Something Fishy about this house?

hesmywatermelon

[FONT=&quot]So my husband and I are looking to buy a nice family home to set up in.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]We saw a house this weekend that we really like, and I think the asking price is pretty fair. We’re going for another viewing sometime this week.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]The EA said the house had been on the market ‘for a few months’ which I wasn’t really worried about, but she wouldn’t tell me if they had had any offers, nor if they are open to them.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]So I used Martin’s advice and used the property bee app to view the house on rightmove- and it turns out in fact that the house was listed in August 2013, and they even reduced the price by 25k in Sept. Then in Oct, they remove the ‘offer in excess of’ statement.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]I am now really paranoid that the agent is lying to us, that’s there’s something really wrong with the place and there’s a reason no one else has bought it and we just can’t see it.
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[FONT=&quot]It’s in a small village in Gloucestershire, near Cirencester. Not the mostsought after village in the country or anything, so I don’t expect it to have sold within a week, but 6 months is quite a while?
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[FONT=&quot]I’ve checked flood history and planning permission, but I don’t see any alarm bells.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Can someone put my mind at ease or offer any advice?[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Thanks![/FONT]

pimento

Seven months is a few months. What's the problem?

nomoneytoday

Do you like the house?
Do you want to make a lower offer??

Cissi

Sounds like it was unrealistically priced at first - you feel the asking price now is fair, so what's the problem? If you do go for it, get a full structural survey for peace of mind

ReadingTim

1 - What's the local market like? If comparable properties in the same area are taking a year to shift, seven months isn't a problem.
2 - You do know that the property market can be pretty quiet over the winter / during the period this place has been on the market don't you?
3 - What are the vendor's circumstances? How keen are they to sell?
4 - Why the suspicion? If your offer is accepted, the surveys, searches etc check out, and you're happy with the price you paid, what does it matter?

A degree of scepticism is healthy when dealing with EAs, but I think your imagination is running away with you on this one...

AndyT678

hesmywatermelon wrote: »

[FONT=&quot]I am now really paranoid that the agent is lying to us[/FONT]

It's easy to tell. Just watch carefully and see if their mouth moves!

hesmywatermelon

[FONT=&quot]Thanks everyone![/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]I will research a little more on long it takes other houses in the area to sell. I have looked at how much they went for but not how long it took![/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]ReadingTim- thanks- I think you’re right about the winter months I hadn’t thought of that! The vendors circumstances are a little murky. The listing says ‘no onward chain’ but the EA on the day was very vague and on the phone today said she didn’t know and wanted to check with the owners first. I couldn’t tell if she was being cagey or just genuinely didn’t know and didn’t want to sound unprofessional.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I think a survey will definitely put my mind at ease, but I would like to put in an offer, no harm in trying to get it for a better price. It will give us a little extra to spend when we get in there![/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]They have a very old and very ill dog though, and are planning to take the house off the market in the next few weeks until the dog passes I think- when I asked the EA on the phone this morning if they are serious about selling the house should they get an offer (I didn’t know about the August listing then), and she as very positive and encouraging, so that’s on the plus side (not for the dog though obviously)[/FONT]

Realopinion

hesmywatermelon wrote: »

It’s in a small village in Gloucestershire, near Cirencester. Not the mostsought after village in the country or anything, so I don’t expect it to have sold within a week, but 6 months is quite a while?
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Different pockets of the Uk are moving at different rates. 6 months could be a fair amount of time. Have there been any other offers?

I've checked the Land Registry HPI report and the average house price in Gloucestershire went up from £169k to £173k from Jan 2013 to Jan 2014.

If someone has been waiting 6 months to sell then they will definitely be interested in an offer if you put one in. Why don't you put an offer in for what you are happy to pay for it. Remember, you don't have to buy it until you've had a Surveyor check out its structure and a solicitor review the planning, local authority, drainage, environmental.

Just because the price has been dropped doesn't mean there is anything going wrong. Most Estate Agents price the property higher knowing that there is room to manoeuvre - it is hard to be impartial when you get a percentage of the sale value. It may be that the property was on too high and the price dropped recently to something that is more reasonable for the area. This is an action taken by Estate Agents once they don't get any viewings for the property.

So, if you like the property and can afford it, put an offer in for what you are happy to pay and then get a solicitor and surveyor to check the condition and legal standing. If this all goes ok, then you could be picking up a property you like at a good price.

Good luck with it; just ask if you have any other questions.

00ec25

as one poster on here so eloquently puts it, if an EA's lips were moving they were lying. That said, find a definitive definition for a "few" months

if the house is not falling down, then the only reason it has not yet sold is because the price was wrong, either in terms of what people were prepared to offer or what the vendor would accept, end of discussion...