2 houses - same agent !! HELP!!

xueta

Ian_W wrote:

...If you have a problem cos you had to pay an EA £7k for a house sale the really grown up thing is to deal with it. At the risk of repitition, you signed up knowing their fees, they made the sale, if you had a valid complaint, contest them - otherwise pay up & move on.

Ian W... Please don't invent issues where there are none. The point I'm making is that the average estate agents' fees runs into thousands of pounds and not "a few hundred quid" as you suggest. As the average house price in the UK is now £185K, the average fee is over £3K. I don't have a problem with my fee.

LouLouHelen

They are opposite each other on the same road.

House 1 has north facing garden and a boundary that is a bank of earth as neighbouring garden is 1.5 metres higher. This is falling away and it only pinned up by paving slabs at present.

Valuer recommended a Retaining wall should replace the slabs. Electrics aren't up to date, valuer couldn't find drain but sellor thinks it might be under patio and the chimney has a few bricks that are dodgy and need to be replaced. The bathroom suite needs replacing as it has been there since 1965. Wood chip is on every wall. Has separate living room and dining room and downstairs toilet.

As it is mid terraced it has a walkway behind neighbouring garden so you can get from your back garden to an allocated parking space next door but one. This property is oil fuelled and the oil tank is slap bang in the middle of the garden so would need to be moved to one side.

Rooms downstairs are slightly bigger as there has been a 6 foot extention out the back of the property. No room to extend at all. £211,000 offer accepted.

House 2 is semi detached. Same age and possibly the same issue with chimney. Property seems to have been modernised more i.e. they have put gas central heating in so hopefully have upgraded electrics but have got to ask. It has a garage and is westerly so its a sunnier plot. Bathroom is a white suite so does not need replacing.

No strange access to back garden. Off street parking on own driveway. House downstairs is 6 foot smaller as no extention and therefore all rooms downstairs are smaller, there is no separate dining room but instead an archway to dining area off of living room and has no downstairs toilet.

Possibility to extend so will never have to go through this process and move again! On for £224950 - which seems a bit high when you consider House 1 and the fact that number 6 went in July for £215,000 (without the House Doctor job that house 2 seems to have had)

You may not have wanted all of this info :-) but writing it down did help me quite a bit. You have been really helpful so far so any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Doozergirl

You sound right to want to change your mind. Was number 6 a semi?

House 2 admittedly sounds better value for the money. Apart from the wall, bathroom, woodchip etc which mightn't affect value too much, the difference between terrace and semi will increase it's value and and new electrics on house 1 mean not only the expense of that, but replastering too. Potential new plumbing too, you're looking in the region of a £8,000 spend. This is all disruptive and messy work. If there's a bit of extra profit in it after the work then it's worth it, but at £211k there is nothing, considering the price of number 6. I suspect that £211k could even be it's ceiling.

We sold a three bed semi, after renovation for £216,500 in June. We still own one in the same street. A terrace in that area, especially needing work like electrics, would no way sell for £211k, I doubt they'd fetch more than £200k.

£211k would be a great starting offer for house 2! Go for a second viewing, and look closely for signs of a house doctor makeover. If there's something painted that probably shouldn't be (tiles etc), the vendor sees it as a weak point. If you can find those weak points they make excellent bargaining tools, the vendor feels caught out!

Let us know how you get on tomorrow!

LouLouHelen

Cheers Doozergirl - will update you tomorrow!

LouLouHelen

He was very concerned about the sellor on house 1 and asked me lots of questions. I just kept saying it was a lot of money to spend on a property if you had seen someting more suitable.

He did say he was morally obliged to tell sellor of house 1 if she called him. He also said he was legally obliged to advise sellor's on house 2 they had had a offer but thought they would not accept our offer at £211k.(It's on the market for £224950).

Am waiting to hear from him once he has spoken to the vendor.

Rikki

xueta wrote:

But if the estate agent isn't involved and hasn't introduced the buyer then he/she hasn't earned the money!!

They will not of known the second house was for sale had they not seen the estate agents board therefore the estate agent is a part of the sale of the second property,
.

Doozergirl

What are you going to do now then?

LouLouHelen

We are happy to increase our offer on house 2 as it is definitely our preference. Not sure what to increase it to though - £215000?

Doozergirl

You're going to have to establish what it's worth. £225k sounds a reasonable price compared to house 1. But was house 1 overpriced?

What was house1 being marketed at originally before they accepted £211k? How long has house 2 been on the market? If number 6 went for £215 was it terraced or semi?

Can you find out from the agent what price they want? They may have an idea. You could split the difference between £211k and what they want for it. You need to try and find a weak point to use as a negotiating tool though.

You've got me really interested now! I hope you get this house!

x

LouLouHelen

Agent will not give any idea except to say that sellors bought it 3 mths ago as an investment to do up and sell. They are quite happy with progress of agent and volume of people who have seen it and put it on with the intention of the market picking up in Sept - this is what the agent said.

I have made it clear it is not worth £225k in our opinion as it is not separate dining room as it does not have its own door and therefore it cannot really be sold as such. Making money after 3 mths, a lick of paint and a cheap kitchen in this market is a bit hopeful I think.

No 6 was a semi with garage as well.

No 14 was on for £210k and went to sealed bids.

Gone back at £215k but he doesn't think they will take it. I have asked him to clarify what type of figure they would take else we could be going backwards and forwards.