Allie73

In October, it will be 2 years since my husband got his spouse visa. He landed and came back. Our house has been for sale for 18 months. After three agents, over 100 viewings and two buyers backing out, we're fairly fed up. Having your house for sale when you've got 3 little kids is a special kind of hell. We've been told too many renter horror stories to consider renting it out. Is anyone else stuck because their house won't sell? Has anyone given up their plan to move because their house won't sell?

Howefamily

that sounds like misery to me. I dont know what you financial situation is but if it was a choice between dropping the price to where it will more likely sell or hanging onto it and giving up my moving plans, I would drop the price.

BUT it depends on so much (naturally)
Good luck

alidew

Oh no that's a major worry for me too - we are at the very beginning of the process however houses in our village are not selling at all. I hope you get a buyer soon x

Allie73

We have dropped the price. Twice! And then accepted an offer lower than that. We can't drop it anymore. We've actually just taken it off the market for the summer. It's just too difficult with the kids home from school all day. They spent last summer with the house for sale which meant no messes, not many outings etc. We're going to to a bit more work on the house (although all the agents we've spoken to advised against it) and relist in a few weeks.

jericho

If your house isnt selling, its because it's priced too high. Simple as.

I'd also get a different estate agents. 100 viewings is ridiculous. They should only be letting people view the property who are in a position to buy.

Howefamily

I understand that you cant drop it anymore but what happens if you dont and you dont sell. Are you willing to stay and give up your plans? I cant see any other option unless you do choose to rent it out

shunter1977

I feel for you our house sale took longer than we thought it would although no where near 18 months. We went on the market end of January and only had in total 4 viewings, it was incredibly worrying. Fortunately we are now a week from exchange and ended up with no chain buyers.

We did have to drop the price by a total of £15K though.

Good luck x x

cheeky_monkey

ever considered renting the house in the interim until it sells?

Tangram

Took us nearly 8 months back in 2007, just as the market started to dip to secure a buyer and complete. I feel your pain.

PAT M

I feel for you, our house here in Puglia has been on the market for two years! Only two unacceptable offers, (the first half-hearted and not a serious one, the second wanted to buy the house on installments!), less than a dozen viewings. We are painting the house inside and out, have created a pleasant garden from the vegetable patch and generally doing our best to make it a good value, ready to move into property when we put it into the hands of a third estate agent soon. The previous two were hopeless. We are going to ask the estate agent to value it realistically and be prepared to drop the price. We are in our 60s/70s so really need to get on with our plans to return to the UK. I know what you mean by that special hell of living in a for sale property, we have overheard viewers say they can only afford "x" amount, so why do estate agents waste our time by bringing them along. Good luck, I have read many comments from the forum saying that every house sells, it's just a question of price, but there are also other factors, the economic crisis being one, it's hard to get a mortgage here and property isn't shifting because there are no cash buyers.

Siouxie

Have you considered selling it yourself rather than going through yet another agent? You could then reduce the price taking into account the amount of estate agent fee's you would save. You could also 'vet' the people prior to showing the house.

When I sold my first house it was on the market for 2 years - like you I had over 100 viewings and 2 failed sales (one pulled out 3 days before exchange). I swear the etate agents were just going through the motions after the first 3 months.

In the end I sold it myself (privately) to the first person who viewed it... partly because I had a vested interest in selling it, knew all about it and the area and was able to answer all questions.

My second house was listed with an estate agent, I did a 'mystery shop' whilst my rep was out of the office, enquired as to if they had any 4 bedroom houses in the specific area and they said no. I went ballistic and cancelled my contract with them.


http://www.mypropertyforsale.co.uk/
http://www.houseladder.co.uk
http://www.houseweb.co.uk

Aviator

My house took a while to sell, moved here anyway and left it with the agent to handle. Eventually it sold, I took much less than originally wanted, but it let me move on and put that chapter behind me. It seems like a blip in time now, the extra 10% or so price cut a drop in the bucket (although it did not seem like it at the time). That was nearly 20 years ago.

Geordie Lass

We put our house on the market when there was a chance of us getting our TWP but we couldn't sell it. We dropped the price quite significantly but it still didn't sell (brand new estate and several for sale at the same time and none sold - still haven't as I keep my eye on rightmove).

We rented it out. I went to 3 agencies - only 1 I trusted to rent it out for me. They are great.

Not the situation I wanted but certainly wasn't prepared to let a house stop us moving to Canada! Tough choice and stressful - yes - but worth it...

ExKiwilass

+1

el_richo

I know more people who are unhappy they can't sell their house than people who are unhappy with renters.

Rent it for 12 months. Make sure you meet the renters before agreeing though. Go through an agency for peace of mind.

Either that or lower your price more to sell.

Or

Stay where you are for a while.

Luckily the PR status will not run out and you don't have to meet the 2 out of 5 years stipulation so your deadline is a personal one, not process driven.