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Selling my house woes

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thermionicthermionic Frets: 9501
edited February 2019 in Off Topic
Put my house on sale about a year ago after I realised I could afford to move to a nicer place after a long time when I couldn't. The house is in need of some renovation (new kitchen and bathroom at least) and the price very much reflects this. It sold within three weeks, £5K below the asking price, which I was happy to accept. Buyer came round twice with an architect and a builder, measuring things and generally being intrusive. Then he pulled out. So back on sale. After a couple of months I accepted another offer. £7K below the asking price. Then they pulled out with no reason. Finally sold it again in last autumn, £10K below asking price, but just want to move on by now, I'll take the hit. Signed the contract just before Christmas, at least on my side... My estate agent called up the solicitors in mid-January to see how things were progressing so they called the buyer, and oh - they're not going ahead. No reason given, blocked my estate agent's number so they couldn't even ask them why.

So now, the estate agent of the house I'm supposed to be buying from senses their fee disappearing into the distance and wants to get in on the act, so I now have two estate agents trying to sell it. They get plenty of people in fair play, but any offers are only about 80% of my (now reduced) asking prices. When I decline, they go up £2000 and give me a sob story about how they can't afford any more. Well, don't waste time going to see houses you can't afford then!

Every day I come home from work and there are cupboard doors open, furniture moved, carpets pulled up. One viewer poked a hole in the plaster in the living room, a finger-sized hole that wasn't there before, and another "broke" the toilet today (the hook connecting the handle to the piston sometimes unhooks if you yank it too quickly). But hang on, why would you flush the toilet in a house you're viewing? What else are they getting up to?

Now I have "a few" questions I have to answer for somebody who's been viewing. By "a few" they actually mean TWENTY-TWO, including such gems as:

Why are you moving? NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS

What are the neighbours like? Well, I'm going to say FANTASTIC

What month is the boiler service due? OH YEAH, THE HOUSE IS EXACTLY WHAT I'M AFTER BUT I REALLY WANT TO MOVE SOMEWHERE THAT HAS ITS BOILER SERVICED IN MAY,  NOVEMBER DOESN'T WORK FOR ME I'M AFRAID

People keep telling me that moving house is stressful - it isn't, just really really annoying.
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Comments

  • Simon_MSimon_M Frets: 542
    Not just why, but also how, the fuck does someone put a finger sized hole in the plaster in your house!?
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  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
    We moved 22 years ago, I hated the selling process. I refused to be in when people came around, I hated strangers poking around. The guy who bought our house got done by a con man gas engineer as well. We had a new boiler a year before moving, but it was a certain type that had to be pressurised occasionally. I told the guy this but he forgot. He called in some engineer who told him he needed a new boiler and sold him one for lots of money. Robbing bastard.
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  • jonevejoneve Frets: 1468
    Yea, it’s a fucking ballache. 

    We’ve sold ours and found somewhere to move to...in a relatively short space of time too...everything is going smoothly thus far but I’m sure something will happen to fuck things up before the end of it. 
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  • KrisGeeKrisGee Frets: 1264

    Now I have "a few" questions I have to answer for somebody who's been viewing. By "a few" they actually mean TWENTY-TWO, including such gems as:

    Why are you moving? NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS

    What are the neighbours like? Well, I'm going to say FANTASTIC

    What month is the boiler service due? OH YEAH, THE HOUSE IS EXACTLY WHAT I'M AFTER BUT I REALLY WANT TO MOVE SOMEWHERE THAT HAS ITS BOILER SERVICED IN MAY,  NOVEMBER DOESN'T WORK FOR ME I'M AFRAID
    These are exactly same questions I asked when I was buying 5 years ago. Pretty happy with my house.
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  • boogiemanboogieman Frets: 12315
    I’ve never actually sold a house, but I’ve heard it’s incredibly stressful. 

    To put another point of view on things, my ex put our old house on the market just after the new year (she bought me out years ago). It sold within a fortnight at £10k over the OIRO price the agent advertised it. So I guess that tells you a couple of things:

    The ex’s house is a high demand area. What’s the market like where you’re selling?

    The house was in good decorative order with a decent fitted kitchen and bathrooms and has had sensible additions like a loft extension to maximise it. Would it be worth sinking a bit of money into yours to do some updating? You might find you get a better offer if people can look at it without thinking “I’m going to need to put in a new kitchen” etc. 
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  • Well, I did consider that for a while, but I can't be bothered with the hassle of dealing with various tradesmen and then trying to live in a house with no kitchen and bathroom while it's being done - only to sell up and move out straight away. It's priced at least £25,000 below what similar houses in the area sell for in good decorative order, with maybe £10,000-15,000 worth of work needed? I'll take the hit.
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  • blobbblobb Frets: 2914
    Went through the same a few years back- four sales, four pull outs on exchange day. Feel your pain. We should have the Scottish system.
    Feelin' Reelin' & Squeelin'
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  • GuyRGuyR Frets: 1323
    You can have something similar that the Scottish system (which is not a panacea in itself as the seller has to vacate, even if they have not secured a suitable purchase); ask for a non refundable deposit of, say 2%. There are standard agreements covering this, allowing buyers to withdraw in the event of a genuinely adverse survey or local authority search. 
    I use them in my business because they deter wankers.
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  • GuyRGuyR Frets: 1323

    boogieman said:
    I’ve never actually sold a house, but I’ve heard it’s incredibly stressful. 

    To put another point of view on things, my ex put our old house on the market just after the new year (she bought me out years ago). It sold within a fortnight at £10k over the OIRO price the agent advertised it. So I guess that tells you a couple of things:

    The ex’s house is a high demand area. What’s the market like where you’re selling?

    The house was in good decorative order with a decent fitted kitchen and bathrooms and has had sensible additions like a loft extension to maximise it. Would it be worth sinking a bit of money into yours to do some updating? You might find you get a better offer if people can look at it without thinking “I’m going to need to put in a new kitchen” etc. 
    The reason your ex's house found a buyer is because it was correctly priced. There is always high demand for correctly priced houses, irrespective of location or condition.
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  • Wis’d the above!
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  • Its the work that needs doing thats the problem, even if you reflect that in the price. Buyers can only borrow against the value of the house. Any cash they have, would likely have gone on the deposit leaving nothing for the renovations.

    I would get the work done and increase the selling price. Its easier to add £20k to a mortgage than try and save the cash for renovations.
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  • GuyRGuyR Frets: 1323
    bobblehat said:
    Its the work that needs doing thats the problem, even if you reflect that in the price. Buyers can only borrow against the value of the house. Any cash they have, would likely have gone on the deposit leaving nothing for the renovations.

    I would get the work done and increase the selling price. Its easier to add £20k to a mortgage than try and save the cash for renovations.
    The note of caution about this course of action is the outgoing homeowner usually renovates to their own taste, very often their choices being against the taste of the buying demographic. The work having been done, the money committed and the price commensurately increased, the house if rendered more unsaleable than it was when simply needing updating.
    Leave the choice to the incoming buyer. You don't know better than them what they want.
    Make the price attractive. It will sell.
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  • boogiemanboogieman Frets: 12315
    edited February 2019
    GuyR said:
    bobblehat said:
    Its the work that needs doing thats the problem, even if you reflect that in the price. Buyers can only borrow against the value of the house. Any cash they have, would likely have gone on the deposit leaving nothing for the renovations.

    I would get the work done and increase the selling price. Its easier to add £20k to a mortgage than try and save the cash for renovations.
    The note of caution about this course of action is the outgoing homeowner usually renovates to their own taste, very often their choices being against the taste of the buying demographic. The work having been done, the money committed and the price commensurately increased, the house if rendered more unsaleable than it was when simply needing updating.
    Leave the choice to the incoming buyer. You don't know better than them what they want.
    Make the price attractive. It will sell.
    But the OP has said already said he’s dropped £10k below the area average and is still only being offered 80% of that. So either the house is massively overpriced in the first place (which sounds unlikely if he and the estate agents have done their research), there’s some underlying issue which he’s unaware of, or it’s just not appealing to buyers. I’d bet it’s the last. Unless a developer or builder buys it, regular buyers will take a look at an outdated kitchen and bathroom and think it’s going to cost tens of thousands plus a load of time and inconvenience to put right and then start thinking what else needs doing?

    Sure, people will want to redecorate to their own taste but a lot of buyers will just want a house in clean,  decent move-in condition and then they can do the decorating in their own time. He could put in a white bathroom suite and a neutral kitchen and it would give the house better appeal. It wouldn’t cost a fortune and I’m sure he’d recoup the cost in the selling price. It’s a matter of him having the time, money and energy to do it I guess. 
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  • jonevejoneve Frets: 1468
    boogieman said:
    GuyR said:
    bobblehat said:
    Its the work that needs doing thats the problem, even if you reflect that in the price. Buyers can only borrow against the value of the house. Any cash they have, would likely have gone on the deposit leaving nothing for the renovations.

    I would get the work done and increase the selling price. Its easier to add £20k to a mortgage than try and save the cash for renovations.
    The note of caution about this course of action is the outgoing homeowner usually renovates to their own taste, very often their choices being against the taste of the buying demographic. The work having been done, the money committed and the price commensurately increased, the house if rendered more unsaleable than it was when simply needing updating.
    Leave the choice to the incoming buyer. You don't know better than them what they want.
    Make the price attractive. It will sell.
    But the OP has said already said he’s dropped £10k below the area average and is still only being offered 80% of that. So either the house is massively overpriced in the first place (which sounds unlikely if he and the estate agents have done their research), there’s some underlying issue which he’s unaware of, or it’s just not appealing to buyers. I’d bet it’s the last. Unless a developer or builder buys it, regular buyers will take a look at an outdated kitchen and bathroom and think it’s going to cost tens of thousands plus a load of time and inconvenience to put right and then start thinking what else needs doing?

    Sure, people will want to redecorate to their own taste but a lot of buyers will just want a house in clean,  decent move-in condition and then they can do the decorating in their own time. He could put in a white bathroom suite and a neutral kitchen and it would give the house better appeal. It wouldn’t cost a fortune and I’m sure he’d recoup the cost in the selling price. It’s a matter of him having the time, money and energy to do it I guess. 
    Not always the case though, unless they're first time buyers.

    We've just sold our house and the one we've bought needs modernising...and with the Equity we'll have from the sale of ours, we'll have approx 30k to renovate. 


    As @GuyR said, to buy a "finished" product, it has to have been done to your personal taste, which, more often than not, it isn't. 
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  • shuikitshuikit Frets: 224
    We sold and bought about a year ago.  We also go completely sick of the selling process, tons of people viewing, but no offers.  LOTS of tyre kickers!  One woman, who told us at the viewing that she had actually come and looked around the outside of the house before asking for a viewing said that she wasn't interested due to the limited parking which she was unwilling to compromise on!?  We were ready to give up on it, the house that we originally wanted to buy had already been sold now anyway but had a number of viewings lined up for that weekend, (1 or 2 were 2nd viewings) so decided to see what happened with these first.  Then suddenly two offers on the same day as the viewing, one of them for asking price.  It is weird sometimes how it can all just happen.


    On the valuation thing.  It's not necessarily just the buyers going low, there's a trend for the surveyors to also be under valuing, apparently.  We had this problem on the house we have now bought.  We bought for 10% less than the original asking price (they had just lowered) and the surveyor valued nearly another 10% under this.  So the surveyor was about 20% under what the estate agent originally valued it as.  Apparently, at the time the lenders were nervous that house prices would fall and were applying pressure for the surveyors to be more conservative with their valuations, not sure how true this is though.



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  • CHRISB50CHRISB50 Frets: 4290
    edited February 2019

    I think at the moment it's a buyers market. Nothing in our area is moving. Why anyone wants to buy pre-Brexit I have no clue. I'd say it's a big old risk. You might find things improve post 29th March once people know what's going on.


    With regards to people poking about, stick a fake severed hand or something in one of the cupboards. If someone is tyre kicking that much they're never going to buy the place anyway. You may as well have some fun with them.

    I can't help about the shape I'm in, I can't sing I ain't pretty and my legs are thin

    But don't ask me what I think of you, I might not give the answer that you want me to

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  • I had the house valued by two different estate agents originally, and both valued it the same. Both were very confident they could sell it at that price, and indeed, the one I chose managed it in three weeks. So I don't think it's overpriced.

    Most of the people who are interested are developers who want to make drastic changes like convert it to two flats to rent. I've seen a few houses that have been bought by developers to sell on and they all look the same - white walls, grey carpets, bare bones kitchen etc. These do seem to appeal to first time buyers though. I have considered doing something like this, but I could do without the hassle and extra expense of finding somewhere to rent for six months while the work is going on.

    The problem with selling them to developers is they're easy come easy go. They have £200K in the bank and they're overcome with greed at making a profit, if they see a house that might make them more profit, they change their minds very quickly. This is what happened to me three times.

    My problem now is I've spent almost £1000 on search fees and arranging a mortgage for the house I was planning to buy, and I can't afford to drop much more than what I've already dropped it to already. Might have a think about that over the weekend though.



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  • boogiemanboogieman Frets: 12315
    joneve said:
    boogieman said:
    GuyR said:
    bobblehat said:
    Its the work that needs doing thats the problem, even if you reflect that in the price. Buyers can only borrow against the value of the house. Any cash they have, would likely have gone on the deposit leaving nothing for the renovations.

    I would get the work done and increase the selling price. Its easier to add £20k to a mortgage than try and save the cash for renovations.
    The note of caution about this course of action is the outgoing homeowner usually renovates to their own taste, very often their choices being against the taste of the buying demographic. The work having been done, the money committed and the price commensurately increased, the house if rendered more unsaleable than it was when simply needing updating.
    Leave the choice to the incoming buyer. You don't know better than them what they want.
    Make the price attractive. It will sell.
    But the OP has said already said he’s dropped £10k below the area average and is still only being offered 80% of that. So either the house is massively overpriced in the first place (which sounds unlikely if he and the estate agents have done their research), there’s some underlying issue which he’s unaware of, or it’s just not appealing to buyers. I’d bet it’s the last. Unless a developer or builder buys it, regular buyers will take a look at an outdated kitchen and bathroom and think it’s going to cost tens of thousands plus a load of time and inconvenience to put right and then start thinking what else needs doing?

    Sure, people will want to redecorate to their own taste but a lot of buyers will just want a house in clean,  decent move-in condition and then they can do the decorating in their own time. He could put in a white bathroom suite and a neutral kitchen and it would give the house better appeal. It wouldn’t cost a fortune and I’m sure he’d recoup the cost in the selling price. It’s a matter of him having the time, money and energy to do it I guess. 
    Not always the case though, unless they're first time buyers.

    We've just sold our house and the one we've bought needs modernising...and with the Equity we'll have from the sale of ours, we'll have approx 30k to renovate. 


    As @GuyR said, to buy a "finished" product, it has to have been done to your personal taste, which, more often than not, it isn't. 
    I get that. But it rather depends if a) you’re someone who can the potential in a place and b) you’ve got the time, patience, skill to do it yourself or the money to get someone innto do it. I’d take a bet they’re are an awful lot of the great unwashed out there who have none of those things.
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  • StevepageStevepage Frets: 3040
    edited February 2019
    I've been trying to sell my flat for 2 fucking years. Took 6 months to get some one to buy it, signed our contract then the bastards pull out the day after my solicitor gets the contract.

    Repainted, emptied the flat and reduced the price for quick sale. Still took 5 months. Then finally we get another buyer, then we get to the contract stage again and they pull out. We had a sink hole appear about 100 yards down the road, so the woman thought it was a sign of the apocalypse and didn't want our flat.

    Now we feel beaten and are considering not bothering with selling and just try to deal with living in a 1 bed flat with a kid (don't ask, I tried to get the Mrs to agree to move before we decided to try for a baby, she didn't listen)

    and yes our price was in-line with similar properties but in Watford there are literally thousands of new builds going up so the local market is flooded.
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  • doogz84doogz84 Frets: 206
    We bought a new house last year (In Scotland).

    House went on the market on the Thursday. We phoned the estate agent on the Friday afternoon. They said they'd already had a verbal offer, and they wouldn't even arrange a viewing for us unless we were in a position to make an offer.

    As it was, we were, had a deposit stashed away and an agreement in principle from the bank. Viewed it on the Sunday, it went to closing on the Tuesday at noon. We offered 12.5% over asking and apparently snuck it by a bawhair over the next highest bid.

    Seems to work a bit better here? I keep hearing about how f*cked the English system is.
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