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

ceegee

tyllwyd wrote: »

We're off the market at the moment since the last sale fell through, so we're going to have a go at taking some new photos ourselves over the weekend and go back on the market for our last push at selling before we give up.

Will you be using a new agent, tyllwyd? A chap up the road from me had his house on the market all through last Winter and Spring with no sale. It was a nice, clean and tidy house but the outside was a bit tired looking. He took it off for a few months, during which he had the house pebbledashed (it's mostly pebbledash or bare brick around here). Then he put it back on with a different agent and was SSTC within about a fortnight. I'll monitor it and see if it actually goes through.

A house around the corner was for sale for 13 months, it was overpriced for the market. After 12 months they changed agent and reduced the price from £270,000 to £217,000 and it sold within a few weeks. The purchasers are now settled in nicely.

A house opposite me was for sale for £275,000 in the late Spring and they dropped the price to £250,000 after just two weeks. It sold within days, again the purchasers are settled in.

I think I would be scared of taking the bungalow off the market and also I have a very good relationship with my EA....it is the two of us working hard together to get my domineering sister to see some sense. Trouble is.....we're both a bit scared of her vicious tongue and domineering manner.:(

ceegee

cwcw wrote: »

Property for sale for around 6-7 weeks so far, done 14 viewings (many time wasters) and had 1 offer (too below an already realistic asking price and at an early stage, but they wouldn't go any higher).

My EA told me that things go very quiet in August and pick up in September, so keep your chin up!

It can be a very long haul, but people have posted on here about eventually getting a sale after 12 or even 18 months, so it WILL happen, although it can be quite draining, with all the stress etc.

This thread is saving my sanity and whilst I feel for everyone in this situation, it is great that we can help each other along with kind and helpful support.:o

ceegee

tleefox wrote: »

Anyone shed any light as to what the next steps in the process are?

Your solicitor will write to you with a HUGE questionnaire about the house that you are selling. There will be all sorts of questions regarding the condition of the house, alterations, disputes, planning permissions and so on and so forth.

Best get your sleeves rolled up as it can be a tortuous exercise!

Are you buying another place?

tleefox

Ceegee:

I have already filled out the form you referred to, as well as the fixtures and fittings forms. We appointed our solicitor when we first put the property on the market so have had the necessary paperwork ready to go for a while to speed up the process once we found a buyer. Our house is also only 2 years old and I had all the required certificates / warranties to hand so it wasn't too much hassle filling it out.

We are stepping out of the chain as we have a "spare" family house to live in rent / mortgage free for a while until we can find somewhere we absolutely want at the right price.

What happens next in terms of our buyer? They are formally applying for their mortgage this weekend, having already had an AIP in place so what happens next?

tyllwyd

ceegee wrote: »

Will you be using a new agent, tyllwyd? ...

Well, we were all set to move to a different agent, and gave notice to the current one, but the latest offer came in during the notice period. It's left us feeling that the problem isn't so much the agent - they've proved they can do it - and rather than start all over again with someone new we've decided to give it a bit longer with our current agent. They are nice guys, just not always very pushy, but now that they know they won't get any commission unless they get us sold asap they seem to have woken up a bit!

tinofpeas

Well just thought I'd post on here to share my experiences.

Our house has been on the market since 1st august 2009, feels like a life time! We were not desperate to move, but with house prices moving downwards it made that next step a little bit easier!

We had a slow trickle of viewers, around one or two a month, two offers both of which were unprecedable. At Christmas time this year we toyed with taking the house off the Market all together and planing to become mortgage free in the next couple of years!

However we left it on, but the viewers slowed down, and we made the decision to fix our mtg in march for fear of rates going sky high, (I thought 3.59% fixed for 5years was too good to miss!)

We thought viewers might pick up with the bank holiday weekends in April and may, if we had nothing by this point the house was coming off the market and we were going to enjoy the summer I'm this house! (we've done nothing much in the house or gardens for 2 years with us both saying 'if/when we move.......) the bank holidays came and went and we gave notice to the estate agents,12 weeks!

1st June a young couple viewed, we thought been here, done this before, feedback was loved house but more too see. Must add they are FTB's!never thought anything of it, 1 week to go with estate agents, and 10days after first viewing, they come back with an offer!!!!!!!! Could you believe it after all this time on the Market!

After two/three days of negotiating we agreed on a price, and instructed our solicitors! Two days in, FTB's hadn't relised that house was leasehold! Queue sleepless nights already, will they still want it or not?? But yep they still wanted it and were going to pay all the fees and costs for us to buy the freehold for them!

Fast forward to today, we have just had confirmation that the freehold has been transferred, FTB's have mtg in places, searches done. We are hoping to exchange in the next week or two and complete on 16th September,

Us on the other hand cannot find a house for love nor money, and face a spell at the MIL's!

This post is to say, there is still hope for people who have been on the Market a while, I know we are not signed and sealed as of yet and still touch wood very time I talk about the sale!

I might start beleving it once contracts have been exchanged! I also might start packing then also! :eek:

tyllwyd

tleefox wrote: »

... What happens next in terms of our buyer? They are formally applying for their mortgage this weekend, having already had an AIP in place so what happens next?

The next stage should be for them to arrange the survey on your house, and your solicitor should be drawing up a draft contract to send to their solicitor for approval. They need to get searches done, and there may be more queries that their solicitor needs to raise with you.

Once all that has been sorted and assuming it doesn't throw up any problems, the next step will be to sign contracts ready to exchange, agree exchange date and completion date and then fingers crossed it will all go through as planned.

jaxjax123

ceegee wrote: »

Looks like 15% to me too, from those figures. Very grim indeed.

Whilst we have 2 people interested in the bungalow, they still have to find purchasers themselves and so have not put offers in. The offer that we accepted in Spring was from a cash buyer, but he then decided the house was too expensive and pulled out. Chains are dreadful things and are appropriately named instruments of torture!

I hope your viewings are good, jax, and that you get a good offer from one (or both!) of them. Do let us know how it goes.

I am keeping my fingers crossed for a pick up in activity next month.

Viewer no. 1 due 15:45 today didn't turn up fingers crossed for Tuesdays one.

girllikeme1

We put our house on the market in March. Were with a shocking estate agent who never contacted us, didn't return calls when we called them back, took weeks to answer any e-mails (just about basic things). They were pretty much uncontactable and they had such a high staff turnover that we never dealt with the same person twice.

We had 30 viewings in 15 weeks which to me indicates they were just 'pushing people through the door' for the sake of getting the viewing numbers up, since we didn't get any offers. Even in these hard times I think that's a high viewing ratio.

We've just changed to an independent agent. 2 weeks so far and no viewings yet but I would rather we only had people viewing who might genuinely want to buy our house, than 'just anyone' traipsing through or having a nose.

Fingers crossed :-(

noisypinkbubble

Further to my last post, we've now set completion for the 26th, we're exchanging this week - completion is only being set for a week after due to when everyone can move rather than any issues.

Just started the process of cancelling things etc, really annoying that I can't get more than half days leave per day at work because everyone else is on school holidays, got to give the agent the keys by 2pm on the 26th, I can't leave work til 12 & don't drive, and I need to get home, find a way of getting rid of my bed (as i'll need it the night before) and getting back to the agent by 2pm. not the easiest thing I've ever had to think my way through!