To those selling in these difficult times Part Deux. AKA sellers support network!

pr9fer

That's brilliant news, Spooky!

I have been lurking for a while, here is my story so far:

Tried to sell my 2 bed semi 2 years ago, started at 115k, eventually decided to rent it out for a while as the only offer I got was 103k which I refused.
2 months ago I tried again, putting it on with an independent local agent. At 99k I had zero viewings in 2 months so decided to change agents to a national chain whose fees were twice as much. The bloke from the chain had been phoning me throughout the 2 months with the other agent to see if I wanted to change over to them. I was quite impressed and thought if he was making that much effort with me then hopefully he would make that much effort to find me a buyer.

So last week I made the move and on day 2 I get a phone call to say I have had an offer! It's for 88k, which is slightly below the 90k that I was happy to accept, but I'm not going to lose a buyer by quibbling over 2k.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and if I had known 2 years ago that I would be selling for 88k then I would have grabbed that 103k offer and saved myself the hassle of renting it out for the last two years!

So I'm keeping my fingers, toes, eyes, arms and legs crossed that the sale goes through without a hitch and by the spring me and hubby should have enough saved to find a family home for us.

Jackinbox99

Well, purchaser came around Sunday for a 2nd viewing, bought along with him his wife, kids, plus his brother and his mother! They spent about 1hr 30mins really looking over the house, asking loads of questions and were all overjoyed with it. They were really impressed and happy. They asked if i could leave certain bits of furniture and I agreed I would, even agreed to leave my fridge / freezer etc... They gave me details of who they had mortgage with and its all ready to go, details of the solicitors they are using - even though i didnt ask, and even gave me their mobile number if i have any queries.

Then get a call today from EA saying "sorry, they have changed their mind".

!!!!!!?!

Back to Square 1!.

Now tempted to change estate agents, although it will cost me about 200quid to do so due to the EA`s fee arrangement.

NEH

Jackinbox99 wrote: »

Well, purchaser came around Sunday for a 2nd viewing, bought along with him his wife, kids, plus his brother and his mother! They spent about 1hr 30mins really looking over the house, asking loads of questions and were all overjoyed with it. They were really impressed and happy. They asked if i could leave certain bits of furniture and I agreed I would, even agreed to leave my fridge / freezer etc... They gave me details of who they had mortgage with and its all ready to go, details of the solicitors they are using - even though i didnt ask, and even gave me their mobile number if i have any queries.

Then get a call today from EA saying "sorry, they have changed their mind".

!!!!!!?!

Back to Square 1!.

Now tempted to change estate agents, although it will cost me about 200quid to do so due to the EA`s fee arrangement.

Really sorry to hear that, one word i think covers it-gutted...:(

It makes you wonder it really does what goes on in people's minds.....

I know a couple of years ago we were going to put an offer in on a house but that same day our situation changed overnight but at least we had the decency to call the folks and explain...

Orpheo

Jackinbox99 wrote: »

Im so angry about it all. All that money you spend doing a house up so its perfect and its made no difference to the house prices. Now, the house ive just bought ive had to pay top wack for and just can not afford to do it up as good and nice as I did in my current house.

Why, because you have maintained your house to a good standard, do you think I should pay extra? You have been watching too much pwoperdee TeeVee. All the fixtures and fittings in your house are consumer durable goods, they do not hold their value. Why shouldn't I expect the decor, fixtures and fitting, roof, guttering etc, etc, of a house that I am buying to be well maintained? When I sold my house, it was well maintained and had recently had a new kitchen among other things; I didn't expect to add the cost of the kitchen to the house, the buyers expect a kitchen. I didn't fit a kitchen to get rich, I fitted a kitchen to replace one that had come to the end of its use.

Jackinbox99 wrote: »

Makes me feel im some sort of charity. Buy a house, spend a fortune doing up and sell it cheap so the next person benefits.

Bet you weren't complaining when house prices were rising. Some sort of charity! What about the poor buyers that have had to borrow stupidly increasing amounts of money, ludicrous amounts of debt to pass cash on to those selling their houses? They must have felt like they were some sort of charity.

thriftytiger

Hi this thread is great, I don't feel alone anymore!

We've had house on the market for about 5 months with about the same number of viewings. We put it on the market at the best EA valuation (which we really knew at the time was wrong but thought we'd give it a try!), which was the price we paid for it 2.5 years ago (£150,000). We relatively quickly dropped it by £10,000, which resulted in fewer viewings(!). We've seen a few houses we like and even put an offer in on one, they accepted in principle, but obviously nothing has happened since (this was at least 3 months ago now). Up until now we have been relatively casual about the whole thing as we have no desperate need to move. However, recently we have come to the conclusion that the market may not change very much in the next few years, so we might as well do what we can to get things going now. In discussion with EA we have decided to drop by another £10,000 (and have floated the idea with the vendor of the house we want about a reduction in our offer and the door hasn't been slammed in our face).

So my question to you guys is should we reduce now or wait until the spring (feb) when supposedly all these lovely new buyers are going to appear. Also people talk about the negative affect of having your house on the market for a long time, is this really something to concern ourselves with? Any other advice would be greatly recieved!
thanks!

Jackinbox99

Orpheo wrote: »

Why, because you have maintained your house to a good standard, do you think I should pay extra? You have been watching too much pwoperdee TeeVee. All the fixtures and fittings in your house are consumer durable goods, they do not hold their value. Why shouldn't I expect the decor, fixtures and fitting, roof, guttering etc, etc, of a house that I am buying to be well maintained? When I sold my house, it was well maintained and had recently had a new kitchen among other things; I didn't expect to add the cost of the kitchen to the house, the buyers expect a kitchen. I didn't fit a kitchen to get rich, I fitted a kitchen to replace one that had come to the end of its use.



Bet you weren't complaining when house prices were rising. Some sort of charity! What about the poor buyers that have had to borrow stupidly increasing amounts of money, ludicrous amounts of debt to pass cash on to those selling their houses? They must have felt like they were some sort of charity.

Obviously 2 different ways to look at this. In my street a house 5 doors away recently sold for £145k which needed a lot of work doing to it having been rented out previously for a number of years. The buyer would have to gut the house and fit new kitchen, bathroom, redecorate the whole house, new floorings, landscape the garden and build a double garage. In all, they would have to spend probably 30k getting it to the standard of my house.

So, does that mean my house is worth the same amount as the wreaked house? Or, for a purchaser who can just move straight in and not worry about doing any work to the house, is it worth slightly more?

As a purchaser myself, id expect the house condition and what it comes with to be reflected in the price. i.e. a house which needs nothing spending on it, id expect to pay more than one which needed a small fortune throwing at it. To prove this to some degree, a house identical to mine which has been done up to a similar high standard sold for £172k at the same time as the other house.

As for the house price rise? Doesnt matter to me if prices fall or rise if you are selling one house to buy another as the whole market changes accordingly. If prices have risen you just have to fork out more for your next house so it doesnt make any difference. You only benefit from this if prices have risen and you are selling a second home in which case you can pocket the profits.

In my case I will actually loose out to some degree. Ive just bought a new home and had to pay top money. My current house has not sold yet, so the more I have to reduce the price, the more expensive my new home becomes. Likewise my girlfriend who bought her house in 2003 is in negative equity now. House prices go up & down, but over the very long term they will always go up.

myhouse_2

Jackinbox99 wrote: »

House prices go up & down, but over the very long term they will always go up.

Even after inflation is taken into account?

HelenDaveKids

thriftytiger wrote: »

Hi this thread is great, I don't feel alone anymore!

We've had house on the market for about 5 months with about the same number of viewings. We put it on the market at the best EA valuation (which we really knew at the time was wrong but thought we'd give it a try!), which was the price we paid for it 2.5 years ago (£150,000). We relatively quickly dropped it by £10,000, which resulted in fewer viewings(!). We've seen a few houses we like and even put an offer in on one, they accepted in principle, but obviously nothing has happened since (this was at least 3 months ago now). Up until now we have been relatively casual about the whole thing as we have no desperate need to move. However, recently we have come to the conclusion that the market may not change very much in the next few years, so we might as well do what we can to get things going now. In discussion with EA we have decided to drop by another £10,000 (and have floated the idea with the vendor of the house we want about a reduction in our offer and the door hasn't been slammed in our face).

So my question to you guys is should we reduce now or wait until the spring (feb) when supposedly all these lovely new buyers are going to appear. Also people talk about the negative affect of having your house on the market for a long time, is this really something to concern ourselves with? Any other advice would be greatly recieved!
thanks!

We decided to go for it. put on for 165k 9 wks ago, dropped 5k then last week dropped another 10k, as felt a substantial drop was required due to market and being now close to christmas. If didn't sell we intended to rent it out as already bought our next one. Anyway lovely family, 2 viewings and offer of 4k under accepted. Much less than we initially thought when put on market but suspect was being realistic and feel happy (and very relieved). Nice family who I'm sure will be very happy in it. :T
early days - but sale agreed and hoping it all goes through..... :A

evoke

I'm now with two new estate agents. Not a single phone call from either estate agent for the past week. I've pretty much given up selling my flat in the foreseeable future and have spent my savings on a car instead. LOL.

Bobby_Dazzler

Hi All

So many viewings but no offers.

sick to death of...

People viewing and say no downstairs cloakroom ( do they not read the floor plan?)

Kitchen too small (dont they read the floor plan?)

Bedroom to small as buyer is 6Ft8 (dont they read the floor plan?)

1st Viewings

2nd Viewings

3rd Viewings

Bring the parents viewings

People that didnt realise that they would need to put other house on Buy to let in order to buy another one(time wasters)

Kitchen cant fit a American Fridge freezer (dont they read the floor plan and look at the pictures?

Will i add my Plasma Screen and AV setup as part of the deal?? - will you make a sensible offer? er no

Will a trampoline fit in the garden - Yes ok still wont offer.

Can buy a semi for 20k less - well yes of course you can - this is detached so it costs more.

How many hours have we spent tidying up and making the house pristine?

I reckon 30-40 hours of cleaning and time off work.



Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh

At least the newbuild i have my eye on has been put back a few months due to no one buying newbuilds either.

Who do i blame?

No one - Sellers want to make as much as pos, Buyers want a super deal, Mortgage lenders dont want risk and Stamp duty is too high

Stale Mate

Things will pick up with the weather though

Stick to your guns sellers!

Ciao:T