House Selling - Money Saving Tips

pauliney_2

:mad: just had my buyer pull out of house purchase lost £350.00 plus, is there any insurance companies that insure against loses of surveyors fees etc. for the next time if we go for it again

john_m_9

Really great thread - thanks a lot. Having spent a while marketing our place with a local agent, it became clear they really weren't putting the effort in and struggled (in our view) to market out place to the full. In fact, we experienced quite a lot of what i described in the thread. Interesting that so many others have seen this, too! We decided to sell our own place, and it really can work. The sites mentioned above, for me, offer great value ( http://www.thelittlehousecompany.co.uk and, also, http://www.houseladderco.uk ). If you live in London, as we do, there's a new one on the scene which offers a load of interesting features ( http://www.mysaleagreed.com ). Essentially, if you're going to sell your own home my two bits of advice would be: 1) possibly do it in tandem with a local agent who you has earned your trust; just tell them you're going to try to sell it privately, too, to ensure that there isn't any confusion about paying commission to them if you do; 2) choose a private sale site that has links with big property portals so your home gets seen by users of those sites. Often the private sales sites themselves are quite small, in comparison, so that's important. Good luck!:o

Tamarin

This thread I found interesting and informative.

We shall be trying to sell our house through one of the sites on the internet. We thought we would try Houseladder.

The tips and ideas concerning decoration have been very very helpful as we cannot afford to spend too much on doing up the property like you see on the TV programmes.

We are just mortgage free but due to withdraw of treatment under NHS are looking to move to Scotland where treatment freely available under the NHS

Does any one know where we can find a quick ready reckoner in case we need a mortgage before our house sells and how much this would cost us a month

Many thanks, Tamarin

Doozergirl

Tamarin wrote: »

We shall be trying to sell our house through one of the sites on the internet. We thought we would try Houseladder.

I would recommend www.housenetwork.co.uk. They will get your house on to www.rightmove.co.uk which is where virtually anyone looking for a house on the internet will end up. I used them because of the good feedback they have received on this site

Tamarin wrote: »

Does any one know where we can find a quick ready reckoner in case we need a mortgage before our house sells and how much this would cost us a month.

http://www.charcol.co.uk/knowledge-resources/calculators/

Don't forget to use an independent, whole of market broker if you need to. Also, if it is for the short term, you need to find a product that has no tie-in period and relaitvely low entry and exit fees. You will need to include those fees when you calcualte your monthly repayments.
eg. if you have the mortgage for a year you need to multiply up the repayments by 12, then add all the fees, then divide by 12 to get the average.

If you explain to an independent broker what you are trying to do, they will understand what I am saying

Welcome to the boards, btw. You will get quicker answers if you a brave enough to start your own thread (on the main list on this board, just above this thread, there is a button that says 'new thread' or something similar!) Us regulars don't check the stickys as much as we should

Tamarin

Thank you very much for the information.

have calculated very approximately what we could afford.

We have not bought/sold a property for nearly 30 years, so approaching everyone with trepidation ... everything moves to quickly nowadays!!! Or it could be we're getting older and slower ... but we will get there

We have to find out more information but may very well be back for clarification or other member's experiences and I will try a new thread.

Bye and thanks
Tamarin;)

mortgage1301

i guess i know alot about mortgage 'n real estate industry ... but you guys still teaching me lot

Doozergirl

This thread should be three times the length with all the spam that people post on it :rolleyes:

I've reported it.

janer_3

Hi Marcus,
That was brilliant info especially as I am putting my house up for sale. Am a single mum and will take note of all you said if it means saving money.
All the best,
Jane
:T

morelle_andre

Marcus wrote: »

Greetings all. I’ve been using this site for a while now and have managed to save us a small fortune. Years ago I was an estate agent so I thought I’d see is I could write some bits and bobs in relation to my experiences in the hope that it might save people some cash.

Selling Your House

Methods to Save Money

1) Agents Fees
a. All Estate Agent Fees are negotiable. First, check through the local property paper. See which agents get the most business. Are any members of the NAEA. Busy agents who are members of the NAEA would be my first choices. Select the best 3 or 4 agents and phone them up as potential buyers. See what service you get over a week or so as a buyer - that way you’ll get an idea of how they will market and present your property. A good proactive, busy and well managed agent will still have time and resources to post/email you details and phone you with new properties.

Then get them all to Value your property. Tell each valuer that you have other valuations (BUT NEVER TELL THEM WHAT VALUATIONS OTHER AGENTS HAVE GIVEN YOU - AS THEY’LL MANIPULATE THEIR OWN VALUATIONS) and that you are looking for a fee of 1% with no lock-ins. Most agents will try to lock you in - so that if you instruct them to take your property off the market you will not contractually be able to re-market with another agent for up to 8 weeks (especially with corporates). Make sure you get this down to 1 week after written notice. If you are locked in and you then sell your property through another agent you will get sued for the fees.

Agents are sales persons - they will give you great reasons to lock you in and charge you more... but they also need your business - thus you have the power to ask for and get these things.

b. Once your property is up for sale keep an eye on your agent - mystery shop them ie call them up, give a false name etc. and tell them you are looking for a property that matches your own property’s description - see if they push for you to view your property - are they positive and energetic?

The Duel/Multi-Agency myth.
If you become unhappy with your agent’s efforts it may be time to sack them or go multi agency. Tell an agent that you wish more than one agent to market your property and they’ll try and push up the fees to staggering amounts (2.5%+!!).
Tactics - tell your current agent that you wish for other agents to market your property. Tell them that you’ll keep them as an agent only if they will keep your fees at 1%. If they will not, then sack them (you should only be locked in for a week). I’ve never known an agent not to back down in this situation - they’d lose potential business if they let you go.
Now go to some other agents - probably the other agents on your original list - and tell them that “my agent has agreed to let me go multi-agency and my current fees are 1% - would you like to also market my property at 1% multi-agency?” You can guess what the answer will be...

A 1 % saving on the average cost of a property in the UK (currently £150000) will save you £1500 before VAT.

Duel Agency means you’re marketing with 2 agents - multi agency means you’re with more than two. Agents will try and charge you more for either of these - especially in the case of multi.



2) Solicitor Fees
During you initial enquiries with estate agents, ask them for several recommendations each of good conveyancers or solicitors. You don’t just want the name of the firm, but also the name of the specific solicitor/conveyancer. Remember, some agents will have ‘arrangements’ with some solicitors and some will even have their own - so be warned. A good rule of thumb would be to approach solicitors (by name) who have been recommended by different agents - although some solicitors will have arrangements with more than one agent.

Phone the best solicitors and ask for written confirmation of their charges. Take note of how they treat you - do they speak in plain English, are they friendly and do you get their details as promised the next day. And once again - their fees are negotiable - there’s no reason not to ask your favourite contender to shave £xxx off of their fees if you have evidence of more competitive quotes from other solicitors... they may say “no chance” - in which case you need to make a decision as to whether or not the extra charges are really worth it.

A solicitor can make or break deals for you so shop around. It’s very hard to change solicitors once they start the conveyancing process for you... and it will cost you!

And finally - avoid fee busting corporate conveyancing firms - they will most likely slow down the conveyancing process - these are normally call centre and internet based firms. They can save you as much as £500... but as stingy as I am I would never use them.



I hope this is of use to you and I hope that my info is still correct.
I’ll see if I can write something for buyers when dealing with agents and the like.

Regards
Marcus

Hi Marcus,
just a quick enquiry in regard to selling our house ourselves!
my partner and I with our daughter are emergrating to austalia in the new year so all that we can save towards this is a bonus.

could you please advise what is required and needed to make this possible and save money for us
regards
Morelle

Doozergirl

Hi Morelle,

I don't think Marcus has used this forum for a while now!

I would recommend using www.housenetwork.co.uk if you want to sell cheaply. It is not strictly selling by yourself as they are an internet based EA, but they do get your house on www.rightmove.co.uk which is the most popular property portal by far. The cheapest way to do it is to payt £199 + VAT for you virtual tours, floorplans and photos, then £199+VAT when you eventually sell.

If you start a brand new thread on this then you will get lots of replies. Because you have tagged on to the end of an old, existing thread, you'll probably find that I'm the only one to reply.