Energy Performance Certificate - new one needed?

[Capitol]

Not if they're dealing with me!

[Capitol]

I'd disagree with those comments. The high street agent is only interested in a quick sale. That means as low a price as possible. You need to know the market and tell the agent what his commission will be and what the selling price is. I can't comment on the on lines, as I have no experience of them, but I could well believe corners are being cut.

[John Rumm]

Not as far as I am aware. No need for a gas certificate either, although if the place has been let you probably have a landlords certificate. No harm in passing that to your solicitor when it comes time to do the conveyancing.

No harm in trying, although if not using an agent then keep in mind there is a certain amount of donkey work to do - not least being present for all viewings. A good agent will deal with stuff like validating offers to make sure they have finance in place and are actually in position to proceed with the purchase - and so potentially insulate you from some of the time wasters.

You will also need to work out how to price it - that's normally just a case of looking for similar stuff in the neighbourhood, and also using the section on rightmove that shows the actual sold house prices to get a feel for what offers to actually accept (needless to say the price advertised is not usually the one that gets paid!)

[dennis]

8<

They are supposed to tell you of all offers, its a crime if they don't.

[Tim Lamb]

They will if the buyers are planning to rent it out:-)

[Huge]

You will find that "I don't/no longer have it." is a perfectly acceptable answer. No-one gives a shit about any of this.

[Dave Preston]

We had a couple of estate agents round to value it (both said to put it up for £74,950 with a view to getting £70,000) but the first one wanted £1,600 INC VAT and the second said £1,800 PLUS VAT as their selling fees, hence the reason for trying the classified ads in the local paper first. Maybe it's just me being a tight scrote, but I really wasn't expecting to pay the estate agents so much.

[Big Les Wade]

And then all you do is ring the police.

"Hello? Police? It's an emergency! My estate agent hasn't told me about an offer for my property!"

"My God! It's a good thing you called, sir!" [Police officer picks up red phone on desk] "Quick! Get me Scotland Yard!"

[John Rumm]

Indeed they do, however it helps significantly if you also know how "useful" and offer is.

[John Rumm]

You should be able to negotiate fees of less than 1.5% in this day and age...

[John Rumm]

Was not aware gas safety was mandatory. Is that new?

To which its perfectly acceptable to say lost / don't have etc as appropriate!

[John Rumm]

In which case they can get their own! ;-)

[spuorgelgoog]

If the individual negotiator gets 10% of fees as their bonus, that tells yo u how hard they'll work to sell your house.

Owain

[djc]

In that case the buyers can get it when the sale is completed.

>

[djc]

I'd caution against selling it yourself unless you really like selling. As a buyer I tend to be wary of DIY sellers and online agencies. It always suggests to me that there is something wrong or the sellers will be difficult to deal with.

[djc]

Possibly, but most sellers have an inflated idea of what their house is worth. Also agents will play to that in order to get the instruction knowing that the price will have to drop later.

[Fredxxx]

Newspapers aren't used very much by prospective buyers.

I would recommend you find a web-based outfit that will place your house on at least Rightmove, and bypass the newspaper ad.

[Chris French]

Well, as it happens, we bought this house because of seeing a newspaper ad (but it was a bit of an edge case, as it was missed out by the various agents, because of the number of actual bedrooms, compared to the size of the house). It was also almost 10 years ago.

But no, it's not the place I'd look really.

Though nowadays I assume they end up on the web as well somewhere?

Yup, friends of ours sold their house recently and they used one of the web based ones, sure you miss soem of the benefits of an agent, but then it's a lot cheaper :-)

[Adrian]

That, too.

The dealings we had with an online agent were for a flat for BtL. Turned out the lease explicitly forbade letting, and the freeholder (who owned and let the other two flats in the building) refused point blank to vary it.

Last time I looked, it was still on the market a year later, at a much reduced price. And it was already cheap.

[Adrian]

Easily. 2.4% is just loopy.