What does the estate agent mean?

Lilio8

Hello All.
Finally grant of probate arrived in February and I was able to properly prep the property to go on the market (quite frankly I'm beat, after all the work that I've been doing to get the house looking better than it did last year). I picked the estate agent who thought that the house had potential and had suggested a guide price akin to mine (the house is a freehold, £325K, 3 beds, 1 bath, 1 generous size garden, 1 oversized garage at the back, it needs some modernisation). The first open house happened 3 days after the photos were taken. It all happened pretty quickly. And the news from the estate agent that the house is 'a little too much work for the money', it arrived in my Inbox just as quickly.

Does the estate agent mean that 1% commission isn't enough and wants more or that it is not worth their time or something else? 

JGB1955

I imagine that they mean feedback from viewers suggests that the sale price is too high, taking into account the modernisations required.

Marky4040

JGB1955 said:

I imagine that they mean feedback from viewers suggests that the sale price is too high, taking into account the modernisations required.

Yes this, because you should have agreed an agency fee at the start, they can't change it now.

Flugelhorn

they should have made it clear that that was feedback from viewings - presume they will suggest you lower the price

Newly_retired

Where did you get the valuation?

ChirpyChicken

I thinks it's fairly obvious what It means 

Bigphil1474

You would hope they would tell you what the money is the viewers thought it would be worth. It's not very helpful is it. You need a chat with them and see what they suggest re price. You could have a look at similar properties in the area and see what they are going for, versus the modernisation needed. If you think yours needs £50k of work to bring it up to the standard of houses going for £325k, then you know it should be marketed around £275-290k.

Dustyevsky

"I picked the estate agent who thought that the house had potential and had suggested a guide price akin to mine."

The agent probably knew the guide price was hopeful rather than realistic, but quoted it to get your business. Now, with some people through the door, and no follow up so far, they can suggest a price where the house is more likely to sell. After all, it does them no good if the house remains on their books a long time.

This is a pattern I see regularly with one of our local agents, though yours is moving at a much swifter pace. One of my children is buying a similar sort of house, but that stayed on the market from autumn right through winter before the owner/agent considered a price properly reflective of the updating required.

gwynlas

It sounds as though you had a conversation with the EA and they based their valuation on an agreed figure in order to get the business.
Now there's been some feedback they can suggest that you lower the price as percentage wise it is only 00s to them If the house is habitable but would benefit from a scheme of modernisation .I would suggest you hold firm at present as the house is so new to the market.
Any potential buyer could make an offer based on their idea of how much they think modernisation would cost

Grumpy_chap

Lilio8 said:

The first open house happened 3 days after the photos were taken. It all happened pretty quickly. And the news from the estate agent that the house is 'a little too much work for the money', it arrived in my Inbox just as quickly.

Does the estate agent mean that 1% commission isn't enough and wants more or that it is not worth their time or something else? 

No, I do not think the comment is related to the agreed commission rate.

I think the EA is simply saying that the feedback from the viewers is that the property needs too much spent on it after purchase given the asking price.
As it is so early days, I would treat that with a bit of a pinch of salt.
It may well be that the property is far too expensive given the current condition and level of spend required to modernise.
It may well be that the viewers were simply not taken by the property and / or were not serious & proceedable purchasers.
Typically, for a house marketed at £325, viewers might well do so with a potential of a deal at £300k.  One has to assume that none of the viewers were actually interested in the property if the price is right as the feedback might then have been more substantive than "too expensive".  If a viewer had shown interest but indicated the price would need to be near £250k or £275k rather than £300k, then you might reasonably expect the EA to pass that information forwards.

Smalltownhypocrite

Sounds like feedback.

Viewer are saying its overpriced. 

Too be honest it usually takes quite a lot of viewers to say to the EA/owner something 'over priced' rather than give a random useless non committal answer like 'oh, just not for us' or 'not enough cupboards' etc... which usually means if the feedback is coming in 'overpriced' its probably laughably overpriced. If its just a 'bit' over priced you will get offers under not feedback that its overpriced. It sound like its priced at finished price but is a doer up from that feedback (building work costs a lot post brexit/covid) and the price needs to account for that.