Can anyone advise me

jackie_w

Hi There,

There is a house im really interested in, but, my EA told me its been on the market for a while (its being sold with another EA), anyway, I wanted to know how long its been up for sale. Is there anyway, I can find out?

The EA who is selling it did say that they had it on their books for 3 weeks, but, there hasnt been alot of interest, but, told us, another EA had it on the market but, didnt know how long they had it on the market for.

Theres, obviously a reason why its not selling, and I dont think it would be the price (current owners bought it in 3 years ago for £237000, and now, its on the market for offers over £227,000).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, because, if I can find out this info before I get a survey done on the property it would be helpful.

Jackie

cattie

As you are in Scotland I'm not sure if things work the same up there. Down here in the south you could either phone up the other ea & ask them or you could ask the vendor directly. Although of course the vendor may be a bit cagey if they feel the property has been on the market for too long themselves. Also If there is a sale board outside the property you could try to get hold of one of the neighbours & ask if they noticed when the property first went up for sale.

Mozette

I think you really need to book a viewing, and talk to the vendors. Just curious, if you're interested in the house, why not go and see it and make your own mind up? I got my current house for a really good price - I think it was just the dated decor that was putting people off, it had been up for best part of a year - a few tins of paint and new carpet to replace the 1970s horror that was here and I still have a bargain. There are all sorts of reasons why houses don't sell, not all of them bad!

benood

The only other way will be to go down to your local library and go through back copies of the local property mag/paper looking for ads - bit of a bore but would work.

lynzpower

Cant you just ask your estate agent again? My understanding of the property misdescriptions act is that they cannot lie to you.

I agree what does it matter as to how long it has been on?

If its right for you and others have overlooked it then nice one :beer:

courtjester

It's not really covered by the PMA, although it is correct that estate agents are not permitted to give misleading statements about a property, they are free to decline to answer or not offer information.

The Property Misdescriptions Act lists a number of "Prescribed Matters" that the Act requires estate agents to be truthful about by law, one of which is no.15:

>>
The length of time during which land has been available for sale, either generally or through a particular person
<<

I am a bit surprised at this (I had to look it up) as it's hardly a statement about the property description, but it's there all the same. HOWEVER, Trading Standards advice on the subject suggests that this is not about buyers asking how long a property has been on the market, but the way agents use "new instruction" flags on their marketing - in other words, they must not use this excessively, namely calling a property "new" when they have in fact been marketing for over a month.

Going back to the OP questions, I would say that the agent has complied with their requirements to state what they know - i.e 3 weeks with them, possibly longer through another agent. The law doesn't require the agent to KNOW the answer to the question, merely not to lie about their knowledge.

Lynz, I am with you on this - I don't see there is significant value in knowing that a property has been on the market for X months /weeks /years - that ignores the possibility that the price may well have been adjusted in that time (up or down) to create interest, so it doesn't automatically follow that a vendor will accept any silly offer made on the current asking price, just becasue it is known the property has been for sale for some time - during 2006, you could say that about MOST property on the market !

What's really important is the *current* asking price and offers should be measured against this and how this compares with competing properties of similar specification on sale now.