Viewing neighbouring properties on sale at the same time & wondering if there is an issue somewhere

climbthatwallseegar

I was due to view a property ('property 1') last week but shortly before my arrival the EA called to tell me the vendor had suddenly cancelled all viewings.

I returned home disappointed but a couple of days later I saw that the house next door was up for sale (same EA) so I have arranged a viewing for that property.

Now property 1 has became available for viewings again so I'll be seeing both on the same day.

Am I overthinking things to wonder why both are selling? The properties are in a highly sought after area (houses sell in a day) and looking at the listing history both were purchased over 15 years ago. Does anyone think there is likely to be a backstory behind two long standing residents put their houses up for sale a few days apart??

tink_1983

Hmmm I see why you'd think that and I'd be thinking the same. What did the EAs say? Did you ask them?

anxiousnow

Maybe one of them got the house valued and the other decided it's also a good time to sell? Maybe you can ask the vendors if your appointment is with them - or grill the EA!

I live in a street like the one you've described, and recently 3 neighbouring houses were on the market, for various reasons (one elderly moved in with relatives, another elderly person had passed away, and a family moved out to a bigger home).

Paully28

I would be concerned that there is something going to be built nearby/behind/in front of the houses, or there is something up with the street. 
Other than going to view at differing times of day, and looking at planning applications nearby, it could be a coincidence. 
Speak to other neighbours. 

maisie_cat

Sometimes it's just a coincidence, when we sold the house before last the next door neighbour and their other neighbour all sold at the same time.
In fact all 3 completed within a week of each other, we were upsizing, next door were moving back into London and the other neighbours had bought as a doer upper and wanted another project.

[Deleted User]

Could be coincidence. Also could be that they get on well and been there a long time and said they would sell at the same time / didn't want anyone else as neighbours. Some people get on particularly well with neighbours and don't want to risk who might move in or being next to someone they don't like.

user1977

climbthatwallseegar said:

Am I overthinking things to wonder why both are selling?

Probably, yes.

You can check local goings-on, planning applications etc - though presumably you'd be doing that anyway?

Glad

you could ask the sellers when you view

I currently have mine up for sale at the same time as next door but one, nothing going on we just both decided to sell at the same time

climbthatwallseegar

@Paully28 yes this is my concern. It's a ordinary tree lined street with terraced houses, a row of streets in front and behind and no obvious issues but I'll look up planning applications etc.

We've been looking in the area for months now. Houses rarely come up for sale and when they do they are snapped up in hours so this just seems a bit odd. I'm wondering if they hate each other and both decided to leave without realising the other also planned to:)

One of the viewings will be conducted by the owner and the other by the EA so I will try to casually ask the one with the owner about his neighbours and see what he says:)

gettingtheresometime

climbthatwallseegar said:

@Paully28 yes this is my concern. It's a ordinary tree lined street with terraced houses, a row of streets in front and behind and no obvious issues but I'll look up planning applications etc.

We've been looking in the area for months now. Houses rarely come up for sale and when they do they are snapped up in hours so this just seems a bit odd. I'm wondering if they hate each other and both decided to leave without realising the other also planned to:)

One of the viewings will be conducted by the owner and the other by the EA so I will try to casually ask the one with the owner about his neighbours and see what he says:)

I live on an estate where houses infrequently go on the market and when they do, they sell very quickly.

What I have noticed is that if one house comes up on the market, then very shortly afterwards another one will appear and then there's nothing for months, if not years (its the sort of estate where people seem to move into as a young family and then only move out because of death or going into a nursing home

gab3x

We had this situation. It turns out that the street we wanted to buy the house in, has exactly 100 houses and 3-6 sales per year on average. This means that at any one point there will always be at least one house on sale. Combined with COVID last year there were 4-5 on sale at the same time and this got us worried.

I researched a lot and on one side of the street there will be school built at the end of their gardens but other than that the issue was houses cannot easily be extended so when families grow they move onto more spacious property.

I would check:

• flooding risk 
• calculate average tenure on the street from historical sale records. We found ours to be 10 years which is not bad for London
• cost of insurance
• crime map
• noise and pollution maps
• local news 
• google developments approvals in the area
• talk to neighbours