The speculation game

SilasMarner

Appreciate the answer to this is "who the heck knows" - but humour me and play speculation. The house behind us has a major impact on us. Bad, noisy neighbours, as ever, would ruin things for us.. It went on the market last May (2022) and went "sold to" almost immediately. The owner slowly moved his stuff out. The house has remained completely empty for months. No sign of life in any respect since then. Around 6 weeks ago it went off the market completely. (Presumably after exchange?). It still remains empty, unvisited without any sign of life. Seems strange to me. Thanks for your thoughts - serious or otherwise!

Skiddaw1

I wonder if perhaps the buyers are planning some significant building work on the house and don't want to move in until it's all done? They may be in a queue for available builders/materials, or awaiting the outcome of a planning permission application. Or perhaps the buyer is in the process of a job relocation?

lika_86

The house I bought was empty when we viewed at the end of July, we completed around the end of November but didn't get someone in to start renovations until I think February or so (by the time we got someone in to look at it post-Christmas, he then needed to finish his other jobs). We were in rented accommodation at the time. It's not unusual. 

SilasMarner

Skiddaw1 said:

I wonder if perhaps the buyers are planning some significant building work on the house and don't want to move in until it's all done? They may be in a queue for available builders/materials, or awaiting the outcome of a planning permission application. Or perhaps the buyer is in the process of a job relocation?

Thanks for your reply. Maybe. The house is a modern estate 3 bed detached - with a huge gold fish bowl conservatory without much scope for redevelopment really. Someone living away and awaiting a move to the area may fit. The rather freaky thing is a complete lack of input. It's just slowly fading. Maybe a speculator from far off lands has bought for an investment.  (Good luck with that in the North West housing market.....)

lookstraightahead

Not everyone sells buys moves in. We sold, rented, then had a period of time while we had both properties before moving in. Be thankful though for the quietness 😇.
any chance it was repossessed? 

SilasMarner

lookstraightahead said:

Not everyone sells buys moves in. We sold, rented, then had a period of time while we had both properties before moving in. Be thankful though for the quietness 😇.
any chance it was repossessed? 

Yes.. peace and quiet. Long may it continue. I wondered about repossession. It would fit maybe. What I don't get is, what seems like, complete abandonment. You would think if someone had a 300K stake in the place they might drop in from time to time. Who knows...

jimbog

anything  on the council's planning application portal?

propertyrental

I've just bought. but not sold. 

For personal reasons I'm staying put for a few weeks (months?) and doing visits/overnights at the new house. At the time of my choosing I'll move in and leave current home empty while I sell.

MikeJXE

Maybe the sale fell through, it could be a repossession, just because it said sold doesn't mean it completed 

YoungBlueEyes

Who knows why people do these things. Could be almost any reason really, but probably one of the ones already mentioned.

We sold our house about 4 years ago, and the couple that bought it still haven't moved in. There's cardboard up on the windows, and some Christmas decs appeared the first year, but there's been literally no movement other than that. Not that's not true - they swopped out the beautiful solid oak front door for the ugliest plastic jobber quite soon after they bought it.

Maybe they wanted to change the layout and can't afford it now. Maybe they're held up in planning. Maybe they split up. Maybe they got wiped up by a drunk driver and are lying in comas in a hospital. Maybe one of them died. Maybe they can't afford their mortgage now. Maybe they only bought it so it can sit there and go up in value regardless (banking on the good address). Maybe they won the lottery and have forgotten all about it while they're sipping Mai-Tais on their private island and arguing about who's turn it is to clean the helicopter.

It could any of the above reasons.

BungalowBel

We bought our bungalow in April 2015 but did not move in until September, although we were having work done to it.  The house on the corner was empty for months after it was sold and then eventually there began work on  a large extension (still ongoing).  The new owners still haven't moved in after about a year.