Sale fell through - Back on the Market (mostly a rant)

jonners666

We bought our house 3 years ago for 382 - but due to my wife's work changing location and childcare costs, we want to move. 

We had quite a long struggle to sell our house. We originally went with the most 'ambitious' Estate Agent valuation (410) in June and quickly dropped to 390 when we had little interest.
At 390 we had about 7 viewings over 2-3 months but no offers. We got sick of the estate agent's poor communication and switched to a multi-agency deal with two other local agents at 375 - understanding that 390 was probably overpriced and that we needed to be realistic.

We had 20 viewings over 5 weeks and eventually got two offers (from the same agent) for the same amount (352). This is obviously a lot less than we paid, but as we made a lot of money on our first house, we had the equity to sell for 352 and buy a house we wanted in the area we want to move to. We accepted the offer and had an offer accepted ourselves. Great! 

About 4 weeks later our buyer pulled out - they were buying as a BTL in addition to upsizing, and couldn't get the mortgage for the BTL. The house we found agreed to give us a few weeks to find a new buyer. The other person who offered 352 no longer wanted to proceed as they had decided to rent somewhere else and see what happens with prices next year. 

So we went back on the market last week for OIEO 350 with just the one agent who found us the two offers last time - the bare minimum we need is 348 to buy the house we want. This is 34K less than we paid (!!) and 40-50K less than it was valued by the agents. We had 5 viewings last week, and have had nothing in terms of a second viewing or an offer. It's blowing my mind that people aren't snapping up our house at so far below market value, and it's frustrating to think that we might lose the house we found because of this. 

The main issue people seem to have is that we're a mid-terrace (in Maidenhead, hence the price...) that is next door to flats - should be easy to find the Rightmove listing if anyone's interested with that information. The flats have never been an issue - most of the people there are 50s+ and are just quiet friendly people. It's a nice road, and a nice house - it's just not in the right location for us any more. 

Anyway, sorry for the rant - just very annoying feeling like we've done all we can but it's getting us nowhere. 

Drawingaline

We have lost our buyer three months in. Our purchase is ready to exchange! However ours is a sort after type of property, went back on the market on sat, have had six viewings booked in. Our purchase is giving us some time to get another buyer, but we have decided to give it 10 days. We received two offers in five days in July so are hopeful. 

NameUnavailable

What has your agent said? Surely you should be selling for a nice profit as all we read in the news is that the market is better than it's ever been and prices are higher than ever. Why can't they back that up with viewings and offers over what you paid?

Something is very odd.

jonners666

Well quite, but we were on the market for 3 months at a price over what we paid, and we had 7 viewings. 

Looking at Zoopla, this particular house does seem hard to sell - it took our sellers a year to find us, and it was on for nearly a year when they bought it. We know we could potentially hang around and get more for it - but we want to get sold and move, so it doesn't really matter to us that we're selling for less than we paid, as long as we can get 350ish - which is a good chunk below market value. We still have the equity for a 15% deposit on a house for 400K in the area we want to move to. 

The feedback we get is that people love the house, but they don't like that it is next door to flats. It was never an issue for us - we didn't even really consider it when we bought. 

Finchy2018

the parking would be more of an issue for me than being next to flats. but I do wonder if that makes it feel a bit overlooked. 

jonners666

Finchy2018 said:

the parking would be more of an issue for me than being next to flats. but I do wonder if that makes it feel a bit overlooked. 

Yes - that does come up as well. There are parking bays. We have two cars and have never struggled to park - but I agree it is an issue. But I would have thought it was an issue that people could get over for the price...

Salemicus

> It's blowing my mind that people aren't snapping up our house at so far below market value

What makes you think it is below market value? Market value is what someone is willing to pay (and someone else is willing to sell at). What you mean is it's below estimated value. But estimates are just guesses.

Maidenhead is lovely but expensive for what it is. People pay the premium to live there due to commutability. Coronavirus is probably making people hesitant to buy there.

jonners666

Salemicus said:

What makes you think it is below market value?

An (extended) mid-terrace on this street sold for 440K in June and an End Terrace sold at 390 in Sept - so I'm basing my judgement of the market value on those two recent sales. But I do take your point - hopefully we will find someone willing to pay the price we need. 

jonners666

Also (not sure if you can edit posts) when I look on Rightmove at what has sold, it seems to me that our house is more attractive than others that have sold for 350-375... but of course I'm biased

Thrugelmir

jonners666 said:

It's blowing my mind that people aren't snapping up our house at so far below market value, 

Then people may not agree with your assessment. Depending what else they can buy for their money.  Moving out of town often provides more value at the expense of a slightly longer commute. 

pbhb

Perhaps the lower price is a red flag to some buyers? I almost didn’t put an offer on the house I am purchasing because they were selling below what they paid and it caused me to question so much, trying to find an issue as to why they were selling cheap, I genuinely thought it was too good to be true, I wouldn’t have questioned it if it was on for £50k more.
looks like ive just been lucky thus far, but the lower price can cause some people to worry and pick things apart.
Also the market seems to be tailing off a little now as there is more uncertainty over winter. If people are working from home they don’t need to move to expensive commuter towns, they want to move into my countryside