Are we in a sellers market?

victoriavictorious

I'm going to go against the general consensus here - I totally and utterly empathise with you, OP.
Being in what we think is a strong position, isn't always the great advantage we expect, especially when you throw into the mix inept EAs and vendors who aren't too bothered about selling.
I think it *is* a sellers' market in sought after locations. Until very recently, I was in an identical position to you. Vendors did not seem interested in putting themselves out to get their properties sold, several EAs did not bother to get back to us after we'd asked for viewings. Our buyers were ready to exchange and we had still found nowhere to move to.
Our search area also involved a 300 mile round trip, only we had to do it all in just a day because of work committments; not that there was ever much to view anyway. I know how hard it is. Only one house at a time ever seemed to come up, the best ones went under offer immediately and it was well nigh impossible to arrange viewings even well in advance.
One viewing we *did* manage to book, the EA phoned to cancel 10 mins before it was due (when we had just arrived, after driving 175 miles especially for the viewing)
The EA admitted booking us in on the wrong date (but not telling us), with a "Sorry, can you come back next week?"
Erm, no we jolly well couldn't, and insisted on viewing it that day under the circumstances. The EA suddenly woke from their deep slumber, the vendors were motivated to sell, and between them they pulled out all the stops. We did view it later that day, made an offer and now we're in the process of buying it.
When we sold, it was via an online agent and we did all the viewings ourselves. If we hadnt, we'd just have got the EA to do them. If they want to sell, they should be prepared to fit in viewings, simple as. The most notice we ever needed was 30 mins. If you really want to sell, sorry but yes, you do have to expect to keep your home as 'viewer ready' as possible at short notice. It can be done with a plan, even if it means shoving clutter into the car in an emergency! Turn away a viewer, you are losing a potential sale.
That they are searching in a popular area area and their time is limited, doesn't give an EA the right to assume that they are time wasters; what if they were serious proceedable buyers? It doesn't take *days* to qualify a viewer, it takes minutes! Mobile phone, anyone?
I'd go along with putting a note through the door. It's not about 'entitlement' as someone suggested; either a flipping house is for sale or it isnt! If it is, then fgs stop putting obstacles in the way and make it easy to buy.
Keep at it, OP - you will find something.

victoriavictorious

lena_halo wrote: »

I wouldn't have let you in either! I only did viewings at the weekend for my flat. It's intrusive having people wandering through and when you have a full time job, you need some time to yourself.

Plus the cleaning is a nightmare :rotfl:

You seem to be missing the point. Selling a property is intrusive, no one likes to live that way but people expect a degree of temporary inconvenience if they're serious about selling.
As for cleaning....it's not exactly a nightmare to have a quick tidy up? No one expects you to deep clean your house every time you have a viewing.

YoungBlueEyes

Thank you, that's exactly it victoriavictorious! I had longer than a day though (thank god). I drove down monday aft with a list of dozens of houses and viewed practically all of them by thurs 3pm when I drove home. It was a meticulously planned military operation, but being disciplined and decisive pulled it off. The market is so fast for the good ones I think you have to be like that if you're to stand a chance.

I still don't understand the comment about needing to be properly qualified as a serious buyer. Or the ones about not wanting strangers in your house, or it being intrusive having people wandering through. How else do you expect to sell your house?!

P.S. I'm glad your perseverance paid off victoriavictorious

YoungBlueEyes

I've thought of another reason actually - it could have been like the posts on here that say "I bought a house with my now ex-husband. He still lives there and I don't. I want to sell and he doesn't".

Davesnave

YoungBlueEyes wrote: »

I still don't understand the comment about needing to be properly qualified as a serious buyer. Or the ones about not wanting strangers in your house, or it being intrusive having people wandering through. How else do you expect to sell your house?!

And the people who are 'insulted' by low offers.

We made a few 'insulting' offers in about the slowest market there is: Wales.

The offers were fair, given the condition of the houses, but the owners didn't want to discuss them further; they were so far from what was expected.

Luckily, we have sold prices to see what happened.

One house sold 3 years later for exactly what we offered. A second sold 6 months later for £20k less. A third house, where we couldn't bridge the gap (at least they counter-offered) was withdrawn and has not returned to the market.

victoriavictorious

YoungBlueEyes wrote: »

Thank you, that's exactly it victoriavictorious! I had longer than a day though (thank god). I drove down monday aft with a list of dozens of houses and viewed practically all of them by thurs 3pm when I drove home. It was a meticulously planned military operation, but being disciplined and decisive pulled it off. The market is so fast for the good ones I think you have to be like that if you're to stand a chance.

I still don't understand the comment about needing to be properly qualified as a serious buyer. Or the ones about not wanting strangers in your house, or it being intrusive having people wandering through. How else do you expect to sell your house?!

P.S. I'm glad your perseverance paid off victoriavictorious

Thanks YoungBlueEyes
I must say I'm highly impressed that you managed to tie in the logistics of so many viewings in such a short time, especially given all the different EAs involved, not to mention the vendors who, by all accounts, are quaking in terror beneath their kitchen tables in case heaven forbid, someone actually wants to view the house they have up for sale!
Was there nothing that appealed to you then?
Our online agent, managed to qualify our viewers, just by making a couple of simple phone calls, although there's only 'so much' that can properly be checked out at such an early stage anyway. A lot of it has to be left to chance; even a 'qualified' buyer can still be a time waster/axe murderer

YoungBlueEyes

This is a guess, because I'm inexperienced at all this. The one thing all the EA's asked me was what position am I in - is my house on the market, what's the address etc. Do they check out what I've said? Our EA took our house off the website so I don't know how they'd know, but anyway...

Yeah it was rigorously planned. All the EA's knew what I was doing, and that I'd be punctual and decisive. The weekend before I printed off all 37 properties pages from Rightmove, and their stats from streetcheck.co.uk, so I had paperwork to hand if the EA didn't give me anything (which some of the didn't). I had every address saved in my sat nav thing on my phone (I use Waze, which I'd recommend) so that I could get from one to the next without looking it up on a map. I did also make a paper map with all the houses and routes marked on it in case my phone decided to die on me.

I arranged the viewings by area, so Monday night was one area, Tuesday was Telford, Wednesday was Shrewsbury, Thursday I kept free for second viewings or new discoveries. Tuesday was the fullest day - I started in the north with St Georges and went round the compass to Wellington, through Donnington and Dawley and all kinds of places. Some of them I discounted as soon as I pulled up outside. One place I slotted in on the advice of an EA, who assured me it was exactly what I was looking for and I'd love it. (I'm looking for a freehold period mid-terrace with an actual garden for under £130k). This one was a leasehold gardenless one bed first floor flat in a coach house that was over budget. I didn't even go in.
Some were in an undesirable area so the next 2 in the near vicinity were an instant right-off too etc. I think I viewed 29 properties in the end.

Wednesday was slower as there aren't as many properties in my price range, which is how I had a gap for this unviewed one.

However 29 people realised you have to let unqualified intrusive strangers into your house if you want to actually sell it, which judging by some of the comments on here is a miracle in itself! Or maybe they were just scared of me, cos I'm so pushy and entitled...

There's a couple I did like but despite the agents assuring me there was room for negotiation on the prices, the owners disagreed.

So in the end the whole thing was a bust sadly. But not for lack of trying!

Davesnave

I don't know how many times I've said on here that we sold our last house to people who weren't on the market when they viewed. They showed nil emotion at the time, so we didn't know they were interested; they just happen to be like that.


The person who referred to time wasters has no idea what one of those is. I hope they get a real time waster, like two we had, who got the property off the market and then changed their minds.

victoriavictorious

YoungBlueEyes wrote: »

This is a guess, because I'm inexperienced at all this. The one thing all the EA's asked me was what position am I in - is my house on the market, what's the address etc. Do they check out what I've said? Our EA took our house off the website so I don't know how they'd know, but anyway...

Yeah it was rigorously planned. All the EA's knew what I was doing, and that I'd be punctual and decisive. The weekend before I printed off all 37 properties pages from Rightmove, and their stats from streetcheck.co.uk, so I had paperwork to hand if the EA didn't give me anything (which some of the didn't). I had every address saved in my sat nav thing on my phone (I use Waze, which I'd recommend) so that I could get from one to the next without looking it up on a map. I did also make a paper map with all the houses and routes marked on it in case my phone decided to die on me.

I arranged the viewings by area, so Monday night was one area, Tuesday was Telford, Wednesday was Shrewsbury, Thursday I kept free for second viewings or new discoveries. Tuesday was the fullest day - I started in the north with St Georges and went round the compass to Wellington, through Donnington and Dawley and all kinds of places. Some of them I discounted as soon as I pulled up outside. One place I slotted in on the advice of an EA, who assured me it was exactly what I was looking for and I'd love it. (I'm looking for a freehold period mid-terrace with an actual garden for under £130k). This one was a leasehold gardenless one bed first floor flat in a coach house that was over budget. I didn't even go in.
Some were in an undesirable area so the next 2 in the near vicinity were an instant right-off too etc. I think I viewed 29 properties in the end.

Wednesday was slower as there aren't as many properties in my price range, which is how I had a gap for this unviewed one.

However 29 people realised you have to let unqualified intrusive strangers into your house if you want to actually sell it, which judging by some of the comments on here is a miracle in itself! Or maybe they were just scared of me, cos I'm so pushy and entitled...

There's a couple I did like but despite the agents assuring me there was room for negotiation on the prices, the owners disagreed.

So in the end the whole thing was a bust sadly. But not for lack of trying!

Not entirely a bust though, as you've still gained a lot of knowledge about your potential choices of area, even if only that some will be non-starters.
All I can say is I'd have bitten your hand off if you had wanted to view my house!

To 'qualify' someone for a viewing, all an EA can really do is take name, address, phone no, mortgage details and ask the buying position. They then have to take the viewer's word for it. The only way to check out info at such an early stage is by calling the viewer back on the number they gave!
Once an offer has been accepted, the EA will normally give the buyer's own selling agent a call (if they're selling too) and they will confirm that sale. Ours also gave them our buyer's' name.
EAs will also ask for solicitor's details, plus a copy of some photo ID with your name & address on it, eg driving licence, etc.
I just emailed that to them from my phone shortly after our offer was accepted on the house we're buying.
Some agents do remove a property entirely from RM once there's been an offer and the ID has been checked out - our selling agent did this almost immediately, others just leave them on RM marked as Sold.

As for Shrewsbury - no sadly you won't find anything there in a decent location for £130K.
You might just swing a 1 bed period house in a good area though, if more than 1 bed isn't an issue.

YoungBlueEyes

My list included 1 beds, but there was only a couple of those I think.
The trouble is my expectations. What my budget can buy you where I live is all-round better than I was looking at down there. My fault - lesson learned!

My new plan is 2 pronged. I'm looking in other areas where I can afford the house I'd like (Staffordshire towns, Stafford and Burton look promising...). Then I've also got a friend I'm moving in with who's down outside Cambridge, so perhaps it'd be wise to do that, get a job and then a mortgage so I can afford something nicer somewhere nicer. If Shrewsbury's meant to be, it will be.

I agree about the time wasters. I think we've struck lucky with our buyers, they're serious buyers and lovely with it. They're about 50 miles away and wanted to come round one night after work to measure up for their stuff and I said yes. Anything to make it easier, I've read so many horror stories on here I'll do anything to make it go smoother! He even offered to help us move if it wasn't too far cos his son owns a van company

Thanks the interesting info vv, this is all such a learning curve! Made much easier by some of the posters on this site :T