Short rant/moan about selling my house. I'm sure I'm not the only person in this situation

[naturelover]

We are trying to sell our house, we know it's a bad time but two months ago we thought with prices falling it would bridge the gap between two bedrooms (that we have) and three bedrooms (that we'd like). We'd also like to move into a better area for primary schools, although we don't need primary schools for another 3 years. Plus we'd like to have another baby at some point.

Anyway, we bought this place in 2004, and have done tons of work to it. We put it on the market two months ago, have reduced the price twice, and we think it's a very good price and it's in fab condition. But because of the credit crunch no one is really buying.

Our "dream house" (total wreck but right size and area) is still on the market. Other people are interested but no one can sell their houses either.

I guess I'm feeling sorry for myself because if the market continues to fall we will not be able to afford to move. We are not trying to make a profit out of this house, we just want to break even on the work we've done on it and have a deposit to allow us to upgrade. Without releasing a bit of equity, we can't afford to move.

I just worry that if we don't sell now, we'll be stuck here for literally years. I'm sure I'm not alone worrying about prices falling too far.

Every time we get a viewing it feels like an emotional rollercoaster... and half the time the viewings get cancelled at the last minute so I've wasted time tidying up. It's not easy keeping the place perfect with a toddler underfoot!

Assuming you've done all the usual - declutter, very clean, tidy and priced right - then it really is just the state of the market. The housing market is just about as dead as can be.

Not much help to you I know but you do have my sympathy. Selling/buying is always a nightmare and I can't even begin to imagine what it's like trying to do so in this dreadful housing market. Fingers crossed for you.

I'm going to sound like I work for these people but I don't. There are companies that buy houses for less than the current market value.

This one was featured in The Guardian or The Times when one of their reporters just wanted out of her flat, she was tired of the viewings and everything falling through at the last minute. They were very transparent with their offer, small print etc etc.

They offer at least 80% of the market value. Basically you tell them what your house is worth they then tell you what they would offer. If you are happy with that then they have your house valued by a RICS surveyor. If they find your house to be less than your original valuation they still offer you the same percentage as their initial offer.

They are www.ukpb.co.uk we are looking at them as a back up for when we look to move next year. We just want out.

naturelover you sound like us (have 2 beds, need 3 etc) except our is the "wreck" that I would love someone to come along and buy. I had a call at 5pm to say the agent wants to do a viewing at 10am tomorrow so must go and tidy, tidy, tidy....

Naturelover - if you're getting viewings then you probably have it priced about right, and are doing the right things. It'll just be a matter of time before it sells.

Mine has been on the market for 3 months and we only had our first viewing last week! I wouldn't have moved if it wasn't for my job. Regardless of the nervousness of the market people are still moving, it just takes that bit longer.

The other people you can approach are your local council - they will keep registers of housing associations, so if yours is a good family home, you might find one of them would be interested.

Thanks for the empathy and tips.
I worry that no one will want to live here because we're near a big council estate (but near the centre of a nice town, good transport links etc) When we bought it we were desperate and there wasn't much on the market.

Well this is the problem, you have the nicest house in a not so good area and now first time buyers aren't up against the wall they are going to be picky and the first thing they will consider is location, location, location.
How much money do you need to put 10% down on the next house. Add that figure to your outstanding mortgage and forget about the work you've done, money you've spent. Nobody cares about that any more.
You have to be tough when you buy yours and make the next step up work for you.

Hey nature lover we are in the exact same position as you, but we have had NO viewings at all. We will reduce the price on Monday O think. Its tough isn't it, especially when there's one you want waiting for you, its depressing. We had two perfect-for-us houses come and go, its horrible. I have stopped looking now so I don't find another perfect home!
Sorry I'm not being more positive, just letting you know you are not alone

Same here, been on the market a year - A WHOLE YEAR!

We had offers late last year but they were non-proceedable. Not a sausage since.

We have just reduced the price, said we would pay the stamp duty, no chain etc etc so hopefully something soon (and by soon I mean before next summer!).

We are in the process of selling our house after 6 months on the market. We accepted way below what we thought our bottom line was but is (only slightly) above what we paid for it in 2004.

We are due to exchange next week but now I'm terrified he is going to pull out or drop the price at the last minute. He's just had a survey done and they've found some damp. I'm 6 months pregnant with DC2 so if this falls through we're buggered for years!

On the olus side (fingers crossed) we put in a ridiculously low offer on the house of our dreams which was accepted and seems to be proceeding. It was taken off the market in the summer due to no buyers but, when we were under offer we asked the estate agent to call them back. We offered 20% below the asking price and the price had already been lowered by nearly the same amount.

Essentially, forget about what you paid for it, how much money you've spent etc and concentrate on how much money you will need to buy the next house up. In theory, a falling housing market helps those people trading up as long as you can find a buyer

Good luck with your move and keep tidying!

And please can I have some kind of virtual mass crossing fingers that we exchange this week!

Fruitstick - I hope your sale goes through.

I understand what everyone says about "forget how much money you've spent on the house" but it's hard to imagine selling it for less than the price we paid + the cost of renovations. These were not mere cosmetic improvements. The house was barely habitable and we've put in new boiler, wiring, bathroom, kitchen, windows, doors, you name it. Everything was 30 years old, cold and damp.

We are keen to try TTC but it would be a squeeze having DC2 in this house. But then I don't know how long it could take to get pregnant so I think perhaps we should just start trying and see what happens. I know many many people are in much worse situations than us, I have no grounds to moan!

It is gut wrenching when you have done so much. We have completely redone ours too, literally everything like you

Fizzylemonade, that firm offers a MAXIMUM of 80%, not 'at least 80%'. And that only in quite restrictive circumstances. The problem, too, is that at a time when nothing is shifting, 'open market value' might turn out to be quite a lot less than you would like your house to be worth...

Sorry to rain on your parade, but we looked into firms like that last time there was a property crash and we had a house we couldn't sell - and we would really only have got about half what we thought was reasonable.

I'm a buyer and in this current market I don't want to pay top price for work carried out that it is not in my taste. I'm not criticising your house, just that it's really frustrasting to find a house despite being cash buyers because everything is so overpriced. We are both self-employed and our businesses are at a standstill so we are not willing to sacrifice all our savings to buy and then have no cushion for the hard times.

Goldenpeach I see your point. I would also rather buy a wreck and fix it up to my taste than buy something already renovated. This is what we did in 2004 and what we hope to do again now.

The changes we made were essential not cosmetic though (new boiler etc) and we deliberately put in neutral but good quality kitchen and bathroom. Everyone has loved the house (but the location is putting them off). I'm feeling pretty pessimistic.

Alas someone has put an offer on our "dream house", it's a ridiculously low offer but the vendor might decided one in the hand is worth two in the bush and not wait for us to sell our house. Heartbreaking!

Our equity is dropping by the week, we are seriously considering dropping our price again or accepting less than we actually paid for it, out of fear of being stuck here long term (not big enough, not good for schools).

Are we crazy to be considering this?

But if you accept less than you actually paid for it will you be able to afford to move?

We are stuck in a very small 2 bedroom house, we have not even attempted to put it on the market as nothing is selling. We are scared that we will end up here forever but looking on the bright side at least it is a 2 bedroomed house and not a 1 bedroomed flat.

One house in our road sold for £475,000 18 months ago. A neighbour with an almost identical house has hers on the market for £300,000 and yet she is getting offers for under £200,000!

We are ttc no 2 as well, If we have a baby I don't know what we will do once it outgrows a moses basket as neither of our bedrooms have room for a cot.

We are ttc no 2 as well, If we have a baby I don't know what we will do once it outgrows a moses basket as neither of our bedrooms have room for a cot.

there is talk of prices reaching 2001 levels next year

not what you want to hear, but it's all relative, isn't it? ue. what you want to buy will drop in price too....

ForeverOptimistic you sound like you're in the same situation. We've decided to ttc no2 next month in case it takes ages. I don't want to put my life on hold in case it takes years to move. If it does, well, we're in a small 2-bed house, we are better off than many (we have a garden, for a start). But we'd LOVE to move to our "forever" house and fix it up bit by bit.

Yes if we accept less than we paid for it we should be able to afford to move - we have "some" equity. And yes, the houses we are interested in are getting cheaper. Maybe it will all work out ok...

I'm late to this thread - but I was just in a similar situation. We put our house up three months ago and it sold last week - to a first time buyer who didn't want to have to do anything to his house and appreciated that our house was in nice shape. Fingers crossed for you!

While we were waiting to sell we missed out on what I thought was my dream home, but we've ended up somewhere even nicer. It's price fell more than the price our house brought in so overall we came out ahead.

Check what mortgage you want before selling though, in the three months between our approval in principle and our mortgage application, our lender is now requiring a 25% deposit to get a decent interest rate. This caused us a bit of scrambling to get the cash together and I wish I'd known this before we made an offer. We were just lucky that our offer turned out to just match our equity - eating into my renovation budget for our house!

(We waited to move until we had DS2 and the boys have been sharing a room for a while without major dramas. I am excited to put them in their own rooms but it's not a necessity. Don't worry too much if you have your second in your current home (but I'm sure it'll sell before then).)

Thanks Aberdeenhiker, that's an encouraging story. I keep telling myself if we don't get this house, we'll find another - better - house later on!

We have a second viewing booked so hopefully this person will put in an offer so we can put an offer on the house we like.