Depressed our chain broke and now house not selling

Sistergold

Sorry to hear about your experiences. A chain is always problematic and stressful and you just have to keep trying. THE ONLY OTHER WAY, is if you are VERY VERY VERY CONFIDENT about your finances you sell your house move into xxxx find the house of your dreams and buy thereby with no chain. For most people it’s difficult to not move without being in a chain. Good luck. 

ReadySteadyPop

Hovblackctr said:

It’s usually two thirds of the actual value. Only desperate people use them to offload troublesome properties. 

They will be doing good business at the moment .

https://www.property118.com/property-transactions-plummet-amid-calls-for-stamp-duty-reform/

twopenny

I can only sympathise. I had someone drop out of the purchase of mine during the Beast from the East when the heating boiler had broken and no heaters to be found.

A friend is desperate, perfectly nice bungalow, price dropped and he's desperate because he's already moved to a bigger property.

Stuff happens. You'll find somewhere else with perhaps even better.

I got so stressed by the next buyers messing me around I moved to a vacant property with view to moving on........turned out to have lovely neighbours, quiet, can hear the sea and owls, see the stars from here. 5 mins from shops and 10 from the beach.

 I'm still a bit gutted but apart from being smaller than I'd like but otherwise everything I wanted.

Good luck.

ReadySteadyPop

RHemmings said:

amihaan said:

Thank you all for your replies. 

Out of  curiosity how do these “we buy your home” companies work. We have a few letters there the door. Do they actually buy your house? And I’m assuming for way below asking price?   

I'd like to know this too. (Just curious, I'm not planning to use their services.)

What I remember hearing is that the company will value your house, then pay you a percentage of the valuation. E.g. one company advertises that they will pay 89% of market value. They will then appoint a solicitor for you, and the sale process continues. They sometimes advertise how quickly your house 'could' be sold for. 

I've heard that these companies will try to find a buyer for the house quickly, so that the house can be sold to the buyer the same day that they buy it from you, meaning that they don't end up with financial exposure to the house - i.e. paying the house seller and then having their money tied up in the house until they sell it. This is the bit I'm most unsure about - do they really manage to do this in the majority of cases? I'm using WeBuyAnyHouse.com as an example for this bit of research, and their 'How It Works' page says specifically that the company buys the house and then sells it (suggesting the purchase happens first). https://www.webuyanyhouse.co.uk/how-it-work

I've seen articles that say that these companies are an unregulated industry. I'm not sure if this is still the case, but unregulated businesses can become ... problematic. WeBuyAnyHouse says that they are part of the Property Redress Scheme, and I saw several other companies say that they are regulated. 

Looking on TrustPilot for WeBuyAnyHouse.com, they have about 9% 1-star reviews. I noted that a 3 star review said that the house failed to sell - indicating perhas that 'WeBuyAnyHouse' may not be quite what it says on the tin. The company has only flagged and removed a small number of negative reviews according to TrustPilot. I noticed that both positive and negative  reviews mentioned the price offered for a house being reduced compared to the initial estimate. 

In some reviews I notice that there is some form of potentially non-refundable reservation deposit (or similar). This was quoted as being £660 in one review, which is a lot less than 'Modern Method of Auction'. But, it will put buyers off and reduce the amount that they will offer. One review reported that the fee is supposed to be refunded if the sale falls through not because of the buyer being at fault, but that this may take some time to be refunded. 

I note that TrustPilot for WeBuyAnyHouse mentions that they have both 'direct sales route' and 'assisted sales route'. This could explain reports of houses failing to sell - if people go down the 'assisted sales route' which I presume is more similar to a standard estate agent. I would guess that the 'assisted sales route' is offered if a home-owner is dissatisfied with the offer for a house for the 'direct sales route'. These methods are discussed here: https://www.webuyanyhouse.co.uk/blog/how-to-sell-your-house-fast-157864/  They also mention a 'find a buyer' route where the house seller finds their own buyer, suggested by asking around friends and family. If that's the case, does the company only act as conveyancers? 

I'm not in any way recommending (or not) the sample company here. I have just been curious about these companies and used your question as a prompt for a bit of research. 

The advice usually given on here is to go to auction instead.

Slinky

ReadySteadyPop said:

RHemmings said:

amihaan said:

Thank you all for your replies. 

Out of  curiosity how do these “we buy your home” companies work. We have a few letters there the door. Do they actually buy your house? And I’m assuming for way below asking price?   

I'd like to know this too. (Just curious, I'm not planning to use their services.)

What I remember hearing is that the company will value your house, then pay you a percentage of the valuation. E.g. one company advertises that they will pay 89% of market value. They will then appoint a solicitor for you, and the sale process continues. They sometimes advertise how quickly your house 'could' be sold for. 

I've heard that these companies will try to find a buyer for the house quickly, so that the house can be sold to the buyer the same day that they buy it from you, meaning that they don't end up with financial exposure to the house - i.e. paying the house seller and then having their money tied up in the house until they sell it. This is the bit I'm most unsure about - do they really manage to do this in the majority of cases? I'm using WeBuyAnyHouse.com as an example for this bit of research, and their 'How It Works' page says specifically that the company buys the house and then sells it (suggesting the purchase happens first). https://www.webuyanyhouse.co.uk/how-it-work

I've seen articles that say that these companies are an unregulated industry. I'm not sure if this is still the case, but unregulated businesses can become ... problematic. WeBuyAnyHouse says that they are part of the Property Redress Scheme, and I saw several other companies say that they are regulated. 

Looking on TrustPilot for WeBuyAnyHouse.com, they have about 9% 1-star reviews. I noted that a 3 star review said that the house failed to sell - indicating perhas that 'WeBuyAnyHouse' may not be quite what it says on the tin. The company has only flagged and removed a small number of negative reviews according to TrustPilot. I noticed that both positive and negative  reviews mentioned the price offered for a house being reduced compared to the initial estimate. 

In some reviews I notice that there is some form of potentially non-refundable reservation deposit (or similar). This was quoted as being £660 in one review, which is a lot less than 'Modern Method of Auction'. But, it will put buyers off and reduce the amount that they will offer. One review reported that the fee is supposed to be refunded if the sale falls through not because of the buyer being at fault, but that this may take some time to be refunded. 

I note that TrustPilot for WeBuyAnyHouse mentions that they have both 'direct sales route' and 'assisted sales route'. This could explain reports of houses failing to sell - if people go down the 'assisted sales route' which I presume is more similar to a standard estate agent. I would guess that the 'assisted sales route' is offered if a home-owner is dissatisfied with the offer for a house for the 'direct sales route'. These methods are discussed here: https://www.webuyanyhouse.co.uk/blog/how-to-sell-your-house-fast-157864/  They also mention a 'find a buyer' route where the house seller finds their own buyer, suggested by asking around friends and family. If that's the case, does the company only act as conveyancers? 

I'm not in any way recommending (or not) the sample company here. I have just been curious about these companies and used your question as a prompt for a bit of research. 

The advice usually given on here is to go to auction instead.

Oh Crashy give it a rest. Property is never going to the level you want to buy back in at, however much you want to try talking the market down.

Bigphil1474

OP, we're on our second first time buyer as the first one pulled out saying the survey wasn't as expected. It's a pain, especially as most of the survey issues weren't actually the issues the buyer thought they were. We're in a chain of 3 and the house we are buying are on their third buyer as there first buyer pulled out for 'personal reasons', and their second buyer died. We have a pretty poor system for buying and selling houses tbh. We're trying our hardest to make sure we have everything covered that might put a buyer off, but our house is over 100 years old so will always have some minor issues. You just have to persevere.

I wouldn't touch those we buy any house types - there might be one or two who are decent companies, but finding them amongst the rest is a tough ask. Expect to get no more than 80% ish of the value of your property and that's if they don't try and cheat you last minute.

Alternatives? You could look at part exchanging on a new property. That's still a risky business as new builds have a tendency to be problematic (Join a new build FB forum and see what's on there!). There are plenty of decent new build companies and you do have the warranty on a new house.

Have you considered staying where you are and getting the house extended? You can get single storey extensions under permitted development, and planning permission for larger extensions is not necessarily difficult depending where you are. You could make the bedrooms bigger, for example. 

amihaan

Thanks for your replies everyone. We could extend but I don’t want to live in a bungalow. With young kids I prefer the traditional houses with bedrooms and living area on separate floors. 

Your replies have given me some hope and I guess I will just stay out and hope it will work out. Can’t break chain as we have a mortgage rate when it was low, so it would mean fresh mortgage at today’s rate! 

Definitely don’t want to go to them but your house companies. 

Hopefully it will all work out and something better will happen! 

amihaan

amihaan said:

Thanks for your replies everyone. We could extend but I don’t want to live in a bungalow. With young kids I prefer the traditional houses with bedrooms and living area on separate floors. 

Your replies have given me some hope and I guess I will just stay out and hope it will work out. Can’t break chain as we have a mortgage rate when it was low, so it would mean fresh mortgage at today’s rate! 

Definitely don’t want to go to them but your house companies. 

Hopefully it will all work out and something better will happen! 

stay put * I mean 

ReadySteadyPop

gazfocus said:

I really feel for you OP. If you're feeling brave, you could share the rightmove link here and people here can give you some helpful suggestions as to whether you can do anything yourself to increase the amount of interest in your house.

Suggestions about "staging" etc. are usually what happens, people are really just looking for value for money, they will do their own "staging" if they buy it.

abc978

All I can say is I understand how you feel as we have also just lost our buyers 😪and going back to sqaure 1 getting ready for viewings with young children ain't easy and just every day not knowing when it will work out....! ☹️ 

But it will work out one day, keep going 💪 
If its priced right there will be someone out there who will want it!