Wanting to take property off the Market

lessonlearned

WineDarkSea wrote: »

Thanks Duchy. I've already done this and felt like the bad person. I like having the livingroom covered in toys and hate constantly sweep and mopping floors. It's not fair on the kids to hide their toys and interrupt their naps/meals. We've had a fair amount of interest which is why it's been tough but also why I'm a little surprised by the loss of confidence. We have a low offer already so maybe they will pull it out of the bag. It really doesn't feel like they are working for me.

Ex - sales negotiator here.

Selling a house with young children can be hell.

I suggest you tell your agent which days suit you best and work round it that way.Restrict viewings to a time that is convenient for you and your family.

I agree take some control over viewings, however, some flexibility on your part may be required. Sometimes a genuinely interested party may only be able to make it on a certain day. For example they may live out of the area and will be making a special visit to your area that day.

Find out if that is the case and, if so, then insist that the agent does the viewing for you if you are busy - even if you are at home. You don't need to vacate your home just because you have a viewing and you don't have to do viewings yourself if you don't want to. Make the agent do them if it is easier for you.

Don't worry about toys lying around. Most reasonable people will appreciate that you are living a real life. It's your nome not a show house. Obviously try and avoid dirty dishes or dirty nappies etc lying around. But a few toys and a bit of baby paraphenalia won't hurt. A little homely clutter might even work in your favour. You can go too far with the presentation and make your home seem sterile.

Re the pricing structure - there's no exact science to this. The EA may well have inflated the price to get your house on their books. On the other hand he may have realised that you are not desperate to sell and may be just trying to get you a good price.

It's easy enough to check out the competition and see how your property stacks up against similar properties in your area.

Remember in all except the hottest of hot spots it's a buyers' market. Any prospective purchaser will want to haggle and get that bargain. It is highly unlikely you will get your full asking price.

Even in a brisk market achieving a full asking price is rare - unless the market is white hot and you have more than one interested party. In the current market you can expect offers to be at least 10% lower than your asking price. A cheeky offer will be substantially lower than that.

If you wish to cancel your contract you will be required to pay an exit fee. Unless you have agreed to pay any extras such as premium listing on Right Move or any additional advertising then you should not be required to make any other payments. It is normal practice to either pay or part pay for some extras in advance.

If you allow the contract to run to full term and comply with the terms - ie allowing viewings etc then you can withdraw your house from the market and just walk away when the contract expires. You will have fulfilled your obligations.

If you are just dipping your toe in the water and have no urgency in selling then just jog along for now and see what happens. You may receive an offer which is acceptable to you, you may not. If the offer is not high enough then it is your right to refuse it.

Refusing low offers does not negate the terms of your contract. You are in no way obliged to sell your property at below market value unless you want to.

If you are getting plenty of interest then, so far, your agent is doing their job. They are doing what they promised - introducing potential purchasers to your property. They are fulfilling their side of the bargain. So far so good - the rest is a waiting game.

WineDarkSea

Thanks LessonsLearned. Some sound advice. It looks like we were badly advised and we will wait out the end of the contract. Fee is only payable during the term of the contract so we won't have to pay if we sit it out and we might get the right offer like the nearby flat or we stay put/rent it out. Shame I didn't push husband into buying in the neighbouring area, he didn't like the layout. Those flats have gained £100k in three years!

JimmyTheWig

OP, there was someone on here a while ago saying that their contract with the EA meant that they had to pay to come off the EA's books whenever they came off - regardless of the timeframe.
Can you confirm that this is _not_ what you are talking about? You are just saying that you would have to pay a fee to cancel early?

If we are talking about a fee to cancel early then that's really just got to be a fee to stop you from going elsewhere / doing it yourself. If you decide not to sell then I'd be tempted to tell them so they can stop throwing good money after bad.
But it sounds like you do want to sell, just want to achieve asking price and restrict viewings.


One more question...
Has the EA suggested that you drop the asking price or just said that you may well need to accept an offer below the asking price?
If the former then I think you are within your (moral, at least) rights to want to cancel the contract as the whole deal was based around a duff valuation.
If the latter, then did you not realise that people make offers when buying somewhere? Did you make an offer when you bought the place?

Judith_W

I'm another for suggesting that you stick to your guns on price and make that clear to the EA that your can't afford to move for less than that, and stipulate restricted viewing times. If someone wants to come round outside of that time you do the bare minimum to have the house presentable.

To note, we viewed a house that had tenants and you pretty much couldn't see the floor, or get into the built in cupboards etc, dishes in the sink etc. It didn't put us off as you are looking at the structure and layout of the property and look past the mess.

WineDarkSea

Judith - I wish everyone were so open minded but I suspect people don't always have the imagination to ignore our stuff. We have decluttered a fair bit and save for specific kid mess it's pretty tidy, enough for friends to visit anyway.

I've let them have two week days and Saturday. I hate being around for viewings and I know it makes viewers uncomfortable.

I have kept on about not going below (within reason) but they keep on about price and the possibility that we may have to 'look' at the price. So I've not yet been asked to lower the price but I have been given strong hints that they will do. I'm well aware of offers and asking prices but this varies area to area so I was somewhat reliant on the estate agent's local expertise. When we bought houses were selling close to if not at or over asking price, including one we offered on at the same time as our current proprerty which we bought a little below asking price. As I mentioned a near by similar property has held out for asking price and got it at £10k under our asking price. Same floor space but no parking among other things.

I would not have put the property on the Market at this time had I not been convinced that asking price would be achievable. I also didn't think it was right to price it above the stamp duty threshold just so people think they are negotiating us down. I was given recent, local, comparable evidence of house prices achieved by the branch manager, unfortunately his staff don't share his confidence and they are trying to 'manage my expectations' in a rather annoying and persistent way.

The fee is only payable if we withdraw during the term of the contract, so 15 weeks including the 28 days and then we are free without incurring a fee.

evuliuxb

Your EA sounds a lot like our previous EA:D they were full of confidence of selling within 6 weeks, achieving our asking price and more, promised to keep us updated, informed and give feedbacks.... as soon as we were on their books, suddenly people started turning up for viewings without us even knowing about it, always had to chase them up, arranged viewings for people who were looking for a much cheaper flats (budgets of 30k or so less than our asking price, and the asking price was 135k) after 3 weeks of being on the market they called us and advised that we should reduce the price by at least 15k and so on:mad: good thing we only had 6 weeks contract with them (negotiated it down from 16 weeks) so ran as far as we could from them as soon as 6 weeks were up:D listed the property with another EA and got an offer very close to asking price within first week:T

My advise would be stick with them until contract expires, limit them to specific days for viewings and stick to your price (assuming it's not overpriced for your area). Next time you put it on the market, negotiate negotiate negotiate;) EA want you on their books, so price, contract clauses, contract lengths can be negotiated the way you want them. Just play the game-mmm... would like you to market my property, but another EA agreed much better price, oh, and he promised that contract won't tie us in for more than 8 weeks.... exit clause??? oh noooo, that's a deal breaker:D

good luck!

JimmyTheWig

WineDarkSea wrote: »

I have kept on about not going below (within reason) but they keep on about price and the possibility that we may have to 'look' at the price. So I've not yet been asked to lower the price but I have been given strong hints that they will do.

When they do say about lowering the price, ask them what they think has changed since they valued it the first time!

I also didn't think it was right to price it above the stamp duty threshold just so people think they are negotiating us down.

Personal preference, but I think I'd be tempted (probably not now, but maybe with a new agent if that's what you decide to do) to price it just above the threashold. Not so you are pretending that people are getting a bargain but I think that would imply that you're willing to take the threshold price. With it priced at the threshold people may well expect to get money off the advertised price.

The fee is only payable if we withdraw during the term of the contract, so 15 weeks including the 28 days and then we are free without incurring a fee.

That's good news.
Stick to your guns about wanting the price they said you'd be able to get and it will either sell for that or it won't. If they think it's too expensive to be worth them pushing then that's up to them.

WineDarkSea

Thanks for the advice. I have given the manager the option the discuss but he maintains he is confident in achieving the right price. So fine I will let it ride out and we will be free and won't have to pay them if we remarket in the new year elsewhere. But who knows maybe it will work out and we will get the offer.

It is tempting to pay the fee and sign up to another agency with a better deal to make up for the loss. But that would be just to ditch them/pee them off and we'd still have the possibility of no sale.

I do suspect they may not have a copy of our contract as the original and copy was sent to me without a date and a letter asking me to sign it. They also don't have any proof of ID/ownership. And they have not yet written to me about the offer they had and I suspect they don't intend to.

Is anyone is aware of whether I am contractually obliged to hold a certain amount of viewings or allow a certain amount etc?

Thank You!

JimmyTheWig

WineDarkSea wrote: »

It is tempting to pay the fee and sign up to another agency with a better deal to make up for the loss. But that would be just to ditch them/pee them off and we'd still have the possibility of no sale.

No reason not to find out what terms you could get elsewhere and ask your current agent to match them. They probably won't want to, as you've already signed up, but they might if they think it will keep you as a customer for longer...

I do suspect they may not have a copy of our contract as the original and copy was sent to me without a date and a letter asking me to sign it. They also don't have any proof of ID/ownership.

I wouldn't think that matters if it is their standard, reasonable terms.

Is anyone is aware of whether I am contractually obliged to hold a certain amount of viewings or allow a certain amount etc?

Not that I am aware of, but as long as you are reasonable about when you can do viewings (which you seem to be) then I can't see it being a problem.
If they are adamant that they can get the asking price and you still want to sell at the asking price then it is in both of your interests to find times that suit for viewings.

johnnyredgate

What term is your contract for? I would be inclined to sit it out, hold firm on your asking price (if it was too high you wouldn't be getting all the viewings) and give the agent a set time on a day of the week for all viewings to take place, at the end of the day if it sells you will be paying them and they should be providing your better service and you should be in control.