SootySport Posted February 4, 2013 Posted February 4, 2013 The agents in our area give you a valuation as high as possible to get your business then after a couple of weeks try beat the price down to probably less than market value to get a sale. They all do that. Quote
Norman Verona Posted February 4, 2013 Posted February 4, 2013 We were moving from Chigwell to Sheffield in 1990. I was a bit busy sorting out the new offices and sorting out all the problems of the dozen or so staff who were moving north. We had to find somewhere to live and sell the Chigwell property. HM made an appointment for a local agent to come and value the house at 08:30 on a Saturday morning. We were going to Sheffield looking at rental properties as soon as he went. We had paid £60,000 for it 6 years earlier. This youngster breezes in and announces that he'll get £180,000 for it. I burst out laughing and told him I'd be happy with £150,000. No, No, sir, I'll get £180,000 for this they're in very high demand. We signed some papers and left him to it. Following month a recession started. We sold it 2 years later for £109,000. I reckon if I'd have insisted on £150,000 we'd have got a quick sale. Seems like nothing changes. Quote
Young Pretender Posted February 4, 2013 Author Posted February 4, 2013 Interestingly, despite the seemingly common dislike for agents, the 'sell your own' property market doesn't appear to be very popular. There's a few sites but when I search my local area the results are pretty barren. They don't feed into rightmove and other main players so I presume some sort of commercial agreements prevent this? Quote
Young Pretender Posted February 4, 2013 Author Posted February 4, 2013 Tell a lie, it is possible.. for little over £200 http://www.myonlineestateagent.com/sellers/ Quote
M444TTB Posted February 4, 2013 Posted February 4, 2013 I've never understood the point of estate agents. It would be better if Rightmove was basically the Autotrader of homes. Take your own photos and details etc and on your go. It's not like you don't spend a lot of a solicitor and surveyor anyway. When we bought this house (our one and only) the estate agent was a waste of time as soon as the sale had been agreed. We made a conditional offer and they hadn't passed on any of the conditions. At least we took the house for £15k under the £175k asking price and they negotiated with Bovis to get £15k off the sellers new house. Quote
Wile E. Coyote Posted February 4, 2013 Posted February 4, 2013 Every house I have sold has taken less than a week, probably due to realistic pricing, timing of sale and not fannying about with greedy agents whose sole purpose is to convince you that you can get more money that the place is worth. It's a strange market at present though - some of our neighbours put their place on the market less than 2 weeks ago. Already sold STC so can't imagine they've moved much on price (15% more than they paid in mid 2011). Will be interesting to see if it goes through... Quote
Young Pretender Posted February 4, 2013 Author Posted February 4, 2013 It is strange you're right. One of my neighbours sold after a year at a very low price and another after 6 weeks at a hugely inflated price. Both well presented. Quote
SootySport Posted February 4, 2013 Posted February 4, 2013 Tell a lie, it is possible.. for little over £200 http://www.myonlineestateagent.com/sellers/ I would give that a try, even £250 is worth a punt. If your house is attractive to the young family market, the potential buyers will initially be looking on websites first. If it is a flat or small bungalow then retired people will be interested and they will not be on line. Quote
Young Pretender Posted February 5, 2013 Author Posted February 5, 2013 Actually these guys were not very good as it turns out Soot1e. You rely on them for an important part of the process which is to make a viewing. We made 3 calls yesterday to see what their service was like and were told on two of those occasions that we would get a call back (the same day) because we needed to speak with someone else and we received a call back today at 4pm re one of those attempts. On the third call we were told that you can't make viewing appointments over the phone and that you needed to do it online. That said online estate agents are seemingly an excellent option and there are more than one! This article is independent and really good for anyone considering it. http://www.theadvisory.co.uk/selling-a-house-1.php They typically work on fixed fee of approx £500 + vat or commission between 0.5-0.75% (as opposed to the average of 1.5-2% with normal estate agents). The only difference is that they lack the local knowledge as they work out of national call centres and also require you to take care of showing potential suitors around (so potentially only evenings and weekends). This is fine as long as you are happy with the customer service quality I guess. We have just appointed a local estate agent who works for 1% with no contract and him and the few girls that worked for him gave us a good feeling. He's doing good business in the middle ground. Hope this is useful to someone.. We may still try ourselves if it doesn't sell soon enough. Quote
Wile E. Coyote Posted February 5, 2013 Posted February 5, 2013 him and the few girls that worked for him gave us a good feeling. That was never part of the service when I've used estate agents in the past. I suppose times are hard and they need to do anything possible to secure new business. Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.