Houses on Rightmove selling and becoming available multiple times

Supreme_2

Does it put you off when houses are available, then sold, then available, multiple times? Is this something that can be raised with estate agents for further info, or is that likely to not be a conversation they want to have?

googler

So....

The house 'sells', for some reason falls through ( perhaps to do with mortgage finance circumstances, or capricious lenders) becomes available again, etc etc?

Davesnave

It might. Depends.

A house near us has fallen through a couple of times, due to being part non-standard construction.

However, it happened to our last house, in a somewhat more capricious market than the current one, and there was nothing wrong with the house, the neighbours or the location.

I'd certainly have a conversation with the agent. I think it's usually obvious when they try to reply with a load of BS.

Supreme_2

Yeah, there are a couple near me that look interesting.

First one has been up since November last year. In that time all that's shown on Rightmove is a price change (£250k to £240k). I have looked at this house, but it seems odd it's been up so long with no change. Seems very like they're not all that keen to sell.

Second one came up in March this year, and has been set as sold, then back to available 3 times. It's had one price change (£245k to £240k). It's also now on with another agency, and the photos show they have moved out. There is also no chain. I haven't looked at this one.


Any thoughts/concerns with those?

Hailstorm

In the current market mortgage lenders are being a lot stricter with their lending criteria so quite a few people are having their mortgage application rejected. It can therefore happen that a house can reappear on the market without there being anything wrong with it.

If the vendors do viewing themselves you could ask them why it has come back on the market and also ask the EA the same question separately. If the answers do not tie up they are making things up because there is something they do not want you to know.

nickcc

Unfortunately buyers and sellers change their minds, after 15 house moves over many years (mostly company moves) you get used to being disappointed. Until a buyer has paid for a satisfactory survey you must always expect your sale to fall through. We have also had sellers that just want people to admire their houses and have no intention of selling or find that they can no longer go ahead with the purchase of the new property.

zappahey

We spent about 8 months looking and most of the houses that we saw come back on multiple times had a story.

One was in a quiet dead end but it turned out that the cricket ground round the corner had been sold for development into a housing estate. The developers then bought two houses in the street with the intent to demolish them and create the estate entrance so the quiet little dead end was due to become the sole entrance for over 100 households.

Another had had a £70k bill for subsidence because the builder hadn't dug the foundations deep enough but the EA and owner were not being up front about it so it was only being discovered during the buying process.

I reckon that very few houses come back multiple times due to finance issues.

Ivana_Tinkle

Agree with Zappahey - I wouldn't read anything into a house coming back on the market once. More than twice suggests there might be something a bit fishy, but it could still just be bad luck - it only takes two minutes to ring up and ask the agent!

We once looked at a house which very obviously (to us!) had issues with subsidence. We put in a lowish offer, making it clear that we knew about the subsidence so wouldn't be running away later on, but were rejected for a higher bidder, who then pulled out after the survey. This happened three times before it finally sold!

bigchrissyg

Currently we're trying to sell a non traditional construction which is structurally sound. We lost our buyer post survey, due to a very negative (and unprofessionally opinionated) surveyor. They were a cash buyer knowing the construction type, but the surveyor obviously cast doubt.

I hear of mortgage companies offering sub-3% rates but the criteria is almost impossible for the average Joe to obtain and turn it down. Can also be the likely reason.

Yes, always a story but in our case it's priced to accommodate the non trad. Depends if a buyer can accept a bargain price for a tarnished construction reputation.

PasturesNew

I lost a sale as the buyer's buyer lost their job.

Kynthia

A very high percentage of offers don't become a complete sale for some of the following reasons. Buyers and sellers change their mind about the property, location or moving at all. Buyers either haven't sorted our their finance and then realise they can't afford the property or the mortage company then doesn't honour the agreement in principle. Buyers get made redundant or sellers take too long to find a property to move into. Problems in the chain means people pull out rather than continue to wait around. A property has issues that only become apparant with the survey which causes buyers to change their mind. The property is not worth what has been offered according to the valuation survey and the sellers won't drop the price. I knew someone who had three buyers pull out yet there was nothing wrong with their property they just had terrible luck and it put such a strain on them.