Neighbour interfering with viewings

Bailey1980

Grumpy_chap said:

Bailey1980 said:

Thank you. 

The market value is £195K and we have it on at £180K
( 3 beds, 1 bathroom and 1 WC. kitchen is less than three years old and was fully renovated and comes with an electric range cooker and integrated dishwasher, the entire interior has been put into good decorative order; painted white/off white throughout - thankfully we had a friend who was a decorator and did this for free; external wall insulation less than 4 years old and has a 25 year government backed guarantee; EPC rating of C, 80ft long and 40ft wide rear garden with a sun terrace at the bottom of the garden, paved front garden with room for 2-3 cars to be parked off road, within walking distance of a school, train station, bus stop and shops) 

Outstanding Mortgage is £175K so we thought £180k was fair - clear the mortgage and gives us some money towards a deposit for a new place, not much but will be a start

If I understand correctly, you mentioned upthread that you thought the reason for the neighbour's behaviour might be that they want to buy the property.
Has the neighbour put in an offer?
I know you might not want to sell to them, but it would be a way forward.

they have viewed it but not put in an offer and then sent their financial adviser to view it who tried to challenge the price on the basis of a neighbour dispute. 

My gut is telling me that the neighbour is disrupting viewings so that we drop the price massively and they can then snap it for up for much much much less than its worth

Bailey1980

BellaBlondykeTheThird said:

Bailey1980 said:

NameUnavailable said:

Bailey1980 said:

we know renting it out will come with issues - but we need to do something to cover the bills of a house we can't live in as well as making some money to pay rent ourselves on a diff property/ begin to save for another deposit on another house.  I tried to look at property guardianship instead but couldn't find how to go about finding someone for that. 

Cash buy companies are offering £30K below the market value, which isn't enough to pay off the existing mortgage on the property. 

Auction does seem to be the way we are going to have to go and hopefully the estate agent won't penalise us for this - contract states if we cancel the agreement and go elsewhere we have to pay £1000 for the marketing/work they have done. I know it's my fault for not thinking about all of this through thoroughly before signing up to a regular estate agent rather than an auction house. 

How much is 'market value' and how much of that do you owe the mortgage co? I can see that you obviously need to be able to sell for a price that covers the mortgage and leaves you with enough for a deposit for the next home.

Cash buy companies have a reputation for quoting a price and then dropping that at the last minute. Don't bother with them, also don't even consider 'modern method of auction' if your agent suggests that. If you decide to sell at auction choose a known traditional auction house.

However you will need to set a realistic price and reserve and that will be less that whatever you think the market value is - it's possible that the house will sell for market value in any case but usually auction buyers expect to get a property for under market value (and most properties sold at auction have some issue or other which makes them more difficult to sell traditionally).

But, what is 'market value' of a house with a disruptive neighbour? Because of the issues, which you would have to declare if selling normally, the value will be affected. I sold a flat way under 'market value' because of problems and I know some of what you're going through and how all consuming it becomes, but it's only you that can solve this and selling up at auction could be the best option to end it quickly.

Also if you sell at auction you can add terms of sale, such as the buyer has to pay the auction fees/legal fess (or a proportion of them) so you can offset some of any loss in that way.

It's probably worth speaking to an auction house and getting their opinion on a realistic guide price and reserve and seeing if that works for you - it's up to you what reserve you set but the auction house will want it to be realistic in order to get a sale. The only downside is that they'll probably want an upfront payment for listing the house.

Have you thought about dropping the price via the current agent? People love a bargain and will overlook all sorts of problems if the price is appealing enough.

Thank you. 

The market value is £195K and we have it on at £180K
( 3 beds, 1 bathroom and 1 WC. kitchen is less than three years old and was fully renovated and comes with an electric range cooker and integrated dishwasher, the entire interior has been put into good decorative order; painted white/off white throughout - thankfully we had a friend who was a decorator and did this for free; external wall insulation less than 4 years old and has a 25 year government backed guarantee; EPC rating of C, 80ft long and 40ft wide rear garden with a sun terrace at the bottom of the garden, paved front garden with room for 2-3 cars to be parked off road, within walking distance of a school, train station, bus stop and shops) 

Outstanding Mortgage is £175K so we thought £180k was fair - clear the mortgage and gives us some money towards a deposit for a new place, not much but will be a start

If you sold for £180k and have £175k outstanding you won't get enough for a desposit on a new place after solicitors for selling your place then buying a new. Moving costs etc erc

we know but at this stage we just want to clear the mortgage, anything on top would be a nice bonus. the £180K is already £15K below market value. 

Most of our possessions (other than bulky furniture) are out of the house and being stored at 6-7 houses of different friends and family and we are living out of a suitcase. 

GDB2222

Even if the neighbour is putting off potential buyers, I would expect a steady stream of inquiries if the price is almost 10% below market value. Does your agent let you know how many viewings there have been, and are there still people interested?

Bailey1980

GDB2222 said:

Even if the neighbour is putting off potential buyers, I would expect a steady stream of inquiries if the price is almost 10% below market value. Does your agent let you know how many viewings there have been, and are there still people interested?

It's been on the market for about 6 weeks and there seems to be about 2 viewings per week. Other than the abuse encountered whilst viewing, all the feedback has been that the house isn't to the viewers personal tastes and it would cost them too much money to get it how they want.  We can't cater to every person's personal taste so we are at a loss - all walls have been freshly painted an off white colour, all downstairs is laminate/click flooring, kitchen is less than 2-3 years old. There is carpet on the stairs and all upstairs bedrooms, external wall insulation and the back garden was completely renovated a year or two ago with a paved sun terrace at the bottom of the garden. 

Grumpy_chap

Bailey1980 said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Bailey1980 said:

Thank you. 

The market value is £195K and we have it on at £180K
( 3 beds, 1 bathroom and 1 WC. kitchen is less than three years old and was fully renovated and comes with an electric range cooker and integrated dishwasher, the entire interior has been put into good decorative order; painted white/off white throughout - thankfully we had a friend who was a decorator and did this for free; external wall insulation less than 4 years old and has a 25 year government backed guarantee; EPC rating of C, 80ft long and 40ft wide rear garden with a sun terrace at the bottom of the garden, paved front garden with room for 2-3 cars to be parked off road, within walking distance of a school, train station, bus stop and shops) 

Outstanding Mortgage is £175K so we thought £180k was fair - clear the mortgage and gives us some money towards a deposit for a new place, not much but will be a start

If I understand correctly, you mentioned upthread that you thought the reason for the neighbour's behaviour might be that they want to buy the property.
Has the neighbour put in an offer?
I know you might not want to sell to them, but it would be a way forward.

they have viewed it but not put in an offer and then sent their financial adviser to view it who tried to challenge the price on the basis of a neighbour dispute. 

My gut is telling me that the neighbour is disrupting viewings so that we drop the price massively and they can then snap it for up for much much much less than its worth

That is an outrageous cheek!

Did the Financial Adviser put the comments in writing?  I am not sure whether that would be of any use as evidence of the neighbour's unreasonable behaviour.

In any case, the "marriage value" of your plot adjoining the house the neighbours already own and the potential desire to knock through to one property would add and more than compensate for the bad neighbour, in my opinion.

Out of interest, do the properties lend themselves to the knocking through idea?  Is there any precedent for the same in the local area?  Such action would ordinarily require planning permission.

GDB2222

Bailey1980 said:

GDB2222 said:

Even if the neighbour is putting off potential buyers, I would expect a steady stream of inquiries if the price is almost 10% below market value. Does your agent let you know how many viewings there have been, and are there still people interested?

It's been on the market for about 6 weeks and there seems to be about 2 viewings per week. Other than the abuse encountered whilst viewing, all the feedback has been that the house isn't to the viewers personal tastes and it would cost them too much money to get it how they want.  We can't cater to every person's personal taste so we are at a loss - all walls have been freshly painted an off white colour, all downstairs is laminate/click flooring, kitchen is less than 2-3 years old. There is carpet on the stairs and all upstairs bedrooms, external wall insulation and the back garden was completely renovated a year or two ago with a paved sun terrace at the bottom of the garden. 

There is no simple trick that will suddenly make your house more attractive to buyers. So, don't knock yourselves out repainting it a slightly different shade of off white or changing the flooring. It's possible that there is a buyer out there somewhere for you, and this is quite a slow market at the moment. 

I hope things improve.