[Miffy]

[rant mode on]
Got the visa, and a job lined up for the husband.
The ONLY thing left is to sell the house. And that is just not happening. :(

To make matters worse we got an e-mail from Ians new employers asking us for a date when we are going to be out there and they are really pressuring it to be before or by Easter. We are now going to have to decide to:

a) Rent out our house and hope we can sell it later when we are settled the other side of the world. But that would mean no Equity to buy over there for a while.
b) go now and get one of our parents to oversee the selling of the house and somehow manage with the UK mortage repayments and NZ rent.
c) Ian to go on ahead and I stay at home until the sell is complete.
d) Drastically drop the price and hope for a quick sell
e) Hope the new employers are happy to wait for a couple of more months.

*sigh*
GOD its just so frustrating. I thought the hard part would be being offered the job / visa application but its the bloody UK housing market.

[rant over] thanks for listerning :-)


[/i]

[Paul and Linda]

Hi, It must be very frustrating, we are just finishing off the house prior to putting ours on the market.

Would it be possible to get a few other agencies in to value the house again to see what price they would market it at. Perhaps you could dangle the carrot that you are thinking about changing your estate agent.

Have you had anyone round to see the house? any feed back.

Are your agents helping out at all?

Paul and Linda

[Miffy]

We are already with two agents and they both know about each other.

We have explained our situation to them both but they have said the market is dead in our area at the moment but should begin to pick up. in the next few weeks, we only had one couple round so far. We are now thinking about upping the estate agent fees (ones on 1% and the other is on 1.3%) if they can get a sale in the next 2 weeks, might get them to work a bit harder on our behalf.

Both also do renting so we are going to look into that as well.

Its been for sale since mid-December so have been living a cluttered free life since then, we totally House Doctored the place and all the usual bits of 'tote' that you sourround yourself with is stored at my parents house, including excess clothes to give the 'elusion' that the fitted wardrobes are large and roomey. :laugh

[Karoline]

Hi, i know how frustrating it is...
Do you at least have people coming over to see the house?

In our case the 3rd viewer eventually bought the house...but at a very low price...they could not afford more and we really wanted to sell...
Including the real estate agents (i had 2...), the whole story costs me 7000 euro of my personal savings (+/-14 000 NZ dollars)!!! I got next to no savings left... :wah

But....
at least i know when i am going (1st of april) and i got rid of the house.
So, my suggestion...drop the price. It will at least attract more buyers.

I hope you have more luck than me, money wise...
At least i'm happy in love and will be able to join my Kiwi in NZ soon. :nice1

[kiwidollie]

Hope things happen for you soon Miffy :hopeso

Hubby and I have just spent the last week painting and decorating our house ready for it to go on the market. No job offer forthcoming yet so not too much pressure at the mo. However, our next door neighbours have just put their house on the market as well - turns out they're off to Australia!!!

Have to make our house more attractive than theirs (or we could just put a sign up outside ours saying "Not as Expensive as next door" :yes )!!

Good luck to you

[Miffy]

Have to make our house more attractive than theirs (or we could just put a sign up outside ours saying "Not as Expensive as next door" :yes )!!

Good luck to you

:laugh :laugh :laugh

I like it - Our neighbours house down the road is also for sale. Might put a note on their board ..." also see No. 72 better view less money"

[Paul and Linda]

Hi, what's the score with having 2 agents? Do you have to pay both of them or just the successful one?

[kiwidebs]

Whereabouts in London are you Miffy? Things still seem to be selling here in Bromley. A friend just around the corner has just put her house on the market so will be interesting to see how long before it sells. I'm hoping ours will sell quickly when we put it on in July!! Panic!!

:hopeso that the right buyer will be just around the corner!!

Debs

[Iain]

You can have as many agents as you like, but they will give you a discount for a sole agency. We paid 0.75% to ours who have been great. We moved from our first choice estate agent, and made it clear that we'd move again at the end of the contract period if they hadn't sold. Seemed to provide the necessary incentive ;)

Hopefully I haven't jinxed our sale (exchanging this week) by saying that! Our property has been on the market since July last year, and didn't get many viewings. We dropped the price by 10k (on a 145k house) and have been inundated - had an offer within 4 weeks of the price drop. The moral of the story is, be realistic on the value.

[Iain]

I'm hoping ours will sell quickly when we put it on in July!! Panic!!

:hopeso that the right buyer will be just around the corner!!

Debs

I don't know what the market is like where you live, but by all accounts the summer holiday period is fairly quiet. Might be worth trying to get in on the market at Easter....

[kiwidebs]

I know. Unfortunately (*sigh*), we're tied into a redemption penalty period thingy - and the £5000 or so it would cost us is a second car in NZ!! We're just hoping that someone will be around over summer and just looking to move early autumn. Hey, dreams are free!!

Debs

[Diny]

Ha !!! House won't sell ..... tell me about it.

We're getting the same story re: market is dead but should pick up soon. We've changed agents and got taken in by the 'sales speak' regarding "we'll get this place shifted for you in 4 weeks". It was in the paper last week and the ad has generated zero viewings.

Hubby goes away tomorrow to work for a month (oil rig) - when he gets back we're going to seriously reduce the price just to get things moving. Everything else is in place, got PR, got shippers booked, got most things packed away and got the constant comments being made along the lines of "I thought you were leaving" ....... gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

On one of our trips to NZ a few years ago we were trying to sell our house and so we left the responsibility with my folks while we were away (for 6 weeks). Although the property did sell while they were in charge they greeted us with 'never again' ...... so leaving it to them is not an option for us.

If I were you - and push comes to shove .... I'd send hubby off ahead and then follow once the house has sold. That may be easy fo me to say as we're use to having long periods away from each other - it may not be an option in reality for yourselves.

Hope everything goes OK for you ...... there's a few of us on this forum who are only being 'held back' by house sales. Keep us posted !!

By the way .... if anybody wants to see our house - here it is:

http://212.50.188.106/cgi-win/vebra.cgi?details1?src=vebra&PropertyCode=1142005/SOLWA/10537/5

Diny

[jesselyn]

hang in there, miffy! :angel

all the best,
jes

[Kim39]

Same old story for me as well i'm afraid. Job sorted,visa sorted, but b****y house ain't. Fortunately for me, future employer is prepared to wait and has since July 2004. Had email from him yesterday telling me not to worry. Thats what i would call understanding. Feel as if i owe the company a hell of alot for holding this long if not longer. Am just a mere HGV driver, but with a worldwide shortage it seem's they will wait forever.

Have thought about dropping price further, but this will only mean less to take with us and unfortunately thats not a viable option, so it has to be a waiting game. Must admit though starting to think of going to auction.

Anyway good luck to you...................you'll need it as much as we need it.

Kim

[jo b]

Diny

I've told you remove that big spider from the front doot and it'll be off your hands in a jiffy :laugh :laugh

Jo

[chrissie]

Hi Miffy

From my experience, I really wish we had kept our house in UK and rented it out until we had sorted things out here.

If I were you (and knowing now what I didn't know then) I would definitely not be in a rush to buy here. Take your time and rent somewhere here so that you can get a feel for where you want to be. The money you get from your UK rental should help pay for the rental here so you shouldn't be any worse off financially AND you have the cushion of knowing you have somewhere to go back to IF things don't work out here.

Hopefully, by the time you've decided what/where you want to be the housing market in UK will have improved and you can get your parents to help in the sale of it??

Just my opinion, speaking from our experience here.

[Danpoll]

Thats a little naughty of your hubbys employers it seems that most employers are compassionate and patient of immigrants to arrive. If you can afford to
it may be better to let him go out alone, i wish i could but no way could we afford to keep two properties running i know with my kiwi money would go nowhere in converting back to the uk. Least if your hubbys there he can establish a base and over the weeks build up the basics until you arrive. Then if you have kids then i doubt you would want to do a 24hr flight with them on your own.

all these variables to contend with.

Dan

[NW2NZ]

Hang on in there! My house has been on the market since last MAY :eek and I've been gradually reducing it. Finally, after reducing by a massive £35k, I've received two offers this weekend!!!!!!!!! I've accepted one but don't consider it sold until the deal's done. Lots can happen between then and now but it's great to get offers! Lesson is to be totally realistic and look towards the end goal, not the short cash return. Yes, it would be great to go with a cushion, but we've the rest of our lives to make up the shortfall.

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE :hopeso

[Diny]

Lesson is to be totally realistic and look towards the end goal, not the **** cash return. Yes, it would be great to go with a cushion, but we've the rest of our lives to make up the shortfall.


Sensible comment. We're raidly coming round to this way of thinking.

Diny

[wilson182]

Hey Diny, What a lovely house :nice1

We went down the route of renting the house in the uk, and although now we are getting impatient to have a house that is ours, I still think that at the time it was the right decision. I agree with the comment that it is better to rent first. There are so many lovely areas over here, it would be easy to buy a place and then find another area that you like even more. It was also our cusion incase things didnt work out, as the market in the UK is so expensive now we would not be able to get back on the ladder.

But, I also stayed in the UK while hubby was over here and that was very hard. We have made a decision that IF we ever do anything like this again we will stick together. (We have kids, so it was also very hard on them)

[Danpoll]

our moto is that if we come away with something least it will be ours and for once in our lives of being together we will not owe any man or company on this planet a penny. I cant wait for that feeling.


were all winners anyway we got the golden ticket who needs the prize of money.

Dan

[Diny]

Hey Wilson - you're right about leaving a cushion 'just in case' ....... we've got that covered, but we need to sell the house to be able to have some money to bring with us. All our money is tied up in bricks and mortar ...... not a huge amount of available cash without selling.

Abit of a catch 22 situation.

We'll stick it out a while longer then I think we're going to have to make some pretty major decisions.

Watch this space !!!!!!!!

Diny

[wilson182]

I'm hoping to think about putting our house on the market in about four/five months...so I'm relying on you guys to let me know what the market like. I hope desperatly that the market has picked up by then, cause I have to give the tennants notice, and dont want to be left trying to pay a UK mortage :eek

[foolsgold99]

From my experience, I really wish we had kept our house in UK and rented it out until we had sorted things out here.

When cortez landed in the new world he burned his ships, it gave his men a tremendous incentive to suceed.

[lisa]

Hi

Well what a lot of us there are in the same situation we aren't having any luck selling our house either, :( we've had 3 couples view but all of them time wasters. :wah Andy sets off for CHC on Friday for some interviews with agencies and i am really panicking now that he will be offered something (which I know is the idea!!) but then what will we do if we can't sell? We haven't really discussed the options in this case scenario yet but I really don't relish the idea of staying here with the 3 kids and having to sort it all out but I suppose if it comes to that then I would have to manage. I also don't know whether I fancy renting it out from that distance either though, do you have to allocate someone to represent you in your absence if there are any problems with the property or do the agents do all this if so does anyone know how much this all costs?

Lisa :P

[veronica]

We are in the same boat just up the road from you lisa, with the added insult that we had a buyer for 5 months (the chain collapsed 3 times) before it finally all went pear shaped end of last october. November and December were dead but January showed a bit interest and February a bit more. The spring is the best time to sell so it may pay you to put the house on the market now and stall a buyer if one comes along. even if you exchange you can set the completion date for the time that suits you.

[isv]

Hang in there. If I was you I would send hubby down to NZ pronto to get established and let him do all the hard work finding some place to live etc! Once I'd done that I think I would focus on the house and offload quickly.

Nationally the market hasn't really picked up. Perhaps it might during the Spring. But note that the stock of unsold houses is growing by the week and the problem compounded by it taking a *lot* longer for every house to sell. On average each agent has at least 50% more houses on their books than this time last year.

We've been waiting since last June to sell. Market died a couple of weeks before... Just not enough people around with the confidence to buy (cannot blame them). I figured if we could not find a buyer by May it might start to look a bit glum all round. With the Election on the way we also figured everything could grind to a halt whilst the focus is on that (tax rises too as Labour sure to win)...

Accepted offer £45k below asking the other day. Our buyers had to drop theirs by £50k which made me feel slightly better. Figured we'd made a healthy profit on the house anyway so why risk losing chance to get to NZ in expectation of a higher offer that might never materialize?

Chain in place. Solicitors underway. Fingers crossed.

If we're all lucky then any price drop we have to suffer over here will be compensated by benefiting from a similar drop already underway in NZ.

BTW - Another interesting article in NZ Herald today about Auckland houses at auction. I was pleasantly suprised by the number that didn't make their reserve prices...

Alan.

[Diny]

On the news tonight (Central news ITV1) it says that the housing market in his region has defied all reports of a continued slump. House prices had risen by 2% in the last quarter.

So maybe any thoughts of dropping the price may now be put on hold ???????????

PB and I have spoken about it again this evening. he's away tomorrow for just under 5 weeks, when he gets back, if there's been no significant movement, we'll chop the price.

Bugger it ....... it's time we were off !!!!!

We phoned in inlaws tonight (they're in Manawatu) - it was 8.30 am with them, mum in law said that it was a glorious morning, starting to warm up, bright blue sky and the forecast says it's going to be like that for a good while yet.

As we were talking to them, it was snowing here !!!!!!!!! Mind you, when we're having lovely weather here it's snowing in NZ ...... swings and roundabouts ................ I just want to move NOW !!!!!!!!

Diny

[isv]

On the news tonight (Central news ITV1) it says that the housing market in his region has defied all reports of a continued slump. House prices had risen by 2% in the last quarter.

So maybe any thoughts of dropping the price may now be put on hold ???????????


Diny,

I'm in the 'Central' TV region too. The reports/outlooks/analysis seem to be flying from all quarters right now. I also saw a report yesterday that claimed that asking prices were unrealistic - especially as some agents had been caught opportunistically putting prices up (by 2%) in expectation of interest in Spring.

I was in Worcester on the weekend and looked in the window of 'Andrew Grant' - the biggest agent in the town I think. It was hard to miss the new price labels stuck over the property details in the window... especially as with the sun out I could clearly see the old prices beneath...new prices anywhere between £5 and £50k *below* the old ones. Mind you not all properties had been reduced but I assumed that the new prices reflected the realisation of owners that the market was not going to meet initial expectations.

I'm not sure I would wait... as there will be plenty of new stuff coming on in Spring. All it will need is a few buy-to-let investors desperate to get out.

Which brings me to the story of a friend who sold his house about 18 months ago... and put all of the proceeds (£300k) in to deposits on about 20 properties dotted around the UK. They thought they would rent whilst waiting to make a killing... Mortgage rate increases have left him exposed and he stands to lose the lot (and more) - he doesn't sleep well at all and he certainly doesn't have the prospect of moving to NZ to look forward to either!

Alan.

[Han]

Hi All,

Just thought I'd contribute with our story. We were desperately trying to sell our flat about a year ago (so we could leave in Aug/Sep). It was just not happening.
We had tons of people come round to view, a few ridiculous offers but that was it. In the end, a lady came to view and was trying to convince me that the best thing for me to do would be to rent it out. I thought, nope - no way! I want to be rid of this place so we can pick up again the other end etc etc.

As it goes, we got to the point where it just wasn't going to shift and we had to go. Dropping the price, swapping agents...nothing would shift it. We decided to rent it out instead (I SO didn't want to!). As it goes, the lady came back and has rented it for the entire year and paid the entire years rent in advance!

Some of you may not know but my partner and I are heading back to London in a few weeks time. I am SO glad we kept the flat. Firstly because it does give us something to go back to and secondly, there's no way we would have survived up until now without that money!
There's something to be said for having a UK income while you find your feet, that pound still goes a long way here!

I didn't want the hassle if anything went wrong so we paid the agents their management fee of 10%. If anything goes wrong or there's a query, I just get an email from the agents asking for my approval. That's it, they deal with it!

This of course is only our story, but I never think it hurts to find out from everyone what they did and how it worked for them.

Whatever you decide...good luck!!
:nice1
Han

[Annierobrigado]

hi miffy

sorry about your house. you sound indeed desperate, if you were up at 2 am today. and the rest of the guys were up too?

renting out your house would seem a good option if i were in your shoes. but if you've got an offer, go ahead. but let hubby go ahead, he got work already, he might be able to settle things down for you in nz. unless his employer is willing to wait?

whatever you do, good luck, and hope everything turns out okay.

:cheers
annie

[sarahw]

Hi Miffy,

Can relate to your situation - we had a definite starting date for us to be out here & luckily we had a bit of savings that meant we had enough to set up over here & to keep our house on at home for a while. I know that most people don't have that luxury.

We came out here in January - our house has been on the market since November! Not a sniff of an offer. We also have ours on with 2 agents & are getting the same response as you from our agents. We have a lovely house (which really upset me to think about selling it as it was my dream home) back home but now all we want to do is sell & get that money in the bank ready for when we decide to buy here.

I think we've all been so used to a great housing market over the last few years - especially around the London area, that we've taken it for granted that all we've got to do is sell the house - simple! But its not the case at the moment. My brother tried to sell his house before Christmas - he had 6 offers but each time something happened and the buyer pulled out within the first few days!!!

I myself was awake most of last night thinking about the house & why it is not selling and panicking as one does at 2am when you wake up & have irrational thoughts! All I can say is fingers crossed for everyone out there who is trying to sell at the moment :hopeso Even when you've got an offer it can take a long time for everything to go through so my advice is - if you can afford to, then come over (both of you - you want to start your adventure together if you can!) and give power of attourney to one of your family - let them sell the house at home - I'm in daily contact with my Mum on e-mail & she chases the estate agents weekly to find out what they're up to & drops into the house to check the heating is working etc. She's a tough cookie so I know she'll do the job right too!

Hope the forecasts about the market picking up are right & that it happens sooner rather than later!!!

[Miffy]

Thanks everyone for all your wise words and encourgement. :mrgreen:

Don't really want Ian to go down seperately as we want to expericen the whole move thing together.

So .... we have deiced to put the house up for rental as well as to sell and also drop the price by £10k. The same estates agents both offer letting service so the race is well and truely on! If we get an offer for rental or sell we are going to take the first.

Even though the equity cushion will come in useful we wren't planning on buying in NZ until we had a good look around all the areas in Dunners.

Also looking into the Auction option, but thats looks like its mainly for small flats / houses that are either repossesed or really run down for developers to snap up.

Ian spoke to his new employers last night too, and although they are keen for us to come over asap they reassured us that the email wasn't a get over here in the next month or else but more of a have you got a departure date, so we can start getting things organised for you over here type thing. Thankfully its was a bit of a misunderstanding / 'translation problem' on our part. *phew* Too used to London City boses I guess!!!

BTW someone asked where I in London I live, I don't really ...... I work in the City but live out in NE Essex

:cheers

[Diny]

We've 'skipped over' the idea of an auction before now. Does anybody know what it entails?

Yeah I know the property is advertised, and then you get (hopefully) a bunch of people wanting the place and it goes to the highest bidder .... but what I really want to know is this. How much commission do the auctioneers take (average).... do you generally have to accept less for your property. Is it a no sale no fee kind of arrangement?

Hhhhmmmmmm - got me thinking now.

Any info would be more than welcome.

Diny

[Miffy]

I'd also be interested to know if anyone has had any expericene with auctions.
I'm currently investigating the Auction option and will let you know what I find out.

[foolsgold99]

I'll ask Sal to post a reply to this, as part of her job at a estate agents finance dept, she goes to the auctions each month.

[lisa]

Hi all

Have just dropped the price of our house by £20,000 :wah

lets hope someone will want it now.!!!!

Lisa :P

[foolsgold99]

http://www.auctionpropertyforsale.co.uk/sell_your_property_at_auction.htm

Found this site, which gives a good guide, but will ask a couple of questions tomorrow see if I can get more info

[Diny]

FG99 .... I've just had a look at that site and it seems they hold auctions all over the country. I've sent off for some information, I'll post any details.

I'm just wondering if you have to expect to take a massive drop in price. I guess you can sell with a reserve. Will be interesting to find out.

Diny

[foolsgold99]

Right, I have just spoken to someone to check a few things out, our company do auctions in Glasgow, London, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds.

Entry fee is £350, that is advertising and getting into the catalogue, and the auctioneer fee.

Once the property sells at auction you pay 2.75% of the achieved price.

Once you agree to go to auction, they send a local agent out to value and then discuss with you that valuation and reserve prices etc. The important thing is that you dont have to sell your £200k house for 100, you can set a reserve and if that is not met, you dont sell. However there is a chance to negotiate if someone comes near the reserve, and is still interested at the end of the auction.

Hope this helps, from my experience of watching the auctions over the last few years the character of auction properties has changed to higher quality, there are not so many of the run down drug dens and repos, but genuine nice homes, and investment opportunites, and prices can go way higher that you expect!

If you want phone nos for the company PM us.

[Diny]

Thanks for that info. :nice1

Diny

[Paul]

Something else to consider for all the sellers is home staging which apparently is big in the States and other countries. We are considering using www.homestagers.co.uk in our forthcoming sale.

You can also find lots of useful info on their site including a free photo consultation with the "experts" which may be useful if nothing else.

The idea of this makes sense to me in a stagnant ,market that is now developing. www.rightmove.co.uk has their monthly report on there and makes interesting reading for this month basically saying although prices have indeed increased slightly in Feb, that houses are taking longer than ever to sell, on average nearly 3 months and that estate agents have far more properties on books than any time in the last year. All the more reason to make your house stand out I guess?

Finally I think peoples perception of prices needs to change in some cases also. If something was not selling last year and if it is at same price now it is almost definitely over priced!

Good luck everyone!

Paul :nice1

[Graham Barnes]

There have been lots of newspaper articles recently to the effect that significant numbers of sellers have yet to adapt to a stagnant market after the last few years of rocketing prices. Hence, they are still pitching their values at the optimistic end of the possible price range, and so being unrealistic.
Basically there's a bit of a stand-off at the moment. Buyers now won't/can't pay the prices being asked, and sellers won't come down to meet them. Compared to the last few years when rising prices meant that buyers would pay almost anything to avoid getting left behind.
Hence the market will stagnate until sellers come down, or wages rise to make their prices affordable/realistic again.

BTW, Not meant as any personal criticism of anyone on the forum who is trying to sell their house-obviously, everyone's personal circumstances are individual-just an observation of the market as a whole.

Nice for us though-keeps our rentals occupied!! :nice1