How long did you keep your house on the market for?

PasturesNew

I decided last May to sell, so spent 2-3 months getting a little handyman in and having all the little jobs sorted and some walls freshened with a dab of paint. Lots of decluttering etc. I had to go out to car boots to buy "a few fripperies" such as vases and pictures to make it look less bleak.

Got the agents round, house set up, photos taken. I was ground down and bored by this point. Onto the market.... lots of interest/viewings - and, actually, the buyer was the 4th through the door, but they had one to sell. I dropped the price, few more viewings... and was about to drop it again when the phone rang ... agreed a price lower than the 2nd price drop would've been because it was an offer, a buyer and I just wanted the pain over and done with

Throughout that time it ground on .... and on .... but I figured taking it off the market might mean I'd miss "the one" potential buyer that'd just want it. You never know when "the one" will be available/phoning round.

Eventually my buyer's home sold, so they wanted mine. I'm now four months into the conveyancing and sign contracts next week (although it's still not assured).

You chose to sell.... you have to stick with that as your reasons for selling haven't changed and if you take it off the market then you're just back to square one.

It's been a year since I sat and signed up with the agent and the photos were taken. 4th through the door wanted it .....

As for my onward purchase, I've nothing lined up. I've been keeping a shortlist of places I'd view. So people out there with houses to sell might come off my list if they take it off in the next 2-3 months as I'm now viewing to buy.... and I can't buy what's not on the market.

Davesnave

HanPop wrote: »

We were getting very stressed about it all but now I’ve decided that whatever will be will be.

Exactly. We were on the market 16 months in the 2007/9 recession. No shortage of interest, but others couldn't sell their houses, or in the earlier days, lost mortgage offers / got cold feet as prices fell.

It benefited us in the end. The 2 properties we lost ('sold' 4 times!) were compromises. We moved into a rental, watched prices fall further and bought from a 'motivated' seller 9 months later. Still here and no plans to ever move again.

phoebe1989seb

Back in 2007 we were on the market eight months before we found a buyer. Actually we had one sale fall through prior to that - the first set of potential buyers offered when we'd been on for three months, then withdrew because of parking issues (despite it being a big old 6 bed house it was permit parking with no drive or garage for the actual property).

During that time we dropped our price from just under £700k to just under £600k. Our new buyers offered a tiny fraction below this, were cash buyers (as were we going forward) and wanted to be in asap. They didn't bother with a survey and we completed on our sale/onward purchase within seven weeks

Since then we've sold a further three times and the longest we were on the market before accepting a proceedable offer was five weeks, the shortest being ten days.

The last time (2017/18) was actually fairly stressful as we made a rather crazy decision to put our - unfinished project - house into an auction. It went live on RM/Zoopla etc on 1st September with the auction being exactly a month later. We had masses of interest/viewings/downloads of the legal pack, but all the buyers that were really interested weren't in a position to bid on the day. We accepted an offer (above our auction reserve) less than a week after the auction to a couple who had been the first to view. She was a novelist awaiting an advance which had now materialised. They'd wanted to buy the place when we did three years previously but we'd pipped them at the post then, so it was meant to be!

With that most recent sale/purchase we completed on our sale before our purchase. We'd not intended doing this as we have two dogs and one heck of a load of stuff (despite several downsizes over the years, lol!) but we were fortunate in that a) our buyers offered for us to stay in our old house a couple of weeks after completion (not recommended by most) and b) we only needed to stay with family/in a Travelodge for a couple of additional weeks as we were buying a repossession with the usual short exchange/completion of time. Our worldly goods went into three large storage units where they eventually stayed for six months while we got the dirtiest of the building work out of the way......

Overall, I think we've been extremely fortunate and luckily we've no plans to move again

pimento

OP I feel your pain.
We went on the market mid-May and accepted an offer mid-June. They sold their house to a FTB but have been struggling to get a mortgage ever since.
He's self-employed and he's now got his brother to go on the application as well. They finally put their full application in a week ago. We still haven't heard anything.
We've made an offer on a house and have had it surveyed but have yet to hear anything from the vendor's solicitor. I'm not going to chase until I know whether matey can get a mortgage.

I think we may have decided that if it all falls through we'll take it off the market and try again in the spring.

I swore that after my last move 18 years ago, I would never do it again as it was so stressful and I'm trying to stay calm this time but by the 'eck...

HanPop

I don’t know how to post a link... house is a 3 bed 6 year old house. Have spoken to the estate agents about it all and they are at a loss as to why it hasn’t sold. House is totally de cluttered and everyone says is well presented and nice photos. It’s a nice layout (hallway, no stairs in lounge, downstairs loo etc) it’s getting viewings but I think from a lot of FTB’s not quite ready to commit. The only negative we’ve had is that there is a factory behind us (not used and about to be knocked down) but if factory was not there the house would be worth more! I much prefer it to lots of houses behind (it isn’t right up against the factory or anything and we mostly just have an open view of trees) but each to their own. I can imagine typically we’ll probably get an offer when after we lose the house we want to buy and then I’m not sure what we’ll do (our house is reserved for £278,000 and they have released the next phase for £286,000 which we can not afford).

muhandis

You could just share the property number in the link, the part in bold below...

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-82752500.html

HanPop wrote: »

I don’t know how to post a link...

Davesnave

HanPop wrote: »

The only negative we’ve had is that there is a factory behind us (not used and about to be knocked down) but if factory was not there the house would be worth more!

A factory might not be an issue so much as the uncertainty about what might replace it. Generally, people dislike the unknown.

HanPop

I can understand if people are bothered by what will replace the factory. There have been plans to knock down the factory and a lot of land in front of it for years and a road will be there which will make the area I’m living in better connected and less congestion around the town. There is a strip of land behind my garden with trees that was planted by Redrow and that won’t be built on and the land the factory is on lies a lot lower.

lorralorralaffs

Sympathies from me too. Had my house on 3 months now. First buyer within 10 days who pulled out a month later. Had another buyer, but they dropped out too. Lost out on house I was buying too.

Have had 3 other people interested in buying, one very much so, but all need to sell their own properties first so not much can do.

Very slow with viewings generally at the moment, but just keeping on smiling through - never moving again after this, I swear :rotfl:

markin

Any new houses may be right up against your garden though that would be a big worry to many.