What does the estate agent mean?

Lilio8

We received an offer at the guide price of £325K on the first viewing. Unfortunately I cannot yet accept the offer because the buyers have to first sell their house.
The house was bought back in the late 80s when it was part of a newly built (terraced) houses, so not ancient which is good. The windows and the kitchen cabinets need either a facelift or to be completely replaced. The boiler, a combi, still works well (fingers crossed) despite its 10+ years of age. 
It depends on the type of buyers who will buy the house. If they're the type who know where to look and are creative, the cost of renovation can be kept at a minimum. We did a lot ourselves and hired a handyman or specialist as and when required.

Lilio8

Bigphil1474 said:

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.

Thank you.
I'm thinking of calling a couple of estate agents to go and view properties similarly priced. Or perhaps I could simply  knock on the doors of other sellers, ask to view their property and compare notes.

Grumpy_chap

Lilio8 said:

We received an offer at the guide price of £325K on the first viewing. Unfortunately I cannot yet accept the offer because the buyers have to first sell their house.

Why not offer the potential buyer a period (say until 30th April) to reach a proceedable position and hold off further marketing in that time?

Lilio8 said:

Thank you.
I'm thinking of calling a couple of estate agents to go and view properties similarly priced. Or perhaps I could simply  knock on the doors of other sellers, ask to view their property and compare notes.

Probably no need given you now have an offer...

Bigphil1474

Don't consider offers from people who haven't sold yet, as actual offers. When we sold ours last year, we got an early offer of asking price from someone who 'loved the house' and as soon as they'd sold theirs they'd confirm. Never heard from them again. Unless they are proceedable, assume they aren't serious IMO. 

You should be able to do some research online - look at somewhere like Rightmove or I think Zoopla as well. Look for prices sold in your area, look at what houses are SSTC as well. 

We tarted our kitchen up before we sold. Looked much better but was still old. Our combi was only a couple of years old. Kitchens and bathrooms seem to be big things. If someone is looking at it and thinking £10k for a new kitchen and £5k for a new boiler, maybe £8k for a new bathroom, another few £k on decorating etc. then you can see how the price they want to pay may much less. 

Has your boiler got an up-to-date service and gas safe check, do you have a recent electrical installation check? They aren't expensive but if you can say to a potential buyer that they've been checked recently and are in good order, it definitely helps IME.

ReadySteadyPop

Grumpy_chap said:

Lilio8 said:

We received an offer at the guide price of £325K on the first viewing. Unfortunately I cannot yet accept the offer because the buyers have to first sell their house.

Why not offer the potential buyer a period (say until 30th April) to reach a proceedable position and hold off further marketing in that time?

Lilio8 said:

Thank you.
I'm thinking of calling a couple of estate agents to go and view properties similarly priced. Or perhaps I could simply  knock on the doors of other sellers, ask to view their property and compare notes.

Probably no need given you now have an offer...

An offer from someone yet to sell their house isn`t an offer you can rely on unfortunately.

Lilio8

Grumpy_chap said:

Lilio8 said:

We received an offer at the guide price of £325K on the first viewing. Unfortunately I cannot yet accept the offer because the buyers have to first sell their house.

Why not offer the potential buyer a period (say until 30th April) to reach a proceedable position and hold off further marketing in that time?

Lilio8 said:

Thank you.
I'm thinking of calling a couple of estate agents to go and view properties similarly priced. Or perhaps I could simply  knock on the doors of other sellers, ask to view their property and compare notes.

Probably no need given you now have an offer...

I'm reluctant to hold off marketing because potential buyers are in a chain of 6.

Lilio8

Bigphil1474 said:

Don't consider offers from people who haven't sold yet, as actual offers. When we sold ours last year, we got an early offer of asking price from someone who 'loved the house' and as soon as they'd sold theirs they'd confirm. Never heard from them again. Unless they are proceedable, assume they aren't serious IMO. 

You should be able to do some research online - look at somewhere like Rightmove or I think Zoopla as well. Look for prices sold in your area, look at what houses are SSTC as well. 

We tarted our kitchen up before we sold. Looked much better but was still old. Our combi was only a couple of years old. Kitchens and bathrooms seem to be big things. If someone is looking at it and thinking £10k for a new kitchen and £5k for a new boiler, maybe £8k for a new bathroom, another few £k on decorating etc. then you can see how the price they want to pay may much less. 

Has your boiler got an up-to-date service and gas safe check, do you have a recent electrical installation check? They aren't expensive but if you can say to a potential buyer that they've been checked recently and are in good order, it definitely helps IME.

I've done a bit of research and saw that 3 beds sell for £354,900 on average in this area. Most of the properties in this area are 2 beds and leaseholds. This property is one of the fewest 3 beds and is a freehold. One of the neighbours who lives just 3 doors up, she was impressed by the size and comparing with her 2 beds property this one is larger. Next door to us is a 2 beds that's now valued between £250K- £290K.

I've been told by 5 different agents to leave the kitchen and bathroom alone. I did however change the taps in the bathroom and added new linoleum tiles in the kitchen. And of course I cleaned skirtings, walls, kitchen cabinets, pipe at the top of the boiler etc. Kitchen and bathroom became a lot  more presentable by the time the photographer arrived. The estate agent didn't expect to see what he saw in the photos.

I do need to get those done, gas safety check and an electrical installation check. Thanks for that!

RHemmings

This article is from New Zealand, but it's the best article on 'conditioning' sellers that I've read so far. (Recommendations of other articles gratefully received). 

https://xrpnz.com/blogs/news/conditioning-vendors

It sounds to me as if the OP is on the receiving end of the conditioning playbook as per the article in this link. Quote high to get the seller signed up, then work on them to get the price down. 

Lilio8

RHemmings said:

This article is from New Zealand, but it's the best article on 'conditioning' sellers that I've read so far. (Recommendations of other articles gratefully received). 

https://xrpnz.com/blogs/news/conditioning-vendors

It sounds to me as if the OP is on the receiving end of the conditioning playbook as per the article in this link. Quote high to get the seller signed up, then work on them to get the price down. 

Thank you for the link to the article.
Maybe! We'll see. It's early days yet.

newsgroupmonkey_

Lilio8 said:

I do need to get those done, gas safety check and an electrical installation check. Thanks for that!

Why?

I've never had a GSC or EIC done for selling. Those are for rental properties.