Honest advice for selling house before Christmas please x

PigletPig_2

Hi there,

We have had our house on the market since June.

We had 5 estate agents value our house at the following:
@£270,000
@£275,000
@£275,000
@£300,000
@£270,000

So, we marketed at offers between £275,000 - £295,000 hoping for an offer of £275,000. We did receive an offer of £265,000 in July that we accepted. By August no survey had been arranged and the buyer disappeared.

We remarketed at offers between £250,000 - £275,000 in late August. We had then received an offer of £245,000 which we said no to as the estate agent said that the buyer was looking at houses of up to £300,000 and would pay more. He increased his offer to £247,5000 and the estate agent was confident we would get £250,000 so we declined this offer to.

A week later he still hadn't increased his offer so we told the estate agent to accept the offer of £247,500. In the meantime the buyer had been round for a 2nd viewing but had also viewed other properties and had also put an offer in on one of those at £300,000. Not sure what happened with the offer but he withdrew his offer from our house after 3 weeks so I'm guessing he bought the other house.

We've had over 20 viewings and all feedback has been very positive for the house. We've decluttered, re-painted, cleaned, gardened, wallpapered and done everything you're supposed to do.

I don't want to post a rightmove link in case a potential buyer is on here, but my question is this...

What can we do to sell the house ASAP? We're not desperate to move, but we want to move. We originally bought the house in January 2005 for £235,000. We have modernised by putting in a new bathroom and a new boiler replaced all the floors and redecorated. We have landscaped the garden and put in a driveway. Are we totally unrealistic with our price? We are the only property of our type in the street so it's hard to gage if we've priced correctly. Smaller houses with less land, no garage and in need of updating are on the market for £230,000 - £255,000.

Any advice no matter how harsh would be greatly received.

Running_Horse

If you have done all the cosmetic work then the only thing you can change is price, although at this time of year in a quiet market it is always going to be hard. What other advice can people give?

dimbo61

The magic £250K and stamp duty its why so many houses at £255k -£275K are not selling people wont pay £8,000+ stamp duty
By the time you have sold your own property and bought a new place with the legals, fees ETC you are looking at £290K with £15K in fees to buy/sell + stamp duty and £275K for the house
sell it for £250K if you can but people dont tend to move before Xmas

shortchanged_2

To be honest with the limited amount of information you have given it is nigh on impossible to give any advice.

How can people when they don't know the location and size of your property?

Also you sound a little contradictory in that you state that you want to sell the house ASAP but you are not desperate to move.

If you are really desperate drop the price and I'm sure it will sell.

Emmzi

fixed price £249,995.

ognum

I think your estate agent has done you a dis-service

Why did he let the first offer ride for so long with out pushing it through?

Why did he not advise you to accept the second offer?

I never never tell an EA how much I have to spend! I will spend what I think the house is worth to me no more even if there is more in the pot!

I would change the estate agent/ realistically price the house/ not set time schedules for moving it just doesnt work that way

If you are not prepared to post a link to the house then thats all I can say!

GDB2222

So, the house is looking good - according to you - but is there anything else putting people off? Do you keep pets? Maybe they smell and you don't notice?

Apart from that, it's price. Depending on where you are in the country, 250k may be reasonable. All we have to go on is the 235k you paid in 2005, but what if you overpaid then? Certainly, the £250k threshold is a big limiter, but I expect you realised that when you asked for £275k. A £275k asking price really means that buyers will only pay 250k.

And this is a quiet time of year for the house market.

googler

PigletPig wrote: »

Smaller houses with less land, no garage and in need of updating are on the market for £230,000 - £255,000.

Doesn't matter what they're asking - what are houses SELLING for in your street and around it, and how do those sold houses compare to yours?

www,zoopla.co.ukuk
nethouseprices.co.uk
ourproperty.co.uk (needs registration and login)

Look at zoopla etc for your street, postcode or area. How many recent sales? Of what type of property? How do their sale prices compare to the asking prices you quoted? How do these properties compare to yours?

PigletPig_2

Hi, so if I list the house with a fixed price does that mean that people will not make silly offers? When we bought the house it was for sale at £245,000 and as we were first time buyers and could move quick they took our offer. I have given notice to the estate agent and have moved onto another that sold our friends house last year. They seem a bit more clued up and motivated to get the house sold. If they don't sell it before Christmas than we wil take it off the market and relist in the spring. It's a great house, just a shame it's not on wheels so we can take it with us to the new area.

Thank you all for your replies. x

googler

Are you selling in England/Wales or Scotland?

PigletPig_2

I'm in South East London x