Success selling your UK home

[Anne B]

I've noticed a few people recently have sold their house in the UK (congratulations!).

 

Ours has been up for sale for 3 months now and although we have some people who are interested, they haven't sold their house yet (it's only just gone on the market) so they won't commit themselves until they have a sale. I feel this is going to go on for ever!!

 

I was just wondering what other peoples experiences are/have been, how long their houses have been on the market, how long they took to sell, is the market really picking up like they say it is? Or else how many people have given up and decided to rent.

 

There are loads of 'sold' signs around here at the moment, I just wish one of them was ours!!

[Prema]

Ours took ages. Even though our house was completely finished top to bottom. We had loads and loads of viewings. It just made me feel sick. The same people would come back time and time again and then say that the house was too small for them.

We ended up accepting an offer 13k under our asking price. Reason being, we just wanted to move on. I even had the council round to do renting with them, and the assessors had no problems with our house. But did tell me that if I got an offer I should think about accepting it. He said that the house would get ruined and it was just part and parcel of renting.

When we bought our house in 2003, I didn't think twice about it. We viewed it once and placed an offer. This is not how is it now. Also I found that viewers didn't care about our personal needs. We have 2 kids, and bedtime is 7.30 for them. Some viewers would ask for an PM viewing and bearing in mind we wanted to sell, we would wait and some were just no shows, very annoying.

I had some people asking if I was going to leave my 2 plasma's, one of which is a 46" Sony.... I THINK NOT. Viewers have become very cheeky. And I used to be polite and say we are taking everything with us to OZ. In the end it annoyed me so much I used to say, would you leave your teles. Some viewers would not do a deal unless certain things were included. We just stuck to our guns and said it was just the house up for sale.

Keep you chin up, and smile. Get the agents to do as many viewings, it stops the chit chat, and conversations of lets make a deal. Which meant a deal for them and not you.

It will happen and with the market as it is there are buyers, but not enough houses.

[Guest covfan71]

We have been on the market now for nearly 3 months and had 2 viewings. I have dropped the asking price £10k from the original and it's now at the high end of it's true value. We are not coming over until next Sept and have somewhere to go until then if we sell but although we do want to get rid asap we don't want to loose too much money on it. After all we need as much as poss to come out with.

[Guest cunnah10]

I've noticed a few people recently have sold their house in the UK (congratulations!).

 

Ours has been up for sale for 3 months now and although we have some people who are interested, they haven't sold their house yet (it's only just gone on the market) so they won't commit themselves until they have a sale. I feel this is going to go on for ever!!

 

I was just wondering what other peoples experiences are/have been, how long their houses have been on the market, how long they took to sell, is the market really picking up like they say it is? Or else how many people have given up and decided to rent.

 

There are loads of 'sold' signs around here at the moment, I just wish one of them was ours!!

We have been both sides of this "coin"..AND so w can relate to both!!

 

This time last year we had sold (subject to contract)..to "first time buyers".. couldn't ask for ANYTHING more (so we thought).

We dropped the price of our lovely home to a RIDICULOUS price.....for these buyers as we were desperate to sell AND get to OZ!!!!

We were also LEAVING them soooo much included in the price....AND then literally "ONE" hour before exchange of contracts these LOVELY people who we had become so friendly with tried to pull a fast one AND threatened to pull out of the sale IF we didn't drop it another £10k....(we had already dropped it by £40k)

We were gutted to say the least AND to cut a long story short...we told them were to go (and not so politely).

We rented the house out (to not such great tenants as it turned out)AND we set off to Adelaide!

As many of you know we returned to the Uk March this year (another long story)...AND we put our house on the market end of June ..had 7 viewers in 10 days....and we SOLD subject to contract very quickly (FULL ASKING PRICE THIS TIME).

So you just don't know what to expect in this present climate....

Good luck to all those trying to sell.....it is NOT a pleasant experience!

 

Hope you all get to where you want to be quicky!

[Anne B]

Thanks for your replies everyone, it's interesting to hear people's stories. It seems there are a lot of different experiences, some good and some bad (like wanting the TVs - what a cheek!). We have had 6 viewings in 3 months, but I would say 3 of them were time wasters, people who were just browsing with very little intention of buying. It's really annoying when you've gone to so much trouble to get the place all clean and tidy. We feel we have put the house on at a realistic price. We did in fact get an offer from our neighbours a couple of doors away (they want to buy ours and have their parents move into theirs) but they offered us £30k below the asking price so we politely told them to forget it.

 

They say everything works out OK in the end and everything happens for a reason (like not selling last year and selling at full price this year) so fingers crossed for everyone.

[Guest Guest75]

Can I just chip in.............

 

Do not mention to viewers that you are moving to Australia - they will take advantage as they think you are desperate to get here (which I know most probably are!)

 

We did not even tell our estate agent, we just said we were moving south

[Guest cunnah10]

Can I just chip in.............

 

Do not mention to viewers that you are moving to Australia - they will take advantage as they think you are desperate to get here (which I know most probably are!)

 

We did not even tell our estate agent, we just said we were moving south

totally agree!!!

[Guest Shy Ted]

We sold our twice (almost), getting to exchange of contracts day both times before it fell through. First one the buyer tried to get me to drop the price by 20k (told him to f**k off!) second time the chain collapsed 2 buyers up the chain, because someone "changed their mind" (on exchange day? Gimme a break).

 

Sold now though. In short we had no problem getting buyers, but we did have problems getting them over the line.

 

Richie

[Guest The Dimmocks]

Can I just chip in.............

 

Do not mention to viewers that you are moving to Australia - they will take advantage as they think you are desperate to get here (which I know most probably are!)

 

We did not even tell our estate agent, we just said we were moving south

 

We have some agents coming round the end of this week to hopefully get some decent valuations and put on the market. We did not mentioned our move to Australia when asked. I said we were moving in with the MIL as I want to return to work and she can look after kids, big fat porky but still it won't hurt anyone. I feel if we tell we emigrating we will get silly offers so thought best not to say anything.

[Pesty650]

Good Luck to all who are trying to sell their houses.

 

Ours has been on the market 7 months, during which time we have had steady interest. A few silly offers received, one agreed sale which fell through, and currently we have agreed a sale but early days yet, so no celebrating until its all gone through.

 

It's definitely a buyers market, and many of our viewers just seemed to be trying to get a bargain. We have told nobody we are heading to SA for obvious reasons. It also depends on what price other properties in the area are marketed at, but I think you just have to hold your nerve.

 

One day you can be wondering if it will ever sell, the next you have a reasonable offer. It can all change so quickly. Try to stay positive, it will sell in the end

[Guest MarkIngram]

We had put our house up for sale in January and it was finally sold end of June. In Scotland it works a bit different as once an offer is accepted and missives are signed there can be no backing out....we accepted an offer £4k below where we ideally wanted to sell, but living with mother-in-law until we move out kinda cancels out that loss as we would have normally been paying out about that or more in Council Tax, Rent etc etc...so not too bad.

 

The cheeky sod did expect us to move out just 1 week after missives were signed...we told her she could take a long walk off a short pier...she also asked if she'd get the lawn mower and all the garden furniture etc...again, having got the place on the cheap...we told her not to push her luck.

 

But it all worked out well in the end...after we sold we found out about 10days later that we got our visa...couldn't have asked for better timing really.

 

roll on the 27th October.....just 87 days away (not that I am counting )

[Guest mayjess]

Well here I go again (like you Gill) 2nd time selling, house just been valued, so going to put it on the market soon as that HIP check is booked & done, I will soon see the difference to selling this house to my last one (that went in 2 mths),I`m praying this sells easily and hope not to get some rediculous offers, I will leave some furniture if necessary, as these can be replaced if needed, but no way am I leaving any LCD tv`s!!!

 

Mayjess

[Guest WoodMartin]

I think we must have been REALLY lucky! :v_SPIN:

Sold our house for £5k under asking price (but still higher than estate agent thought was a reasonable price) to the second set of viewers after being on the market for nine days.

 

We were also lucky the buyers were happy to wait until September (This was in April) which suited our leaving plans perfectly.

 

Good luck to all those waiting for the right people to walk through the door.

[Guest mayjess]

I think we must have been REALLY lucky! :v_SPIN:

Sold our house for £5k under asking price (but still higher than estate agent thought was a reasonable price) to the second set of viewers after being on the market for nine days.

 

We were also lucky the buyers were happy to wait until September (This was in April) which suited our leaving plans perfectly.

 

Good luck to all those waiting for the right people to walk through the door.

 

this is promising, as our estate agent looked at hubby quite strange when he said a price it should go on market for! we need to go with our gut instinct even though they have the experience, thanks for the positive post

 

Mayjess

[Guest cunnah10]

well here i go again (like you gill) 2nd time selling, house just been valued, so going to put it on the market soon as that hip check is booked & done, i will soon see the difference to selling this house to my last one (that went in 2 mths),i`m praying this sells easily and hope not to get some rediculous offers, i will leave some furniture if necessary, as these can be replaced if needed, but no way am i leaving any lcd tv`s!!!

 

Mayjess

good luck hunny xx

[Guest Obedoh]

We sold ours to second viewers after about 2 weeks after changing agents. First one useless. Got the same price we paid for it a year ago. Agents told us we were expecting too much but we stuck it out. First viewers wanted the house for 30k less than we were asking. Thought we were mad to turn them down as they said it was a realistic price in the present market. I think not!! We set a price at the beginning that we would not go below and stuck to it. luckily this paid off. A year ago when we moved there were no other houses for sale. When we put ours up there was about 8 to compete with, most of these now been sold, so things are picking up but depends on where you live I suppose. We told our agents we were moving to Oz but not to tell any prospective buyers as we didn't want people to think we were desperate to sell.

 

Good luck to all those who are trying to sell at the minute.

 

Jackie

[Anne B]

Would you believe it - 2 days after starting this post we got an offer on our house which we have accepted !!!!!!!!!!!!.

 

Maybe posting on PIA changed our luck!! It's not the full asking price, but it means we will hopeful be there before the year is out. I don't think my husband could take another British winter!!

 

Fingers crossed it doesn't all go pear shaped. Good luck to everone else trying to sell.

[Guest cunnah10]

Would you believe it - 2 days after starting this post we got an offer on our house which we have accepted !!!!!!!!!!!!.

 

Maybe posting on PIA changed our luck!! It's not the full asking price, but it means we will hopeful be there before the year is out. I don't think my husband could take another British winter!!

 

Fingers crossed it doesn't all go pear shaped. Good luck to everone else trying to sell.

fantastic.....good luck x

[Guest BAZnDAF]

Yeah, Good luck Anne B

 

Barry

[mydearboy]

Good Luck Hope it goes through ok!!

 

I am just about to put mine on sale too

[Guest WoodMartin]

Great news! HOpe it all goes smoothly - before you know it you will be in Adelaide...

[Ranger]

Buyers want the lowest price sellers want the highest price, at the end of the day the buyer holds the best hand in a declining market, when the market is going up it’s the other way round. If you ‘re selling and stick your feet in in a declining market don’t blame the buyer, if you’re buying in an increasing market don’t blame the seller, at some point we’ve all been on both sides whether is buying or selling a car or haggling over something at a car boot sale. We included fridge freezer, dishwasher, washing machine, tumble drier, beds and all other kitchen appliances toaster, kettle etc

[Anne B]

Thanks to everyone for their good wishes. It is only just sinking in... we have so much to do.

 

The board outside our house says 'SOLD (stc)' now, looks good!!!!