Haggling with the estate agent - tips needed!

iandv

Thanks all for your advice.

The other query I have is selecting an estate agent to market your property.

I have written doen the following points, is there anything else that I should be asking a prospective EA? before deciding on who we should use to sell our property with

How many similar properties to ours have you sold? At what price?
How many viewings and how long did it take to sell the properties?
How many buyers do you have in your database that are looking for properties like ours?
How and where you promote our property? i.e. rightmove, globrix, local newspaper, sending details to prospective buyers etc
Who will do the property visits - us or staff from the Estate Agent?
Is your charge 1.5% on the sale fee – and when do we have to pay and is this fee for sole agency or multiple agency basis?
How long does the contract with the Estate Agent tie us in for and what happens if we find a buyer ourselves?


Finally what do we get by listing our property with you - i.e. Creation of HIP, Photographs (how many?), video tour etc

sarkin1

I can help you with the answer to some of your questions

How many similar properties to ours have you sold? At what price? Lots we always get asking price.

How many viewings and how long did it take to sell the properties? oh we always sell quickly, infact we are one of the few estate agents in the area that are selling propertys

How many buyers do you have in your database that are looking for properties like ours? lots

How and where you promote our property? i.e. rightmove, globrix, local newspaper, sending details to prospective buyers etc Yep we advetise everywhere we are very proactive with our advertising.

hope this helps

Savvy_amateur

sarkin1 wrote: »

I can help you with the answer to some of your questions

How many similar properties to ours have you sold? At what price? Lots we always get asking price.

How many viewings and how long did it take to sell the properties? oh we always sell quickly, infact we are one of the few estate agents in the area that are selling propertys

How many buyers do you have in your database that are looking for properties like ours? lots

How and where you promote our property? i.e. rightmove, globrix, local newspaper, sending details to prospective buyers etc Yep we advetise everywhere we are very proactive with our advertising.

hope this helps

Yes they will tell you anything!!!! The best advice I can give you is to go with the same EA that the property you want to buy is on with, then they will have a vested interest in selling yours as quickly as possible to get 2 sales on their books.

protractor

I was an EA (a nice one) for many years. I'm afraid, like it or not, the fact you have not SSTC puts you in a very poor position to negotiate an offer.

I would (asap) give your house a very deep spring clean. This includes (I'm afraid) decorating any tired areas, carpets cleaned, major de-clutter, garden tidied, and the getting the front of the house looking as best as it can (includes paintwork and driveway).

Unfortunately, this will cost money, but consider it an investment rather than a cost - what you have to remember is that although prices 'seem' to have bottomed out and the market is beginning to move again - there is an unprecedented amount of 'surplus stock' for sale and the only property that is moving is either the best of the bunch or the cheapest (you want to be in the first of these categories).

Unless there is another agent with a greater number of 'SOLD' signs in your area, use the selling agent to sell your house (the agent will be more motivated to sell yours since you are buying another property off him - hence he will be less motivated to sell the house you're after. - i.e. if he sell this house - he gets one sale - if he sells yours he gets two)!

Please be realistic on price - even in the best of markets, over-priced houses cost their owners more in the long run.

Also, see if you can offer an incentive for the buyer of your property such as you offer to pay for their stamp duty, legal fees, up to 5% towards their deposit, guarantee you'll move out whatever happens [no chain], etc.

Incidentally, this last option - if carried through - would put you in a very strong negotiating position.

Sorry if this is not what you want to hear, but desperate times calls for desperate measures I'm afraid. If you want any more advice, just ask.

p.s. If the situation presents itself to you in the future - buy 'New' - some developers are virtually giving away their stock! (only do this within a small development though)

iandv

Thanks once more - you mention in your last point

"(only do this within a small development though)" what do you mean by a small development? a local developer over the likes of a major developer such as Barratt?

kunekune

While I agree that there is little point in offering on another house until your own i sold, it doesn't avoid the creation of a chain. We keep emphasising that we're proceedable when we make offers - but then find out that the sellers aren't really starting to LOOK until they have accepted an offer. So rather than the buyer being the weak link, it's going to be the seller! I'm not awfully happy about potentially losing money because the seller decides there isn't anything they like. And when they do find somewhere, then that seller will go through the whole thing too.

kunekune

"(only do this within a small development though)" what do you mean by a small development? a local developer over the likes of a major developer such as Barratt?

iandv, I think the problem is that in a larger development you may well find that some of the unsold property becomes social housing and that's something a lot of people shy away from.

iandv

so basically I can still make an offer on a property, even though I have not yet sold or had an offer on my house ?

I thought this was allowed, and was what a chain was?

Cissi

iandv wrote: »

so basically I can still make an offer on a property, even though I have not yet sold or had an offer on my house ?

I thought this was allowed, and was what a chain was?

Of course it's "allowed", it just puts you in a weaker negotiating position and at greater risk of losing the purchase. And no, that isn't the definition of a chain - it's an incomplete chain. You'd still be in a chain even if you had a buyer for yours and they had a buyer etc - then it would be a proceedable chain.

spuds_2

Well, a chain is just the queue of people waiting to move. You are only 'in a chain' when your offer is accepted, I'm afraid. You can make an offer if you like. But like most posters I think it is very, very unlikely that your offer will be accepted when you haven't sold yours. There would be no point accepting your offer, low or full asking price, because it could be months or a year even before you get your own house sold.

When you put your house on the market will you accept an offer from someone who has not sold their house?

Also, until your house is sold how can you know if you can afford the one you like? I would follow the advice given - spend a bit of time and money getting your house in really good condition, get rid of clutter, then put it on the market at a very keen price. Then prepare for people to offer 15 - 20% less than your asking price, as you are intending to do.