Selling 2016

Baybay

There have been such good threads on here for people buying, renting etc & the concerns or issues they've gone through.

For the first time in 20 years, I hope to be both a buyer & seller this year.
But first a seller.

After talking during most of January about plans for the future of our family, we decided that selling the family home, downsizing & having a little bit of a nest egg might not be a bad thing.
Choosing an agent was surprisingly difficult as our house falls a little outside the usual & pricing structures varied widely as a result. I should say that our house is a very normal property, it's just a little different for the area.
Anyway, after much decluttering, exterior painting & a good after-winter garden tidy up, pictures have been taken & our house is now officially on the market.
All the work done to date has made us realise over again why we loved our house in the first place! And we still do. Here's hoping someone else will too.

Anybody else just gone on the market?

WicklowTiger

Baybay wrote: »

Anybody else just gone on the market?

Hope you get on better than we have. We moved out of our house within the commuter belt to a different county in 2012. Unable to sell at the time so let the house (standard 3 bed semi). 3 years later decided to sell, put the property on the market in October 2015. A handful of viewings, one or two offers that were not serious. Rang the agent this morning to take it off the market and let it again - don't want to do this as even with rents rising the income will be somewhere around 75% of cost. Anyway he has a viewing booked for this afternoon so the last throw of the dice for us.

I can't understand what is going on. If there was something even perceived wrong with the property then fair enough, but it's not even getting viewings. Don't think it is the listing - good photos etc. Low enough BER but the asking price does reflect that, and the house never cost us more than 600- 700 a year to heat.

Turkish1

WicklowTiger wrote: »

Baybay wrote: »

Anybody else just gone on the market?

Hope you get on better than we have. We moved out of our house within the commuter belt to a different county in 2012. Unable to sell at the time so let the house (standard 3 bed semi). 3 years later decided to sell, put the property on the market in October 2015. A handful of viewings, one or two offers that were not serious. Rang the agent this morning to take it off the market and let it again - don't want to do this as even with rents rising the income will be somewhere around 75% of cost. Anyway he has a viewing booked for this afternoon so the last throw of the dice for us.

I can't understand what is going on. If there was something even perceived wrong with the property then fair enough, but it's not even getting viewings. Don't think it is the listing - good photos etc. Low enough BER but the asking price does reflect that, and the house never cost us more than 600- 700 a year to heat.

Unfortunately for you it is likely that if you are not even getting viewings that the asking price is too high to entice people to view the house. And I say this as someone who has just bought - there were more than a few houses around the area we eventually bought that we did not even bother viewing due to the asking being too high even though we knew they would not achieve asking. Those houses are still sitting on the market and have been for quite some time.

WicklowTiger

Turkish1 wrote: »

Unfortunately for you it is likely that if you are not even getting viewings that the asking price is too high to entice people to view the house. And I say this as someone who has just bought - there were more than a few houses around the area we eventually bought that we did not even bother viewing due to the asking being too high even though we knew they would not achieve asking. Those houses are still sitting on the market and have been for quite some time.

Hmmm maybe but I don't think so. A few houses in the same area have sold over the past year or two so we have a good handle on where to pitch it. Agent thinks pricing is right too. Just seems to have been a very slow market October-March and where we are, not much of a pick up since. Doesn't make sense though I would have thought some of the demand from Dublin would have pushed out by now. Meanwhile rents are literally taking off.

Rew

WicklowTiger wrote: »

Hmmm maybe but I don't think so. A few houses in the same area have sold over the past year or two so we have a good handle on where to pitch it. Agent thinks pricing is right too. Just seems to have been a very slow market October-March and where we are, not much of a pick up since. Doesn't make sense though I would have thought some of the demand from Dublin would have pushed out by now. Meanwhile rents are literally taking off.

We sold this time last year since then similar houses have gotten €25-50k less. We rented a house that was for sale for a while after we sold. Agent told us it had been for sale for ages, a little after we moved in the vendor dropped his price ~50k, new ad, new photos, had one open viewing and sold the house for -40k original asking.

People have less access to credit and are being more judicious with their hard earned deposit cash IMHO.

Baybay

WicklowTiger wrote: »

Anyway he has a viewing booked for this afternoon so the last throw of the dice for us.

This was with a potential purchaser I take it. How did it go?

WicklowTiger

Baybay wrote: »

This was with a potential purchaser I take it. How did it go?

Went well, should hear back shortly from them, fingers crossed.

WicklowTiger

Baybay wrote: »

This was with a potential purchaser I take it. How did it go?

So no go, taking it off the market now and letting it. Another couple of years of financial drain to come - how us unwilling landlords are screwed for tax is really frustrating. We will get less than 100 per month more than the mortgage payment in rent, and still end up with a tax bill of 3-4k per year out of it. Anyway....

Rew

No scope to drop the price?

Baybay

WicklowTiger wrote: »

So no go, taking it off the market now and letting it...

Sorry to hear that. Did they say why your house wasn't for them?

WicklowTiger

Rew wrote: »

No scope to drop the price?

Dropped twice from 240k to 230 then 220. We felt that was as far as we were prepared to go considering our starting price was comparable to recent sales and asking prices for similar properties.

WicklowTiger

Baybay wrote: »

Sorry to hear that. Did they say why your house wasn't for them?

Just preferred another house for whatever reason.

April 73

I think credit is a problem at the moment.
Work out how much it will cost you to hold the house for another year or two including potential repairs & tax. Regardless of similar selling prices & asking prices recently, the market is what it is today. Could you accept less to escape being a reluctant landlord?

WicklowTiger

April 73 wrote: »

I think credit is a problem at the moment.
Work out how much it will cost you to hold the house for another year or two including potential repairs & tax. Regardless of similar selling prices & asking prices recently, the market is what it is today. Could you accept less to escape being a reluctant landlord?

Very aware of what it is going to cost to let it for a year or two. Leaving it on the market without rental income for 6 months or so is about similar cost. Yes of course if we were to be guaranteed to sell if we reduced the asking price by the same amount it would be a no brainer. But given recent months experience it seems very unlikely

hairyslug

We have just come off the market, selling and buying and with the strict conditions the bank put on us for a neg. equity mortgage made things difficult buy with a good estate agent,mortgage advisor and solicitor it was made possible.

Don't lose hope at lack of viewings or crappy bids,we had someone offer 33% less than asking, and never count your chickens, we had 3 people pull out after booking deposits went down, one happened on the day contracts were meant to be exchanged

WicklowTiger

hairyslug wrote: »

We have just come off the market, selling and buying and with the strict conditions the bank put on us for a neg. equity mortgage made things difficult buy with a good estate agent,mortgage advisor and solicitor it was made possible.

Don't lose hope at lack of viewings or crappy bids,we had someone offer 33% less than asking, and never count your chickens, we had 3 people pull out after booking deposits went down, one happened on the day contracts were meant to be exchanged

Ah well too late for us. Too much uncertainty in it, when we know it will be let and generating some revenue within a couple of weeks. Better than the worry of an empty house that might sell one day. Will try again in a couple of years. It could be worse, at least (from our point of view) the rental market is strong. Wouldn't like to be a tenant now though.

House just on the market, went up on the internet on Tuesday, for sale sign up outside today.
There are open viewings tomorrow, Thursday and next Saturday, so fingers crossed!

I haven't seen anything I want to buy yet, so am willing to rent for a while. But it's near impossible to rent an unfurnished house that isn't marketed towards the corporate sector. Most unfurnished houses, in liveable areas, are astronomical money, thousands per month!
So, if anyone knows an unfurnished house in Dublin for rent, I'll hopefully be looking for somewhere soon.

Baybay

hairyslug wrote: »

Don't lose hope at lack of viewings or crappy bids,we had someone offer 33% less than asking, and never count your chickens, we had 3 people pull out after booking deposits went down, one happened on the day contracts were meant to be exchanged

Glad things worked out for you in the end.
How long did all of this take to unfold? Must have been stressful.

Baybay

bubblypop wrote: »

House just on the market, went up on the internet on Tuesday, for sale sign up outside today.
There are open viewings tomorrow, Thursday and next Saturday, so fingers crossed!

Good for you!
I'm interested to see how your open viewings go.
We decided against them, for the moment anyway but are having a bit of a rethink.

hairyslug

Baybay wrote: »

Glad things worked out for you in the end.
How long did all of this take to unfold? Must have been stressful.

We started dealing with the bank about 10 months ago, the advisor was great and offered a lot of great advice, it turns out will are buying in the same village he is in.

We got our 1St offer in October, the buyer wanted the sale to be completed in 4 weeks which was not possible. They pulled out.

2ND buyer came in, we had our heart set on a house (against the advise of the solicitor)which delayed things and eventually we had to pull out of that purchase and our buyers pulled out because of the delay.

3rd buyer was very positive, had plans to extend etc and seemed very positive, she pulled out on signing day, we are not quite sure why buy think it's due to a delay in the person buying her house.

We had a great estate agent, I think we got a good price for the house and she had a buyer nearly immediately after the previous one pulled out.

Our only delay now is the seller clearing his furniture.

greengirl31

I'm currently selling an apartment and a (inherited) house.

The apartment went sale agreed within 2 weeks for slightly above the asking price. The house is a different story. It's in good condition, a decent area and is priced slightly below similar properties in the area. Viewings have been slow though - much slower that with the apartment. Not sure if that's down to the type of property though or the different estate agents. Hoping to get some biters soon though

Baybay

Viewer asked to see our rear garden only & will make a decision on that whether or not to view the interior. Either they love what we've done to the inside, based on the photographs or they're going to tear everything out!

Rew

Baybay wrote: »

Viewer asked to see our rear garden only & will make a decision on that whether or not to view the interior. Either they love what we've done to the inside, based on the photographs or they're going to tear everything out!

Thats odd to go to that trouble and not see the house while they are at it, are the garden photos not great?

Baybay

Rew wrote: »

Thats odd to go to that trouble and not see the house while they are at it, are the garden photos not great?

I think the opposite might actually be the case, Rew & they want to see if it lives up to the photos.
The photographer was very good & if I do say so, the garden & it's aspect are gorgeous.
Still seems a little odd though.

Baybay

Baybay wrote: »

Good for you!
I'm interested to see how your open viewings go.
We decided against them, for the moment anyway but are having a bit of a rethink.

Had three open viewing in one week, over 30 odd parties through the house. Agent seems to think there are 3 interested parties, with one very interested.
Not sure why, but he thinks no one wants to bid first, don't know why that would be?

Michael D Not Higgins

bubblypop wrote: »

Had three open viewing in one week, over 30 odd parties through the house. Agent seems to think there are 3 interested parties, with one very interested.
Not sure why, but he thinks no one wants to bid first, don't know why that would be?

No one wants to show their hand. It's all in the strategy. People want to see what others think it's worth first before they consider their bid.

Alkers

Interesting that there is difficulty in selling, we are looking in dublin (<350k) and everything we're interested in is swamped with viewers and quickly goes well north of the asking price.

Rew

Its possible just hard. You need to line everything up in order to work and if the sale of your house falls though (many sale agreed's seem to fall through ATM) then you will likely have to pull out of the other sale. If everything gets to contracts you will have to be careful to minimise your risk, i.e. build the sale of your house going through into the contract for new house. Assuming you need the proceeds of one sale to buy the other you prob cant bid till your at least sale agreed on your own.

greengirl31

Simona1986 wrote: »

Interesting that there is difficulty in selling, we are looking in dublin (<350k) and everything we're interested in is swamped with viewers and quickly goes well north of the asking price.

Janey, i'm trying to sell in Dublin under €300K and not getting many viewers ... I think we're too expensive for the lower price bracket and not right for the more expensive bracket

Alkers

Where abouts? Pm the link!

Jen44

im thinking of putting my house in Drogheda on the market! Im hoping the new rules might push more people out to the commuter belt ! We currently have it rented just moved out and back to Dublin last year.