Unreasonable worrying about home selling

[andrewducker]

We're on a deadline. Not a _specific_ deadline, but we've basically said "We're buying your house, as soon as our flat sells." And nobody expects it to happen in the first week, but they do expect it to happen in a reasonable amount of time.

I say "Nobody expected it to happen in the first week", but 5 people saw it last weekend and four of them were positive about it. One of them was really really positive about it. To the point of asking whether we were up for them making an offer (to which I said "of course").

And yet there have been no offers. And no notes of interest. And while I didn't expect it to sell instantly, I now have no idea what to expect. Because if people can be that visibly excited while looking at the flat, and not actually decide they want it, then I have no idea how excited someone actually needs to be to go for it.

I don't think we've priced it out of the market. It looks reasonably similar to others in its price bracket. I think we're just going to have to wait for things to happen.

But I do wish it didn't lead to me waking up at 6am stressing about it.

Comments

[miss_s_b]

House moving is so awful

[doug]

All the best. This stuff doesn't top the list of stressors for nothing. Fingers crossed.

[myka]

argh! I hope it goes smoothly!!!

[drplokta]

It’s not a matter of how visibly excited they are. In fact, the excited ones will probably disappear without a trace, and someone you’d written of as indifferent will end up making an offer.

[franklanguage]

This. Also, are you able to retain ownership and sublease it?

Don't know how it works in your country, but I work for several clients—some wealthy—and was surprised to find that even the wealthy ones don't always own their homes, they rent.

[andrewducker]

I really don't fancy dealing with the stress of renting out the flat.

[franklanguage]

That's what brokers are for.

[andrewducker]

Thank you. This helped significantly.

[malobukov]

If I'm excited about a house, I try not to show my excitement to the seller, as it undermines my ability to negotiate price.

[andrewducker]

That makes sense.

I do wonder what was happening with the people who seemed so excited that they asked me if I'd accept an offer!

[aldabra]

I'm looking for a house at the moment (landlord has died), and I've done that on a couple of houses which I've had second thoughts about later. One was a very nice building with lousy air quality and the other was clearly a short term let by shysters but I didn't work that out until I looked up the planning permission.

By introspection, what I'm doing is starting looking, or nudging up a price bracket, and finding a house which doesn't have the problem the previous houses have had, and being delighted that such a house exists, and then realising that it's the first one I've looked at that's that expensive, or that far out, or that inconvenient in some other way, and so the ones I'm comparing it to aren't in fact comparable. There's one I saw last week which might work if the landlord let us move his washing machine into the outside loo, but it's in an inconvenient suburb and if I'm going to compromise on the suburb it'd be worth looking to see if there's anything else there where I wouldn't have to do that. (Also it's the same agency as the shysters and so I don't trust them any more.)

And, there's just me. You might get a couple where one of them thinks this is obviously The Flat and the other vetoes it. They might not have that conversation in public.

[andrewducker]

Cheers, that's useful!

[naath]

It is stress, good luck. I'm an unreasonably exciteable person and will squee over the good bits at the time and only see the downsides on later thought, or later see something much more squee. Hope you get offers soon.

[porridgebird]

It's not unreasonable at all!

HOWEVER... a year from now, or maybe six months, or maybe next week, you're going to be saying "Wow, that sucked" and laughing about it, and loving your new digs. Hold on to that thought! But it sure would be nice sometimes if life had a fast-forward button.

[mountainkiss]

Speaking from the other side of the fence (as purchaser): recalling from my experience, it seems to me that your agent should be playing of substantive role in this. When I looked at properties that I didn’t want to buy, I still heard from the agent within about 24 hours, to ask about my interest so that they could keep the vendor posted on the state of the market. When I was interested, I was the person who got in touch directly with the seller, through the agent. The agent was very obviously acting on the sellers’ behalf. He or she would gauge my interest, but make it very clear that an offer was going to be accepted only if I were the sole person who had an interest; in any other circumstance, there would be a sealed bid process. If I recall correctly (by no means certain), I was told that I should expect the time gap between the viewing and a sealed bid process to be around 2 to 2 1/2 weeks. In all cases, the agent was highly active and engaged on behalf of pursuing the best outcome for the seller.

[andrewducker]

That makes sense.

The issue we hit last week was it only going on the market on Friday, and me not having the sheet for capturing interest on until this week. Largely my fault. I asked a couple of them, but it would have been better if I'd managed to print one off myself.

This week I have one sitting out and have captured the details for 5 people so far. (First 40 minutes were non-stop, next 40 minutes have been dead, will keep fingers crossed for another surge in the last 40 minutes).

[altamira16]

What does it look like now, and what do you expect houses to look like where you live when you look at them?

For example, in the US, it is this weird balancing act. The house has to be empty enough to look spacious but not so empty that people cannot imagine their stuff being there. If the balance is not just right, people do not make offers.

[ninetydegrees]

In addition to everything everybody's said, this is a huge decision for any buyer, especially if it's your first purchase. Maybe they don't want to jump the gun and would rather see other places before making an offer. Also there might things to be squared away with the bank, whomever may be lending them some money, logistics to think about,... My parents sold our childhood house within two weeks but it took several visits from the family who wanted to buy it and some time to think from both parties before they made an offer. And the family had loved it at first sight.

[movingfinger]

If comparable flats in your market are in fact getting offers and selling within a week, that seems like a hot market! How long are similar places being listed before going under contract? Knowing that can help you manage your expectations and, if necessary, adjust your staging and marketing.

[danieldwilliam]

I don't have huge experience of buying and selling flats but my observation is that these things tend to move very quickly when they move and to appear not to be moving at all when they aren't moving.

You only need one purchaser at an acceptable price.

But it can be stressful.

MLW is a keen follower of the Edinburgh property market.