House Selling - Money Saving Tips

steliz

As these tips are 7 years old can anyone offer any comment on whether they are still relevant. In particular regarding the estate agents charges and lock ins.
I have had the first valuation today and was quoted 1.5% and 12 weeks. I didn't haggle but I'll consider my options when I have a couple of more quotes.

ColU_FC

merecroft wrote: »

Please check us out as I would love to have some feed back from you.
Alison
Right Estate Agents Ltd

You don't seem to have many houses listed with you.

Bassboy76

Nice info. Thanks!

Riverdon

Thanks Marcus, some good tips for selling.

I'm a newbie to the discussion forums and wondered if there have been any discussions about lease extensions?

I am trying to overpay on my interest only mortgage with a view to purchasing a bigger property in London early next year. My current lease is 84 years - not sure if i will sell my current property or rent it out next year, either way I am conscious that the length of lease may be an issue.

Any thoughts on viable options to consider?

Thanks
RD

Kendall85

Hi there

Some useful advice from someone in the business whos been in the business a while...

1) Dont choose an agent based purely on fees....as marcus mentioned register with them and see how proactive they are with pushing your property.
2) Look on rightmove and put your post code in and half mile radius including sold subject to contact and see which agent is selling most in your area.
3) Go on Zoopla.co.uk then onto home values input your postcode and fill in the estimate form if necessary to give you an idea on value. (Some will over value your home to get the instructions and tie you into a long contract and get you to reduce your price to where it should of been wasting your time and breaking your heart when you miss out on the home you wanted to buy!)
4) Tidy up!! How many of you have sold cars that are dirty with packets of crisps and half eaten mars bars on the passenger seat!! If you've got kids you cant live in a show home but you can keep it tidy and smelling fresh for viewings!
5) First impressions..Do you have a drive with weeds growing through the cracks?? get rid of them!! Get it Pressure Washed!!, are your windows and fascias clean?
6) Get out the way!! If your selling a smaller home and theres lots of you living there give your agent a key and go out (esp if you have a dog!) theres nothing worse than being rushed round and feeling cramped in the most expensive thing your going to buy ever!!
7) Get your mortgage sorted with a decent IFA... there are some EA's that will con you into seeing their Advisors who are trying to sting you!! (Im lucky I work with 2 Very good experienced ones!!!)
8) Look for places while you are on the Market the market is great for upsizing at the moment!!! and if Mr Jones comes and makes you a lower offer make a lower offer on the property you want to buy!!! Common Sense!!!
9) In house conveyancers.....a lot of them are complete and utter rubbish and so are some locals!!! Find a decent local 'Conveyancer' who specialises in property transactions!

If anyone has any queries or questions im happy to help!

Juninho

Marcus

One of my friends recommended putting my property on Rightmove in order to cut out the agents. Whilst I’d have to do the viewings myself, the savings on the agents fees would be considerable, but would i get lower offers? What are your views of the net and of the companies that for a small fee will host on Rightmove for you?

Juninho

tleefox

Hi guys - excellent thread firstly and thanks to Marcus.

I am in the process of putting our house on the market, and we have had an offer from an EA which almost seems too good to be true.

We initially had valuations from 4 agents, 1 of which was always our preferred due to their location, experience in our area, and the standard of their adverts.

All of the valuations came back within £10k of each other (£215k to £225k) and the fees were pretty much the same. The 3 larger agents (including our preferred) said 1.75% and a smaller agent with less presence in the area said 1.25%. All of them said 16 week lock in.

Having gone back to our preferred choice, they said they would be happy to put it on @ £220k, having initially said £215k, that they would lower their fee to 1.5% and would drop the lock in altogether.

I'm happy with this, but it almost seems to good to be true, particularly the no lock in part?

Can I ask for yout thoughts? We are first time sellers so are being a bit cautious about things?

Thanks.

Christyt

If you have time to conduct viewings yourself I would go with an online agent. I sold my flat with Housenetwork.co.uk and saved a fortune in fees and to be honest, the pain of having to deal with those rogues. You have a good idea of the market value (I would check Nethouseprices or similar to check actual sold prices of similar properties in your area as a double-check on that) so depending on how desperate you are to sell, you can judge your price. If you need an agent to do viewings for you, I would say that deal sounds ok but check the contract carefully before signing. I've been told if they are desperate for properties you can get them down to 1%. Good luck!

mrvanman

Hi all

I have a serious problem I used to own my own house outright saved up worked hard and bought my own house however a few years ago I remortgaged to buy an overseas property unfortunately the recession has taken its toll and I was made bankrupt by the tax man I also have a suspended court order and mortgage arrears, recently my house has been attacked by yobs i've had windows smashed, van windscreen smashed been called vile names ect basically I've become a target so I really would love to sell my house (forgot to mention the property is now in negative equity)

My question is how would I go about selling this house now and buying somewhere else is this at all possible, please dont mention calling the police in these situations I've tried all that it just makes matters worse

danielley

Mr Van Man

You may find you get more response if you post your question as a individual thread on the board, rather than a post on an existing thread.

Good Luck