Great 'What I wish I'd known as a newbie house seller' Hunt

ali-t · 24 February 2010 at 10:21PM

When you are conducting viewings of your house you need to develop a thick skin. I had one couple round where the female came into the bedroom to look and the male spent some time in the living room raking through my cd collection!

If you are doing viewings alone, think about personal safety and always let a friend or neighbour know you have a viewing so they can rescue you if required. I had a drunk old man show up one day for a viewing in a flat I was selling - nowhere to escape to and he was very creepy.

Wanton · 24 February 2010 at 10:36PM

A few tips would be -

- Before you ask Estate Agents round to give you a valuation go into their shops pretending to be a buyer, this way you can see what kind of service your potential buyers will get when they first step into your agent of choice, eg. will they be welcomed into the shop with a nice friendly "Hello", or ignored while the staff finish their conversation with each other.

- Ask friends and family of their experience of local Estate Agents.

- Do some research! Find out how much similar houses in your area have sold for. Once you've found this out you should have a rough figure in your head of how much your property should go on the market for. Don't tell this figure to the EA's who come to value your house.

- Before the EA's come round think of any questions you might want to ask them and write them down.

- Get three Estate Agent valuations, I'd always use independent EA's who have been in the area for a long time, but don't tell any of the agents what the other agents have valued it at.

- You will now have four figures, the figure you worked out yourself and the three EA figures. Don't be tempted to go for the highest figure, your property will just remain on the market for too long and you will end up having to drop the price anyway.

- Go for the agent you get the best feeling from, they all want your business so you should be able to get your "favourite" to match the commission of the others.

- Once you've picked your EA, tell them the price you want to market it for based on your own valuation and the valuation of the EA's. If its too much then any decent EA will tell you so.

- As many have said before, make sure you get good photo's and don't be afraid to ask the EA to take them again until they are perfect.

- When you are sent the brochure to check and sign make sure it is all accurate and clear. Show it to friends and family to see if its attractive to potential buyers.

Gorgeous_George · 24 February 2010 at 10:55PM

I've sold three houses. With hindsight, I wish I'd kept the first two as BTL.

My top tip would be to market the property yourself, take your neighbours out to dinner and ask them to market their home for 10% more than yours with a leading local estate agent. When people view their home, they will see yours is for sale.

GG

mark.w.jones · 24 February 2010 at 11:12PM

Make sure you have building regs for all work. Especially all you DIYers out. Windows installed from 2002 must be fitted by FENSA approved company who must provide a certificate of installation.

Electrical work since 2004 must be by certificated electrician etc.

You can get often get around this buy buying an indemnity insurance to cover the minisucule risk the local building department insist on the work being redone. Be careful what you declare to solicitors. Indemnity insurance can not be taken out on any work less than 12 months old.

cheekychappy · 25 February 2010 at 1:18AM

Don't have your dog in season when you just had cream carpets installed. Still picture my wife hurriedly mopping up spots now. Doh.

John_Pierpoint · 25 February 2010 at 4:07AM

Gorgeous_George wrote: »

I've sold three houses. With hindsight, I wish I'd kept the first two as BTL.

My top tip would be to market the property yourself, take your neighbours out to dinner and ask them to market their home for 10% more than yours with a leading local estate agent. When people view their home, they will see yours is for sale.

GG

Nice idea GG but who is paying for the HIPs?;)
(Does the Scottish system need those?)
As mentioned before on this thread, getting in touch with other sellers and agreeing to
1. not cut each other's throats
2. take on each other's second best buyer (who often realises the folly of their near miss offer & ups it.)

Hippychick · 25 February 2010 at 8:27AM

My friend is trying to sell her house at the moment, she had a buyer then lost it because she dillydallyed around trying to find somewhere to move to.

The buyers were in rented and had been served notice to quit so needed to complete by a certain date, they gave my friend 2 months to find somewhere to buy or find a rental (which my friend had initially agreed to do), as she didn't they walked away.

So if you find a buyer and they are in rented don't think they won't walk away if you can't meet their deadlines, if they have been served notice then they have to move and would rather move into a house they've bought than to sign a new 6 month lease.

We bought last year and as a buyer the things that put us off houses that we viewed were strong smells of pets/smoking (we imagined we'd have to rip out all carpets/wallpaper etc before we could move in), overpriced houses with vendors who refuse to consider negotiation claiming they spent xxx on the house therefore it's worth xxx more, sellers who would not let us view the Hip!

I like the idea of the additional sellers pack, it would certainly make me remember a property.

Monsieur_Blaireau · 25 February 2010 at 12:20PM

When we sold our house last year we used a home staging expert. We got them in before showing the house to any estate agents and they completely decluttered for us and laid the house out like a show home. Some of the changes they made were obvious - getting rid of unnecessary furniture, de-personalising (eg getting rid of all pictures of people) giving us a list of DIY to finish, but others were really subtle like planning the route which viewers would take around the house (leaving them in the best room at the end to think it over). The overall effect was really powerful. The EAs clearly appreciated it and that influenced the valuations we got. We had over 20 viewings in two weeks and sold for above the asking price - money well spent, I reckon!

Lu_T · 25 February 2010 at 2:46PM

We sold our first house to someone at work. We had a lovely mid-terrace but the main feature was the cottage garden we created. So I took some pictures when it was at its best and used these when we wanted to sell it (in January). I put a big picture of the garden with the heading,

"Garden for sale, free 2-bed terrace when buying,"

and put my extension number and a few others details on.

We did have the house up with an estate agent and had an asking price offer through them too, but decided to go with the couple from work as we liked them.

We still had to pay the estate agent, so I guess I wish we'd put the poster up and waited a week or two before signing with them as we'd have saved the commission.

[Deleted User] · 25 February 2010 at 2:58PM

mrs_T wrote: »

Get the boiler serviced and have a report of condition and a receipt. We had to repay a £1000 of our selling price when our purchaser had scottish gas booked to condem our old one the day they moved in. Even more gauling when they boasted what a bargain they'd got all round town plus our kids go to the same school so I still have to see them five years later. We had 25 viewings and only one offer which was considerably less than our solicitor (in Scotland) had told us we would get. I didn't ask for what he said we'd get even when people asked how much we were looking for in the hope we might get more. Offers over is very difficult.

I'm confused as to why you were forced to repay this money? Unless you deceived the seller, it's caveat emptor surely?

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Great 'What I wish I'd known as a newbie house seller' Hunt

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