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

Slinky

Did they bother going back to any of the underbidders and find out if they were interested still and wanted to up their offer?

Andyjflet

As in the motor industry, bums on seats sells cars, footsteps in your property sells its, its a numbers game, the more viewings the better.

steampowered

Describing this as "bullying" is a bit ridiculous - the estate agent is a business person and should know how to run their business.

If your daughter wants the sale run differently, she can do so as she is the client, but needs to firmly and clearly express this to the agent.

That said, it is not feasible to have 30 separate viewings in a week so an open day sounds like a good idea in the circumstances.

G_M

If she's unhappy, why has she not switched agents?

Hoploz

I'd rather have 30 viewers in one day than one a day for a whole month!

However, 30 viewers and only two 'acceptable' offers? (One of which was speculative anyway) Doesn't seem a great hit rate.

Perhaps the seller is a little optimistic on price and might consider lower offers next time, should they come in.

Dakota_Deville

When you chose an agent, you need to set your criteria, and if they are not happy with that, get another. Trial run an agent by acting as a buyer before choosing one.

BJV

Selling and buying is very stressful. You are inviting people , strangers into your home to pass judgement.

Having moved last year I can honestly say showing people around was the thing I most dreaded. I think the idea of an open house is fantastic. After all its done and dusted in a couple of days.

But that is my opinion. If your daughter is not happy for what ever reason then she should change EA. After all it is her flat her money and she has to be happy.

Please remember that the EA job is to sell and they will want to do as little as possible for as much as possible the. But ultimately if the sell the flat and get a good price surely it is better that the process takes 2 weeks instead of 2 months?

JP1978

aroominyork wrote: »

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.

I would hope that any good agent would, even if not accepting viewings would at least explain the situation to any new interest and take their details if things change. Potential buyers now may be put off depending on how the EA responded to them initially.

JP1978

Personally i think an open day is good approach, especially if its the agent doing the viewings.

1, you only have to clean the place once
2, the agent (if doing the viewings), if good will upsell the property and approach any awkward questions in a positive manner, an owner doing viewings would either be honest or lie - the later sometimes been obvious. An experienced EA will always be able to turn a negative comment into something more positive.
3, It gets the whole process over and done with quickly, much more sanity for the owner!

Although we sold the 'traditional way' the EA planned in viewings back to back over the course of three or four days - 22 viewings in all I think - so we only had to leave the house those three or four days. So, In a way - similar. House was offer accepted within 10 days of been on the market. Due to the amount of interest, a closing date was set and had three offers above asking price (and home report value). When we got back to the house early after viewings, they were obviously running late and at one point was a queue outside for people to get in!