House Selling - Money Saving Tips

peaches48

Hi Marcus,

I loved your hints & tips for selling but can you tell me, will they also apply to selling a Grade II Listed property (painting etc...).
The agents we've had in say no, don't repaint, just tidy and if possible empty the rooms to make them look bigger. We found this odd as the rooms are very big.
Any additional tips would be very gratefully received...

:beer:

StueyC_2

I'm in the process of selling my house (I'm not a newbie at this) and I have a fixed rate mortgage with Halifax. The fixed rate period ends in July, but it is possible the sale will go through before this.

So I have discussed the early redemption charge issue with Halifax, which they have confirmed is calculated on the basis of the interest they will lose if I settle early. However, the charge is not pro-rated over the year, so the same amount of penalty applies whether there are 364 days left on the deal or 1 day.

This seems completely unfair, and means Halifax will actually be making a profit out of the mortgage, on top of the interest. Despite their insistence that the charge is set out in the T&C, surely this constitutes an unfair charge, and shouldn't the OFT really have a closer look at this.

I'm now stuck between asking the purchasers to hang on a month or two longer, or trying to fight Halifax on this (heh, don't like my chances!).

Can anyone help with advice?

Stuey

TwistedPsycho

steliz wrote: »

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.

If it is of any help.

I was quoted (on a £120k 1 Bed Flat Valuation):

Flat rate of £850+VAT No Sell, No Fee
10 weeks
14 Day Notice

pamelamalcolm

Well, this is very helpful! Cheers for posting this! :beer:

W1ggles

This topic is excellent. We are at the very start of selling our house, the decorating and tarting it up stage. We have been a little nervous about contacting an EA as we are unfamiliar with the process and all the terms and conditions and jargon.
We would have definately been diddled over the % and the lock in, i didn't even think about haggling.
This thread may have even given me the confidence to look at selling the house myself. Thanks for the heads up!

cdunne

Hi another good article and forum topic.


I read the guide on the website and asked some local estate agents (East Midlands) to value the house. I’m not in a urgent rush to sell but would like to sell as quickly as possible with a fair value.


I wonder if anyone could help me here. Since I’m now finding it hard to choose which one to go with trying to balance fees against service at the moment all local agents seem to be quoting 12 weeks tie in but I’ll try to work on this.

One is a fairly new agent who have a shop about 200m from the house on the same road, they had a £1000 no sale no fee offer (inc VAT). The estate agent who came round didn’t seem as good as the rest and valued the house at 132,000. They advertise on the main internet sites but not in the local press.

One is an established agent who has a shop about 600m on a different estate. They originally wanted 1.5% commission but when I mentioned the £1000 offer they quickly reduced to 1.25% (+ VAT) I suspect I could get them down slightly further. They advertise on the main internet sites and also the local press. The agent valued the house at £135,000 (they seem to have a fair few houses on the market that have not sold for an extended period due to them being priced higher than other agents)

One seems to be a husband and wife team. They work from home and do not have a traditional office. They are a member of the Ombudsman. The agent seemed to have some novel ideas (wanting to take as many photographs as possible and thought that he would need half a day with the house to produce the publicity material. They specialise in right move advertising and claim to have one of the highest click through rates of all of the agents in the country. They claim to be able to offer a personal touch that other agents can’t offer. One issue that worries me is that they only use right move and globrix but don’t use Zoopla for example. They pride themselves on being able to quickly sell houses at good prices but use a ‘offers above’ tatic because they believe that gets a higher market value (the agaent used lots of real cases to try to prove his point). They suggested offers above £130,000 but aiming to get between £132,000 and £135,000 using this tatic. Their normal rate is also 1.5% + vat but quickly reduced this to 1.25% without me haggling too much. So I suspect I can get the rate down further.

Another agent will see the house tomorrow and they state a 0.75% fee (but their website still states 0.5% so I'm hoping to hold them to this). They have a office in the center of the city and advertise in the local press.



Part of me thinks the sensible option is to go with the cheapest agent. But then part of me wonders if going for one of the other two would be worth while because they both gave a better impression over the first, the small agent gave the best impression but my main concern is that rightmove does not cover the entire market. Also has anyone had any positive / negative experience of 'offers over' rather than the traditional asking price?

Thanks


Chris

learnenglishonline

Good! This is very helpful.
Thank you so much
________
Daniel

andrewjamesom9

Hi,I will selling my house.please any one help me.
________________
Andrew.

SherlockAndSlinky

I sold my house on 23rd Feb this year........... the surveyor came out last Tuesday so we chased up this morning and spoke to our estate agent. I was told a couple of weeks ago that the prospective buyers have a mortgage in principle but I'm told today they still have no mortgage offer? Is this normal at this stage? I'm starting to think that the house should have been left on the market ''under offer' rather than being taken off and sold subject to contract. I really dont feel comfortable with this -- any thoughts from anyone?

Thanks!

paul20000

I recently sold a property through finlandandco.com, they listed my property on major portals and did the epc and floors plans and provided a for sale board all for £199, was very sceptical, but they were naea approved and regsutered with the property ombudsmen.

I save over £3000

i would always sell privately, as long as your property is on the major portals you have nothing to loose