Minimising a Loss on Sale of House

Glastoun

You're trying very hard to convince us that these properties are very desirable, but it's not really us you need to convince, it's potential buyers. It will go on the market for £x, and it will either sell or it won't; if it doesn't you'll drop the price until it does, or you'll keep hold of it. There's not really much more to it than that.

moneyistooshorttomention

When it comes to estate agents I can certainly follow the logic of them only wanting to put in a certain amount of work to earn their fees.

I had figured out what most owners of my current house would accept and that that would be the figure up to which my EA would keep "working for their keep" (the EA admitted to me that I had figured out the exact figure for that to the £). I knew the (slightly higher) figure I should actually receive for it and I did expect both myself and my EA to keep "working" until I reached that figure and then I would sell the place. It took a few extra viewings and few more phonecalls on their part to get the rest of my "achievable figure".

So, it was a bit more "work" on both our parts to get the figure I knew was achievable on my place but I very darn nearly made that figure with that extra effort on both our parts.

Glastoun

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

So, it was a bit more "work" on both our parts to get the figure I knew was achievable on my place but I very darn nearly made that figure with that extra effort on both our parts.

What 'work' was put in to increase the offers? (genuine question)

Because at the moment it reads suspiciously like there were baseball bats involved.

moneyistooshorttomention

Mainly the exercise of patience - on my part (wondering how much longer it would be until I got offered what the house is worth for it) and on the estate agents part (gritting their teeth and wishing I wasn't so very clear on what the house is worth and they didn't have to keep doing viewings until I got to an offer at that level:rotfl:). In the event, it looks as if I'd worked out pretty accurately how many days it would be on the market before I got offered what it was worth (I think my calculation was about 1 week out in the event on that. I had thought it might take up to 1-2 weeks longer before The Offer I could take was made). I knew that my buyer would have been watching my house and pretty much decided to have it from its online profile, but was waiting and hoping I would cut the price to a lower level. They were taking the gamble they would lose the house to someone else. I was taking the gamble they wouldn't find somewhere they preferred.

There was a huge amount of "upfront" work done by myself with research of every description to see what nearby houses sold for/what prices the "opposition" were being marketed for (and compare the respective advantages and disadvantages they had with mine).

Davesnave

JWhite wrote: »

Did everyone lose 11% on the sale of their houses in 2011 ?

No, but in the West Midlands things weren't going well relative to, say, the South East, so a fall of 11% below asking would have been perfectly normal there.

If you regularly read threads here, you will know that many buyers still aim to secure property at around10% below asking price. This is probably where some of the confusion comes from, as a minority price to sell and don't then expect offers too far below that.

When we bought in 2009, we paid the asking price, because this property was priced to sell to a cash buyer inside a couple of weeks.

Leodogger

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Mainly the exercise of patience - on my part (wondering how much longer it would be until I got offered what the house is worth for it) and on the estate agents part (gritting their teeth and wishing I wasn't so very clear on what the house is worth and they didn't have to keep doing viewings until I got to an offer at that level:rotfl:). In the event, it looks as if I'd worked out pretty accurately how many days it would be on the market before I got offered what it was worth (I think my calculation was about 1 week out in the event on that. I had thought it might take up to 1-2 weeks longer before The Offer I could take was made). I knew that my buyer would have been watching my house and pretty much decided to have it from its online profile, but was waiting and hoping I would cut the price to a lower level. They were taking the gamble they would lose the house to someone else. I was taking the gamble they wouldn't find somewhere they preferred.

There was a huge amount of "upfront" work done by myself with research of every description to see what nearby houses sold for/what prices the "opposition" were being marketed for (and compare the respective advantages and disadvantages they had with mine).

Sounds like it was not just a physical exercise of showing people around and verbally bargaining but a psychological exercise of working out what could be achieved and how far you could push the buyers. We did a certain amount of that but could have done without an EA telling us what a good offer we had received at £140,000 when in fact, we felt it was worth much more and when we hung out for more did get offered another ££7,500 so what did they know ? Absolutely nothing is the answer, they obviously could not gauge the buyer's interest and could not work out that the property was worth more to them than the original offer. This is why I say some EA's are crap and are happy to give away your money as long as they can get a fast turnaround and are probably working on commission if they achieve a certain number of sales per month. It shouldn't turn into a battle between the seller and the EA but often it is because they are happy to take the loss you are not willing to accept !

Leodogger

Davesnave wrote: »

No, but in the West Midlands things weren't going well relative to, say, the South East, so a fall of 11% below asking would have been perfectly normal there.

If you regularly read threads here, you will know that many buyers still aim to secure property at around10% below asking price. This is probably where some of the confusion comes from, as a minority price to sell and don't then expect offers too far below that.

When we bought in 2009, we paid the asking price, because this property was priced to sell to a cash buyer inside a couple of weeks.

Yes that sums it up I feel because after a recent conversation with an EA about putting our bungalow on the market he said that there is a 10% margin which I was surprised to hear and questioned why when we put our previous house on the market we were not told this (probably because we had already reduced our house price previously from the previous agent's recommended price when we moved to this new agent and the new agent thought that if they told us this we would not market the property with them). If we had been told that we would not have allowed them to reduce it in the first place when putting it on the market as this meant with an additional 10% loss, meant we would be losing approx. 11.5% instead of 10%, instead we would have just waited to see how near the original asking price we got offers. Also reports in the press don't help when they keep saying the housing market is improving and house prices are rising which was crap as the only place prices were rising up until this last year was London ! People are having their hopes raised in the north falsely believing what they hear that their property is worth more when the opposite is still true if you look at Land Registry figures and property prices are still falling in many areas.

All in all, selling property is a mine field and if you don't have your wits about you you can end up losing a fortune on what is the biggest asset you have.;)

moneyistooshorttomention

JWhite wrote: »

Sounds like it was not just a physical exercise of showing people around and verbally bargaining but a psychological exercise of working out what could be achieved and how far you could push the buyers. We did a certain amount of that but could have done without an EA telling us what a good offer we had received at £140,000 when in fact, we felt it was worth much more and when we hung out for more did get offered another ££7,500 so what did they know ? Absolutely nothing is the answer, they obviously could not gauge the buyer's interest and could not work out that the property was worth more to them than the original offer. This is why I say some EA's are crap and are happy to give away your money as long as they can get a fast turnaround and are probably working on commission if they achieve a certain number of sales per month. It shouldn't turn into a battle between the seller and the EA but often it is because they are happy to take the loss you are not willing to accept !

That was my own verdict on the process certainly.

I have the advantage of being very very "local" and well aware of local trends and the factors that will affect different areas here in the future. This may not be possible to someone less "local" than myself obviously and I sold in the event to another "local" who I suspect has also got "no flies on them". The one advantage my buyer had is that I wanted, if I possibly could, to sell to another "local" and that's exactly what I have done in the event...but I would have taken another buyer if I had no choice about it because they were offering me the best deal.

yorkshire_terrier_owner

I am also in the West Midlands and have sold and bought property recently in the area for both myself and my parents. What I will say is that while the West Mids has been hit quite hard, there are vast fluctuations within the area. It's also down to the buyers. In the West Mids there is a vast quantity of flats about which have seen the biggest hit and can also be better value for money than a bungalow for downsizers. When my parents downsized last year, they didn't want to be in a retirement complex as they felt it would be too depressing seeing neighbours make their way to the Pearly Gates all the time. They bought a modern 2 bed ground floor apartment - a mix of residents, cheaper than a bungalow, lovely landscaped communal gardens but none of the maintenance.

My point is I think you need to look at the alternatives on the market in your area for your target market and present/price your property so that it makes sense to buyers and competes effectively.

Leodogger

yorkshire_terrier_owner wrote: »

I am also in the West Midlands and have sold and bought property recently in the area for both myself and my parents. What I will say is that while the West Mids has been hit quite hard, there are vast fluctuations within the area. It's also down to the buyers. In the West Mids there is a vast quantity of flats about which have seen the biggest hit and can also be better value for money than a bungalow for downsizers. When my parents downsized last year, they didn't want to be in a retirement complex as they felt it would be too depressing seeing neighbours make their way to the Pearly Gates all the time. They bought a modern 2 bed ground floor apartment - a mix of residents, cheaper than a bungalow, lovely landscaped communal gardens but none of the maintenance.

My point is I think you need to look at the alternatives on the market in your area for your target market and present/price your property so that it makes sense to buyers and competes effectively.

Yes I know what you mean, we did look at apartments too but didn't want the neighbours above or below who might cause us a problem, besides we have had an apartment in Spain and my daughter lives in an apartment and has had some noise from time to time from other young couples in the block so that put me right off them, although I agree some are lovely. Some probably get no trouble at all but we didn't want to take the chance.

We will obviously take into account the local market and are going to get at least 2 or 3 quotes from different agents and ask them their opinion, but to be honest we will still aim the price where we think it will sell. We paid £8,500 more than the agent who sold it to us thought it was worth when we spoke to them recently. That was because we wanted a bungalow on a particular row on the development, the same could apply to others looking for one of these bungalows. You just have to get the right person interested. We also like the patio from the lounge facing the garden, every other one has no patio on the lounge and the lounge window faces the car park, a distinct disadvantage as far as we were concerned, yet the next door neighbour who is a single nervous lady wanted one that way - to each his own as they say !;)