued at.. but they said its not worth doing when no one has even viewed it yet!! Its so stressful!! Maybe i'll mention it again to them.

I get the feeling sellers are thinking they wont put an offer in on anything until they've had an offer on their property which is causing the problem!

OP posts:
PerkinWarbeck · 20/08/2008 14:37

at your agents...

surely if no-one's coming through the door, then the issue must either be the price or the marketing, and the agents need to sort this out. Are you happy with all the marketing bumpf?

Original poster
SomeLikeItHot · 20/08/2008 15:59

I was a bit too which is why i put it on with second estate agent - but they have said the same thing...

I really dont understand it because we're in a nice area, its a modern 3 bedroom house with private parking and on at £135,000... you'd think someone would be interested. I keep asking the estate agents to be honest (doesnt seem to come easy to them)and let us know if they can see a reason why no one is looking. I just keep getting told that september is their busy month so give it a while longer!

OP posts:
slavemum · 20/08/2008 16:16

Where abouts are u somelikeithot? I'm in scotland, and we're going to look at a house tonight thats been on the market since last october with no viewers. It's the ideal size, in exactly the area we want, at a really good price. Only problem is there's a house in our street up for sale, and has been for almost a year, so I don't think we'd get this one sold.

Original poster
SomeLikeItHot · 21/08/2008 09:24

I'm in north northumberland slavemum.

arghhhh its just all so stressful isnt it?!!

OP posts:
wombleprincess · 21/08/2008 12:45

well we are due to exchange tomorrow (everything crossed for us please!!! )after putting it on the market beginning of may i think and one failed buyer. we're just very lucky as its in a unique position in our villageand we've done a lot of work to it so its pretty pristine. lots ot stuff around us isnt moving at al, and tbh its been a complete stress for me.

We also have taken a massive risk - we completed on new house a few weeks ago so are double mortgaging for 7 week so that we could buy and sell out of chain. If we dont sell we will rent out, albeit with a pretty large mortgage on new house. I recognise how lucky i am in this regard, could this be an option at all for you ?

edam · 21/08/2008 12:49

Have been looking on Propertysnake, seems lots of houses round my way have been on the market for months. Several on for 190 days.

A house a friend was trying to buy (but needed to sell her own first) did go within a few days, but they'd put it on at £75k less than it would have been last year.

thefunkypea · 21/08/2008 12:52

isn't the uncertainty around stamp duty having something to do with it too? A couple of houses in my road which finally got sold signs on their boards, are now back on the market or up for letting. Depressing stuff

Upwind · 21/08/2008 12:55

"We suggested that to estate agent because we got new house cheaper than expected so we can take less than what ours is valued at.. but they said its not worth doing when no one has even viewed it yet!!"

That makes no sense! Surely the point of dropping your asking price is to encourage people to at least come and look at it and see just what they could get for their money!

As PerkinWarbeck said, if nobody is viewing the problem is either the price or the marketing. And your agents are not doing their job.

ElfOnTheTopShelf · 21/08/2008 13:00

Been on market for nearly two years.
Changed estate agents.
House very reasonably priced - 2 bed home, driveway, close to town, good area, 89k...
Fell through 5 times.
I'm past the point of depression and despare

wombleprincess · 21/08/2008 13:02

estate agents.. useless bunch of t++ssers. Ours just lies to us constantly and i keep cathching him out.

if you are prepared to sell your house for less, then surely thats your business?

Original poster
SomeLikeItHot · 21/08/2008 13:21

upwind - i know! It just doesnt make any sense. I think they're just so used to lying they dont know what they're saying anymore! I wonder if its because they want us to hold out until market pics up and they can get bigger commission out of us in the longrun??

Think i'll go and see them tomorrow and get price dropped a bit. I just want to get moved into my lovely new house, not really bothered about making a big profit!!

Good luck for tomorrow Wombleprincess! Will keep my fingers crossed for you!

OP posts:
selby · 23/08/2008 20:36

We've just taken our house off the market after 5 mths, 15 viewings (including 3 second viewings) and no offers. 2 days after instructing a letting agent, we've already let it (had a choice of 2 families but decided to pick our tenants rather than have a bidding war). Ironically, one of those families had viewed our house a 2nd time with a view to buy but could not obtain a mortgage because they were self-employed! Proceedable buyers are very thin on the ground - only 1 of the 15 viewings went on to actually make a house purchase. The majority were people who wanted to move but still had to sell their house. We've relocated hundreds of miles away and would be really struggling to pay for both mortgage and rent but for a generous relocation package. Don't know how others do it.

MizZan · 23/08/2008 23:34

I'm a would-be buyer, with nothing I need to sell myself, and I think a lot of the views on this thread show a real lack of understanding that what goes up can also go down. If your house has been on the market without a single viewing for a good length of time, or if you've "sold" it and then had the sale fall through several times, you need to lower the price if you actually want to move. It is pretty simple really. The fact that the price you have it on for seems reasonable to you, or to your estate agent, or is what it would have sold for last year, is meaningless. The market has gone down. It still has further to fall. Buyers recognise that. Sellers don't. Ergo the current stagnation. Needless to say, we like many others are happy to continue renting for the time being, though we would prefer to own; there is very little inventory in our city (Cambridge), sellers are not lowering prices and almost nothing is selling, and in the house we're renting, the rental cost is less than what the mortgage cost for us would be, so buying only makes sense if something is really very well priced, or if we feel the market is going to turn around and start going up again (I'd say a good 2-3 years if not more).

hairycaterpillar · 23/08/2008 23:43

Ours went on market in Feb and we had approx 3-5 viewings a week and sold after 4 months...but we did compromise a bit on price.

nancy75 · 23/08/2008 23:49

i do think if you want to sell any house at the moment it needs to be totally perfect or have had a good reduction. my parents have just moved, sold house to the first viewer, 2 days after putting it up for sale and got full asking price, but it is in perfect condition,has all been redecorated, pristine carpets ect.

Upwind · 24/08/2008 19:49

The trouble is that if you had your house valued more than a few months ago and it never sold - it is probably because the price is too high for the way it is being presented. I've been keeping a close eye on my local property market - some places are selling after a short time up for sale because they have current valuations and that is all the seller expected to get. Other places keep dropping their asking price by 5-10k every few months and seem to be chasing the market down. They are still always overpriced compared to what has just come on the market.

selby · 25/08/2008 20:22

People who actually want to buy now and have nothing to sell are having trouble getting mortgages especially with the ever growing deposit required. The way it's going - a substantial % of the good housing stock will be taken off the market (not everyone will be desperate to sell). We're renting in Cheshire and there will have to be an absolute housing disaster for it to be cheaper to buy than to rent in this neck of the woods.

scanner · 25/08/2008 20:27

The housing market is always quite over the summer, this year it's been dead - I work in the industry. Traditionally it gets busier by mid Sept once the children have gone back to school and life has got back to normal. Hold on until the end of Sept before you dispair. I wouldn't have expected many/any viewings over the summer.

traceybath · 25/08/2008 20:30

We sold back in march and are currently in rented.

I'm near Bath and new houses do seem to be coming on at a bit less but am amazed to see many properties still on at the same price as they were 12 months ago. We reduced our price 3 times over 6 months as we wanted to sell.

We're in a lovely rented house and it would have to be a pretty fab house to tempt us back to buying at the moment. We think we'll stay put for at least another 12 months until prices have stabilised a bit more and mortgages are looking a bit more affordable.

Good houses at good prices are still selling though - i'd definitely talk to your estate agent about price.

noddyholder · 25/08/2008 20:34

It is irrelevant that summer is usually quiet as the spring is usually busy and it showed sharp falls.Things are only going to get worse over the next few years so anyone really serious to sell needs to slash their price and beat the competition otherwise you will chase the market down and houses that have been on for months while dropping but by bit start to look unattractive to buyers.Better to cut 15% now and sell than have to drop 30 in the next 18 months

scanner · 25/08/2008 21:05

Surely that IS chasing the market down.

Yes spring was relatively quiet, but sales do grind to a halt in the summer, so in a quite market it's not unreasonable to expect viewings to be light.

noddyholder · 25/08/2008 21:36

but viewings were non existent before summer.The property market as a 'sure thing' is over and sales won't pick up before the bottom is reached.No one is going to buy now unless at a substantial discount.Chasing the market down is tentatively taking a bit off month by month as the market falls Cutting a big chunk off nearer the start of the crash is a better way to get more

scanner · 25/08/2008 22:20

There will always be people who have to move ie. divorce, redundancy, change of jobs and even people who want to. We are hoping to move even though we won't get the same price for our house we would have done a year ago. As we are buying a larger house and the one we have our eyes on has already come down in price it doesn't matter if it goes down in value even further once we've bought it because we plan to stay there until the dc's leave home. In this age that could mean 20 years, so a price dip for a couple of years doesn't matter.