Viewings...

System

Absolutely agree with the hiding stuff in the oven/dishwasher,washing machine - have done both of these (and forgotten about the stuff being there too) lol

Contessa

lessonlearned wrote: »

I can be brief.:rotfl::rotfl:

1. Pitch it at a fair price.
2. Make sure your property is in show-house condition at all times, inside and out.
3. Do the viewings yourself - no-one knows your house and your location the way you do.
4. Re-read my last post about being flexible and friendly. Yes it's a bit "wordy" but it says it all:D
5. Know your facts and figures, council tax, running costs, schools if applicable.
6. Be generous - with your time, your knowledge, with the tea and biccies and with any extras.

An example of extras - white goods you leave behind, nice light fittings, curtain tracks, blinds, curtains, carpets, the odd rug you no longer need. Don't haggle over these - toss them into the deal as a "free" extra.

Finally - have your documentation ready to minimise delays - before you even put your house on the market. Have a house sale file containing all paperwork such as guarantees for works carried out, gas and electricity safety certificates, building regs, proof of planning permissions, instructions for all appliances, boiler etc. Show them to the purchaser at the second or third viewing.

Be positive, be pro-active, pay attention to what you are doing, treat it as you would your job, give it some "welly", put your back into it and be prepared to work for that sale.

I cannot stress enough that selling your home is a business deal just like any other so be professional. Keep your personal feelings out of it - remember you are not selling your home, you are selling a house.

Keep your opinions to yourself, take the task seriously and put some effort into it. Be prepared to be inconvenienced occasionally, to put yourself out and to put your life on hold if necessary.

If you get it right it won't be for long - then not only can you get back to your life but you can start your new one in your new home.

Good luck.

Contessa - if you have a specific query pm me and I will try to help. If you want to post piccies for my appraisal and advice post your rightmove link and I will give you a professional opinion. Free of charge!!!

Lessonlearned,
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my question-such help is much appreciated!
I can and will do those things you suggested.The task that will be the most difficult for me is to get my house into showhome condition. I'll be putting various boxes of books, ornaments, pictures etc out into the garage then that just leaves a bedroom , used for storage, to be redecorated. Oh, and get someone in to tidy the garden. Nearly there.
I'm actually looking forward to showing potential viewers around my lovely house-I love the house, garden and neighbourhood and the only reason I'm selling is so I can retire down south. I just hope someone comes along who loves it as much as I do.
Once again, thank you for your help and I'll pm you when I think it's "ready"

phoebe1989seb

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Actually the comments that scare the wits out of me most are those that imply EVERYONE has to take a large discount off their asking price - without the person concerned saying what area of the country they are in and implying that the whole country is like this. Much of the country is, quite possibly, like this - but I do stamp feet with frustration that they don't "tell the whole picture" - ie that it ISNT like that in some other parts (like mine for instance:D). But...hey...I just say "no" to anyone who has read those posts without realising that it doesnt apply to our part of the country...its just the frustration element of getting a "read this forum and take no account of this part of country" would-be buyer turning up (but hopefully they will have exhausted themselves already trying that on several other houses here and realised what level of offer is appropriate round here and I won't be one of their "exhaust themselves trying it" houses for any of them - fingers crossed and think positive that they will have got that out of their system elsewhere first.

Floorcoverings are automatically getting thrown in and most of the house has the "final mid-price range neutral" carpet/laminate/etc - so they will be getting something rather worthwhile without question to start with. The curtains - I will leave one set that are specially for this house at an awkward window "to suit" on this. The rest are mine - so will come with me. Light fittings - standard cheap...will be staying here. Garden (back yard to be accurate) storage cupboard staying. A couple of large posh plants in back yard staying. (So thats probably around £2k of freebies thrown in anyway).

Don't know about estate agents generally doing the viewing as to whether its the norm hereabout - think it probably is. I did specifically say to my agent that, being a woman on my own, I would feel safer anyway having an agent doing this and was this something they automatically do. She said it is a service provided to all buyers as part of the service. To me - that is worth just taking her (reasonable I felt) quote of their fees and accepting just as it stands, rather than trying to haggle it down a bit. I'd rather she was a "happy bunny" that I'd just automatically accepted their standard price - as she's more likely to put herself out and do the job of selling well for me. One reason for choosing her too was she's positively (genuinely) charming and friendly.

No chance of throwing anything anywhere much in a laundry basket to get it out of the way. No garage/shed/conservatory/utility room in this place. Its too small a house (from my pov) to have anywhere spare to stash things out of the way. Its full of my stuff already - hence part of the move is to get a bit bigger house.

Re: estate agents - when we were selling our family house (asking price £600k) all the agents we invited round had a policy that for their *higher bracket* properties (circa £500k plus) they expected to carry out viewings - that was on the South Coast. Since moving to a smaller house in 2007 and selling that in 2011 we found the agents (different part of the country - S East - so not sure if that made a difference) automatically assumed the vendor would do their own viewings. On moving to another different part of the country (S West) we found the agents were again in charge of the viewings on the houses we looked at.......

We found that whilst there are definitely advantages in showing potential buyers around yourself, mainly due to your own wealth of knowledge about your own house, sometimes an agent can come in useful.......I could have really done with the agent doing the viewing when I had to single-handedly show a convicted killer around our former house :eek:

Personally, whilst I can appreciate it does work for many we don't go down the rented route when we move to a new area - although this has been to our cost on one particular occasion - because we literally have way too much *stuff* for this to work......when removals cost in excess of £4k you can't do it too often!

lessonlearned

No problem, Contessa - it's a pleasure to help. I just love property.

If you love your home you can be sure that someone else will love it too. Your enthusiasm will be infectious.

My buyers were so excited. They loved my house and were chomping at the bit to move in.

I gave up my career in 2006 to care for my disabled husband. He is now unfortunately in a nursing home so I'm now free to work again.

However, despite being offered several jobs (sorry don't mean to sound cocky) I have now decided to work for myself. When I say work I love it so much, it's not work to me - it's pleasure. I'd do it for nothing - well almost.:rotfl:

Part developer, part BTl, part EA if anyone wants my services.

In addition to my long career in property I also have a BA in art and design, together with experience in setting up and running show-houses, renovating furniture, buying and selling antiques so I am also well placed to act as a "House Doctor"

So my "retirement" looks like it's going to quite busy.

It's going to be fun......

Better_Days

lessonlearned wrote: »

However, please be aware that the lovely charming, knowledgeable and clued up person who did the valuation and signed you up will not necessarily be the person who will be doing the viewings.

Many viewings are contracted out to someone who just does viewings on a casual basis. Some will have no training, experience, or knowledge. They just turn up with a key, let the viewer in and then stand around like a stuffed dummy, making no attempt to build up a rapport with the viewer and unable to answer the simplest question.

This is a really good point. I signed up with my current EA on the understanding that the knowledgable clued up person who did the valuation also did the viewings.

One of the main reasons for problems with many EA's is that the staff who do the viewings, sales progression, answer the phone are poorly trained. A bit like a hotel, the valuers are 'front of house', but unfortunately the rest of the staff don't measure up to the standard of the valuers.

lessonlearned

Gifferz

Just a quickie. Thanks for your pm - glad you enjoyed my posts.

Your pm was very long and unfortunately you left me no room to reply. I am a technophobe and have no success with sending pms and can only manage by using the "reply" facility if you catch my drift.:o

Send me a short pm - just a line to make up sufficient word count and I will get back to you.

Maybe not today because I have a full on day. Yesterday I posted quite a bit because I was resting after my house move.

Today it's time to get cracking.

BertieUK

lessonlearned wrote: »

Who does the viewings, vendor or EA is down to personal choice, and differing circumstances, work, illness, small children, vendor's nervousness..... .

However, please be aware that the lovely charming, knowledgeable and clued up person who did the valuation and signed you up will not necessarily be the person who will be doing the viewings.



This is why the vendor can often be the best person to do the viewings.

The vendor has a vested interest, can answer questions, more to the point can ask questions, can volunteer information, can build up a good rapport with the viewer. There are a lot of advantages to diy viewings.

I have read your recent posts with great interest and thank you for your informative content, know doubt you may have read my recent post on this thread #89, pasted below,and would appretiate your comments, when you have a moment, as to what you would consider a fair % commission that I should work to achieving with my local EA.

We will be putting our property onto the market within the next few weeks and my wife is looking forward to being there when the viewings takes place, and has intimated that she would prefer to conduct them herself if that could be arranged.

I am not so sure if that is the best idea but she in judging what happened on the sale of our last property four years ago, whereby the EA staff sometimes did not meet the standard of viewing that she expected, sometimes hardly contributing very much information and sometimes hardly any at all. I said to my wife well perhaps the EA staff felt intimidated at her presence.

Sometimes the EA apologised by saying that they had an interested party that wanted to view but as they were so busy they could not cover the viewing and asked if she could cover for them, of which she did but was not pleased at stumping up the high percentage rate called commission. This time we will be trying for 1%

We can only judge on experience and comment likewise.

DaftyDuck

Personally, I'd either do the viewings myself, with no E.A., or leave the house, and let them get on with it. Having both present is worst of all worlds , in my humble. If you don't think the E.A. is up to doing the viewings well enough, find another agency that is, because they'll also not be up to marketing it, or getting the best price.

For a first viewing I actually prefer the agent to do it. Why? Weeds out timewasters, and the agency don't just send everybody, if they have to get out of the warm office to do it. A good agent can, if necessary, appear more neutral ("no, I don't like the plain Axminster carpet & curtains in here myself, but if you imagine it with a lovely pink carpet and fluffy floral curtains, it'll look so much more 'you', don't you think?"). A good agent will also know what other houses are on the market (with other agents), so what else they may be off to view. A good agent is wasting their professional time, and a viewer tends not to feel rushed out of the house. They are also quite able to say "I don't know" and not be thought to be hiding anything. If a purchaser is interested in the house, he'll stay interested, whoever shows it.

Thinking about it (and being honest over the anonymous internet) some of the most strained (and brief) viewings I have done were where agent and vendor were both present. One house in the street where I have currently bought is still known to us two as the "gurning man's house"! He hovered just behind the agent, looming over his shoulder and.... gurned... again and again. Agent tripped over him each time he turned round... eugh!

Not that I'm saying your wife wouldn't be perfect doing the viewings on her own... just not with....

BertieUK

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Personally, I'd either do the viewings myself, with no E.A., or leave the house, and let them get on with it. Having both present is worst of all worlds , in my humble. If you don't think the E.A. is up to doing the viewings well enough, find another agency that is, because they'll also not be up to marketing it, or getting the best price.

For a first viewing I actually prefer the agent to do it. Why? Weeds out timewasters, and the agency don't just send everybody, if they have to get out of the warm office to do it. A good agent can, if necessary, appear more neutral ("no, I don't like the plain Axminster carpet & curtains in here myself, but if you imagine it with a lovely pink carpet and fluffy floral curtains, it'll look so much more 'you', don't you think?"). A good agent will also know what other houses are on the market (with other agents), so what else they may be off to view. A good agent is wasting their professional time, and a viewer tends not to feel rushed out of the house. They are also quite able to say "I don't know" and not be thought to be hiding anything. If a purchaser is interested in the house, he'll stay interested, whoever shows it.

Thinking about it (and being honest over the anonymous internet) some of the most strained (and brief) viewings I have done were where agent and vendor were both present. One house in the street where I have currently bought is still known to us two as the "gurning man's house"! He hovered just behind the agent, looming over his shoulder and.... gurned... again and again. Agent tripped over him each time he turned round... eugh!

Not that I'm saying your wife wouldn't be perfect doing the viewings on her own... just not with....

My wife takes on board all of your comments with great interest and can see that it can be a case of 'too many cooks can spoil the broth' on many occasions.

We think that we would let the EA take the first viewing and then maybe my wife could be 'on hand' to answer any questions that arise.

As I said before we can only comment on EA performance from our past experiences and find that Forums such as these are a great way of learning the best proceedures to adopt in one of the most important sale you can conduct.

Thanking you once again...

Lady_Tara

lessonlearned wrote: »

As some of you know I am a retired property professional so here's my take.

Sold my house in 3 weeks flat, we legally complete tomorrow.

I'd second that lessonlearned's advice is spot on. I sold (in 2 days) during October 2012, while next door (similar house on identikit estate) was on 4 weeks before ours and another 5 weeks after.

The differences in the houses? I'd spent weekends before getting mine ready to sell. It was a pain in the b*m for sure, working full time with a young family then coming home to gloss skirting boards, fill minor cracks in joints, repaint the rooms we'd not bothered with since we had moved in etc etc but it was totally worth it.

Balance this with next door who didn't tidy anywhere up, left their back garden as a dog play area and on the front garden just sprayed their weeds instead of pulling them up (nice yellow weeds left!:rotfl:).

They were stunned when comparing notes over the fence after we sold so quickly. They then started carting stuff out and taking their pets out when doing some viewings. Even so, they accepted an offer £29k less than asking price (£249 went for £220 whereas we accepted £11k less and completed smoothly.

So in my experience it was worth de-personalising my home and being slightly inconvenienced rather than expecting buyers to accommodate me.

We've now moved into rented so that we are chain free for our next move, which obviously does mean short term hassle for us, but getting the house sold was our main priority.