To those selling in these difficult times

wildcardsa

good luck Paws.....
we had to fire our EA's last week and they were sooooo rubbish that they even failed to reply to our Cancellation Notice when asked specifically to do so. cant imagine they will do anything for the next 21 days! the otehr independant EA's we have had in to quote are shocked we only had 6 viewings in 6 months and already offered fees of about £600 less on average and 8 week tie ins....so hopefully in 21 days, we can get about ot sellin gour house properly!

good luck all!

QTPie

Good luck Pawpurrs and everyone else selling

Spring is upon us and if people are going to buy, I have a strong feeling it will be over the next 2/3 months... so hopefully everyone gets a genuine buyer. We will begin seriously looking (to buy) after Easter

Good luck wildcardsa - hope that the new agent is a good one: I am sure that there ARE some good ones out there, they just can be a bit hard to find. Use the agent's freshness and enthusiasm, price the house right, get GOOD photos and marketing material and hit the market again with a bam!

QT

Davesnave

Good luck Pawpurrs and Wildcards. I think QT is right. The next couple of months will be the best. Love this time of year.

hookbeak

Ours has been on the market just 3 weeks, but no viewers as yet - it's competitively priced, in fact the same price as a near identical property round the corner which is nowhere near as nice as ours.

I wasn't expecting miracles, but i thought we might at least get a viewing. Even just a nosey person would do !

Warchcosi

Been on for 3 months. Dropped the price once, lots of keen viewers but only one acceptable offer that was withdrawn.

Firing the agent in a few weeks and going with new one, trying to get some new eyes and passion on it.

Not a very happy time

racheyg

Have had on market for about 8 months. Lots of viewers, and lots of nice comments, but:

Garden too big!!!!

I thought that was our biggest asset!

I get well cheesed off with people actually. Ours is a beautiful 19th century cottage. It's on the market for £360,000 but is near a road (not a very busy road, and 18 steps away from front road). If this house was round the corner it would be worth £600,000. It's a lovely house. When I bought it there were 4 couples fighting over it. Now no-one wants it

We're only selling because we need to get the equity out as we have debts. We can keep chipping away at the debts and stay, but it will take ages.

What to do, what to do, what to do.

What can I do with a 360 ft garden anyway?

QTPie

racheyg wrote: »

What can I do with a 360 ft garden anyway?

Sounds like a LOVELY garden! :cool:

I would love a house with a garden that big!

May I ask what you garden is like? Is it fairly low maintenance (i.e. a bit of patio, maybe a border or two and mostly lawn?)? I don't think that it is generally garden size that puts people off, but it is the work involved in keeping it... most people are ok with mowing lawns, but if there are a LOT of beds and things, that may put them off... (why people can't think "I know, I will turf it over" is beyond me... :rolleyes: ).

QT

racheyg

Hi QTpie

It's on a little bit of a slope, so split into three sections. But you are right, it needs 'doing' up. It's not a complicated job though - there are trees all up both sides, and then just grass in the middle. We have a huge oak tree and we back onto woods, so our house looks like it's in the middle of the woods. But it needs someone interested in gardening, or a goat.

There is so much scope, it's a 4 bed semi (two small cottages put together, the two up two down ones), with a conservatory running along the back. We have two fire places, and quarry floors in the dining room, and proper wood in the living room.

But: we haven't got a playroom, garage, big bathroom etc.

We have debt because I bought my ex out and had to give him half the equity when it was valued 4 years ago . Now we haven't got any money to do it up.

If someone gave me £100,000 I would definitely stay :rolleyes:

QTPie

racheyg

Is there anything that you can do to make the garden appear less "high maintenance"? I.e. clear some of it yourselves and maybe get some of it turfed over? The turfing would cost some money, but you could get some free quotes... IF that is a recurrent complaint, then spending some time and £1/£2k MIGHT be money worth spent.

Many buyers are NOTORIOUSLY bad in being able to visualise what they could do with a property/garden... IF you can get the garden to at least "appear" more low maintenance, then you may widen the appeal: to young professionals (who generally have less time/enthusiam for gardening) and maybe recent retirees (who like a garden, but maybe don't want to undertake what looks like a huge project)....

My suggestion would be to look at ways (clearing scrub, turfing over, adding gravel) to make the garden look as good as possible for the least money.

Basically, a lot of people will look at a garden project and think "ooooh, that would add £5/£10k to do up".... BUT yu might be able to give them somethign perfectly acceptable for £1/£2k.

QT

garfylee

Hello Everyone!!!!
This is my first post, be gentle

So I've spent all day today reading this thread to see if I can learn a thing or two about the markets. Firstly, pawpurrs, considering you started this thread and you seem like a nice person, I'm sorry for the awful luck you've had, and I hope it picks up for you very soon!

Well for me, I'm looking to move back to London and join my girlfriend. My house has only been on for 2 weeks. It should have been up earlier but the day it was going on, the water board phoned me and told me i had leakage under my front garden so all had to be put on hold whilst i sorted that out. What a headache, before i even done anything, but thats another story, although it's heart wrenching when you look out and see 3 men standing in the biggest hole you ever seen (that was my front garden) scratching their heads!

So, the hole is filled my HIPs have been booked for this friday, and well I'm keeping everything crossed. I've already had 3 viewings, the first one cancelled. The second made a very low offer, but came back with a more realistic offer. I was informed to try and get an extra £1,000, and nearly got it but a previous house came back on the market that the couple loved so i lost it. Really though, that would have been just to easy wouldn't it? The 3rd viewing, I think very picky, she just wasn't interested and has apparently seen lots of places. That was a week ago, i haven't heard anything since.

I was looking at these websites where companies buy your house if you need a fast sale, but they all seem a bit too good to be true. Does anyone know anything about them?

I thank you all now in advance for any advise or views for me whilst i start this long mind numbing journey!

G