I don't trust my estate agent

BertieUK

googler wrote: »

Leaving aside all other issues, I'm left with the impression that your property is overpriced for the current market.

In all fareness, to arrive at that conclusion without visiting the property, and being able to give a realistic figure for the property's worth is not going to give your profession any Brownie Points.

myhouse_2

I don't see that the EA necessarily lied. Perhaps one is including the borrowing of funds from the father while the other is not. EAs can ask if the viewer has funds, but they can't really check - I certainly wouldn't entertain being asked to provide evidence to an EA before viewing.

Other than that, welcome to the buyer's market. Best thing to do is to encourage as many viewers as possible - since EAs can't genuinely check the finances of viewers - it is better to get as many through the door and hope that someone bites. Since you have had plenty viewers with no acceptable offers, sounds like you should probably drop the price. Other similar properties selling at a higher price is a useful indicator of value, but ultimately if no one is buying, you will need to either wait until someone does buy, improve your property in some way or reduce the price.

googler

BertieUK wrote: »

In all fareness, to arrive at that conclusion without visiting the property, and being able to give a realistic figure for the property's worth is not going to give your profession any Brownie Points.

Nobody who has viewed it in the flesh can afford the asking price (as evidenced by low offers from one section of viewers), nor wants to pay the asking price (as evidenced by lack of offers from other viewers).

Anyone else who has seen it advertised and hasn't viewed it yet, we can broadly assume, aren't interested in viewing at the current price.

What other conclusion can you reach from the evidence presented by the OP?

Yes, you or I may reach another conclusion having seen the house, but we have to base comments on what's posted herein, surely?

BertieUK

googler wrote: »

Nobody who has viewed it in the flesh can afford the asking price (as evidenced by low offers from one section of viewers), nor wants to pay the asking price (as evidenced by lack of offers from other viewers).

Anyone else who has seen it advertised and hasn't viewed it yet, we can broadly assume, aren't interested in viewing at the current price.

What other conclusion can you reach from the evidence presented by the OP?

Yes, you or I may reach another conclusion having seen the house, but we have to base comments on what's posted herein, surely?

Yes I can agree with many of your points that you make but assumptions cannot always tell the full story. I can only speak of the people that were sent to view the property that I had for sale four years ago.

With respect to the viewers that came, many of them you could tell were only coming for a look around with very little positive interest in purchasing.

It was on the market from September and did not sell until the following May. Ok it was a three bed detatched with attatched Granny Flat not the easiest property to sell, but the number of positive viewers were far outweighed by literally time wasters, this was also the comments of the EA in not so many words.

You have a great experience of the market place of that I am sure, and I respect that, but on a certain amount of properties you will experience what this seller has found, or maybe I have to admit that your assumption is correct given the evidence you state.

Better_Days

worried1959 wrote: »

This follows email correspondence in which he was pressing me to accept the very low offer made, despite having been told that it was £55K below prices achieved in the road in the last year and that it would not be possible for me to buy anything should I accept the price.

Looking back I am not sure that we have had more than a couple of viewers who could realistically have afforded the property and I think I am being put under some pressure to accept low offers since the agent does not have viewers actually able to afford the property.

The issue is that I would like to sell but would not now want this person to be handling the sale process since trust is absolutely essential

I agree that you need to be able to trust your EA. Have you asked why he thinks you should accept an offer £55k below those achieved in the area? Is your AP within £30-£50k of a SDLT threshold?

The important thing is whether or not your AP is reasonable in the light of recent sold prices for comparable properties in your area. Have you checked this online rather than taking the EA word for it? It is not unknown for EA's to value high to get the business and then encourage the vendor to drop his price when there is no interest at that level.

Your EA may be encouraging low offers just to get the sale and their commission. Where does the AP fit in with the range of properties that your EA sells? ie are most of the properties on his books cheaper than yours? If you have told your EA you want a quick sale, then that may also be encouraging low offers.

I don't think that your property is necessarily over priced, the market does seem to be slow in many areas, especially at this time of year. IIRC 'googler' is an EA so his/her posts need to be read with this in mind.

If you are brave enough you could post the RM link and you will get some feedback re pricing.

What you could do is decide the minimum you will accept and ask your EA not to pass on any lower offers. In the meantime shop around for an EA you can trust, and if you find one you like go multi agency until the contract ends with your current agent. This will also be a good opportunity to get other agents views on AP.

GL

C_Mababejive

Who would trust an EA? All most of them are are simply pimps in smart cars. They pimp out your home and if necessary,manipulate the sale for their benefit AND they seek to exploit purchasers by sticking their nose into their financial affairs. Its your home. You decide having done your research,how much you are prepared to accept. If your not happy,let the contract run its course and dump them. As for checking purchasers,any EA who wished to check my financial position would be told that it was non of their business. I would simply place my bid and copy in the seller.

moneyistooshorttomention

myhouse wrote: »

I don't see that the EA necessarily lied. Perhaps one is including the borrowing of funds from the father while the other is not. EAs can ask if the viewer has funds, but they can't really check - I certainly wouldn't entertain being asked to provide evidence to an EA before viewing.

Other than that, welcome to the buyer's market. Best thing to do is to encourage as many viewers as possible - since EAs can't genuinely check the finances of viewers - it is better to get as many through the door and hope that someone bites. Since you have had plenty viewers with no acceptable offers, sounds like you should probably drop the price. Other similar properties selling at a higher price is a useful indicator of value, but ultimately if no one is buying, you will need to either wait until someone does buy, improve your property in some way or reduce the price.

But then we know that some estate agents send "fake" buyers round to view places for sale. I realised this when one made an attempt to send me round to view a nearby "rival house" - rather than send me the paper details I was requesting numerous times. I think sending a "flood of viewers" (ostensibly) round to a house might be an estate agent tactic to get the seller to bring in an unjustifiable cut in price so that the estate agent can "turn the house round" quickly for THEIR sake.

Certainly - on the house the estate agent tried to get me round to "fake view" it is the case that that agent has made/is making quite a hash of selling this house by getting their paperwork/website entries all properly and efficiently done. Guess "fake views" take less arranging than making sure of proper/efficient info. on the house-selling details?

I'd drop that estate agent personally and find one who was only going to send genuine viewers round (there's no way of catering for the "view on a Sunday afternoon as a hobby brigade", but at least it would cut out a lot of the timewasters and stop raising the vendors hopes and then dashing them again at regular intervals.

I've chosen my estate agent carefully to make as sure as I can that I only have genuine viewers round - to avoid my hopes getting constantly raised and dashed.

(NB: I know there are unrealistic sellers around - as I'm watching a couple near me with interest currently - but the OP doesnt strike me to date as being one of them. What I mean by "unrealistic sellers" is that there are 2x 3 bedroom terrace houses for sale nearby at exactly the same price. Both have bedroom 3 in a converted loft. BUT..the one that came onto the market last of those two is overpriced, because their house is in a cheaper road and has the original outside loo and a lean-to needing demolishing, the bathroom isnt shown in a photo and so is probably old-fashioned and the whole house is average/old-fashioned, whereas the first house is good standard/fairly modern/done by people with mid-price range standards).

Hoof_Hearted

Doing your own viewings is fascinating. We quickly sussed out those who were really just getting a feel for the nmarket and what was available at a price point. Yes, they are time wasters but we would probably do the same thing. Then there were those that were dead keen and a middle bunch who kept their cards close to their chest who we had down as doubtfuls. We had several offers but, surprisingly, a "doubtful" bought it in the end, being keen enough to trump all other offers.

zappahey

Better_Days wrote: »

I agree that you need to be able to trust your EA.

It's probably more important to understand their motivation and how that differs from the seller's.

The seller wants the best possible price, the EA wants a sale and price is much less important to them.

It's important to understand the local market so that you can recognise when the EA is putting their interest before that of the seller.

Poppy9

Hoof_Hearted wrote: »

We had several offers but, surprisingly, a "doubtful" bought it in the end, being keen enough to trump all other offers.

Family/friends have found that it's always the doubtful, don't say much viewers who put in serious offers! The I love it, want it are rarely heard from again!