House Selling - Money Saving Tips

System

Hi Kopicbloodaxe,

It is about 13 minutes away from the M11 and Stansted on the new A120 by car, so we do not experience aircraft or main road traffic noise. It is a quiet, desirable residential neighbourhood, being in what is effectively a cul-de-sac, with all town facilities nereby, but not far from open countryside. So none of these is the problem. There is no skeleton in the cupboard as far as I can see! The local agents in their honest moments have told me that they have been having great difficulty selling anything priced over about £200 000 in this area, and there are two other houses (not all quite the same) for sale also along this road. One of them has been for sale for 2 months longer than mine and neither of these has sold either.

The problem essentially seems to be a lack of first-time buyers coming into the market at these silly prices, so no one can move up and that has caused the market to stall in some of the home counties. This is exactly the same set of circumstances which set in at the beginning of the last housing crash, so it may be that the inevitable downturn has already commenced. Once this happens it takes a very long time for reality to return due to inertia, and then a reverse wave effect commences from South to North.

System

Great bit of advice Marcus, BUT... a little info about do-it-yourself conveyancing would have saved us MORE money!

We have just sold out house, yesterday, privately with no estate agent involved, this has saved us about £1300 as all it has cost us to advertise was a little over £100. Our solicitors fees are £300 so all in all we have sold our house (subject to contract) for £400, I'd like to hear your advice on making any savings on that!

Rus & Mary xxx

richard.box

Can anyone explain what costs an estate agent incurs which vary according to the property value. I am sure that an expensive house will need more advertising and may be slightly more likely for a sale to fall through, however is this really a proportionate cost?

I have a real problem with the concept of charges based on percentages but very few agents seem to offer a fixed fee based cost. Even at 1% a £400k house will cost £4000 to sell.... how can this be justiified when you can advertise across the country/world for a fraction of that.

Should we all be pushing the agents to push down their costs for more expensive houses? or should we be more sympathetic to the risks that agents take on.

System

We sold our last house ourselves and all it cost us was the price of a can of paint. We simply put up a white board with nicely stencilled FOR SALE and our phone number. I also put up a poster with colour photos attached in the local hospital (although we didn't in the end get any interest from this). We had 6 viewings within 2 days and sold to a chain free buyer in 3days.
And the thing that really pleased us was that we marketed it at 7k above what 2 agents had said it would go for. We accepted an offer of just 1k below OUR asking price. We will definately do it again, and this time as our property is chocolate box atrractive ,we will take out a subscription to country living magazine and then market it with a photo for free in their property page.

TRACY ;D

terrierlady

;D well done nice to see a good idea works and im sure you must have sold the house well.

Stealthy

There is some great info here and with 3 agents coming around ours on Monday I will certainly be haggling for a much better deal than the 1.75% my current agents have me on (I did knock them down from 2% I might add!!).

The thing that is annoying for me and my partner is that whilst we have just given our obligitory 2 weeks notice to stop marketing our property, as it has been on for 10 weeks already, the agents have removed our picture from their shop front and taken our house off of their web site. So in short we cannot market with a fresh agent for the next 2 weeks but they can stop trying to sell our house immediately!

A bit unfair me thinks.

System

Can anyone give me advice on how to sell a difficult house?

We inherited a 4 in a block ex-council house in a deprived area in Glasgow.

The house itself is an ok size. 3 bedrooms and back and front gardens and driveway.

It is also 3 minutes drive from the M8, and loads of amenities with in 5 mins drive. Tesco's, new shopping centre being built etc.

It needs things like a new kitchen/bathroom and decorated throughout.

Me and my partner have been living in it for a while and really want to move to a new build estate in a better area. We've already seen a few places we like.

2 things we need advice on -

A) We were planning on spending a few thousand on new carpets and decorating. Would it be worth it?

Whats the best way to market the house as my partner isn't too keen on the estate agents putting a for sale sign up outside due to the area we live?

Help!

System

I am selling my home and moving abroad, can anyone give a good reason why I should employ a solicitor in the UK, there are no searches to carry out etc, just selling and the estate agent will do that
Russ

BigAde

Russ - an estate agent merely introduces buyers to sellers, they do not SELL the house... While you can do the legal work yourself, I would not recommend it, particularly if you are not going to be in the country.

Marcus

Thank you Martin for giving this post the thumbs up on two general emails - I’m glad the info is of use.

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Been busy getting ready to sell my own house would you believe. Had four Agents over. Got a whole heap of “great” advice and a variance of over 20K on the property value. Very funny!

Anyway - the cheapest I’ve got so far is 1%. I’ll probably hit them all with £1000 +vat in the next week.

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Ocemeer
As mentioned further up - try mystery shopping the agent. Say you’re a buyer and ready to proceed and tell them you’re looking for a house that roughly matches the price and description of your own. Do they push you for a viewing and how hard??? Do they send you details (give a friend’s address). Test this against some other agents in the area if you’re not sure of the performance. When someone would register with me I’d push VERY hard for viewings, drivebys and to take details. And is the property in the local rag? Have they put a board up. How many people have they rang about the property. How many sets of details have they sent out. Get a full report and press them - even say if you don’t get better results quicktime then they’re sacked (see above about lock ins).

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Selling on your own
A great money saver.
I worked in a professional and ethical Agency that received most of it’s business through repeaters and recommendation. And I learned a huge amount. We worked on a office commission structure (very unusual) which meant we all had a vested interest in every sale. Most Agents work on a person by person commission structure which means if your contact is away or busy then you’re screwed - no matter what the other person on the end of the phone will say they’ll do, they’ll either do it half-hearted or pass the buck (post-it notes are good for this). We worked on every sale thoroughly. We managed the chain. Agents hated us. Solicitors hated us. And even FAs sighed in despair:) We would call all of them in the chain if necessary. If there was a problem then our client would know and would receive appropriate advise. We would expose problems and get them sorted - and very rewarding it was too! We would often receive thank you cash, flowers wine and chocolates because clients realised that we put a lot of leg work into making things work.
Someone selling on their own stands to save a substantial amount of cash - but to be blunt, you simply will not be prepared to resolve problems unless you carry out a large amount of research. Of course, a lot od sales don’t encounter problems - in which case you’d be fine.

I’ve considered selling my own this time round. And I could do so and would be prepared to manage chains, deal with other client’s solicitors etc. etc. But I’m going to pay for someone to do this for me. And to market it. If you’re considering selling your own then ask yourself this - how many Estate Agents and ex-Estate Agents sell their own... not many I can tell you. Some days I would spend devoted just to one sale/chain, so you have to also have the time to cope with problems if they arise.

I do agree - a lot of agents will not go to the above trouble (corporates mostly I’m sorry to say - mostly due to inexperienced staff etc.) and so in a lot of cases you may as well have sold on your own.

I’m sounding negative about selling your own but I’m just weary of the pitfalls - it is very possible to sell your own - BigAde is a prime example. It’s also very possible to lose money as well. And as an ‘own seller’ you’re more likely to be the cause of blowing a sale.

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Raj Patel
“I also read somewhere a long time ago, that if you find a house you want to buy, the estate agent, by law, has to give you a copy of any previous surveys that have been done if requested. does anybody know if this is correct?”

I don’t believe so. An agent doesn’t get surveys unless there’s a problem - in which case a vendor would supply a copy for the agent to digest.

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Wayne
“...I got them onto a sliding scale of commission based on the price I would receive...”  

Yes - that’s a great strategy and one I’ve been considering on the sale of my own. Definitely worth a try! It’ll most certainly motivate an open minded agent to get good results for you.

Just make sure you get the maths right:)

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drrrdf2
One option for your current problem would be to perhaps sack all your agents and rest the property for a month or two - people really get used to the same old photo in the paper and it sends out alarm bells.
Once rested you could gett further valuations from agents (if there’s any left) and remarket with a renegotiated fee structure.
Also look for comparable house sales that have completed to ensure that your property isn’t over priced - look only at comps in the same area.

With other houses for sale in direct competition with your’s another option is to reduce the price.

Stealthy
I would demand that they released you from the notice period as they’re not attempting to sell your own. Worth a try. You could even go to the office in a busy time and shout until they give. Certainly read your contract to see if they’ve broken an obligation.
Make sure you get the break in writing.

Stevie K
It’s not really worth spending thousands in my opinion - you’d be investing substantial amounts with no guarantee of a return. Just a clean, fresh and warm canvass. This will also mean you can market the property slightly cheaper thus appealing to a wider market.
You can still market the house through an agent - just ask for no board.

Regards
Marcus