house on market - what to expect re: viewings and estate agent practice

PasseySam

Thanks for asking goldbyron

No luck so far - we have two more viewings today so we'll see. In total that will be 13 viewings but so far no second viewings or offers. The agents were going to call out to all those who viewed before we reduced the price to let them know the price had been reduced, so technically everyone who has viewed should know the current asking price. Waiting for feedback from a viewing on saturday also.

May have to sit down with EA and agree and plan of attack I think, especially with the other EA trying to tempt us into dual agency with them. We did consider offering the agents a higher commission if they sell it within the next two weeks whilst mentioning that we are being pursued by their competitor, in the hope that a bit of incentive would help encourage them to push it a bit harder. Or drop the price some more but then risk looking desperate?

Not sure what to do really, can't force someone to put an offer in! Also feeling a bit vulnerable as we're so new to this and so not sure what we should expect from the agents and how to tell if they're doing it right.

Fingers crossed this will be a productive week on the sales front for all those selling, I really feel for those that have been on the market for monthts, and appreciate it is still early days for our sale, just the time pressure making us panic!

muskoka

I always think dual agency is starting to show signs of desperation. Most people look on rightmove, so one agent is sufficient I feel

PasseySam

Thanks muskoka, we kind of thought that too - especially as you say with rightmove people should be seeing it anyway so I can't really see the benefit of dual agency if both agents have access to the same market.

guess we'll see how this week pans out and then reassess....

googler

goldbyron wrote: »

Wow - your 1 bedroom is more expensive than my 2 bedroom in a leafy part of London - 20 mins from the City.

Wow, indeed.

£209,950 gets the buyer a 4-bed detached house of recent build up my way..... or a 3-bed detached bungalow of slightly older build, etc etc

LandyAndy

goldbyron wrote: »

Wow - your 1 bedroom is more expensive than my 2 bedroom in a leafy part of London - 20 mins from the City. Is property really that expensive in Bristol! .

This is Clifton, though.

Always used to be the place to live in Bristol. Presumably it still is.

twisty

How are you getting on with the sale?

I ask as we are selling a 'high-end' one-bed flat as well (20ft bedroom, new kitchen, new bathroom, wooden floors etc). Ours has been on almost 2 weeks with only 3 viewings and no offers.

The flavour of the feedback has been that flat is lovely but put off by it being on a main road. As we can't change location, we are thinking of dropping the price to try and get more people through the door.

It's on at £138,950 at the moment, with an initial view to try and achieve £135,000. Thinking of dropping to just under £135,000 (one btl investor said she would not want to pay more than £130,000, but didn't officially make an offer for that amount). We would be pleased to sell for £130-135,000.

Not desperate to sell but don't want to open ourselves up to silly offers months down the line, when buyers see it has been on a while.

So very interested to hear how yours is going

PasseySam

Good news - we've agreed the sale of our flat! :j

Thanks so much for the helpful comments on here - we did have to come down a bit on price in the end but are looking for a quick exchange so fingers crossed it'll all go through ok.

I have to say that you guys were right about it just needing the right person - our current buyers were looking for just this type of flat and wouldn't have even put their house for sale until they found what they were looking for.

So Twisty I guess in hindsight making your flat appealing to a wide range of people is probably a good idea to maximise the chances of selling - if we had planned to sell instead of having to market the flat suddenly (for job changes) then perhaps a few decorative changes here and there might have appealed to more people.

Regarding price Twisty - I think it depends on how desperate you are to sell, I think if we had stuck it out we may have managed to get more for ours but we need to get moving as we are relocating. However as you say there is nothing you can do about flat being on a main road so you may have to lower your asking price.

Have you had any more luck since your posting here? I hope it's going well - I think the market is picking up a bit now it's getting to springtime and more people are looking, so fingers crossed you'll find a buyer soon for the right price.

Thanks again everyone :beer:

twisty

Well that's great news about your flat - can't wait until we are in your position!

We did actually decide to drop our price to £133,950, then it all went quiet for a few days and we started to panic! Had it out with our EA and have seen a steady drip of viewings since then (up to 6 in total). We have another one tomorrow morning.

So I'm keeping everything crossed. But to be honest, I'm just happy for now to be getting some people through the door.

We are willing to negotiate further on price, but I think it is fair as it is now. Not exactly desperate to sell quickly, but very keen! Feel a little bit like we're in limbo at the moment, but learning to live with it.

Will be exciting to be able to properly go flat-hunting and be in a position to put in an offer. Have you found anywhere to move to yet?

PasseySam

That's great that you're getting more viewings now - hopefully things will pick up from now on with the spring season! It's true you do feel in limbo - and quite helpless as there's nothing you can do until the right people walk through the door. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

Yes we have found somewhere and had our offer accepted on Saturday! Can't believe it though until we have it in writing and even then will be very nervous until contracts are exchanged on ours and the one we're buying - it all seems so fragile and could fall apart at any moment!

Good luck, I hope you find a buyer soon.... Try the sellers support network on the forum too, very supportive and lots of people in the same situation!