House Selling - Money Saving Tips

Jorgan_2

Cheekylittlemonkey, I am an EA, the problem you have with your price @ £270k is stamp duty. Over £250k it rises from 1% to 3%, so somebody paying £260k for it has to pay £7800 as opposed to someone paying £250k who pays £2500. As a result of this many properties are very difficult to sell in the £250 -£280k price range. Your agent should have pointed this out to you when carrying out the valuation. Check a site like nethouseprices.com to see what other houses in your area have actually sold for. You may have to reduce your asking price & accept an offer of £250k or alternativley offer to pay 2% of the stamp duty to try & entice a buyer. If you go down the latter route you may want to say that this will only apply on offers over £260k, or whatever your bottom line is.

Salama55, any agent should be able to give a valuation of your property free of charge. It is usually best to get three vals to make sure the price is right. Make sure the agents back their figures up with comparable evidence of what has actually sold recently.

driver7

Hi all

Just a quick note to everyone selling their properties. If the fee they've agreed is a fixed fee rather than a percentage, be careful when your estate agent rings to suggest a price reduction in order to generate interest/get a sale. If you aren't careful, you could, throughout the time your house is on the market have several price reductions, but, unless you telephone the agents to query it, your sale fee will remain the same - I know because I work in an estate agency and produce the invoices, and always get really annoyed when it happens, as the difference between the original marketing price and the final selling price can often be be tens of thousands of pounds.

Salama55

Thanx to Jorgan & driver7. Totally new to this house buying lark so all help & advice gratefully received.
Thanx again guys!! :T

shunter499

MARCUS
Just about to start the selling process will keep you info'd
I have take most of your advice

driver7

Why not try going joint with another Agent in Chester, stay with TCA's, but go to someone else, they'll all want the business, and if the fee you agree is on a 'winner takes all' basis, then you'll only have to pay once. Obviously you have to let TCA's know, and they would have to agree to it if you are still tied into them, but if you aren't happy, and there's someone with a key who can get to the house for you, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

simon_w_3

As an Estate Agent for over 25 years ( with many awards and ISO Quality Assurance), whilst I agree with some of the comments- BEWARE.

Since Jan 06 the market has improved sharply and many Estate Agents are over-valuing to get business, "buying it in" if you prefer. Check on a Land Registry website actual sale prices in your local area. Do NOT go for the highest valuation and risk damaging the saleability of you home as it will get 'stale' on the market and good buyers will stay well clear of you. Ultimately you may well get less!

Listen to the reasoning and look at the EVIDENCE the agent presents to you. Most GOOD agents will charge a higher fee- so dont think that 1% gets a good job- I charge at least 1.5% and happily put my back into negotiating hard to agree the best deal and to reward my staff with a fair personal commission to them.

Also I walk away from vendors not prepared to make some commitment to me too- you expect me to produce colour details, newspaper adverts easily a spend of £500+ for no commitment? I do walk away from these type of punters as often they are time wasters not really serious about selling.

sumlong

thanks :rolleyes:

Tassotti

Well, look at that...I knew there had to be an honest estate agent out there SOMEWHERE.

kjp123uk

I sold my house with a company called smarter estates in Coventry I only paid £249 plus Vat and they sorted everything even did my viewings for me. I had other prices from other agents at around £2100 to sell my home. I was a bit weary because they are a new company in my area but i'd really give credit to them. Why do other agents charge so much?

https://www.smarterestates.co.uk probably only any good if you are in Coventry area but give them a go you never know

Nenen

wrote:

Hi Kopicbloodaxe,

It is about 13 minutes away from the M11 and Stansted on the new A120 by car, so we do not experience aircraft or main road traffic noise. It is a quiet, desirable residential neighbourhood, being in what is effectively a cul-de-sac, with all town facilities nereby, but not far from open countryside. So none of these is the problem. There is no skeleton in the cupboard as far as I can see! The local agents in their honest moments have told me that they have been having great difficulty selling anything priced over about £200 000 in this area, and there are two other houses (not all quite the same) for sale also along this road. One of them has been for sale for 2 months longer than mine and neither of these has sold either.

The problem essentially seems to be a lack of first-time buyers coming into the market at these silly prices, so no one can move up and that has caused the market to stall in some of the home counties. This is exactly the same set of circumstances which set in at the beginning of the last housing crash, so it may be that the inevitable downturn has already commenced. Once this happens it takes a very long time for reality to return due to inertia, and then a reverse wave effect commences from South to North.

I live about 25 miles from Stansted and have seen a lot in local (and even national papers) about the proposed expansion of the airport and how many houses and even villages will be demolished to make way for it. Whenever we are driving from home to the airport through the villages we go past loads of 'Stop Stansted expansion' type posters around. Whilst a lot of this could be scaremongering, could this possibly be why people are wary of buying in your area?