Viewings...

Contessa

Lessonlearned,
You sold your house in three weeks! Fantastic-any tips please as I'm shortly going to put mine on the market? Sorry if it's inappropriate to ask but it's taken me a long time to get this far and I do want to sell!

googler

Contessa wrote: »

Lessonlearned,
You sold your house in three weeks! Fantastic-any tips please as I'm shortly going to put mine on the market? Sorry if it's inappropriate to ask but it's taken me a long time to get this far and I do want to sell!

You want him/her to write even more....?

lessonlearned

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!!!

moneyistooshorttomention

Point taken about keeping all documentation ready. I will certainly have a little folder ready with all relevant info. in it - and tell the estate agent she can tell them it's all ready to hand when required, so that they won't have any delays in buying the house.

I think it's going to vary according to the person as to whether we wish to show people round ourselves or get the estate agent to do so. My own take is that the estate agent will do it - as thats part of what I'm paying such a hefty fee for. I wouldnt want to show buyers round myself - as I wouldnt trust myself to do "smooth professional don't take offence if you spot a look or comment thats a bit critical of the house". Whereas the estate agent is being paid to be "smooth professional/no feelings involved".

Re being prepared to "put life on hold" whilst selling - well...thats one thing if it will only take a week or two to sell and no house preparation is necessary first...but what if it takes a few months? It's not possible to put a "life on hold" for the sake of, frankly, allowing would-be buyers to be selfish and allow viewings ad infinitum. What has to be borne in mind is that many sellers (myself included) will have spent weeks getting the house "ready for sale" as it is and put their lives on hold. Mine has been on hold for the last few weeks getting this house ready for the fussy buyers of 2013 and I'm about to start getting my life into gear and into Retirement Mode next week and I'll be getting on with classes here/social events there/etc and only too delighted to have my life back at last after weeks of the house coming first.

I will trust personally that my would-be buyers will have consideration and manners enough not to think of joining in this very recent trend that a few people are trying to push of allowing more than two viewings. It wasnt that common when I bought this house to have even a 2nd viewing and I knew it was being a little bit cheeky to ask if I could come back a 2nd time and bring my parents with me. They allowed it and I did in the event, but I wouldnt have even dreamed of bringing in anyone other than my parents for a look round a strangers home or expecting to have more than 2 disruptions to their lives.

However, letting would-be buyers start thinking "We'd like it to be the norm for a 3rd viewing, 4th viewing, etc" could lead to before you know it Society regards any number of viewings as normal and acceptable and poor sellers are being put right, left and centre through being expected to "put their lives on hold" for the sake of allowing what is - frankly - selfishness of "Everyone must be there available on demand when we want - even if its for the most trivial of reasons - like yet another person we wish to show round someone else's home".

So I'd like my buyers to have manners/consideration/not be selfish types - not because "there is something to hide". Fortunately - would-be buyers are less able to get away with selfishness/lack of consideration trying for umpteen views of a house in a "reasonable to fast pace" market that there is in some parts of the country:D and I'm in a "reasonable pace" part:D

cbrown372

I take it you have never actually sold a house before?

hazyjo

But it is normal to want a third viewing. The average might be two, but it is not unusual. It's got nothing to do with 'fussy buyers of 2013'. It's cos that's a lot of bloody money on the table, and it's generally 'buyer beware'. You have to be thorough.

You cannot 'black and white' it. If I needed a third viewing to price something up and the vendor said no, I would be very tempted to pull out of the sale. I would wonder what they were hiding. I certainly would not wait until exchange to view again as it'd be too late to pull out then.

I only viewed the last house I bought once. However, we did go back with my parents, and then again with my ex's dad (both dads had cancer and we've since lost them both). It was important for us to show it to my ex's dad - who we knew didn't have long (and died the month after we moved in).

lessonlearned has summed it all up in their longer post. Don't want to quote it all, but it's pretty much spot on.

If someone is spending hundreds of thousands of pounds (our last one was over £400k and I don't think three viewings was at all unreasonable!), they should be able to view it several times. It's different if they're umming and ahhing over it, but if they're viewing for a purpose, so be it.

Jx

Davesnave

cbrown372 wrote: »

I take it you have never actually sold a house before?

I don't think MITSTM has any idea how her posts read to someone who has had a succession of sales fall through.....;)

In the pre-Crash days I was very naive. Perhaps like many of us here, the Internet helped me to learn.

lessonlearned

My understanding is that no, Money hasn't had to sell a property before - which is why I have been so patient and generous with my time and advice ....All for free.

Money - one last piece of advice which, your EA, for all their "hefty fee", will be too polite to give you.

Change your attitude or you will be in for a bumpy ride.

DRP

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Point taken about keeping all documentation ready. I will certainly have a little folder ready with all relevant info. in it - and tell the estate agent she can tell them it's all ready to hand when required, so that they won't have any delays in buying the house.

I think it's going to vary according to the person as to whether we wish to show people round ourselves or get the estate agent to do so. My own take is that the estate agent will do it - as thats part of what I'm paying such a hefty fee for. I wouldnt want to show buyers round myself - as I wouldnt trust myself to do "smooth professional don't take offence if you spot a look or comment thats a bit critical of the house". Whereas the estate agent is being paid to be "smooth professional/no feelings involved".

Re being prepared to "put life on hold" whilst selling - well...thats one thing if it will only take a week or two to sell and no house preparation is necessary first...but what if it takes a few months? It's not possible to put a "life on hold" for the sake of, frankly, allowing would-be buyers to be selfish and allow viewings ad infinitum. What has to be borne in mind is that many sellers (myself included) will have spent weeks getting the house "ready for sale" as it is and put their lives on hold. Mine has been on hold for the last few weeks getting this house ready for the fussy buyers of 2013 and I'm about to start getting my life into gear and into Retirement Mode next week and I'll be getting on with classes here/social events there/etc and only too delighted to have my life back at last after weeks of the house coming first.

I will trust personally that my would-be buyers will have consideration and manners enough not to think of joining in this very recent trend that a few people are trying to push of allowing more than two viewings. It wasnt that common when I bought this house to have even a 2nd viewing and I knew it was being a little bit cheeky to ask if I could come back a 2nd time and bring my parents with me. They allowed it and I did in the event, but I wouldnt have even dreamed of bringing in anyone other than my parents for a look round a strangers home or expecting to have more than 2 disruptions to their lives.

However, letting would-be buyers start thinking "We'd like it to be the norm for a 3rd viewing, 4th viewing, etc" could lead to before you know it Society regards any number of viewings as normal and acceptable and poor sellers are being put right, left and centre through being expected to "put their lives on hold" for the sake of allowing what is - frankly - selfishness of "Everyone must be there available on demand when we want - even if its for the most trivial of reasons - like yet another person we wish to show round someone else's home".

So I'd like my buyers to have manners/consideration/not be selfish types - not because "there is something to hide". Fortunately - would-be buyers are less able to get away with selfishness/lack of consideration trying for umpteen views of a house in a "reasonable to fast pace" market that there is in some parts of the country:D and I'm in a "reasonable pace" part:D

a gem of a post! :rotfl:

moneyistooshorttomention

For information, I won't be saying no about any unusual request for a 3rd viewing - I will ask my estate agent if she has the time to show them around again and why do they want a 3rd one/have they said why?

If it's at a time when I'm due to be in - I will arrange to go out for a walk and leave her to it to do this.

I was going to give my phone number to potential buyers in case of any problems - but I think that WAS naive of me - as chances are that they might use to try and arrange a 3rd viewing directly with me. So I won't hand over my phone number or email address to them after all and just make sure that the whole thing is dealt with totally by my estate agent (whereas I was prepared to handle any odd query my potential buyer had before, not realising this "Its 2013 so we might ask for a 3rd viewing" attitude is there to some extent). Good job I learnt that there are a few people who want so many views before I fell foul of phonecalls to me personally just about that and wondered how to politely "keep my life on track". I wouldnt want to go through "Hang on while I consult my diary - right..I cant manage then because of a class, I cant manage then because of a social event, etc. When are we both free?"....that could be "tear hair out" if someone tried to get me to re-arrange my appointments etc to suit them having extra views.

So - I have learnt one thing - keep myself right at arms length from potential buyers all the way along to exchange of contracts time - at which time I hand over phone number/make cups of coffee/etc