Hopping mad

starsign47

My house was SSTC within three days at the end of April to a couple who wanted to move fast. As they are clients of Countrywide conveyancing services we are only just nearing exchange of contracts - maybe. It took the surveyor 9 weeks to visit, and then it was only after I threatened to put the house back on the market.
I also found out that the agents never advertised the house in the newspapers or on the internet as the couple were already on their books. When I complained they reluctantly reduced their commission rate and on my insistence they put it on the internet but as SSTC (so no viewings were forthcoming).
Yesterday I found that the same company were advertising a similar property (which is smaller, needs updating and is in a close) at a far higher price than my house (which has been totally renovated and is in a quiet lane on a no through road). As contracts have not yet been exchanged I am inclined to pull out of the deal. What do you think?

quidsy

Do what you think is best, this is one of your largest assets.

But if the EA hadn't marketed it externally & you accepted the first offer given, you had the choice to say no & wait for a betetr offer.

Most people when selling a property look out for it on the websites, right move & local papers. Did you not notice none of this happened?

pmlindyloo

starsign47 wrote: »

My house was SSTC within three days at the end of April to a couple who wanted to move fast. As they are clients of Countrywide conveyancing services we are only just nearing exchange of contracts - maybe. It took the surveyor 9 weeks to visit, and then it was only after I threatened to put the house back on the market.
I also found out that the agents never advertised the house in the media or on the internet as the couple were already on their books. When I complained they reluctantly reduced their commission rate and on my insistence they put it on the internet but as SSTC (so no viewings were forthcoming).
Yesterday I found that the same company were advertising a similar property (which is smaller, needs updating and is in a close) at a far higher price than my house (which has been totally renovated). As contracts have not yet been exchanged I am inclined to pull out of the deal. What do you think?

I do not think that putting another house on the market at a far higher price is necessarily something to complain about. It may be that the vendors have insisted upon the price not the estate agents.

Are you using Countrywide's conveyancing services as well? If not what are your conveyancers/solicitors doing to speed up the process?

Are you in contact with your buyers? Are they chasing too?

To be honest 3 months is about the average for selling a property and if you are near exchange then I wouldn't be pulling out now.

What is your situation?

Unfortunately house selling and buying is very stressful and you are at the mercy of other people. Just chase as much as you all can.

harri_dav

Can you ask another estate agent to come in to value the property? For price comparison.

jjlandlord

If an offer was accepted within 3 days it means that (1) the agent had a number of potential buyers on his book (2) one of them offered the asking price.
Thus, the only thing you can potentially complain about is that the asking price might have been too low.

There is no point forcing your agent to 'advertise' the property as sold...

MonsieurFrugal

Doesn't everyone get 3 agents out to give them an idea of what their property is worth? I certainly did.

Gwhiz

MonsieurFrugal wrote: »

Doesn't everyone get 3 agents out to give them an idea of what their property is worth? I certainly did.

Depends. I've lived near Poole for almost 14 years now and have an EA that I trust implicitly. She's moved twice to other local agents and I follow her always. I may talk casually to other agents but typically only her and back up her views with local research.

If I was not familiar with the local market, or had such a relationship then I would go to 2 or 3 local agents depending on reputation.

Mrstickle

You have an agreement with your buyer, and should honour that agreement.

The other house could be a total red herring. That is the price it is on the market for - not what it has achieved. It could be on the market for months, and not get anything like the asking price.

I think you reap what you sow. If you pull out now for a supposedly higher price, it would darn well serve you right if your house remained on the market for months as the price was too high and you couldn't find a buyer!!

Do you not have an onward purchase at stake too if you pull out?

starsign47

Thanks for the replies. I accepted an offer, not the full asking price, on the advice of the EA and on the understanding that it would be a quick sale. I agree that I should have insisted that they market it generally and made sure that they were advertising it. Fortunately I have not used the same conveyancers. At the initial valuation visit the agent did suggest a higher price then before leaving made the comment 'I think a lower price would be better as 'they might not go for that' (the original price). Looking back I think they already had this couple in mind.

hazyjo

starsign47 wrote: »

My house was SSTC within three days at the end of April to a couple who wanted to move fast. As they are clients of Countrywide conveyancing services we are only just nearing exchange of contracts - maybe. It took the surveyor 9 weeks to visit, and then it was only after I threatened to put the house back on the market.
I also found out that the agents never advertised the house in the newspapers or on the internet as the couple were already on their books. When I complained they reluctantly reduced their commission rate and on my insistence they put it on the internet but as SSTC (so no viewings were forthcoming).
Yesterday I found that the same company were advertising a similar property (which is smaller, needs updating and is in a close) at a far higher price than my house (which has been totally renovated and is in a quiet lane on a no through road). As contracts have not yet been exchanged I am inclined to pull out of the deal. What do you think?

Why does it matter where they got an offer from? (Newspaper, internet, clients...). Would you rather they flog it to death and advertise for over a month to find someone?! Surely they've done their job well and most sellers would be over the moon at selling withing 3 days?

As above, did you not get other EAs round?! If not, why not?

When you say 'it took the surveyor 9 weeks to visit', whose fault was that? The buyer instructing them late? The lender not being in a position yet to instruct their surveyor to visit? Selling in a busy/popular area and the surveyor was heavily booked up? (Not that it really matters now, I'm just unsure as to who was at fault and why it's relevant. A buyer of mine (an investor) took forever to get a surveyor round, but had spent money on the purchase in other ways so I wasn't too concerned.)

Agents generally put houses on at the price the sellers want. Surely it's the price it sells at that matters, not the asking price. Unless someone's actually agreed to pay that price, you're taking a bl**dy big gamble considering remarketing. There was an end of terrace in my road up for £500k a couple of years ago. I'd bought a terrace at £270k-odd. Needless to say it didn't sell after months on the market (mind you, now there are many up for late £400ks as the prices have gone crazy. Surprised they've not put it on at £700k lol).

If there's nothing similar on the market, people may be able to achieve a higher price than normal. All about supply and demand.

Jx

hazyjo

Not sure why people still promise a 'quick sale'. It'll take as long as it takes. It's not like you can really fastrack anything! My quickest was 5 weeks, my longest (which we'd aimed for exchange 3 weeks after offer) took 5 very long months!!!!

Jx