would you give up after a year?

Retire

This is in Scotland.

I put my 3 bed semi on the market in Oct last year, as there are only the 2 of us living in it now, in order to buy a bungalow.

So far we in the past year we have had 3 viewings and all said the same thing, we would buy your house but we haven't sold ours yet.

Now the solicitor is after another £200 to keep advertising it in the property centre for another year.

What do others think?

Take it off the market until next spring or pay the £200?

There are at least 5 other similar houses for sale on this estate, one has been on sale for over 3 years.

Nothing is moving.

My house is nothing special compared to the others, they were all built 20 years ago. And all are priced similarly, in the £158,000 to £160,000 range.

I have already paid over £700 for reports and surveys etc. so basically will have paid £1,000 in a year.

Would you write that off or keep hoping something will come up?

Cat2011

Depends how desperately you want to sell it. If it's just a bit big for you, and you can still afford to run it, then I'd suggest waiting a couple of years. If you really need to sell, then you'll need to drop your asking price a serious amount, so that those buying your house can drop theirs and sell theirs.

googler

If you take it off the market for more than.... 28 days, I think - you'll need a brand new Home Report when you come back to market.

You could look to an agent outwith your local SPC, who may offer something different. Where are the competing properties advertised? Are they also in your local SPC?

Where will your agent be advertising it if you don't renew the SPC fee? You need to ask.

You need to either be better-presented than the others at the same price, or be of an equal standard at a lower price to pull a buyer to you rather than them.

atush

If you spruce your house up (it may not be presented as well as you htnk) and if you lower the price compared with your competitors it will probably sell (before theirs anyway).


If you have pwned it for a long time, you will have the equity available to take the hit.

Retire

and you can still afford to run it,

We can afford to run it, it is just that we are getting old and wanted something without stairs.

If you take it off the market for more than.... 28 days, I think - you'll need a brand new Home Report when you come back to market.

Ah, I didn't know that.

Our home report is a year old already, would we not have to get a new one after a year anyway?

Where are the competing properties advertised? Are they also in your local SPC?

Yes, every property ends up in the property centre.

googler

Retire wrote: »

Our home report is a year old already, would we not have to get a new one after a year anyway?

Yes, every property ends up in the property centre.

No, you don't need to get a new HR. If someone offers on your house, you may be asked to get the valuation refreshed, and the surveyor will typically do this for around a quarter of the original cost. There's nothing in the legislation that says there's a time limit on an HR.

Have you considered going outwith your local property centre? Which part of the country are you in, and how many agencies are there in your area?

Retire

If you have owned it for a long time, you will have the equity available to take the hit.

Not really.

We need to sell it plus £5000 to pay bills etc at the cost of our new house, as we have no mortgage and I doubt if anyone would give us a new mortgage at our age and our only income is pensions and we only have £10,000 savings.

brit1234

If its not selling drop the price. You will get less if you relist in the spring when the economic crisis is worse.

Mallotum_X

If you are keen to sell then you need to get the price down, if after a year (or 3 in one case) they are not selling at that price then the price is wrong. This might not be what you want to hear but you have to decide whether you really want to move.

If you do then drop the price, but I personally would take it off now and relist after Xmas, if you are going to drop then Id suggest you need to drop by a decent amount, not much point in knocking 5k off you really need to be considering 10k or more.

Good luck whatever you choose to do.

Retire

you really need to be considering 10k or more

If we knocked £10,000 of the price we couldn't buy our bungalow.

There's not many, if any, going for £143,000. Bungalows are what are selling, in fact a 2 bed bungalow, similar to what we want, went for over the asking price of £155,000.

brit1234

Retire wrote: »

If we knocked £10,000 of the price we couldn't buy our bungalow.

There's not many, if any, going for £143,000. Bungalows are what are selling, in fact a 2 bed bungalow, similar to what we want, went for over the asking price of £155,000.

Well it is unlikely you will get a buyer and sit on the market.

Many people are trapped because they don't want to drop their price. I would suggest fitting your current home out and living there.