To those selling in these difficult times Part Deux. AKA sellers support network!

not_loaded

bigzippy wrote: »

…The house needs selling to pay off some debts so me and DH can start (relatively) fresh, and MIL can be somewhere safe without stressing about money, debts and maintenance of the house.
So the house has now been on the market 24weeks, had over 300 viewings of the online details, but only 4 real life viewings arranged through EA and 1 arranged privately.
Only 1 of the EA arranged viewings seemed worthwhile imo, as the others cried off for reasons that should've been perfectly obvious from the details, esp with EA pointing it out. The last seemed really positive - picturing where she wanted things, pleased there was no lawns cos it'd be easier etc etc, and then EA came back with feedback contradicting what she'd said at the viewing! :mad:
Personally I don't think the EAs are much cop, and am pushing DH to change EA - he's got a valuation set up for tomorrow at 9am, but I want him to set up a few more…

It certainly sounds like your current EA is a waster. Probably time to move on. I would see at least three or four, and assess them on how they come across when they’re ‘selling’ to you in your living room. Don’t focus on the commission percentage, focus on the attitude and service. Also keep the tie in period low.

WheelieWood wrote: »

A neighbour confessed to us today that she'd phoned our EA to see what our house was on the market for. Her story was that she'd like her mother to move closer to her - whether that's true or not isn't a big deal.
What is a big deal is that she was apparently told not to bother with our house but to take a look at one round the corner instead as it was much better! :mad:
The other house was sold (by the same EA) as a fixer-upper earlier this year and is now back on the market for 42K more (12K more than us). Admittedly whoever bought it has done a lovely job, knocking the kitchen and dining room together and converting the roofspace, so its now a 4 bed, but that's hardly the point…

I’ve known High Street agents to ‘sell against’ another property if it suits them. It’s hard to know what you could do to stop it happening.

Viewing figures are of course very low at the moment. Getting a friend to ‘show interest’ in your property is always a good test of how the EA is working for you. (or not!)

When I researched a particular area many years ago, I soon discovered the good areas and the bad areas. So, for a given property like a 3-bed semi, one would be significantly cheaper than the other (because in this case of the teenagers, the alcohol and the drugs). Talking to an owner in a good area, she said the EAs would regularly sell against them, saying to the viewer ‘look how much more you get for your money here!’. When they move in (without the research) they discover WHY it was cheaper. For the UK I’d suggest that PCSOs are your best friend when researching. Just ask them where THEY would buy.

WheelieWood wrote: »

…To be fair this is probably just the action of one individual in the EA's office, but its just reaffirmed my already low opinion of Estate Agents.

In my two sales, there are three High Street EAs involved, and they are all constantly reaching new lows in their profession. It’s strange that such an important financial function is staffed by such poor quality people.

NEH

Listening to BigZippy and Wheeliewood and many others including myself, is there such a thing as a good EA or Solicitor, they're certainly on the rare breeds list...:p

I don't know what drives them to be so bad, i mean yes i know comission is a factor but surely it can't all be down to money...

I mean in our case they lost the bed and the flat itself, if they don't want the business why don't they just say, it's a flat it's not worth our while?

not_loaded

NEH wrote: »

Listening to BigZippy and Wheeliewood and many others including myself, is there such a thing as a good EA or Solicitor, they're certainly on the rare breeds list...:p
I don't know what drives them to be so bad, i mean yes i know comission is a factor but surely it can't all be down to money...
I mean in our case they lost the bed and the flat itself, if they don't want the business why don't they just say, it's a flat it's not worth our while?

It’s interesting isn’t it? In my opinion you couldn’t get two professions where the educational requirements are further apart. Pretty much the extreme ends of the spectrum?

Yet they both perform terribly, and don’t care.

Interestingly, the EA gets far more dosh than the solicitor, for a much simpler job with no come back.

NEH

not_loaded wrote: »

It’s interesting isn’t it? In my opinion you couldn’t get two professions where the educational requirements are further apart. Pretty much the extreme ends of the spectrum?

Yet they both perform terribly, and don’t care.

Interestingly, the EA gets far more dosh than the solicitor, for a much simpler job with no come back.

Does seem crackers, we have to use Solicitors in Scotland and they're no better than the EA's...Plus if you want to change it costs you another £250 here to re register with the Solicitor's property site...So we're stuck...

Also because we're going to rent soon, we lose another bit of money with having to get yet another home report done when we put it back on the market...

Catch you whichever way you turn...

Hey ho, 1 week today and we're shot of this hell hole :jand into our next rental property....Just got to pray the new landlord doesn't have a grand designs scenario and their renovation fall through and they want their house back in 6 months time...:p

shupufski_2

WheelieWood wrote: »

A neighbour confessed to us today that she'd phoned our EA to see what our house was on the market for. Her story was that she'd like her mother to move closer to her - whether that's true or not isn't a big deal.

What is a big deal is that she was apparently told not to bother with our house but to take a look at one round the corner instead as it was much better! :mad:

The other house was sold (by the same EA) as a fixer-upper earlier this year and is now back on the market for 42K more (12K more than us). Admittedly whoever bought it has done a lovely job, knocking the kitchen and dining room together and converting the roofspace, so its now a 4 bed, but that's hardly the point.

Its made me question whether or not the EA has a vested interest in this property because the difference in price would mean peanuts in commission terms. Why else would they push someone towards it, rather than suggesting viewing both?

To be fair this is probably just the action of one individual in the EA's office, but its just reaffirmed my already low opinion of Estate Agents.

Unfortunately there are a great number of shady deals in property - especially in today's market. Where we live it is impossible to get your hands on a "fixerupper" as they are all miraculoulsy sold the minute they hit the market. These houses are aquired by being very "friendly" with certain EA's and providing them with special "incentives" to give certain people first dibs. Also, EA's can control access to the property and tell the vendor that the first deal offered is the best they are going to get.

In this case, I suspect that the EA feels obliged to the do the developer a favour and push this house - perhaps as part of a long-term "incentive" arrangement they have.

westlondonbuyer

shupufski wrote: »

In this case, I suspect that the EA feels obliged to the do the developer a favour and push this house - perhaps as part of a long-term "incentive" arrangement they have.

I have seen this, too. Run-down house (usually a probate sale, or sometimes an ex-council RTB period property) is put on the market at a crazy asking price.

Prospective buyers like me are bewildered at the asking price, and dare not even go and look.

It then goes under offer at what is apparently "very close to the asking price". We're bewildered some more.

When we subsequently check the price at the Land Registry, "very close to the asking price" is sometimes 15% under the asking price.

A year later, the same house is sold again, having had a good but not great refurbishment, to a banker or city lawyer who is happy to pay a huge premium to avoid having to deal with builders.

The EA has collected his commission twice in the space of 12 months. No wonder he has no interest in us, even though we'd have happily paid more than the original completion price, because we're looking for a home and not an investment.

Though I do wonder if this practice is going to be over soon. It's becoming more and more difficult for builders and developers to get finance

not_loaded

shupufski wrote: »

Unfortunately there are a great number of shady deals in property - especially in today's market. Where we live it is impossible to get your hands on a "fixerupper" as they are all miraculoulsy sold the minute they hit the market…
…In this case, I suspect that the EA feels obliged to the do the developer a favour and push this house - perhaps as part of a long-term "incentive" arrangement they have.

Feels obliged because of the wedge of readies in his back pocket? A sad bunch the lot of ‘em.

westlondonbuyer wrote: »

I have seen this, too. Run-down house (usually a probate sale, or sometimes an ex-council RTB period property) is put on the market at a crazy asking price.
Prospective buyers like me are bewildered at the asking price, and dare not even go and look.
It then goes under offer at what is apparently "very close to the asking price". We're bewildered some more.
When we subsequently check the price at the Land Registry, "very close to the asking price" is sometimes 15% under the asking price…

That’s what made me wonder whether you could ‘get lucky’ on price where you want to buy.

A couple of months ago the sale on my mum’s probate flat fell through due to the solicitors wasting time, and the buyer, tired of waiting, went elsewhere. I immediately asked for it to go back on the market.

The agent I’m using down in Torbay was already showing it to ‘two or three people’, and he took forever to get it back on RightMove. I complained that it still wasn’t showing (to get competitive interest going) and of course he never answered THAT complaint.

I, and the other two executors had agreed what was acceptable for this fixer-upper, and we got that same price again, but you have to wonder what’s really going on when the EA seems to actively discourage open market viewing. I’m sure brown envelopes stuffed with notes are changing hands, but nothing can ever be proven of course…

Very close to us here in Surrey, three fixer-uppers have gone for astonishingly low money in the last few years. The asking prices on the ones that actually got onto RightMove were pitched too high to gain real interest. One went instantly (to a builder) with no open market presence at all, for about 50% of its fixed-up price.

Another one (on probate) went for around half of its real value, again instantly and to a builder. The third one which was in a state admittedly, went for about a third of its fixed-up price.

Those are ‘maybe you’ll get lucky’ houses for sure.

Jackinbox99

Christ, this is a cheerfull thread.

Im in the process of putting my house on the market this week. Ive spent about 35k doing my house up over the last few years and now have to reluctantly sell because the OH has a new job 75miles away. So, just had first estate agent around to give his verdict, and he`s said he couldnt fault my house, its all been done up perfect. Cool... money well spent on my behalf then... good so far. Value of house? Well, he says, you can get same house which needs all the work doing to it, in a dodgy area down the road for X amount. House next door to mine, needing loads of work went for X+20k back in 2007. Since then, new bypass has been built reducing traffic on road, new shops been built over the road all should have boosted the value. Estate agent then says my house is only worth X+10k. So he is saying that 35k of work is only really made the house worth 10k more than the same house but in a bad area. Bit disapointing as I was hoping for X+20% based upon the market research id done. But, the agent knows best!

So.. then onto fees. He says they do a fixed price, rather than a %.. okay.. But the fixed price is £3500+VAT with a 12 week tie in. Thats well over 2.5%. Is that normal? From reading some old threads on here people seem so say you can knock them down to 1% with 1 week tie in?!?!?!!!!! But, is that still applicable in this day & age?

Got another 2 agents coming around next week, then house will go on market next weekend.

Judging from the dozens of houses ive viewed over the last few weeks, mine is definately in perfect condition to appeal to buyers - all neutral and brand new inside & out. So hopefully if I can get the right price on it, it wont hang about. But, its finding that right price and getting the right agent from the looks of it.

sonastin

Jackinbox99 wrote: »

So.. then onto fees. He says they do a fixed price, rather than a %.. okay.. But the fixed price is £3500+VAT with a 12 week tie in. Thats well over 2.5%. Is that normal? From reading some old threads on here people seem so say you can knock them down to 1% with 1 week tie in?!?!?!!!!! But, is that still applicable in this day & age?

Welcome to the fun factory!

From my (admittedly very limited) experience, fixed price around 2.5% of asking price points towards the agent being part of the countrywide chain? If this is the case, my advice would be STAY. WELL. AWAY. A story that seems to be repeated on this forum is that they value your house at X to get you signed up to the fixed fee of Y, then in about 6 weeks, tell you your house is overpriced and you should drop your asking price to Z. Which would have put you in a different fee bracket if they'd done that originally but as its fixed, Y is now nearer 3% of Z, not even taking into account what you might actually sell it for if the offer is less than asking price.

But I'm not bitter! Honest! (Managed to get away from my countrywide crew before they sold the house and ripped me off )

I wouldn't be too worried about tie-in, but that's because I'd be giving them a fair crack at selling it before walking away anyway and 12 weeks isn't that long really. But I would be insisting on a decent % fee rather than fixed. Fixed is only really fair right at the bottom end of the market where the % wouldn't cover their marketing costs. If £3500 is around 2.5%, you're not down that far.

Mexas

Its not difficult to understand why the agent wants to price it low so it sells quickly is it? especially with the fixed fee commission.

Put the house on the market for what YOU think its worth. If it doesn't attract interest/offers, simply drop the price.

Although it depends how quick you want a sale.