Must get this house sold!! :-(

willing2learn_3

My mum has been trying to sell her house for nearly two years following the sudden loss of my dad, her husband.

There was a sale going ahead but the buyer has pulled out at the moment due to his buyer pulling out. He happens to be a really nice person and we are equally sorry for him....but mum really needs to sell this house or she will end up reposessed.

Can anyone with experience explain the steps involved in house selling?

The estate agent told me that our buyer had sold his house and now we find out that what they mean't was that he'd sold subject to contract. it doesn't help that i've been getting information second hand via my mum, but i also visited the agents offices and they seemed to be giving a very rosy view and said he'd sold his house....seemed to be quite vague in what they were saying...

5 weeks later and he hasn't exchanged contracts due to his buyer pulling out.......i'm left wondering what has been going on over the last 5 weeks (and apologies if i'm naive - but i am when it comes to this stuff)..........also the agents have told me the house was still being marketed, they said that it has been the whole of the 5 weeks....how is it then that i cannot find the house on their website, on right move or on zoopla? Do agents alternate, or does this suggest they haven't marketed it the whole time?

I would appreciate anyone with any advice or experience, we just want the house sold yesterday! It's a lovely house, will be very sad to lose it - but this whole thing is driving my mum crazy now, it's been 2 years on top of a sudden bereavement.......it's not that she doesn't want the house, it's beautiful, it's that she cannot afford to keep the house.

Thanks for any thoughts/help/experience....:)

hcb42

until contracts are exchanged, "selling a house" means nothing.

when someone makes you an offer, it is important to understand where they are at in the process. Obviously you can never be certain the whole chain will not collapse, but you can only make a judgement on how well things are progressing.

a sale is not a sale until the cash is in the bank, as it were.

willing2learn_3

thanks - well i'm learning....but when my mum is saying that the estate agents have told her everything is ok and contracts will be exchanged in a week or so - and then later find out they've rung her again and said a few more weeks.....clearly there's some delay his end getting the contracts signed on his own house sale.

the agents are telling me that a certain amount of time - about 5-6 weeks is normal, that they couldn't have predicted this outcome, that everything was going smoothly - thoughts?

thanks anyone reading this....it's late now for me, long day at work so sorry if it's brief and simplistic.

willing2learn_3

Nice quote by the way! :-)

hcb42

dont ask the Estate Agents on issues about exchange etc. ask her solicitor...they can chase the other solicitor and will be best placed to give an honest answer

willing2learn_3

Thanks i will contact the solicitor on monday - interestingly I've had to chase him up about it before....he replies to my emails with 'things have been a bit quiet of late,' etc. The lastest is that he's heard nothing from them for quite some time - is he not mean't to be chasing it up? Or do we have to chase him up to chase them up? He has suggested chasing the agents or re-marketing the property.

hcb42

I wouldnt accept "things have been quiet".

I would want specifics. If he tells you he did x, and it takes 2 weeks to get reply etc...then at least you are getting detail.

but yes, no harm chasing the agents, explaining your solicitor appaers to be in the dark, and if things (whatever the holdup is) are not progressing in x days, the property will be back on the market.

willing2learn_3

Thanks so much....i really appreciate it. I was doing this about 2 months ago, but then suddenly the agents told mum everything is going ahead.....and how it was described to me by mum i thought i could now leave things with her and them. Mum has a tendency to describe things to me as if everything's ok and i'm just worrying - it's only after a few weeks when i persist and complain and it gets into an argument that we get the real info....this happened when she was going through application for the mortgage rescue scheme as well. Whether it's others giving her the impression everything is ok i don't know but i wish they wouldn't or they would explain things very realistically and clearly to her because now i have to pick up the pieces.

Doozergirl

What's happened is what happens.

Chains are perfectly normal and, depending on the price bracket of the house almost to be expected. So when someone describes themselves as 'sold' when they are viewing a house, it's fair to say that when they are under offer, but you need to clarify exactly what stage of 'sold' they are. On the other hand, you can't not choose to sell someone because they are also going through the process of selling having accepted an offer themselves - you have to take the buyers you get.

A weekly conversation with the solicitor and the estate agent is enough really. The solicitor can tell you what is happening with your sale, the estate agent will be able to call down the chain and find out what is happening there and report back.

But sales fall through all the time and it's only to be expected, unfortunately. We've already had two sales fall through on one of ours, neither our fault. After two years on the market, you really have to consider price. How much money has been lost in mortgage repayments and stress in that time when it could have been sold at a lower price?

Mum's house needs to be remarketed now. If it was at a lower than asking price, then I would lower the asking price to the agreed price. She still has a potential buyer in her buyer, but until they sell they are in no better position to buy then any new person. What I would look at is their house and how long it took them to sell in the first place. If it was quick, then fingers crossed it will be again - is mum able to offer them incentive to drop the price on theirs if she drops her price as well?

You do what you can in this market. Houses either sell very quickly or languish. If you can't find the house on the internet, can you widen your search criteria; it might have been classified incorrectly with the number of bedrooms or type of house etc? Give us some info so we can have a look as well? It obviously won't help it sell if people can't find it!

willing2learn_3

Thanks - a very good idea re dropping price and seeing if he could do the same - he seems to really want our house, this is his second sale that has fallen through.....after the first one it was only a matter of days before he had another buyer and another offer. It looks like my mistake and mum's is in believing the estate agents when they said he's sold....looking at it now it's crazy but that was the mistake we made. I've never sold a house before and my mum, well dad did everything for her like that.

FATBALLZ

If you want it selling you need to drop the price. By the use of the words 'beautiful' and 'lovely' in your post and the fact you've been on the market 2 years it sounds extremely likely you have overpriced the place meaning any interest will be very infrequent.

If it had been correctly priced it would have sold ages ago.