5 months to sell - a plan?

mattyh

Hopefully someone can help me formulate a plan to get the best price for my house!!

We have bought a new build which will be completed much later in the year. We have made ourselves chain-free, so we can now sell our own house at our leisure. Ideally I'd like it to be sold within about 5 months, so I'm wondering if anyone can help me come up with a plan as to how to market it?

We're on the private sale websites at the moment, but should we also market via estate agents at this early stage to generate interest? Should we market the house at a slightly inflated price on the offchance, or will further reductions throughout the year make the house look unpopular? Along the same lines - should I be put a for sale board out this early, or again will it make it look like the house is not selling if it's still up in a few months time?

Or should I market it at a low price, get lots of interest and viewings (it's a nice house inside) and hold out for a big offer?

Any tips would be most appreciated!!

clairehi

How chainfree are you in reality?

Don't you need to sell this house in order to pay for the new one?

If so, 5 months is not necessarily that long a time to find a buyer and complete a sale. And unless you have somewhere else to go in between houses, presumably you cant complete on your sale before the new house is ready for occupancy.

If I were you Id get it on the market with a decent agent and a realistic asking price straightaway. there is some good advice elsewhere here about how to pick a agent etc. watch the market in your area to get an idea of how fast property is moving and how high asking prices are but I think its still a buyers market personally.

mattyh

We're completely chain free - we don't need to sell our current property to buy the new one.... however (!) as you can imagine i'd prefer for the two to coincide at the same time so i'm not left with a) being homeless or b) paying two mortgages... so it's a balancing act!

Thanks for the tip, I think we will find an agent and get ourselves on the market, unless anyone else has any other thoughts?

AndrewSmith

Hi Matty,

I also think you should engage the services of a local agent, however consider the following.

Don't automatically go for the agent who offers the highest valuation. You want it to sell after all and not still be sat there after months of no viewings. Ask the agents to show you recent evidence of comparable properites and their sold prices.

When selecting the agent do some reserch for yourself to see which one is most prolific in your area. This is easily done by simply spotting the agents SOLD boards. An agent however with lots of FOR SALE boards but few SOLD is likely to be over valuing his house stock. Ask the agent to explain their sales strategy. You want someone who is going to be excited about your house and pro-actively get on the phone to drum up interest and get those viewings. Dont go for the agent who relies on media advertising.

When you have chosen your agent it is important that you encourage him to sell your home quickly. Ask for his honest opinion on things that need to be done to sell quickly, and then do them. If you take his advice on board he will see you are serious and will work that bit harder. Tell the agent you want him to visit you once a week at least for a review and update meeting to discuss marketing and progress.

Insist that the agents accompany all the viewings, but in return you must make the property available for viewing at any time. Let the agent have a key for daytime viewings.

Tell the agent that you want a contract with a tie in of no more than 4 weeks. Also incentivise them to sell by agreeing a sliding scale of commission for them. EG:

Sale in first 2 weeks 1.5%
weeks 2-3 1.25%
weeks 3-4 1.00%

Tell them that after 4 weeks you would be looking to change agents.

Insist that the agent sends the member of staff who will be conducting the viewings round to you house to familiarise himself with it. He does, after all, need to know that the kitchen door is not to the broom cupboard etc.

If you discuss this with an agent and ask them to be realistic about the value you should be selling for you should end up with a good workable formula by which to sell your property.

Hope this helps

Andy

Pal

AndrewSmith wrote:

Also incentivise them to sell by agreeing a sliding scale of commission for them. EG:

Sale in first 2 weeks 1.5%
weeks 2-3 1.25%
weeks 3-4 1.00%

How many agents would agree to a fee scale like this?

Given that it takes a week to get a house up on Rightmove, 4 weeks seems like a very short contract period.

AndrewSmith

Hi Pal,

Every agent I have sold a house through, and I have sold about 20 or so in the last 10 years, mainly different agents.

You have to not be intimidated by them at all and tell them it's how it is going to be if they want to sell your house and earn the commission. If not there is another agent down the road who will. Again, if he s a good agent he will not be relying solely on rightmove etc and will already have a list of potential buyers on his applicant register.

It will only work though if you are realistic about the starting price and dont get greedy.

Andy

clairehi

AndrewSmith wrote:

Hi Matty,

I also think you should engage the services of a local agent, however consider the following.

Don't automatically go for the agent who offers the highest valuation. You want it to sell after all and not still be sat there after months of no viewings. Ask the agents to show you recent evidence of comparable properites and their sold prices.

When selecting the agent do some reserch for yourself to see which one is most prolific in your area. This is easily done by simply spotting the agents SOLD boards. An agent however with lots of FOR SALE boards but few SOLD is likely to be over valuing his house stock. Ask the agent to explain their sales strategy. You want someone who is going to be excited about your house and pro-actively get on the phone to drum up interest and get those viewings. Dont go for the agent who relies on media advertising.

When you have chosen your agent it is important that you encourage him to sell your home quickly. Ask for his honest opinion on things that need to be done to sell quickly, and then do them. If you take his advice on board he will see you are serious and will work that bit harder. Tell the agent you want him to visit you once a week at least for a review and update meeting to discuss marketing and progress.

Insist that the agents accompany all the viewings, but in return you must make the property available for viewing at any time. Let the agent have a key for daytime viewings.

Tell the agent that you want a contract with a tie in of no more than 4 weeks. Also incentivise them to sell by agreeing a sliding scale of commission for them. EG:

Sale in first 2 weeks 1.5%
weeks 2-3 1.25%
weeks 3-4 1.00%

Tell them that after 4 weeks you would be looking to change agents.

Insist that the agent sends the member of staff who will be conducting the viewings round to you house to familiarise himself with it. He does, after all, need to know that the kitchen door is not to the broom cupboard etc.

If you discuss this with an agent and ask them to be realistic about the value you should be selling for you should end up with a good workable formula by which to sell your property.

Hope this helps

Andy

I agree with most of what you say particualarly re the SOLD boards. but would question your advice on viewings.

As a buyer, I have found that viewings by the vendor are much more helpful than those by the EA. often EAs have several staff showing properties and they just cant answer any questions about them whatsoever.

also, some EAs can be quite awkward about arranging out of office hours viewings. we had a 2nd viewing with the vendor on a Sunday morning, cant see many EAs getting out of bed for that.

therefore with my vendor's hat on Id be very willing to show people round in the future to increase the number and quality of viewings, but would also give the EA a key for times when I wasnt there.

I guess it helps too if you mystery shop the EAs to see which are the helpful ones. having bought in my town and dealt with all of the agents, I now know who to avoid when selling!

AndrewSmith

Second viewings are different and, if you read some of my other posts, you will see that I recommend that a buyer should arrange the second viewing for a time when the agent will not be there to allow the purchaser to openly ask questions regarding the property directly to the vendor.

If the agent has been unhelpful and not keen when showing the buyer round a property it is because Agent and Seller are not talking, and the Agent has become uninterested in selling it. If you incentivise the agent to sell I can assure you he will make sure his staff are keen on the viewings.

I have only had problems with one agent who's sales negotiator was not showing people round properly so I insisted that they use a different member of staff or I would issue notice to terminate the agreement. Was fine after that. I always used to get someone I know to act as a purchaser and give me feedback on how the viewings were conducted.

Out of the 20 or so properties I have sold personally over the last 10 years (most of them through different agents due to location) approx 15 of them sold withing the first 2-3 weeks with the others elling within 4 weeks or shortly after once the agent realised I was serious about moving agents after this time. They do not want to spend on advertising and marketing a house to then lose it 4 weeks later due to poor service on their part.

It really is all down to setting the expectation with the agents of the service standard you expect, when they dont deliver, let them know about it.

It has worked for me in the past, and for many people who have used the same systems I employ, however I fully concur that it won't work for everyone.

Andy