Trouble selling my house

porridge

I currently have my house on with 3 agents and still only getting a few viewings, due to the fact that we have 3 agents, I have removed any "for sale" boards as this can often look as though we are desperate or there is a problem with the house.


The feedback we get from viewings always seems to be that the location is the problem (on a main road and next to a Tandoori), this leads me to believe that our viewers are unaware of the location when they book the viewing, surely the best way of finding a buyer has to be through the use of a board?.

I would like to use Housenetwork but i'm not confident that they can bring the buyers through the door, however, if I sold through them I could afford drop at least 5k off the asking price.

Does anyone think I should dump 2 of the 3 agents and just use 1 agent with housenetwork.co.uk and their board up?.

olly300

That means the agents are actually doing their job- getting punters in to look at your property.

However your house is advertised you are still going to have the problem that very few people want to live next to a resturant or fast-food shop.

CFC

You cannot do anything about the location. I think you might need to reduce the price. If that means you can't afford to move, then you might just be stuck.

Quite probably the EA is not telling them about the Tandoori, it's hardly a selling point and he/she just hopes that someone falls in love with the house and is not so bothered about the Tandoori because they love the house. Most people would not even view if they were told about it up front.

I don't know about housenetwork, I have never heard about at it. That speaks volumes about how much traffic you're likely to get on there from ordinary punters rather than cash buyers looking for a sharp deal. When I was buying (4 years ago) the only site I looked at or had heard of was rightmove.

Doozergirl

ehs, you should not be touting for business on this site.

House Network can't make your location anymore attractive, porridge. I do think that houses need to be priced correctly to get the best exposure with House Network. Having three agents is going to make you look desperate; people will automatically assume that the Tandoori is the reason that no one else wants the property and may steer clear without even viewing.

The sad fact is, your house is not going to be worth as much as comparable houses, even on the same street. You may have even noticed that when you bought the house.

If you can spend the time to do plenty of homework on similar style/size properties (perhaps view a few similar houses yourself), look at sold prices for youe street ir any other streets with similar houses and scour the property papers, and you look objectively, you will more than likely find the correct price point for your house.

If you have one agent, you can get a more discounted rate from if you go sole agent. House Network may be a pointless excercise alongside a conventional agent. They are using a board and Rightmove to advertise your house - your agent probably is too; don't pay for the same thing twice.

When you talk about dropping the price by £5000, how much is your house on the market for?

porridge

Doozergirl wrote: »

ehs, you should not be touting for business on this site.

House Network can't make your location anymore attractive, porridge. I do think that houses need to be priced correctly to get the best exposure with House Network. Having three agents is going to make you look desperate; people will automatically assume that the Tandoori is the reason that no one else wants the property and may steer clear without even viewing.

The sad fact is, your house is not going to be worth as much as comparable houses, even on the same street. You may have even noticed that when you bought the house.

If you can spend the time to do plenty of homework on similar style/size properties (perhaps view a few similar houses yourself), look at sold prices for youe street ir any other streets with similar houses and scour the property papers, and you look objectively, you will more than likely find the correct price point for your house.

If you have one agent, you can get a more discounted rate from if you go sole agent. House Network may be a pointless excercise alongside a conventional agent. They are using a board and Rightmove to advertise your house - your agent probably is too; don't pay for the same thing twice.

When you talk about dropping the price by £5000, how much is your house on the market for?

Hi

Thanks for your reply

Re the agent and Housenetwork, I understand that Housenetwork can't make my house more desirable, but I could potentially sell my house for £300 with Housenetwork as against 1.5% of 300k+, In the process I will then only be on with Housenetwork and 1 agent.

Personally I can't see the problem with a Tandoori next door ?, we never get any nasty smells, as for the price, if our house wasn't on a main road or next to a Tandoori it would be priced at around 50-100k more expensive.

I am not in a situation where I am desperate to sell, but we have been on the market since late April, first of all with a board (which I removed a few weeks ago) and with 3 agents, I really do feel that I should have put the house up for sale about 4 months earlier when the market was more buoyant and there wasn't such a glut of properties due to Hips (IR's haven't helped either).

I just wanted some general advice before I go leaping into another decision that may affect the saleability of the property.

porridge

CFC wrote: »

You cannot do anything about the location. I think you might need to reduce the price. If that means you can't afford to move, then you might just be stuck.

Quite probably the EA is not telling them about the Tandoori, it's hardly a selling point and he/she just hopes that someone falls in love with the house and is not so bothered about the Tandoori because they love the house. Most people would not even view if they were told about it up front.

I don't know about housenetwork, I have never heard about at it. That speaks volumes about how much traffic you're likely to get on there from ordinary punters rather than cash buyers looking for a sharp deal. When I was buying (4 years ago) the only site I looked at or had heard of was rightmove.

Housenetwork provide a board outside the property and advertise on Rightmove for a £300 fixed fee

porridge

ehs wrote: »

Hi porridge

The market is definitely slowing in many areas and with the HIPs fiasco there are a lot of properties on the market at the moment, so you may be contending with a lot of competition.

Have you thought of selling to a private cash buyer? If you are interested PM me and I can send you a link.

Best wishes
ehs

I appreciate the offer, however, I am not in a situation where I simply have to sell, just a bit frustrated that I can't.

Doozergirl

You are in the minority when you say you don't mind living next to a tandoori restaurant. The smells mightn't be nasty but the smell of curry does like to linger and a lot of people don't like curry at all! If you don't already live next door, you don't have the benefit of being aware of their hygeine standards. It is a difficult sell.

I can't get your logic on the House Network + agent scenario. The idea behind House Network is that you pay for the marketing cost upfront in order to reduce the final price you pay. It's true that a conventional agent will have the benefit of additional means of contact with potential buyers. If you pay House Network up front and then sell through a conventional agent, you've lost even more money!

If you pay House Network at .75% on completion then you may as well find an agent at 1% and get the benefit of their existing client database, additional newspaper advertising and simple footfall.

Going for three agents within six weeks of starting marketing was a mistake If you aren't desperate to sell, then why on earth would you do this? You do pay extra for multi-agent, you look desperate to your market and I don't think you get the full commitment from an agent when you don't make the full commitment to them.

olly300

porridge wrote: »

Hi

Personally I can't see the problem with a Tandoori next door ?, we never get any nasty smells, as for the price, if our house wasn't on a main road or next to a Tandoori it would be priced at around 50-100k more expensive.

It's not just the smells that are preceived to be the problem, preceived problems include:
1.the behaviour of the customers i.e. drunken customers on a Friday/Saturday night.
2. vermin- unfortunately due to the behaviour of some resturant owners in disposing of their rubbish rats are increasingly a problem

While you may not have problems with this if the owner of the Tandoori sells their business to someone else who changes who the business is aimed at then these may become problems.

However there will be a person who will like to live next to a resturant so it's just a case of marketing properly like Doozergirl suggested.

BTW I have lived in 2 houses opposite a row of resturants, one of which with the owner. The owner was advised not to buy a house with a yard connecting to any of the resturants' yards due to potential vermin problems. This was true as when walking pass some of the yards connecting to the resturants yards you could see rats. (There were back alley ways you could walk up and down.) However you could also see the resturants who had proper hygiene standards and knew where to eat.

Mozette

Blimey, There's an Indian takeaway right opposite me, and that was a big swaying factor for me to buy the house! You just need the right person who is appreciative of a good curry. How can that put someone off? Bonus!

olly300

Mozette wrote: »

Blimey, There's an Indian takeaway right opposite me, and that was a big swaying factor for me to buy the house! You just need the right person who is appreciative of a good curry. How can that put someone off? Bonus!

The key word in your post is opposite.