Trying to sell our house for 7 months

This is the kind of annoying thing my father always says to me, but if you sell your house for 1£, you'll have loads of offers.

We sold our house for about $30,000 less than we thought it was worth, but we sold it in 4 weeks. We watched the house next door take 1 year to sell and watched them lower their price $70,000. They ended up having to do a short sale, and had two mortgages for an entire year. We may not have made that $30,000, but we got it sold and are now unencumbered by it so that we can move to England.

Selling a house was totally nerve wracking so I hope yours sells soon.

Good luck!

-Brian

PS> I have NO knowledge of UK mortgages. Vicky posted while I was typing and she's probably right that price isn't everything. Got have the right buyers.

Our place in the US has been on the market 10 months without a single offer now. We're at $50k less than we started at, and the interest is minimal. Lots of folks early on that really wanted to buy it, but not one of them could qualify for a mortgage. It's not even that expensive, by Metro DC standards.

We're about to rent it out and take it off the market for a year, because I'm just too demoralized by the continual mortgage payments on an empty house.

However, this also means that there are lots of attractive rentals coming on the market in the UK. Our landlord is terrified that we'll leave, so he's agreed to let us have a dog.

Always a silver lining somewhere.....

Prices are still falling here.  Our asking price has now been reduced so the house is one of the cheapest in the area.  Still no takers. 

Renting the house out is not an option for financial reasons.

We sold our flat for 15% less than it went on originally.  We have put in an offer of about 18% less than what it was on originally (had gone down twice before we put in an offer).  There aren't many buyers and mortgages are hard to come by...if you want to sell a house you have to price it way less than the comps from last year...things are going for about 10% less than what they were last year even in good parts of London!

Wow where do you guys live?

I put mine on the market in Oklahoma and it sold within a month and for the full asking price.

Sorry you guys had problems. 

Baltimore. My realtor hasn't sold a thing in 3 months, and she's no slouch at this business. Lots of lookers and interested parties, but no one is following through. Every other realtor I know there is saying the same thing. Someone's gotta be buying houses, but not in Baltimore....

My MIL house has been for sale for 3 years but she lives in Cumbria and who wants to live where there is no work.

Our home here in the states has been for sale for 2 years this past April. We lowered it by $20,000 and now have it for less than its worth and changed our estate agent 6 times and still no interest. The dang market is so bad here. Trouble for us is we cannot file for our visas until we have a sale as we cannot afford to have a mortgage in the UK and US.

Hang in there, it will sell.

haven't read the whole thread yet but can you rent it out?

I feel badly for people who bought at the height of the market (i'm not inferring this applies to anyone who has posted in this thread because i obviously am not privy to that info... he thread in general just made me think about this). I don't see the current drop in prices as a housing market crisis... to me it seems like a housing market correction. If people were having to mortgage themselves in over their head to afford houses something was wrong there. (Of course that may only have been in London... not sure... don't own but have looked at lots of property info) Now the mortgage companies are losing out because people are defaulting and I guess they realized they caused their own problem by allowing those crazy income/debt (or is that vice versa?) ratio mortgages in the first place so they're cracking down.

We're moving back to the US and have just talked to a mortgage guy last night. Its harder to get mortgages there as well. We're basically first time buyers again since we haven't had a property for over 3 years... extremely good credit scores, great salaries, small deposit and we may still have a problem getting a mortgage for the amount we need until we get our deposit up. We were hoping for an 80/15/5% deposit (like we did on our first house -- nice because it avoids PMI) but right now most require 10% deposit. I know that's not alot for alot of people but if you don't have equity in another property at your disposal it really is (especially if you're talking about UK properties!).

I really feel for you guys having to sell right now I hope things pick up for you. The one thing to remember has already been said. It doesn't take a great market... just takes the one right buyer for your property. Keep your chin up... You're in our thoughts! We'll send good selling vibes your way.

Well, today's silver lining is that two other properties in our neighbourhood went on the market, both for more than ours is listed for. So we look like a bargain now....

California's market is horrible. I won't sell my house in this market. I'd really like to buy another one though. There are auctions everywhere currently. A condo up the street from my house started for $85,000 This is the Bay Area too. It's unbelievable. I'm just glad that I bought my house before prices went through the roof. I know of 2 families who bought during the height of the market and one has already foreclosed. I thought it was crazy at the time as this couple's mortgage was over $4000 a month . There are new housing developments offering all kinds of deals. It's really such a different market than even 2 years ago.

I posted a new housing development that is going up near my area and it's so bizarre to see the gimmicks they try to get anyone in to buy a home. This development is really nice, but their prices have gone down by half just since they started building. I'm actually waiting to see how low they go.

http://homesatportofino.com/index.php?utm_source=google&utm_medium=search

Well, today's silver lining is that two other properties in our neighbourhood went on the market, both for more than ours is listed for. So we look like a bargain now....

Same here.  We are hoping for a buyer now.

We live in East Northamptonshire

Finally got an offer!!!

Finally got an offer!!!

HURRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats! Hope its close to what you're looking for.

Still pouring $$$ into our black hole in Baltimore. We're $50k below our original price, get lots of viewings, and not a single offer. Or even a question, for that matter.

We're trying to rent it out now, but of course the county has just enacted laws requiring us to have a license to do that, which is costing another $1k in inspections and modifications....