House Selling - Money Saving Tips

peterfishboy

Cheers Marcus

bumblemum

Hi all,

I'm in a pickle with choosing an estate agent and I would really like your opinions. We are looking to put our maisonette on the market and we have had wildly different valuations. The reason it's difficult to value our place is because there aren't many that are similar to compare it to. We're on a really popular high street and have a patio outside space but we're above a shop. If you're prepared to live a bit further from our street you can get a much bigger place for your money.

We've had the following valuations:

£125000 to £130000
£140000
£135000 to £140000
£160000 to £165000
£180000 to £185000

There are 6 estate agents on our small high street!

Their fees and tie ins aren't that different once I look like I plan to negotiate.

The £180k valuation came from CJ Hole who are massive in this area. Most of the Sold signs locally are CJ Hole ones. The other plus point is that they recently sold a similar property on this street which is a bit bigger and has a small garden - it was on the market for £189,999 and they said they sold it for £185000.

Should I just go for CJ Hole?
What if they are just giving me a huge valuation so that I sign up but they have no intention of getting this price?
If is is reduced after a few weeks would this look really bad to prospective buyers?

What are your thoughts because it's such a big decision and I'm scared of making the wrong choice when we are so keen to sell this year.

Thanks for your thoughts,

C

delboyl

Please be aware of the slight of hand traps that sales reps do when your having your house placed on the market.
I have decided to go from a solely internet based sales approach to a sole agent with an alleged reputable brick and mortar company that can give the 'local perspective' and all the other selling tosh that your are told.
This company has so far been very poor in its approach to getting the property to market as quickly as possible and with that when I signed the contract to sell, I was lead to believe that I was signing to get information about the conveyancing firm but upon reading further I had been signed up to the partnering conveyancing firm much to my disgust as the agents get as much in kick backs as the conveyancing firm gets for its hard work.
What I am trying to say is ensure that you read all the document before signing it no matter what the sales person in front of says as you could pay dearly for this. I do not normally get caught out on these sort of things but as this was a trusted high street name I placed my trust in them to my error.

alexer

Thanks Marcus. It really so Informative thread. I am looking such type of thread. I had planned to sell my property recently. This thread is really helpful for me.

denialr150

Nice topic,I am also want to sell my house for some time now but worried about the charges involved.I don't mind taking slightly less for the property but don't want to lose £1000's because of it.

pcount

I've read your thread and perked up courage to negotiate with my real estate agents and saved about 1000 pounds!

I've negotiated from 2% to 1.65%. Didn't have nerve to ask any further, as even online real estate agents charge 1% and with viewing arranged 1.5%. Hence, I think that 1.65% was reasonable. (Well, I'd love to hear from anyone who actually managed to get 1%).

Thanks so much for your helpful advice!

curtisbud

Thanks for these tips. This tips are really helpful for those you want to get their own home at small money investment.

mariya5321

Hello Marcus,
Thanks for this valuable post here; your information is beneficial for the entire new property buyer.

clarejames81

Great post Marcus,

It motivated me to go and renegotiate with my agent and everything you said was true!

I also put my house on some private selling sites, the best of which I thought was comparethehouses.com. A few of the enquiries were a bit spammy, from other agents, but I did get some genuine interest too, in fact one that has led to an offer, and I could save just over £2,000. :rotfl: I'd recommend anyone having a look.

I found that the agents manage to feed a few people through in the first couple of weeks, but many are just browsers and then it drops off.

Thanks again Marcus.

Qasar

This posting is dated 2004. Are these figures still current? e.g. 1% estate agent fee; 1 week notice rather than a long tie-in period.