When to take your house off the market?

alipops1986

Hello All,

We're getting to the end of our 20wk contract with our EA and are considering whether to stay on the market, transfer to another EA or come off. I'm basically looking for opinions.

With the evenings drawing in and summer time nearly at an end, should we take the house off until say March time? Is it good/bad to be on for 6 months+?

We've had one offer which was about 8k under the asking price, even though we'd reduced it by 5k already so couldn't afford to accept the offer. In total we've had about 8 viewers, 4 in the last 2-3wks.

Thanks,
Alipops x

DannyboyMidlands

If you want to sell I can't really see the point in taking it off the market.

At the end of the day it sounds like a pricing issue. Best to get that sorted and keep it on in my opinion.

alipops1986

DannyboyMidlands wrote: »

If you want to sell I can't really see the point in taking it off the market.

At the end of the day it sounds like a pricing issue. Best to get that sorted and keep it on in my opinion.

Thanks for your reply. We can't adjust the price any further really at the present time, hence we are contemplating whether to take it off the market. We've gone from 99,950 to offers over 95k.

Alipops x

GDB2222

I can't see any point keeping it on the market from mid-Oct to end-Feb. Better to come on again fresh at the start of March.

Bear in mind that the market value may be lower than what you can afford to accept, especially if you bought a new property in 2009.

Better_Days

I'd probably take it off over the winter. You don't want to get round to next spring, still not having sold with potential buyers wondering what is wrong with your property as it has been on the market so long.

Also if you are lucky enough to sell during the winter, it is likely that there will be less properties available for you to buy.

Don't forget to check your contract to see how much notice you need to give to the EA.

Use the winter to pack away inessentials and declutter, ebaying, free-cycling and car booting.

If you do take the property off the market, get a few agents round in Feb, to see who you think will do a good job, and I 'd advise against signing up for 20 weeks again.

In the end I had 8 EA's round as I couldn't find one I liked. I found that the sales people selling the services of the EA's were very slick, (esp the corporates) but the staff actually selling the properties weren't so professional. In the end I opted for a small independent local EA and the sales lady is doing my viewings for me. I listened to her do one (when the viewers turned up early) and she was very good, selling the positive points of the property and promoting flexibility of layout, rather than the usual 'this is the kitchen', 'this is the bathroom' spiel.

googler

alipops1986 wrote: »

We've gone from 99,950 to offers over 95k.

Are you selling in Scotland?

RedfordML

GDB2222 wrote: »

I can't see any point keeping it on the market from mid-Oct to end-Feb. Better to come on again fresh at the start of March.

Bear in mind that the market value may be lower than what you can afford to accept, especially if you bought a new property in 2009.

I think majority of vendors have this theory!!

In reality, it's less buyers but less competition. I would adjust price even by a 1k or 2 and sit tight and stay on!!

csh_2

We bought our first house in November and the IL's have bought all 3 of their properties in October (different years obv!) so I don't think that stuff doesn't sell over the winter. Things have been exceptionally flat here due mainly to the weather and in part to the Olympics.4 viewings in the last 3 weeks sounds like things are picking up where you are too. If you'd said no viewings since the first few weeks then that may have been different
I would just keep it on

ColinFishwick

I bought this house in Feb and was looking at houses in Oct/Nov doesn't bother me what time of year it is, its whether I like the house/area first and foremost