One open house and two days for offers. Is it the best way?

aroominyork

My daughter is selling her flat and feels her estate agent is running rings around her, closing down her questions so the agent can do things their way. 'Their way' is to book people for an open house on one Saturday, follow up each visitor on the Monday, and by Wednesday want a decision about who my daughter will sell to.

I understand this is great for the agent - they post the flat online and 10 days later their job is pretty much done.

So far, there has been one open day, over 30 visitors, seven offers with two at an acceptable price, but both subsequently withdrew and now it the flat is back online and booking people for the next open day.

When my daughter questions taking a slower (more traditional) approach the agent essentially bullies her to the point where she is almost scared to pick up the phone to them again.

I could help her and tell the agent how we insist the sale is managed, but it would be helpful to know more about how the market operates these days. It is a one bedroom flat in east London valued at £350k-£370k. Is it actually best to have this flurry of activity, with potential buyers seeing themselves in a quick and dirty race to the finish line and putting in overvalued bids? Some guidance would be much appreciated.

pmlindyloo

I am not sure why your daughter dislikes this approach. It saves constant viewings (and having to keep the place clean and tidy virtually all the time!). Since the flat is in East London then I am presuming that there are plenty of viewings.

The fact that the two offers fell through may be nothing to do with the way the estate agents operated - this can happen with any kind of sale procedure.

Having said that if your daughter doesn't want open days then just tell the estate agent that she wants the potential buyers coming one at a time. She is paying for the service so can dictate the way it is done. She just needs to be more assertive.

hazyjo

Would she rather them take a month or three to sell it, thinking they're earning their money more by doing it slower? tbh, I'd rather pay them the same and have a buyer asap.


Most popular properties have open days. I think I may try it when I sell - there are lots where I am (also East London). There's no 'dirty race' about it I don't think. It saves the timewasters, and saves wasting time generally! If someone's not proceedable, it weeds them out.


Jx

Rambosmum

I'm also not really sure why she doesn't like this approach- it is the approach I pretty much insisted on when we sold our house before Christmas, makes things much simpler and quicker, especially if there is a lot of interest in the property. Saves having to keep the place pristine and gets the whole thing over and done with in a week or two. However she doesn't and that is her prerogative but she needs to be firm with the estate agent and tell them that. If she doesn't like the agent she needs to check her paperwork and consider withdrawing and listing with another agent, but before signing with that agent make sure they'll market it in a way your daughter is happier with.

Lord_Baltimore

The objective is to sell (at the desired price). 30 visitors in one day producing seven offers with 2 acceptable is testament to the approach being taken by the agent.

I'd be happy with the progress.

Surrey_EA

aroominyork wrote: »

I understand this is great for the agent - they post the flat online and 10 days later their job is pretty much done.

In many cases finding a buyer is the easy bit. Getting from the point of offer acceptance to exchange is often where most of the work lies.

There's a lot of advantages to the approach suggested by the agent, as others have mentioned. In my experience the best prices are achieved when a property is fresh to the market, and especially if there is a bit of competition.

eddddy

aroominyork wrote: »

... seven offers with two at an acceptable price, but both subsequently withdrew

Why was that?

For example...

Was it problems with the mortgage valuation?

Or do you suspect that buyers got 'carried-away' by the competitive process, and offered more than they were comfortable with? ... Followed by a bit of buyer's remorse?

aroominyork

Re the two withdrawals, one also made an offer on another property and chose that one, the other was self-employed and couldn't see it through.

So the consensus is in favour of this way of selling. The main problem is that once the agent starts getting offers after the open day, they stop taking calls from other potential buyers. So you get a market dynamic where people making offers expect to know in a couple of days whether their offer is accepted, so unless you accept the offer and later retract the acceptance you have to turn away other potential buyers - and the agent can pretend to be ethical by doing so!

I accept what's good for the agent can also be good for the vendor, but my suspicion that they will do anything for a quick sale is exaccerbated when, after the withdrawal of two offers £15k above the 'offers above', they suggested accepting an offer of £15k less (ie right on the 'offer above' level). I don't for a moment believe that if it was their own property, they wouldn't go out again to seek a higher price.

cloo

It sounds like they are rather bolshy about it, but it seems to be a good approach and I also would rather get it over with in one day or a few days rather than having to keep my house pristine for viewings whenever. I think most people do - I sold a house in East London this way two years ago and it is a good technique in a busy market, though it depends on the agent. First agent promised 20+ viewers on first open day, actually got 5 and one low offer which I turned down. Took it off for a month or two as I was going on holiday, the put back on with another agent who got 10 viewers, and 5 offers, 2 well in excess of asking.

I don't think there's any point being annoyed that the agents are trying to 'save work', sounds like they are doing fine getting offers so they evidently work well doing it this way, perhaps as it encourages people top bid up because they can see the 'competition'. Best of luck with it, I honestly would advise to go with the agents' practice here unless there is some reason why open days are more disruptive then spread-out , on-spec views.

Blakey74_2

We sold using open days due to having young children. One thing we were told by the agents was to only have one viewer at a time as if lots of people view at the same time interested buyers can fee pressured into offering.

The agents found that something like 60% of offers were withdrawn with regards to multiple viewing open days.

hazyjo

aroominyork wrote: »

The main problem is that once the agent starts getting offers after the open day, they stop taking calls from other potential buyers. So you get a market dynamic where people making offers expect to know in a couple of days whether their offer is accepted, so unless you accept the offer and later retract the acceptance you have to turn away other potential buyers - and the agent can pretend to be ethical by doing so!

That's the point of it though. It's not a case of property comes onto market and next day there's an open day, they usually leave it a couple of weeks, then have an open day. Once you start getting offers, what's the point of more viewings? You could go on forever with a popular house (and make you look like a flaky/unreliable seller). Not sure how different it is if selling 'traditionally' - say you had 5 viewers on four days - ie 20 viewers in total, if a few offered over the asking price, would you not just accept one? Or would you keep inviting more viewers?


Jx