Would you be offended if someone offered under asking price?

Tancred

lessonlearned wrote: »

My goodness Tancred you are prickly. I am not lecturing you.

As I said 30 years in the business. I did learn a little and whilst I don't profess to know the London market very well I do know selling and more importantly how to negotiate.

I note that you have called in your local EA's and are now trying to go it alone.

In my experience it usually doesn't work out too well in the end. However, I wish you well.

As I pointed out when I added the bit to my last post - this thread wasn't actually about you.

The trouble is the the SDLT threshold cannot be circumvented. There are legal hurdles that you cannot overcome - are you a solicitor as well? The old trick of charging an extra £15k for fixtures and fittings doesn't work any more; HMRC are getting wise to the tricks and blocking them.

michaels

If I was hoping to get in the 260s for a house I would market at 275 or above. Below that point I would assume that viewers would come expecting that the most they would have to pay was 250.

I.e. If I had a house that I hoped would get 250 but might only get in the 240s I would market at 262 or something hoping that would persuade a buyer to offer 250...

lessonlearned

No I'm not a solicitor. There's no need for sarcasm.

But yes I do know a little about saving tax. I ran the financial side of my husband's company for years and kept a very close eye on his tax affairs - saved him thousands. :rotfl:

Of course HMRC have wised up. The old F&F trick is no longer acceptable. That was a loophole that worked for a while but was closed years ago.

Negotiation is the key here. And flexibility. I know I keep banging on about it, but it really will be your best weapon.

What is needed is to be able to find a way of pleasing and delighting your would be purchasers so that your property and the package that you are offering is irresistible, preferably without it costing you too much money and of course without contravening HMRC rules.

You need to outsmart any competition you may have. The best way to do this is to "package the deal" - just as developers do - and tie it up with a pretty (metaphorical) bow.

The most obvious that springs to everyone's mind is to meet them half way on the stamp duty charge. This is perfectly legal and will not get you into hot water with HMRC.

You could also pay their solicitor's fees. A £1000 incentive for legal fees is very common and again perfectly legal.

However, there are other more imaginative things you can do to please and delight your would be purchaser. And, it might be cheaper for you.

I would suggest that as they view your property for a second time you really use the opportunity to drill down and find out what makes them tick. What actually matters to them most.

If you listen closely to their answers and comments you will get some valuable clues as to how to proceed.

What is important to them........What can you do to meet their needs and wants. What can you offer that someone else can't or won't.

Are there any little extras you can throw into the sale to sweeten the deal. You will get your clues from them.

This is what I mean about being flexible. Don't go in with pre-conceived ideas. Be open minded.

I just sold my house at a price I was very happy with. I threw in approx £1k of extras to sweeten the deal. (It was worth a lot more than £1k to them)

I knew very well that my competitors would not be doing this.

I drove past a competitors house the other day - it's still on the market despite being the same price as my house and a much better house in many ways.

My purchasers chose mine because I made sure that the deal I offered was a damn good one.

It's not always about money, it's about meeting needs and wants, and working around issues.

I wish you every success with your sale. Like someone else has already said on here, we want to see you succeed.

I know you won't like me saying this but it's meant as very genuine advice. You really do appear to be hyper sensitive on certain issues, and when quizzed, you respond with anger and sarcasm.

This will not do. You are going to have to rein in your emotions a little, especially if you are the one doing the viewings and negotiations.

Buyers can be a right pain the a*se and you will need to be sweetness and light at all times. You will be pushed to your limit and yet you will have to just grit your teeth and keep smiling.

StevenMarks

In the NE I've just been given details by an agent for a £350,000 house and told vendor is very open to offers; the agent also knows I will not go above £250,000.

Others are also open in telling me that houses I've asked to view have been for sale for nearly a year and had viewings but zero offers. One suggested I view a house £50,000 over my limit when viewing another at the in the same street as the vendor would be open to negotiating.

Tancred

All very interesting. I've had three viewings so far and two offers of £250k. I suppose that's not bad given that the property was only listed on Sunday. I live in hope.

The huge stumbling block is the SDLT threshold - I blame that idiot Gordon Brown for this, but there is nothing I can do. So far the viewers have been young professional couples in their early-mid 30s and they are very hard to please. A middle aged couple would probably be more generous, but the steep stairs would probably put off older buyers. We'll see.

Tancred

lessonlearned wrote: »

No I'm not a solicitor. There's no need for sarcasm.

But yes I do know a little about saving tax. I ran the financial side of my husband's company for years and kept a very close eye on his tax affairs - saved him thousands. :rotfl:

Of course HMRC have wised up. The old F&F trick is no longer acceptable. That was a loophole that worked for a while but was closed years ago.

Negotiation is the key here. And flexibility. I know I keep banging on about it, but it really will be your best weapon.

What is needed is to be able to find a way of pleasing and delighting your would be purchasers so that your property and the package that you are offering is irresistible, preferably without it costing you too much money and of course without contravening HMRC rules.

You need to outsmart any competition you may have. The best way to do this is to "package the deal" - just as developers do - and tie it up with a pretty (metaphorical) bow.

The most obvious that springs to everyone's mind is to meet them half way on the stamp duty charge. This is perfectly legal and will not get you into hot water with HMRC.

If I paid half the SDLT then that would eat into my sale - I would do it only if they were willing to pay the full asking price or slightly less.

lessonlearned wrote: »

You could also pay their solicitor's fees. A £1000 incentive for legal fees is very common and again perfectly legal.

Yes, I would consider this - and possibly also leave some furniture and white goods. It goes without saying. But the offer must be right.

lessonlearned wrote: »

However, there are other more imaginative things you can do to please and delight your would be purchaser. And, it might be cheaper for you.

I could offer my body at the service of a lady buyer, but my wife would probably object. Moreover, I am well past my best now.

lessonlearned wrote: »

I would suggest that as they view your property for a second time you really use the opportunity to drill down and find out what makes them tick. What actually matters to them most.

From the three viewers I've seen so far what matters to them is to get a house cheap. I can't help with that, sorry.

lessonlearned wrote: »

If you listen closely to their answers and comments you will get some valuable clues as to how to proceed.

What is important to them........What can you do to meet their needs and wants. What can you offer that someone else can't or won't.

Are there any little extras you can throw into the sale to sweeten the deal. You will get your clues from them.

This is what I mean about being flexible. Don't go in with pre-conceived ideas. Be open minded.

I just sold my house at a price I was very happy with. I threw in approx £1k of extras to sweeten the deal. (It was worth a lot more than £1k to them)

I knew very well that my competitors would not be doing this.

I drove past a competitors house the other day - it's still on the market despite being the same price as my house and a much better house in many ways.

My purchasers chose mine because I made sure that the deal I offered was a damn good one.

It's not always about money, it's about meeting needs and wants, and working around issues.

I wish you every success with your sale. Like someone else has already said on here, we want to see you succeed.

I know you won't like me saying this but it's meant as very genuine advice. You really do appear to be hyper sensitive on certain issues, and when quizzed, you respond with anger and sarcasm.

This will not do. You are going to have to rein in your emotions a little, especially if you are the one doing the viewings and negotiations.

Buyers can be a right pain the a*se and you will need to be sweetness and light at all times. You will be pushed to your limit and yet you will have to just grit your teeth and keep smiling.

Trust me, I'm full of sweetness and light. I'm only grumpy when I get online and vent my spleen.

In all honesty if I had a buyer who made a good offer, then I would bend over backwards to help him/her, but I also have red lines, just like most sellers. I don't need to sell for any other reason than wishing to trade up and move closer to my place of work, but I won't be bullied into selling at a price I'm not comfortable with. The bottom line is how much the prospective buyer likes the house; if they really like it they will make a good offer, if they are half-hearted they'll make a deliberately low offer in the hope of getting a bargain.

thequant

Tancred wrote: »

All very interesting. I've had three viewings so far and two offers of £250k. I suppose that's not bad given that the property was only listed on Sunday. I live in hope.

The huge stumbling block is the SDLT threshold - I blame that idiot Gordon Brown for this, but there is nothing I can do. So far the viewers have been young professional couples in their early-mid 30s and they are very hard to please. A middle aged couple would probably be more generous, but the steep stairs would probably put off older buyers. We'll see.

Property on for £265k (reduced from £280K), offered at £243k, vendors weighed in today at £246K.

I reckon if the vendor was you, I'd probably got more off.

As for your £250K offers, I think you will probably find they are all second steppers with new build flats in NE, who lack the deposit and credit history to follow through with their offers.

It's fools like this that fuelled the boom, and now we are in the bust, are fuelling your delusion.

lessonlearned

Tancred wrote: »

I could offer my body at the service of a lady buyer, but my wife would probably object. Moreover, I am well past my best now.

.

Not quite what I had in mind:rotfl::rotfl:

In my case it was giving my purchaser an uber quick purchase.

They were desperate to L/C quickly for 2 reasons.

1. Their mortgage was time sensitive - this is very common these days. They had lost one house through people messing them around and they were nervous about losing their mortgage.

As you know lenders are playing hard ball these days so their fears were very real.

2. The schools in my area were a big plus. You had to be registered at an address by a certain date in order to apply for admission for the following September. They were getting near that date.

I listened carefully to what they were saying and offered them a deal where I would vacate the property quickly and rent for while.

They wanted an L/C for 19th December. I said I could but I would prefer the New Year so that I could allow my disabled husband home for Christmas (he lives in a nursing home). So we negotiated that we would exchange before Christmas and L/C in the New Year.

Now this cost me nothing. I had toyed with the idea of renting for a while anyway but hadn't made a decision. I didn't let them know that - they had to think I was only doing to oblige them and that it was only as part of the deal.

An early L/C was the cake.

I had put my house on the market expecting it to take months to sell not 3 weeks. The £1K of "extras" was mainly work that needed to be done in order to satisify a lender anyway.....Rather than just doing the work and not claiming "any credit" so to speak - I made it a condition of sale.

The £1K worth of work was the icing.

It cost me £1k because of my contacts and pulling in some favours. They were new to the area and didn't know any tradespeople so it would have cost them more and been a hassle with mortgage retentions etc.

I threw in the dishwasher, a rug, all curtains and blinds, light fittings and a few bits and pieces that they had taken a fancy to, all at no extra charge.

I'm downsizing so most of it would have ended up going to the charity shop anyway.

But to them it was the cherry on top of the icing.

The whole package - the speedy transaction, the £1K worth of work and a few extra bits cost me very little but it was "worth" a lot more to them. They were delighted with everything and couldn't stop beaming.

I also gave my purchasers a list of contact numbers for trades people I knew and valued. They were over the moon with this, my trades people were chuffed too - the possibility of more work for them in the future.

This is what I mean by just being flexible and going the extra mile. Just play it by ear, really listen to what your viewers really want and need and you can then tailor a package that will fit the bill.

Anyway you are doing well with viewers so far.

That £250K tax band is a real problem. Personally I would like all bands done on a scale. So with a sale at say £270, the £250 would be 1% and only the remaining £20K would be at 3%, much fairer than the whole lot at 3%. Keeping it at 3% for the whole amount depresses house prices at around £250K and distorts prices.

It will be interesting to see what price you do finally achieve.

ukcarper

lessonlearned wrote: »

That £250K tax band is a real problem. Personally I would like all bands done on a scale. So with a sale at say £270, the £250 would be 1% and only the remaining £20K would be at 3%, much fairer than the whole lot at 3%. Keeping it at 3% for the whole amount depresses house prices at around £250K and distorts prices.

It will be interesting to see what price you do finally achieve.

I don't know what that would cost the government but it makes sense to me and it is the way income tax works.

The_Earl_of_Streatham

You drive a hard bargain Tancred. I'll give you 230, it's my final offer, take it or leave it.