Is Crashy an estate agent?

westernpromise

I was searching for something else and came across this gem of a thread from a year or so back
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5861328/selling-house-no-viewings&page=3#topofpage
in which Crashy advises someone asking £92k for their house to drop the price to £70k to sell it.

I'm fairly sure that the door number is #13 in that road (based on counting doors along from the nearest house with a number) and Zoopla tells us that #13 sold for....£90k
https://www.zoopla.co.uk/house-prices/scawthorpe/langdale-drive//

So the OP in that thread was advised to expect £90k, offer at £92k to get it, and duly got it.

The only people I know who persistently advise other people to sell their house for far less than it's worth are estate agents. Crashy's "advice" is patently worthless - but explained by his being an estate agent. What does the panel think?

Finchy2018

Why would an agent advise to sell a house for the less than it's worth? They'd get less commission...

westernpromise

They do so to get a sale. They'd rather have 1% of £70k than 1% of nothing when the house doesn't sell.

There are some decent estate agents who will candidly tell you what your house is worth based on comparables, but many tell you it's worth 25% more than it is to get the instruction then tell you to reduce the price to 25% less than it's worth to get a commission.

Finchy2018

I worked in property sales. There is NO point in inflating the price. You give someone an unrealistic expectation of what their property is worth and then it will NEVER sell. Even if you say put it on a 270 to expect an offer of 260 they usually only hear 270 and want to achieve that.

I don't know a single agent who didn't use sold prices to justify their workings in what should be achievable.

Gwendo40

There's possibly only one thing worse than the ''sad losers'' on HPC... and that's the pathetic, obsessed, ''winners'' on here who appear to have nothing better to do with their lives than gloat and brag about their good fortune.

westernpromise

Finchy2018 wrote: »

I worked in property sales. There is NO point in inflating the price.

And yet many do it. I know of an agent who valued a property at £1.3 million for probate then when probate was granted told the executor (and beneficiary) to offer it at £1.8 million. After it failed to sell the price was reduced to £1.4, where it sold.

The agent who said ask £1.45 and take anything over £1.4 was ignored, but was entirely right.

It worked very well for the agent.

MobileSaver

Gwendo40 wrote: »

the pathetic, obsessed, ''winners'' on here who appear to have nothing better to do with their lives than gloat and brag about their good fortune.

Posters like the following one... ?

Gwendo40 wrote: »

(I own my home, mortgage free btw)

lisyloo

I think it’s much simpler than that.
Crash gives bad advice because he’s a crash troll.
I doubt many people follow his advice which would only be appropriate for a distressed sale.

wesleyad

Finchy2018 wrote: »

I worked in property sales. There is NO point in inflating the price. You give someone an unrealistic expectation of what their property is worth and then it will NEVER sell. Even if you say put it on a 270 to expect an offer of 260 they usually only hear 270 and want to achieve that.

I don't know a single agent who didn't use sold prices to justify their workings in what should be achievable.

It's possible you just got lucky? I haven't worked in the property market for a while now, but clearly the main priority in sales is securing the customer (especially given the nature of the contract which limits the customers options for months afterwards). If all your rivals are suggesting the property is 270 and you say 260, you have lost the sale. Getting customer on board at 270 and then managing expectations is key part of being a successful agent (unless things have changed in last 10 years)

triathlon

Gwendo40 wrote: »

There's possibly only one thing worse than the ''sad losers'' on HPC... and that's the pathetic, obsessed, ''winners'' on here who appear to have nothing better to do with their lives than gloat and brag about their good fortune.

It is totally legitimate to raise the subject of that website wherever people can. There was a time when it had a massive following, they trolled many various websites including the BBC, Mumsnet, Motley fool and nearly every one of the rental and landlords websites dishing out venom and hate and referring to landlords as scum, vermin and every nasty name you can imagine, where in reality a lot of this people are just trying to save for a comfortable pension, some really are that sweet little old lady.

OK, housepricecrash.com after 20 years is nearly on the verge of ending, it does not even get 10% of the die hards it once had and of those about 70% plus have given up hope. They still try to hold on to their more prolific merchants of destruction with moderator rolls where they are logged on from early morning to late at night trying one last desperate attempt to bring down the housing market. We must never give them a moments rest and call them out every time, even though the more successful of us can never post on their website, hypocrites.

Gwendo40

MobileSaver wrote: »

Posters like the following one... ?

Ah the wonders of selectively editing other peoples posts... when you know full well the point I was making is that I'm not some ''bitter renter'' who has missed out and that even though I'm a mortgage free homeowner I'm capable of seeing that rampant, policy driven HPI hasn't been a good thing for a huge proportion of society, in fact not even a good thing for many home owners who find themselves priced out of being able to move up the fabled 'property ladder'