House Selling - Money Saving Tips

badethzky

thanks for sharing with us the info

moanymoany

We just sold our house and this is what we did.

We got 5 agents to value. One was low, one very high and the other three in the middle. We went with a middle one who we liked.

We have used a licensed conveyancer and used them again, they are BRILL and chased everything really strongly. We also had our own HIPs - done by said conveyancer. There was difficulty over a lost planning document and we did the running around and chasing to get it.

Our agent was getting people in, but only 2 were in a position to go and they didn't want it. At the same time it was clear the market was hardening and so we put our price down 7%. We got a cash buyer and they paid 8.5% below our first price.

Our agents were very good. We paid 1% and we tied in for 8 weeks. I thought that was reasonable, if they didn't sell in that time I would have then moved to another who kept in touch with nice chatty and informative phone calls.

We worked for three months to make our house look like a showhome. Every viewing was thoroughly prepared for and the house dressed. We spent about 1%, maybe just over. It was worth every penny.

Now there are similar houses on at what we sold for. A house in our road was very overpriced and is still there with 2 agents and reduced from 'offers over' £314k to £275,950ono. It is a different design to us, but because I'd been watching the market I knew from the start it was way overpriced and no effort had been made to make it look nice for a sale.

Apparently they were gutted when they saw our moving van. What they haven't learnt is that you have to put time, effort and research into selling a house. A quarter of a million pounds+ is a lot of money to leave totally in someone elses hands. If it had gone on at £299,950 last autumn (when it first went on) they would have sold it and got about £280k. Now, I think it is too late for them. They will only get about £250k max as the style is not popular.

There is no perfect way to sell and I'm glad our cash is in the bank. There are buyers out there. We took a lower offer from a cash buyer as in April chains were already unravelling at an alarming rate.

What we did was right for us, but we were sensible and took the long view. I was not worried about falling prices as that has a knock on effect. I was worried that houses would stop selling. Although in an ideal world we would have waited until next year that long view said get on with it and we did.

SallysChateau

I love this site but reading this thread practically reduced me to tears !! I'm selling my house in France and the Agents charge a whopping 7%. You would think they would do something for that wouldn't you ? Wrong. In the end I'm selling it myself, top quality pictures, correct and informative details and saving myself 40,000 euros into the bargain.

juliemci

What are your thoughts about online estate agents. Is this the future. I have a friend who has put her house on the market with Mousesale. They are also on Rightmove.co.uk and charged her a fee of £293 with no other commission.

Doozergirl

juliemci wrote: »

What are your thoughts about online estate agents. Is this the future. I have a friend who has put her house on the market with Mousesale. They are also on Rightmove.co.uk and charged her a fee of £293 with no other commission.

Lots of us on the board have used www.housenetwork.co.uk with success. I think onlline estate agents are great if you are getting seen on rightmove and are prepared to take responsibility for your asking price and set it sensible.

thomasz

Hope i will not have any trouble,when use it.

Doozergirl

Exactly what I was saying about spam on stickies. Didn't get a reply from our boardguides.

stephf10

Hello,

This is my first post so please excuse any mistakes....

Our estate agent called this morning to say if we dont drop our price by £10,000 he will no longer continue to market the property as it costs him money to keep us on the books? I have no problem dropping the price, I would even consider dropping further (but dont expect it to make a fig of a difference as we are looking for a first time buyer)

Does anyone else have similar experiences, and what expense is it to keep someone on the books?

thanks!!!

MissMoneypenny

stephf10 wrote: »

Hello,

This is my first post so please excuse any mistakes....

Our estate agent called this morning to say if we dont drop our price by £10,000 he will no longer continue to market the property as it costs him money to keep us on the books? I have no problem dropping the price, I would even consider dropping further (but dont expect it to make a fig of a difference as we are looking for a first time buyer)

Does anyone else have similar experiences, and what expense is it to keep someone on the books?

thanks!!!

You should get more responses if you start your own thread for this as a lot of posters don't read the stickies. Just push the NEW THREAD button at the top and post it again.

jelliottuk

I interesting point