Selling advice wanted, been on 6 months

Cumbrian_Male

tomstickland wrote: »

Here's my first impressions. I haven't read any of this thread yet apart from first post.

Not enough photos.
Outside looks OK.
Living room looks OK.
Kitchen photo is rubbish - looks wonky, can only see half of it, is that a towel in the middle?
Needs bathroom, bedroom, garden etc views.

Digital photos are so cheap and easy that there's no excuse.

Needs floorplan.

Description is rubbish. Write your own and tell the agent to post it up.

Just OK?

Kitchen is all there it's tiny, yes tea towel hung from drawer knob.

Going to speak to agent tomorrow and use competing agents listing for house a few doors down as a reference.

macaque_2

Cumbrian_Male wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I have been advised to ask your opinion and advice on here.

I am attempting to sell my house to downsize and clear debts which are unserviceable due to redundancy last year. I have a debt management plan with CCCS, so only need help with getting my property moving.

HERE is a link to my property. Started at £184,950 reduced to £179,999 2 weeks ago.

Can you suggest if we are pitched at the right price from market comparison? Rear garden needs landscaping.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

No matter what metric you choose to apply, house prices today are higher than they have been at any time for 2000 years. If you sell today, you will get an exceptional price by historic standards (even if it is not as much as you would like).

The longer you keep your house, the more your debts will balloon. You also have to take account of the downside risk. Given that you are obliged to sell, a long delay in finding a buyer or a fall in the property market would make your position 10 times worse.

There is no pain free path for you but there is a path of least pain. If I was in your shoes, I would ask the estate agent to name a price that would give a high likelihood of a serious offer within 2 weeks. I would then set an asking price lower than that. If you can get two buyers interested, then you are likely to get the best price within the limited time you have (even though is not what you would want in an ideal world).

tomstickland

OK as in nothing wrong.
That kitchen image looks all wonky.

Really, you could do a better job yourself with a digital camera.

I'd advise you to spend an evening putting together some decent photos and a simple description. Estate agents don't half write some drivel. Just the basics like age of house, location, good features.

Cut and paste the floorplan in as well.

A GCSE student could write a better description than that EA has done.

Cumbrian_Male

tomstickland wrote: »

Take those floorplans, cut and rotate them in windows paint or whatever and tell the agent to post them up.

You're selling something for £180K, so it needs some basic effort on the rightmove listing. Maybe the agents are rubbish?

Going to take the floor plan in, they use it or loose my business.

Do you think the lack of effort is because I beat them down from 1% to 0.75%?

bylromarha

Cumbrian_Male wrote: »

:eek: I thought these waste of monies didn't come in till Oct.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6951171.stm

Cumbrian_Male

macaque wrote: »

No matter what metric you choose to apply, house prices today are higher than they have been at any time for 2000 years. If you sell today, you will get an exceptional price by historic standards (even if it is not as much as you would like).

The longer you keep your house, the more your debts will balloon. You also have to take account of the downside risk. Given that you are obliged to sell, a long delay in finding a buyer or a fall in the property market would make your position 10 times worse.

There is no pain free path for you but there is a path of least pain. If I was in your shoes, I would ask the estate agent to name a price that would give a high likelihood of a serious offer within 2 weeks. I would then set an asking price lower than that. If you can get two buyers interested, then you are likely to get the best price within the limited time you have (even though is not what you would want in an ideal world).

At this point my debts aren't ballooning as they have frozen interest and as yet there isn't a forced sale order.

Have you any advice to increase the marketability of my property as I have the debt side well addressed.

If I need a rushed sale I would ask for a quick sale price or auction with reserve.

Doozergirl

I do not think that the lack of service is due to you knocking them down on price at all. By those details they are, by all accounts, rubbish.

Knock agents down as much as you like. They will stop where they feel comfortable ad ey won't bear a grudge. .75% of something is far better than .75% of nothing!

macaque_2

Cumbrian_Male wrote: »

At this point my debts aren't ballooning as they have frozen interest and as yet there isn't a forced sale order.

Have you any advice to increase the marketability of my property as I have the debt side well addressed.

If I need a rushed sale I would ask for a quick sale price or auction with reserve.

I'm no expert on selling property but I would still do something vaguely along the lines I described (but maybe with slightly less agressive price cutting). A property with two or more interested buyers is more likely to fetch a better price. It is human nature that a person will love a property more if someone else also wants it. Also, even if you have the debt situation under control, you have to weigh up the risks of chasing the market down.

Cumbrian_Male

macaque wrote: »

I'm no expert on selling property but I would still do something vaguely along the lines I described (but maybe with slightly less agressive price cutting). A property with two or more interested buyers is more likely to fetch a better price. It is human nature that a person will love a property more if someone else also wants it. Also, even if you have the debt situation under control, you have to weigh up the risks of chasing the market down.

Thanks for your input, having looked at your post history, while you are "no expert" it is your specialist subject.

Do you think that a £10k drop rather than the £5k we had would lure more buyers, with the hope of a bidding war.

macaque_2

Cumbrian_Male wrote: »

Thanks for your input, having looked at your post history, while you are "no expert" it is your specialist subject.

Do you think that a £10k drop rather than the £5k we had would lure more buyers, with the hope of a bidding war.

It isn't the size of the price drop that would concern me. It is a case of finding a price range that gets people sitting up and taking notice.