Please help - 3 offers, no sale!

littlelily

Hi,

I am hoping that advice or reassurance might be on offer to a desperate housewife!

We have had our house on the market since April. It has so far attracted the following offers:

1. Fair offer made in July, accepted by us but withdrawn the following day by buyer. They had offered as cash buyers but a sudden unexpected business opportunity meant they had to put the money into their business instead. By a strange coincidence, these people have children at the same school as mine so I know that they are genuine in their excuse! They are still very interested in the house but now need to sell theirs which has been on the market since August.

2. Low offer but means we dont have to sell a paddock that I would dearly love to hang onto! Would-be buyer pops round every few days to check our status (he's a great bloke so it's not a problem - we have a cuppa and a moan about selling houses!). This couple have been on the market since April, have dropped their price twice but have yet to sell. They DESPERATELY want to buy ours and I'd love this to happen - but they can't move till they sell their house.

3. Highest offer yet, accepted last week. meant we had to sell the paddock but resigned myself to it. However, on Monday the buyer rang in tears - their buyer had very unexpectadly and very late in the day withdrawn their offer so they now have to start from scratch. They also really want our house and have begun re-marketing theirs as a lower price than before in an attempt to sell.

I have never sold a house before so would really appreciate any advice that anyone might give as to how we can hang onto the last shreds of our sanity! Is there any way we can proactively get things moving with any of our three potential buyers or do we have to just sit tight and hope that one of them gets a sale soon? I've even considered renting the property to one of them for 6 months so that they can sell their own - we are moving into rented while we renovate a wreck.

sham63

As all three offers rely on them selling their houses there isn't much you can do apart from wait - one of them will sell eventually. The market appears to be very 'slow' at the moment and it's not the best time of year to be selling anyway.

The fact that you have had three offers is very positive and it's likely that you'll get other offers in the future if the current offers don't work out.

So it's just a question of waiting for it to happen - i wouldn't do anything drastic.

littlelily

Thanks, Sham 63 - you've really cheered me up! It's hard to see the wood for the trees when you're so frustrated! I suppose we need to sweat it out for a bit longer - butr honestly, after 6 months, 20 odd viewings, 3 offers and still no sale it is tempting to put the house on e-bay and have done with it!

The estate agent doesn't think lowering the price would help particularly as the offers have been acceptable and price is not the problem, being in a position to proceed is! Would you tend to agree?

pamaris

If you did lower the price you would attract more people "in a position to proceed". Otherwise, wait it out, but who knows when the interested parties will be in a position to proceed. If you really want to move, just suck it up, cut your losses and drive a really hard bargain on your next purchase. That is what I would do; I can't stand feeling trapped.

Curv

You could always drop your price but only allow viewers who are 'proceedable'. We wanted to view a particular house and were told we couldn't because we have one to sell. We were a bit hacked off but can understand why a vendor would make that stipulation.

You'd have to consider whether there are likely to be many 'proceedable' buyers in your target market e.g. are you selling a FTB property or a 2nd, 3rd, 4th? How likely is it that anyone wanting to buy your house will have the cash/means to go straight ahead?

And by dropping your price you'll also run the risk of one of your current offers selling and wanting to pay the reduced price too so it depends on whether time is more important than the money.

We are in the same situation as your prospective buyers.. we've found a house we love but haven't sold ours yet - we are desperately hoping no one else can get to it with the money before we can.

Good luck to us both!

littlelily

Curv - good luck to us both indeed! In answer to your question, we are likely to be quite high up in a chain so cash buyers are going to be few and far between. I can only hope that our 3 potential buyers manage to attract cash buyers of their own!

I think the main thing I'm battling with is the frustration of it all - to have come so close three times and for it all to go belly up after offers had been agreed is driving me nuts! We just want to move on and move out - I had really believed this would be before Christmas following the offers but it seems impossible now. Rats! :mad:

poppy10_2

Have you considered dropping the price? Only 3 offers in 4 months sounds like you are being unrealistic in what you are charging.

littlelily

Hi Poppy,

We are complete novices as we have never sold a house before! The EA assures us that the house is well-priced but it is quite an unusual property so our pool of potential buyers is probably not huge. It's a farmhouse with a couple of acres of land so it's really difficult to compare it to other houses to see if we are competitive.

My gut instinct is that price really isn't the issue - none of our viewers have mentioned it as a problem. For some, the village is too isolated (which it would be for many but I LOVE the peace and quiet), for others it's too big, for others not big enough, for some it has too much land, for others not enough etc, etc

Unless I am being naive, i don't think it's a question of price - but feel free to tell me otherwise if you think I'm missing the point!

Sammy85_2

Hi there,

Is it on rightmove? Can we see it?
Id love a house in the countryside , isolated is good!
I have nothing to sell.... lol...

A_Nice_Englishman

Two thouhts.

1. Your potential buyers are having difficulty selling so probably need to drop their prices. How about suggesting they drop their prices by £20K and you drop yours by £10K?

2. As yours is an unusual property, is it getting the right marketing to reach all the potential buyers? Is your estate agent one that such buyers would naturally use? Are there any specialist magazines which carry adverts for similar properties?

littlelily

Thanks both for your comments - really helpful and very much appreciated!

Sammy - I'd willingly post a link to the property on Rightmove - if I knew how! If you can spare the time to tell me how to do it, I'll put it up for all to see!

A Nice Englishman - the EA is reasonably well regarded for selling properties of this type and have been excellent at getting plenty of viewings - it's converting the viewings to purchase that is proving a problem! That said, I'll have a word with them about both how and where they are marketing it - 6 months since we went on the market may be the right time for a marketing re-think! With regard to dropping the price, 2 of our potential buyers have already done this but I do take your point and will consider whether we should drop ours too and pass this down the line. Great idea, thanks!