House Selling - Money Saving Tips

Marcus

Layla

I'll write something up in the next few days for buyers - I'll put my thinking cap on:)

Regards
Marcus

carmoney5473

Hi Marcus!

Great posting and perfect timing for me!

We've just had a couple of estate agents in to find out a) how much they think our house is worth and b) just what we do need to do to it before we sell (we knew it would need some magnolia and white, plus finishing off some things that just never did get done before...) We'll get more valuations once we are done because there is a huge difference in the valuations so far.

The first said £400-£425k the second £475-£500k. Is it normal for there to be such a big discrepency? (There really are too few houses like ours available at the moment for me to make a guess.)

As for fees they are starting at 1% and 1.25% so should I be pushing them done from there? I'm assuming I should.

The first agent (the one with the lowest price), persuaded me to let another of their clients view early - because they are not accepting an offer on their house because there's nothing for them to move to. Would this have influenced his valuation? At the time I thought it fair - it was only when we got the second that I had any doubts.

Thanks for any comments

Caroline

System

A gratuitous plug that may save you thousands!

Marcus et al,

Insert from Martin: I'm afraid you were right the plug was gratuitous and has been deleted after complaints received. Please see the site rules at the top of the page.

Hope that helps,

Clive

System

Anyone thinking of selling or buying a house get a book by JOSEPH BRADSHAW called THE DIY GUIDE TO HOUSE BUYING SELLING AND CONVEYANCING (published by LAWPACK) its a laff, really informative and written in layman's terms.We have used this book to sell and buy four houses (so have friends) and have saved a fortune on Estate and Solicitors fees.
It also great for refrence with example legal forms and how to fill them in etc. checklists etc. and points out all the scams/excuses so called" proffesionals" use when conveyancing property.
A real eye opener.
Think it is abour £9 well worth it Amazon had it and WH SMITH.

terrierlady

good one Marcus another thing to watch is dont go with the agent that gives you the best valuation, after a few weeks of not selling he/she will be back to ask you to drop the price in order to get a quick sale......bet the price suggested is level with the other two valuations then.

Marcus

Greetings Caroline

The first Agent may be a worry - a question you must ask yourself is did they under value the property so that they could complete the other clients chain? Or maybe to help out a friend.

The second Agent may be a worry - did they over value in order to get your business? Did they know you had another valuation.

These are really cynical questions and you can’t really answer them... what you can do is get more valuations (as per first post). You could also do a little homework and see what similar properties are doing in the area. Like you say it can be hard to do this if you have an unusual property.

I think 1% is a good fee - but you want a lot of good work for £5000 + vat.
You can always ask for a fixed fee.

Regards
Marcus

PS - By allowing a viewer to view your property the agent could claim that you’ve verbally entered a contract with them, regardless as to whether you’ve signed anything or not. You may want to write to them stating that at this time you do not wish for them to market your property, but may do in the future. Ask for a written reply. I’m not sure of the legal ground here but it was something I was very aware of as an agent.

carmoney5473

Hi Marcus

Thanks for your comments. I was having just the worries that you said. I will get the other 3 potential agents in once we are ready to go on the market (in about 4 weeks now). It seems reasonable to get them all since I've had such a range from the first two.

I think I made it clear that I wasn't committing to any agent before I let the viewing happen. I also informed him of the other agent's valuation and he was visibly shocked, the next day he said maybe the market had moved on (he said it'd gone ballistic), but he still didn't think we had a half million pound house to sell.

I'd be surprised too.

But we'll see

thanks very much

Caroline

sablade

The only trouble with not having a say 4 week lock in is that many agents will not spend too much of their own money marketing your property by advertising if you want to take it away from them quickly,

I used to work for a local newpaper we charged £600 per week per page for estate agents.

I think when you pay an agent you are probably paying for all the other time wasters that he earnt nothing from but paid out on.

System

WEBSITES TO MARKET YOUR OWN HOME
Ive had my house on with two agents who both fail to return calls and when I did a mystery shop and asked them to send details of houses within the price bracket I was selling at, sent info on houses £25-£30k above which didn't include mine.
So thinking of DOING IT MYSELF. Does anyone have experience of advertising their own house on one of the house selling websites where you pay a fixed sum and do the work yourself? eg houseweb.co.uk

carmoney5473

WEBSITES TO MARKET YOUR OWN HOME
...
So thinking of DOING IT MYSELF. Does anyone have experience of advertising their own house on one of the house selling websites where you pay a fixed sum and do the work yourself? eg houseweb.co.uk

Hi Wendy,

I've not used any yet but I've been reseraching them. The one I like best is http://www.thelittlehousecompany.co.uk/ for the simple reason that I've spottted several of their adverts whilst I've been house hunting myself. This is because they advertise on rightmove.co.uk which is my favourite house searching engine.

However I have been making a comparison list, I don't include any of the packages which don't advertise on other people's websites:

http:/www.thelittlehousecompany.co.uk
£125 for 4 photos + listing on: rightmove, propertyfinder, asserta home, fish4homes, thisisLondon (+ all the ones these propagate out to)
for an extra £30 you get a for sale board with a free phone number (but you have to supply your own post!).

http://www.privatehousemove.co.uk/
£69 for at least 1 photo (I can't find anything that says what the limits are) + listing on: propertyfinder, asserta home, fish4homes, thisisLondon
£99 for above plus sign including a post!

http://www.houseweb.co.uk/
£129 for 6 photos plus listing on: propertyfinder, asserta home, fish 4 homes, this is London.
£299 for above + 4 virtual tours

search4homes.co.uk (who cheekily advertised above)
£39 for 10 photos + listing on fish4homes (my least favourite of the main ones - it messes up my browser!)
£59 above service + listing on 3 sites that it entirely free to advertise on (am I right Clive - you are charging £20 for entering details on 3 free sites?)
£89 above service + thisisLondon
and for a whooping £235 extra they will arrange for you to have 4 virtual tours done, but still not posting it to any of the decent house hunting sites.... well none of the ones I use anyway

Plus you can put your details (without photos) for free on the following:
housenet.co.uk
home.co.uk
easier.com

Any others?

Caroline