Buying a house which din't sell before? South East

Percent

I have just had an offer accepted on a house. But I have noticed, using zoopla website that it was up for sale in 2011 for 190k and up for sale in 2014 for 219k. Yet it could not have sold because in both of the old adverts for the house I can see the same sofa and chairs which it currently still has [it's the same owner I've just bought it from]

Is this any reason for concern? I'm buying a house which has been for sale twice since 2011 and din't sell.

By the way I bought it for 214.5k which is also odd as in 2014 it was up for 219k.

Is this common? Maybe at that time [September 2011 and September 2014 houses where not selling easily in general in the south east?]

What do you think?

lee111s

The owner might have had a change of circumstances, or a change of heart.


Something MAY come up in the survey which has put previous buyers off, only time will tell.

Hoploz

It could have sold both times, only for the deal to fall through for some unrelated reasons.

The buyers could have had problems borrowing, broken chains further up or down, death in the family, lottery win, or indeed the seller may not have managed to find or secure an onward purchase that suited them. Do you know whether they have now got a purchase lined up? If not, they might not find for 6 months while you wait and wait, then they give up and you're back to square one.

If it was on with the same agent and it fell through due to adverse survey results, the EA would be duty bound to tell you this, so ask them.

Being on the market previously is nothing to worry about in itself.

Daerve

The house we are buying appears to have been on the market for 6 years in total and has dropped in asking price by about 25% in that period.

It did make me consider whether to buy it if I may struggle to sell in the future but ultimately we love the house, the location and have agreed to pay what I believe is a fair price.

I firmly believe any house will sell, it just depends on the price the owner is willing to accept.

Edit:- I should also add that the survey picked nothing serious up that would have forced a prior buyer to pull out.

cattie

2011 was definitely still a very slack time for trying to sell in the SE. Things only really started to pick up & prices began to rise a bit from about 2014, so I wouldn't worry needlessly over the house not selling the previous times on the market.

As long as the house is what you want and/or what you can make it, then put any such concerns behind you.

alchemist.1

Sounds like the valuation has caught up with the price for the property.

kinger101

Before you commit to getting surveys etc, there's nothing wrong with you asking the EA/vendor whether there had been any previous aborted sales, and what the reasons for this were. It's quite a standard think to ask if you see a property come back onto the market.

Davesnave

Another possibility is that there's nothing wrong with the house, but the vendors backed out of previous transactions when they found nothing they liked.

ReadingTim

Or left or sold the sofa and chairs with the house.

DRP

I'd ask the vendor via the EA.

At the very least it'll make the EA aware that you know...