Estate agent won't sell unless we drop price.

safesound

clairehi wrote:

yes the guy from PA who did our valuation was a young lad. however I dont think he had a lot to do with the sale after that in all fairness. where I thought their service was very good was in managing the sale after we got an offer.

I didnt know that, I thought the guy who came to value it was the guy who dealt with it all the way through. Oh well maybe if I had known that I might have considered them a bit more

you did well to get over the asking price last year in Cardiff, the market was grim.

The house was priced to sell in a competative market, and it had loads of land with it (a rarity in Whitchurch as you probably know). Sadly the land had no road frontage so it couldnt be used as a seperate building plot.

clairehi

safesound wrote:

I didnt know that, I thought the guy who came to value it was the guy who dealt with it all the way through. Oh well maybe if I had known that I might have considered them a bit more

Doesnt sound like it did you any harm though!

We went with Darlows initially as the valuer, who was the branch manager, was by far the least slimy and most professional of the bunch we saw.

however, he then left 2 weeks later for another job! so you never know for sure who exactly is going to handle things.

needstoknow

i would tell the estate agents to take a running jump! cheeky rods!

irnbru_2

s&#64 wrote: »

They also said that there was another house for sale in the same street in immaculate condition which was marketed recently for £75000. They estimate £20, 000 worth of work is needed on my mum-in-law's house to bring it up to the same standard. But if someone bought it for the current asking price (or slightly less) and spent £20, 000 on it then that would bring it up to roughly the same value...so why would they ask us to drop to £38,000?

Have scanned the thread, it may have been answered but anyways:

Buying the house at £50000 and doing £20000 worth of upgrade would leave a margin of £5000 for profit, if the ceiling price is £75000. Can't see any developer being happy with a risky 25% return.

Whereas at £38000 that would give a return of 85% (75K-58K)/20K if the ceiling price is achieved but also a margin to sell quickly.

jockettuk

no proof there were 18 viewings only got the estate agents say so.. can you ask a neighbour to keep an eye and see how many viewings they see going on that way you could get an idea if the estate agents are telling the truth..

put it up at the original price with another estate agent if nothing within a fortnight drop it a couple of thousand and again a few more weeks down the line.. drop it as much as you feel comfortable with but dont let it go for stupid prices..

ive recently sold my house which is in need of some decoration and up dating and the bloke buying my house thinks its great i got a fair price and he wants nothing done to the house as he wants to come in and re do everything.. he wants to live in the property and do it up to his taste, he into diy and will do most of it himself... there are people out there who will want a property to do up live in it..

Doozergirl

irnbru wrote:

Have scanned the thread, it may have been answered but anyways:

Buying the house at £50000 and doing £20000 worth of upgrade would leave a margin of £5000 for profit, if the ceiling price is £75000. Can't see any developer being happy with a risky 25% return.

Whereas at £38000 that would give a return of 85% (75K-58K)/20K if the ceiling price is achieved but also a margin to sell quickly.

Spend £20,000 to get a 25% return in a few months, I'd bite your hand off! You've got your maths wrong there a bit, but I get your point! You have to buy the house too, so it's a 7% return.

BUT, a developer will have no qualms about offering less on a house if they think it is overpriced. There are people out there who will buy a house that needs work to live in and would be happy with a bit of added value.

I certainly wouldn't drop the asking price for that particular agent, especially as they gave the initial higher valuation. I'd opt for a new agent or even sell at a small local auction and let the bidding decide what it's worth. I've seen no bargains at local auctions - in fact, quite the opposite.

van_persie

Am staggered by the amount of posters blaming the agents in this case. They don't set the market value, the buyers do. If the property doesn't sell at a certain price, it's probably because it's too expensive! Agents often value properties a little generously in order to secure instructions. They then tell vendors to drop prices when no-one makes an offer. It's not rocket-science.
Many sellers are discovering the mechanics of a cyclical market right now and find it hard to accept that because next door went for x amount last year, theirs should go for 10% more. Vendors seem to believe it's their right to demand more for their property than they bought it for... interesting times ahead.

AMILLIONDOLLARS

As someone has already pointed out, if it was over-priced, it would not have supposedly got 18 viewings, I am with everyone else, get some more valuations and go for the average. I think the Agent was trying it on, they gave an ultimate, which didn't work, and now they may have lost the keys in the post!, (have they turned up by the way).

Go elsewhere, Agents work for you, not the other way around!!

By the way if the keys dont turn up, send them the bill for replacing the locks!!!

van_persie

Prospective purchasers make a decision based on viewings; it's right to say that grossly overpriced properties will not get any viewings at all, but in this case, 18 buyers have looked to see if this place is worth the asking price. Its presentation is obviously an issue but my point is that vendors should not expect to achieve top valuations by default.
By all means move to another agent, or even go multi-agent, but I could recall countless anecdotes of people who have done this whilst sticking to THE SAME ASKING PRICE and not had a sniff of an offer. It smacks of denial and is like moving deck chairs on the Titanic...