Sold, then back on the market

missz_2

I had my eye on a house, didn't do anything about it then online I saw that it was under offer , then the SOLD sign went up (the house is quite near my rented property). Today I saw that the sold sign has come down and it's back up for sale.

Now, I'm wondering what could have happened. For the sold sign to have gone up I would have thought that mortgages would have been secured, survey done , etc. Could there be something wrong with the property, or more likely to be a chain issue?

Soot2006

Sold signs go up very quickly atm .
Sold generally means "subject to conditions" ... i.e. subject to the sale proceeding!

Doozergirl

Sold signs go up as soon as the house goes under offer. There's usually no difference between the two signs except which an agent prefers to use.

The most likely reason at the moment is that the buyer couldn't secure a mortgage on it.

missz_2

Reply. That sounds right because I'm seeing a helluva lot of sold signs going up lately.

littlemissfrugal

Yep mine had a sold sign on it for about a week - then the buyer lost their mortgage so OH took the Sold sign down and it went back on RM - this has focused the mind of our buyer to sort out his finances and we have given them a date to exchange by or the deal is off completely

trumpton

Buyer could have withdrawn for many reasons - mortgage fell through, bad survey, or just changed their mind. Some EA's don't put sold sign up until after survey, whereas others jump the gun. I always think it looks bad if houses are 'sold' then back on RM as unsold - makes me think there's something wrong with them.

Salz

The Estate Agents put the Sold sign up in our area at the first whiff of a sale. We take bets on how long before they are back For Sale - the average is about 4 weeks. Why that long I dont know - I presume that is the time it takes to get a valuation done, and the lender refuses to lend as the valuation is lower than the offer price?

There are a few that have been sold 2 or three times. You have to feel sorry for them.

SouthCoast

I like this one from Property-Bee:

History

dateevent01 July 2009

• Agents Telephone changed: from '08454085516' to '08453073187'

04 April 2009

• Price changed: from 'Offers in Region of £249,950' to 'Offers in Region of £227,000'

27 March 2009

• Price changed: from '£249,950' to 'Offers in Region of £249,950'
• Status changed: from 'Sold STC' to 'Available'

19 February 2009

• Status changed: from 'Available' to 'Sold STC'

07 February 2009

• Status changed: from 'Sold STC' to 'Available'

24 December 2008

• Status changed: from 'Available' to 'Sold STC'

05 December 2008

• Status changed: from 'Sold STC' to 'Available'

21 September 2008

• Status changed: from 'Available' to 'Sold STC'

21 May 2008

• Initial entry found.

chickmug

Just to add one more thought, which is rare, but it has happened to me a number of times.

Buyer legally complete but realised they had made a big mistake.

So house put back on the market immediately.

One case where I was instructed to offer for sale between the exchange and legal completion. Declined until it was fully competed then put it up for sale.

Other cases within days of completion

shirlgirl2004

I hope we don't end up with buyer's remorse so soon after completion!

We did offer on one house and less than a week later a new planning application was put in down the road for a travellers' site. We quickly withdrew our offer because of the risk of the fall in house value (it was only going to be a home for 5 or 6 years). That house is still showing as under offer on RM and we withdrew our offer nearly 2 weeks ago.

themanbearpig

People that get sucked into paying too much with bidding wars or pushy estate agent tactics may pull out later after they realise the housing market is just smoke and mirrors right now, and nothing is worth what is being asked.