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

rosered100

hshen wrote: »

All the best with the sell. I wish I lived in areas where a 20% below AP is considered!
I've been struggling to get 5-7% in most cases and had to walk away...

Well to be fair I think we were overvalued in the first place by about 7 -10% but as we got an offer almost immediately at not much below the initial price obviously the EA had someone in mind when they made the valuation. This means that the 20% drop now is really only about 10% from where we should have started at.
As soon as a couple of our neighbours saw the sold board, they went up for sale at a whopping 50% higher than our offer is presently at - they are slightly bigger but not that much & dont know what level our offer is at, but it looks good to anyone coming to view us now as we look a really good bargain - or are they just wondering what's wrong with us being so low in comparison?

ocalllo

Have only had one viewer since we dropped the price by £10k a few weeks ago, back at what we bought it for in 2005!!!
can't lower it any more.......

finding it soooooooooo hard to even keep a flicker of hope

westlondonbuyer

rosered100 wrote: »

it looks good to anyone coming to view us now as we look a really good bargain - or are they just wondering what's wrong with us being so low in comparison?

I make a point of viewing everything remotely similar in a particular street for comparison purposes, and I'm sure your buyers will do the same. You have Rightmove photos and a floorplan too, right? Floorplans are a big help for buyers, but it's surprising how rarely they're used.

westlondonbuyer

There are an awful lot of people on this thread who seem to have been misled by their buyers and are furious as a result.

Why not just ask the agent to establish your buyer's financial position in writing at the time of their offer; their surveyor, solicitor etc. I've been looking since the late Spring and so far, only two agents have asked me to provide proof of funds. Not one has asked for details of my solicitor. It's a massive financial transaction; without carrying out your own 'due diligence' you risk being let down and disappointed again.

LAINEY28_2

What is really annoying is.....there are buyers out there who can fully afford and want to buy but the lenders are just not allowing it! Something has to be done as its just going to get worse! I'm in the situation where if I don't sell I can see my house being taken back by my mortgage lender as all my equity is tied up in my property! I am trying to avoid that by selling but this solution all relies on a buyer which doesn't seem to be happening! Thought selling was the answer to my 'problems' and was finally going to clear my feet....huh! Knew it would be to good to be true:o( For things to start moving again lenders need to ease up a little as not everyone has thousands of £'s lying around for a deposit especially first time buyers! Thought my property would have been an ideal buy to let investment for someone as the house can be rented out as soon as we are out as all appliances are included in the price...but nothing. I've contacted loads of we'll buy your property companies and they all want it for pennies! Anyone had a sale from an open house thing? Does an open house mean someone can knock on your door anytime and you show them around or is a set date and time for everyone to come along that wants too??

Any advice appreciated, trying to stay positive x

harz99

LAINEY28 wrote: »

Does an open house mean someone can knock on your door anytime and you show them around or is a set date and time for everyone to come along that wants too??

Any advice appreciated, trying to stay positive x

In England, normally you would agree times/date with your EA and then either they or you advertise locally and via their website RM etc.

Not sure about Scotland, as the bit I stay in (deepest South West) doesn't do Open House! But I seem to remember an earlier post indicating that some areas do what is effectively Open House one night every week at which any Tom, !!!!!! or Harry can just turn up!!

goldbyron

Well we are now well and truly in a chain....we accepted an offer about 1.5 weeks after and had an offer accepted about 4 days ago. Our buyer had the survey yesterday (the blasted surveyor broke a cupboard door without saying anything - fortunately it was already a bit wobbly!) and we received our offer in principle from the mortgage company today. So it is going quite well although of course the other end of the chain is a bit of an unknown - our vendor buying off a woman going into a retirement flat. So I was really looking forward to a weekend of relaxing and just letting things chug along. Until our buyer wants a third viewing this weekend to bring all the family along.... I can understand the request but after the whole process being never ending (my flat went on one year ago and took months to sell after loads of viewings) and the fact they have viewed it twice in the last 1.5 weeks and the surveyor has been round I just wanted a couple of weeks off. I thought maybe they might want another viewing close to or after exchange but now it feels a little intrusive and means we have to clean up etc etc. Do you think it is okay to ask them to come in about a fortnights time or should we just take a deep breathe? Its lovely that the FTB's are so excited but I wouldn't dream of asking for a third viewing from our vendor for at least another month as I know how stressful it all is.

Jackie47

Hi, I've been reading these posts for the last week and thought I'd add my story and see if I can't get any good advice...

(Condensed)...I bought my ex-Council 3 bedroomed semi nearly 17 years ago (small village in the midlands) which was all we could afford at the time. Since buying, the council have extended it adding a bedroom and wet room as my daughter had an RTA 13 years ago and is now in a wheelchair. So now fully accessible downstairs for a wheelchair user. Earlier this year we decided we wanted to move onto a bungalow with more space which we had the funds for. I put my property on the market in early June with a national EA who valued at 125,000 but put on market for 129,950. We soon realised that the valuation was too high..so dropped it by 10,000 (since which a property across the road from us which is also ex-LA has gone on the market at 10,000 under ours but non-extended). We've only had 3 viewers in that time and 1 was discounted as soon as viewing was over, in and out in about 3 minutes flat. The other 2 viewings have been really impressed with space and decoration etc. We were both really sure that our last viewer would offer. They even stopped for a cup of tea! No feedback yet from EA and that was 2 weeks ago. We're pretty sure that it's the area rather than the house that is the reason for no viewings. The EA is not being very proactive, not had any stats from rightmove, and just noticed they have nothing about accessibility on write up etc etc

Any ideas from anyone as to what to do..we have a provisional move date of 19th November to new place and really don't want to either rent out or leave it empty (especially in view of another cold cold winter). We have about 3 or 4 weeks left with present EA.

Thanks in advance

Jackie

eventer

I have a little update.

After I posted that our chain had fallen through again, the chap we are buying from took matters into his own hands. He went to see the guy at the bottom of the chain, and did a deal with him - cash incentive to complete. He then got the rest of us in a pub, and we agreed to split the cost between us. We split 4 ways, so the guy who pulled out took a hit on what he really wanted too. From our point of view, it was a no-brainer - we'd already spent the best part of a grand on searches/solicitors/fees/whatever and we liked the property we were trying to buy. So stumping up a bit more cash was the equivalent of dropping the price, fine by us.

Our seller also rang both sets of EA and told them he'd done their job for them so what discount were they going to give us and our buyers - negotiated £350 off the fees for both of us. Nice work!

We're all a bit bitter towards the guy at the bottom, who basically has profited out of this, but in the grand scheme of things it lets us move and we can afford it, so we are going to suck it up and not do any of the improvements needed on the place we are buying yet. We'll cope!

The one stipulation was we had to exchange by the end of October - currently the date is set for 27th but I have to confess I am not holding my breath as I don't want to be disappointed yet again - I'll only believe it when the contract is signed and exchanged!

goldbyron

eventer - that is a great story! Your vendor seems excellent - all of you in a pub - I think this should set the mould for future transactions. Sols and EA's can sometimes break down the communication and it just muddies the waters. Wasn't there a pilot scheme at some point where the chain all had access to a site where they could log the progress and communicate between them on the net?