Pregnant and selling/buying house - nervous about timing

ShelboBaggins

I am nearly 29 weeks pregnant and our house has been on the market for 3 weeks and I guess I'm getting a little bit nervous that we're running out of time.

We ideally wanted to move before baby arrives and it had taken us a little longer than expected to get the house market-ready, but the move pre-baby is looking very unlikely now even if we do get an offer in the next few weeks. We have had 3 viewings so far but no offers as yet. I'm in a bit of a tricky situation in that my partner is a self-employed building contractor and hasn't got sufficient tax return information to allow us to apply for a joint mortgage, but as I earn more than him we're able to afford to buy just taking my income into account and the plan was to apply for the mortgage before going on maternity leave so that it would be based on my full pay. I hope this may still happen even though we may end up moving shortly after baby arrives which I don't mind.

We had 3 valuations for my house £155k, £160k and £165k, and although we went with the agent that gave us the highest valuation this was not the reason for going with them, as they are a very well-established local agent who I'd originally bought the house through plus they sold my partner's father's house very quickly last year. As I wasn't too comfortable with their £165k valuation compared to other houses in the area, I was advised to put on market at "offers in excess of £160k". At first I was OK with this but wonder whether the "offers in excess" will put potential buyers off? Also if we end up having to reduce the price where do you go with an "offers in excess", would we need to stick with this pricing basis or can we use guide price/offers in region instead? Also at what stage would you start to think about reducing the price?

Feedback from viewers was really positive and agents don't seem to think we'll have problems selling so I guess it's just a case of being patient but I just worry about time running out before my maternity pay kicks in.

Cakeguts

Offers in excess of puts some buyers off. If you want to sell something you don't want to put off potential buyers.


Generally if you are getting viewings and not offers the house is appearing overpriced to buyers. They can get something just as good somewhere else for less.


Do your own research. Look at sold prices for properties near you. No estate agent can sell a house if no one wants to buy it.

garth549

Unfortunately whatever you do now there's a good chance a sale won't go through before baby arrives. Once you've accepted an offer then even a straight-forward sale can easily take 10+ weeks. The shortest purchase I've ever been involved with was just over 9 weeks from offer to completion (empty property, no chain).

We were in the same situation last year. Luckily we ended up moving in with my mum for a couple of months while the sale went through and baby arrived. The whole process would have been too much otherwise.

Could you do something similar or perhaps delay the sale a few months until you're settled with baby? I really wouldn't recommend trying to move with a newborn.

MovingForwards

Assuming England and Wales I think the offers in excess of is off putting.

Damago

I agree that 'offers in excess of' can be off-putting and have read a lot of other posts on here where others seem to agree. We are buying a house that we've negotiated 20k from the 'OIEO' price, it had been for sale for over 12 months.
If you don't actually want/need OIEO 160k you could be putting off buyers who are strictly sticking to viewing properties that come up within their lower budget. For a quick sale I would reduce the price to what you believe it's worth and are willing to sell for - and ask the EA to ensure that any viewers are ready to proceed with proof of AIP / funds, this won't guarantee a serious buyer (we've had 3 FTB's drop out of the sale of our house due to changing their mind, wanting to save more etc) but could help reduce delays.
When we bought our first house 5 years ago from first viewing to completion was 7 weeks, there were 3 in a chain but we were FTB's and I've since learnt that this is very quick compared to most other sales!
Good luck

ShelboBaggins

Cakeguts wrote: »

Offers in excess of puts some buyers off. If you want to sell something you don't want to put off potential buyers.


Generally if you are getting viewings and not offers the house is appearing overpriced to buyers. They can get something just as good somewhere else for less.


Do your own research. Look at sold prices for properties near you. No estate agent can sell a house if no one wants to buy it.

I was a bit hesitant to use the OIEO wording for this reason as didn't want to put potential buyers off but felt a little put on the spot at the time as the agent had come round to do the photos and was wanting to finalise the details. Since I've posted yesterday we've got 2 more viewings booked in so it's looking a little more promising, maybe it's been a bit slow because of easter holidays.

I did my research and reviewed both sold prices and similar houses currently on the market in my area which is the reason I thought marketing at £165k was a little too high, £160k is a fair valuation given that a number of similar houses have been sold around this in the last 12 months and is in line with other houses currently on the market - some of these I saw actually started at £165/170 and had to reduce. The nearest sold houses to mine are in the same block of terraces (2 bed Victorian) and sold in 2017 at £125k and £155k, however the £125k was a quick sale as the former owner was terminally ill and had the house on market for over 12 months and already had a sale fall through plus needed a lot of work doing.

Agents followed up with viewers afterwards and none mentioned price, one was concerned about suitability of location and parking as we're on a semi-busy road, but we've never had parking issues and comfortably park 2 cars outside (off-street parking) although the road can be busy around rush hour as it's a through route but at other times it's relatively quiet.

ShelboBaggins

garth549 wrote: »

Unfortunately whatever you do now there's a good chance a sale won't go through before baby arrives. Once you've accepted an offer then even a straight-forward sale can easily take 10+ weeks. The shortest purchase I've ever been involved with was just over 9 weeks from offer to completion (empty property, no chain).

We were in the same situation last year. Luckily we ended up moving in with my mum for a couple of months while the sale went through and baby arrived. The whole process would have been too much otherwise.

Could you do something similar or perhaps delay the sale a few months until you're settled with baby? I really wouldn't recommend trying to move with a newborn.

Yes we realise now that whilst it could still be possible to complete in that time that's the best case scenario and we'd be very lucky if that did happen, but more than likely the completion won't go through until after baby is born which we are prepared for. My main worry is if it takes longer than 8 further weeks to get an offer and subsequently find the house we want to buy (worst case scenario), we'd have to defer the sale for another year due to financial circumstances and my affordability will reduce because of having to take into account childcare costs even though between us we can more than afford it and the bigger mortgage as we have a combined income in excess of £100k (based on my full pay) because my partner's income cannot be taken into account as I'll be applying for a sole mortgage due to his self-employed status. This isn't ideal as the property already feels cramped with just the 2 of us so adding a baby into the mix will be challenging.

I don't mind if we have to move with a newborn, yes I accept it'll be challenging but we may not have a choice given my financial circumstances. Just one of those things where you wish you'd acted sooner but we've had a very tough 2 years getting to this point having had a miscarriage, followed by 2 rounds of IVF and then losing a twin in this pregnancy...moving was perhaps the least of my worries sadly!

ShelboBaggins

Thanks for your replies, the main issue here is that we can't change that it has already been listed as OIEO after the fact but I'm specifically asking that if/when we do need to drop the price to attract more interest a) how much longer should be wait; and b) how should we price and phrase it? I'm reluctant to stick with OIEO if it is putting buyers off but where so you go with it once you already have used it, we could use guide price or OIRO but I assume we'd have to state £160k or less as if for example we said £162.5k that would be perceived as a price increase?

Sorry am a newbie seller as this was my first property purchase 16 years ago and given my situation we were eager to get it on the market ASAP given that we'd already overshot our target by 1 month!

babyblade41

Just put what you want, you are steering the ship here

If you want a quick sale then price needs to reflect that.. your time line now is a little off kilter ..

Given an average 12-14 week timeline , do you really want to be doing this at just before, at , or just after ?

Damago

ShelboBaggins wrote: »

Thanks for your replies, the main issue here is that we can't change that it has already been listed as OIEO after the fact but I'm specifically asking that if/when we do need to drop the price to attract more interest a) how much longer should be wait; and b) how should we price and phrase it? I'm reluctant to stick with OIEO if it is putting buyers off but where so you go with it once you already have used it, we could use guide price or OIRO but I assume we'd have to state £160k or less as if for example we said £162.5k that would be perceived as a price increase?

Depending on when your 2 new viewers are due to see your property - if it's soon I'd wait until they have viewed and heard any feedback (you may get offers so no need to reduce) - if nothing comes of those viewings I personally wouldn't use any 'Guide price' / 'OIRO' wording as I don't take any notice of them and think they can all be off-putting - just put the price? If you're willing to take less than 160k I wouldn't increase to 162.5k, that will then take it above the Rightmove search bracket meaning it wont show if anyone searches with a max price of 160k, as well as being a bit of a strange number.
Unfortunately you never know what other issues may come up either with buyers when you do accept an offer, or with solicitors taking their time / finding issues in searches.

Zackisback878

Hi, we have just moved at 32 weeks pregnant - i wont lie its very stressful!

However we did price ours to sell and at a fixed price (Scotland). It did take 6 weeks to sell but other similar properties are still sitting on the market so I am glad we priced it how we did. It was worth it to get a quicker sale. With your situation the position of the buyer is much more important than price, we were lucky our buyer is chain free and able to slot in with our plans.

Please do expect delays along the way though its never plain sailing - just focus on keeping yourself healthy!