When should a 'sold' sign go up outside a house when selling?

[Yo_Yo]

We are selling our house at the moment. Went on the market 2 weeks ago, and had a offer we accepted about a week ago.

Anyway, they are still in the process of applying for a mortgage and it's showing as 'sold' on rightmove and apparently on the sign outside the house.

Is this a little early or normal? Not sure weather to ask them to keep it as 'for sale' until further down the line on case this falls through as it may put off other potential buyers?

 

[misspriss]

I would think it should be "sale pending" or "under contract". I don't know though, the people we bought our house from put it as "under contract" then took it down and relisted it "for sale" while we were getting the mortgage sorted. It was kinda rude to do that IMO, but oh well.

They may do things differently elsewhere though.

 

[lilyd]

We've bought and sold a few houses over the years. Most estate agents put up a sold sign (with subject to contact written in much smaller letters) as soon as an offer is accepted. It obviously works well for them in terms of attracting new business if people think they sell houses quickly.

The agent we bought our current house with listed the property as under offer and only changed it to sold on the day of completion. They then asked our permission to leave the sold sign up for 4 days. First time I have even seen it done this way.

The agents will usually stop showing people around once an offer has been accepted and solicitors instructed and only start again if the sale falls through.

 

[supertabby]

It's normal to change the status to "sold" and rightmove do stipulate on their website that it's "sold subject to contract". Once it's actually completed it will come off the website altogether and will be no listing on there. If your offer falls through they'd just remove the sold status so people could see it on the market again.

If people want to they can choose to filter their searches to include sold stc properties but most people wouldn't bother. You can continue to show other people around the house if you want to, however if the current buyers get wind of it they could pull out or be less receptive to negotiations. We pulled out of an offer after the buyer was continuing to try to get a better offer - we didn't trust he was going to go through with the deal and we weren't prepared to start investing money in solicitors and surveys if he was just going to mess us around. If you've had a serious offer and accepted then you'd be being unfair and possibly foolish to keep the house on the market.

Has the buyer got a mortgage approved in principle? Normally a buyer gets a mortgage approved in principle for x amount so they know they can go ahead and make offers, then once an offer has been accepted the bank do a valuation (survey) so satisfy themselves that what they are lending is no more than the value of the house, then they'll finally approve the mortgage. If this is the stage your buyer is at then great, if they've made an offer without having a mortgage approved in principle I'd be a little nervous but wouldn't be looking to back out. However if the process started to drag out because they weren't yet approved for the money you could start then throwing in conditions like they need to get mortgage progessed by x date or you'll put it back on the market.

 

[LoveCakes]

I thought it would be sold if an offer was accepted.

 

[SisterRose]

Hey, I don't know if it's the same everywhere but we've almost finished buying a house. With a bit of luck, we should be getting the keys tomorrow. I know it's said "Sold STC - subject to contract" on the website for about a month now but the sign outside the house still says "For sale" and I've actually be wondering why they haven't changed it to sold or sale pending yet, instead of leaving it. The offer was accepted over a month ago now

Sorry I'm not much help but we're curious for the opposite reasons Good luck with your sale!

 

[Mummy Bean]

the house we just sold went to Sold STC as soon as we accepted offer. but it stayed on website until we completed.

 

[Buttercup84]

It must vary I think. We're completing on our first house next week and it hasn't ever had a sold board go up on the for sale sign but it's been 'sold stc' on rightmove and zoopla since our mortgage was approved. However, it was 'under offer' on those sites prior to this. We made the offer (just under the asking price) on the understanding that they wouldn't accept any more viewings on the house which they agreed to and afaik they kept to this.

 

[Amy92x]

Here in Scotland if there is an offer accepted in principal (they may not get accepted for a mortgage, hence it is not set in stone), you can only mark it as Under Offer or Sold STC until missives are completed and there is no going back on the deal.

Hey, having a solicitor for a mother has some benefits