House on market and I'm a bit lost

Mosaic you mentioned "pets" in your original post, but you don't say what they are, or how many, etc. Is it possible that there are off-putting "pet smells" or "pet presence"? This can be a real deterrent when trying to sell a house. Just asking!

It's ALWAYS the price. Think about it - if your house was for sale at £10,000 you'd have them queuing round the block. Find the right price and you'll sell it. Some people don't like making offers so tell your EA that you are open to sensible offers and ask him/her to encourage people to make one. Also, as said previously, ask for people's comments. We couldn't sell a house once, couldn't understand why, asked the EA who told us it was because the dining room was being used as an office. People have little imagination. We bought a cheap dining table and chairs and immediately sold the house.

I agree with David1968. Pet smells can be off-putting and you have probably become used to them and don't notice.
You have no idea whether the viewers are pet lovers or not so it's best to assume not.
Don't mask the smells with spray as that will make it worse and insist that the agent gives you feedback from every viewing. Honest feedback is essential. Sparkling windows and the smell of freshly brewed coffee or baking bread are known aids to selling.
It's usually the woman you have to appeal to.
Good luck.

I have bought and sold 13 times, although admittedly not in the last decade, and I do think that the property TV programmes such as Escape to the Country and Location, Location, have made people far more choosy.

However, I used to air out the house and then put a couple of drops of vanilla essence in an ovenproof dish of hot water and leave in the oven on a low heat - lovely smell of cake-baking throughout the house, not too intrusive, but sold it every time!

Just a thought ....

My house has been on the market since Christmas, it’s a lovely place in a very desirable location and yet I ve only had one viewing. I ve just today written to get it taken off the market and have decided instead to do it up as I don t think anything will change until after Brexit, it’s putting people off buying and selling

I had my house on the market last year and I was so traumatised I cannot get over it. I have a large detached house(2,000sqft) set back from the other houses at the end of a cul-de-sac with no traffic and a clear view of the field hedge opposite the kitchen window (other houses have houses opposite them). I have the sun all day and from the upstairs window a view over fields. I know know just how they treat widows when it comes to getting their mitts on a house without paying the value. I checked online the names they gave me of viewers and each one had something to do with property management, and some of them did not have the money to buy it anyway. I got a valuation from the agent of £575K - £625K Within a month someone offered £450K. I refused. The agent I signed the contract with left the agency and a new chap came along who I had never met, who had never seen the property. He also had a property management company on the side. When I refused this agent shouted at me, telling me I was deluding myself into thinking the property was more than it was. I had to ask him to leave. I looked him up in companies house and discovered he just got a mortgage on property to prop up his new company and had money problems. I am very wary now. I think it is shocking. When the contract ended someone vandalised the property at the back. The only access was over my extension flat roof from the house next door. I cannot get anything done about that unless I have CCTV.

I left out the bit where the first agent agreed to put the house up for sale at £550,000 for a quick sale. A few weeks later the new chap was telling me it was only worth £450,000.

Any house will sell but at the right price, yours may be too high.
After 7 months I would be looking to move agents.
Winter is not a good time to sell, the season is now SO.
Your home should be absolutely spotless, tidy and uncluttered inside and out.
If you have too much furniture move some pieces out untill you sell, make your home look as spaces as possible.
The rubbish in the garden needs getting rid of buy in annuals for the garden and hanging baskets and show a lovely frontage as people come to the house.
Your ageny needs to tell you the truth about why it didn't sell.
It will sell but you may have to reduce the selling price.
Best of luck

Thank you for all your suggestions, it's been very helpful.

I have dropped the price by 10% and am hopeful I might attract a buyer this summer. I am scared of being here for another winter alone, I find it so hard bringing the wood up the 18 steps and my knee is definitely getting worse.

It's a large house and garden and I feel quite exhausted by this hamster wheel of cleaning/clearing I don't have any friends or family to help, it is just me.

I'm going to start planning some nice things to do for me, as a reward after I've done a horrible job!

Have a great weekend!

mosaic Be extra nice and kind to yourself.

Moving house is 3rd on the list of the most stressful things we do in life, after bereavement and divorce. Take care.

mosaic good about the rewards, it turns something very very stressful into something a bit better. Oh my dear, I am thinking about you, its one hell of a horrible journey, bad enough with two.

Sorry haven't read them all so will simply give you my opinion as someone who has moved many times.

1 Look on Rightmove at houses in your price range and see how they compare, try looking at them as if you were a buyer not a seller.

2 If you are in the London area house prices are still dropping so you may need to be realistic about price.

3 I think the people we bought our house from probably put some of their furniture into store before putting the house on the market, it was quite minimalist. I think you should do that with your boxes unless you have room to stack them tidily in a garage. Possibly some furniture too.

4 Make the house pet free before viewings, pets put people off.

5 I think houses which are perfect with all the latest trends sell for more than they are worth and houses which need complete modernisation and are priced accordingly also sell quickly. Its the ones in the middle that don't sell so well.

6 Try to find an agent who will be straightforward and tell you what is good and what not so good about your house. Ask them not to be tactful. Ask them what price you can get, not what price you should put it on at.

7 If you change agents it might be a good idea to take it off the market for a couple of weeks and then put it on again as a new to the market property.

8 If you are in a position to move out quickly ensure that 'no onward chain' features highly on Rightmove.

Good luck

Trying to sell our house at the moment so we can downsize. There are so many properties on the market at the moment, we have a buyer but they can't sell their property so we are sitting in limbo. It seems to be a buyers market they seem to have so many to chose from. Good photos are a must, don't swop estate agents unless they are completely useless, if someone is looking for a house they will probably go on Rightmove or On The Market, and they won't care who is selling it. The worse thing is keeping tidy much of the time, I think getting the estate agent to do the viewings is the best way, I get very defensive of my home (not that I have had any negatives) but it is a very trying time. Hope all goes well.

Mosaic I'm sorry to hear about fears for the winter, including being alone. I hope a buyer comes along soon. It makes me glad I'm now a manageable tiny house, with a postage size garden. I am glad you are being kind to yourself.

Hi, we have sold our house, no problems so far, we should be exchanging contracts in about 3 weeks.The house we are buying, we loved straight away, only small, but not much work to do with a lovely garden, we offered the full asking price, as there had been lots of interest, and they had already had two offers .We've been messed about by our surveyor, and it's taken 3 weeks to get our report back, only to find the house has been undervalued by 10% .Were so dissapointed, but don't want to pay the full asking price now, in case we need to move again in a few years.I'm going to ring them tonight, what do you suggest I say, not looking forward to this at all.

Hope your call went well Katyj, sorry I've only just seen your post.

We loved this house and took our surveyor's report as worst case scenario, I seem to remember our mortgage company retained money because of some works. Luckily we had enough savings to meet our mortgage commitment and continued with our purchase. Surveys nowadays are brutal, they have to cover all eventualities. How serious is the problem? Have you looked at Zoopla to see how your new house price compares with others in the road?

Let us know what happens

Surveyors are always conservative. Unless they have uncovered a serious problem I would take it with a pinch of salt. When I worked as an estate agent surveyors would call in the office to ask us what we thought a particular house was worth. They would then knock a bit off the price and present that as the value.

Personally we have had several house purchases downvalued over the years. When we have come to sell them it has made no difference at all to the price we have achieved.

The EA did a viewing for me yesterday morning and I took myself off with my dog for a nice lunch. I arrived home just as they were leaving and they said it had been a very positive viewing.

They emailed me late on yesterday to ask if I could do one this morning as they are fully booked. They told me it was a cash buyer.

I tried to prepare a 'script' whilst I was walking my dog on the beach but when they arrived my nerves got the better of me yet again. Very pleasant couple, didn't say much, just asked how much the oil the aga used and how much to fill the 2000 litre oil tank. Looking at his truck and his muscles, I wonder if he is in the building trade.

I think I need to find some big girl pants to keep going, I'm finding it such a strain. Normal life is just on hold.

Know how you feel Mosaic We've put an offer in over the surveyors valuation, just waiting for them to come back to us.Hope you get an offer on yours.

Just lost our buyer, they hadn't sold their property so have now decided not to move. Aaaaaaah! We have to decide whether to carry on or just give it up, still want to downsize but if we can't sell we won't be going anywhere!!! Hey ho what will be will be. anyone want a 4 bed in Essex ??

Oh no Avor2, how awful for you, I am sorry. If you can, do go back on the market and fulfil your wish of downsizing, you've done all the hard work decluttering/rejigging everything for viewings. Had you found somewhere you liked?

The house my friends sold 2 years ago almost the minute it went on the market is up for sale again. Apparently the people who bought it split up. It's exactly the same and almost the same asking price but has had its for sale sign up for months.
It's mostly luck.
You only need one buyer. I hope you find eachother soon.

That's sad Grammaretto. My Mum sold her IOW bungalow to a lovely couple, the gentleman died the day after they moved in. I didn't get involved in any of my Mum's selling, she shouldered it all bravely as I was so far away and working full time with two toddlers. I wish I'd at least phoned her more often to be encouraging. She became housebound in the end and moved in with my brother and his wife, paying half for a three storey house - she had two rooms downstairs, but they asked her to pay half of the bills. Needless to say when she died, I no longer kept in touch with him due to the way he and his wife mistreated her. We are all so wise in hindsight.

Aww Avor that's so dissapointing for you, besides being a real pain and maybe expensive, depending how far down the line you've gone. The whole house buying and selling is a fiasco ! Do you feel like carrying on, trying to sell yours again, you never know it might happen quickly.We've had a stressful week, with the house were buying.Finally agreed to buy at a slightly reduced price, so think we're sorted for now.Solicitor said yesterday it should be no more than two to three weeks to completion now.Fingers crossed.

Ours was on the market for 4 months at a price that the EA felt was fair. We too had lots of viewings with good feedback but there was always a but. It was in the wrong place, too big, too small.....you get my drift.
We dropped the price by 5% and in a week had two firm offers.
It might seem overly simplistic but it is all about the price. Once we had dropped the price if magically attracted a slightly different demographic and we instantly found potential buyers who were almost willing to arm wrestle each other. They were both very firm about the upper price they would pay however and our overall price drop was 7%. We accepted it as our property was very much a one off and even the most experienced EA will only be giving you a rough figure. A house can really vary in 'value' depending on so much. Half a mile down a road, shape and orientation of garden, how many windows in a main room....all small subtle variations but they do matter. You need to have serious words with your EA or perhaps even consider ending the contract and finding another.