OT: Is it worth changing estate agents?

Main photo shows two houses and is at wierd angle.

No floor plan

Need a picture for each room

Streetview doesn't show anything like the property in the main photo.

I would have thought that, unless you are selling a 60K house, 15K was within the margin of error for offers

as I have already said

it isn't about what people can afford

It is about what price they have to buy at, to avoid making a loss at resale

tim

you can't do anything to fix that

it Google's database is stuffed, so are you

tim

But people know what they can afford and set their search criteria accordin gly, then try and find the nicest house in that range, especially at the lo wer end of the market.

If they can afford £69k then they may not even see listings for a hous e at £70k.

Of course people don't want to overpay for a house in the first place, and first-time buyers or buy-to-lets considering return on investment will take a more short-term view that someone who isn't planning on selling for anot her twenty years

Pulling down the price enough to be visible to a new category will bring bu yers in - I've just gone down from £179k to £145k to get a buyer interested on one of my properties. It hurts, but it'll get it sold even in a very slow market. The buyers are getting an absolute bargain.

Owain

No it's not Google's db, it a lazy agent who has just set Google to find the postcode rather than find the exact spot on streetview and transfer that to the listing.

It went for £195,000, but it was clear to me from the start what the going rate was and I was spot on. There are usually a fair number of houses for sale in the area, so plenty of comparisons and up to date figures to make sure you get it right.

SteveW

The first question (not asked so far) is why did you go with that particular agent?

Second question is why did you let them publish the particulars without you first agreeing to the details including the photos?

If you went with the one who suggested the highest sale price then that is often a mistake, because that is a tactic to sign you up and then sell by persuading you to drop your price.

Beware also of Estate Agents who have a lot of rental property on the market because the landlords may be their main customer and so like to pick up new properties at a budget price to add to their portfolio.

Finally it is always worth making the effort to spruce up the house (lick of paint etc.) and spruce up the outside and dress everywhere (flowers, bowl of fruit, dining table set for a meal) to give the instant impression that it is a really nice space to live in and is enjoyed by the current owners.

The pictures are O.K.(ish) for the inside although the photographs with the lights on give a strong impression that there is no natural light and you will need the lights on all day. The place looks clean and recently painted (don't like the curtains) but apart from that looks empty and unloved. IMHO always harder to sell a house when it is empty of furniture. Not showing the outside back immediately suggests that there is something wrong with it. Weeds along the front immediately suggest neglect.

From our limited experience:

took on the sale and marketing of our daughter's house (she was away long term) when the existing tenants left. House was a bit neglected inside (including smoky marks above the radiators, we think from candles) and the back garden was a bit overgrown with a patio area with damaged edging which had slumped.

First agent through the door (associated with the letting agent) valued at £120k; so priced as a "dooer upper" or a bargain for a landlord. Not impressed but understood the first impression when you viewed the property.

We cleaned the inside (especially bathroom and en-suite) and went through with fire, the sword, and a large bucket of Magnolia.

I fixed the patio (a day's work) pruned all the shrubs, cut the grass, repointed around an iron manhole frame, power washed the patio and back yard. Weeded the front garden and put in a few cheap bedding plants.

About a week of medium hard work and £2-300 on materials.

We then dressed the house with some of our stuff, including bedding to make the beds look nice, towels in the bathrooms, fruit and utensils in the kitchen, dining table with a nice runner and places set, books on the book shelves. Not massive amounts (make the place look big) but enough to help a buyer picture them self moving in and living. A throw from a charity shop. Charity shops are wonderful for this if you don't have any spare bits and bobs and you can always donate them back afterwards.

This time we invited three Estate Agents (including the original one) to view. Prices are approximate (a while back).

Original one didn't move his price (hmmm....).

Second one said ask £145k and expect to sell in about 3 weeks for around £140k.

Third one said put it on the market at £150k.

We went with the middle one because we thought that the price reflected what we could see online for current asking price and recent sales. We also liked his straightforward approach and his advice on what might need doing and more importantly what might not. We were set to give the hall and landing another coat of paint but he said it would be a waste of time and effort because the overall impression was fine. Helped with the photos, approved everything before it went out. Floor plan included.

Sold quite quickly for about £140k in line with the expectation he set.

Daughter was delighted because we had put in a week of work and made her another £20k.

TL;DR - a little bit of effort to make the house more attractive to viewers usually pays dividends. Empty houses without furniture are usually harder to sell.

Change your agent, who should have told you all this stuff and made a decent job of the particulars in the first place. Also, take it off the market for a few weeks then put it back on as a "new listing". Nothing discourages buyers more than a property put on at a high price then progressively reduced. Suggests over priced and possible hidden problems.

Agent has done square root of f*ck all from looking at the listing. Apart from promoting the word "excellent".

Cheers

Dave R

I had an offer to buy the furniture. I was happy to sell it, but pointed out that it was only there to 'dress' the place, was the cheapest flat pack that fell apart when you touched it, and that the bed had slats missing and you'd fall through it.

But it all made a boxroom look like a bedroom.

If you don't have any spare beds, a door on storage tubs (or paint pots or bricks) with a duvet and a bedspread over it looks like a bed.

Owain

Implies the original price was 210,000. Bad psychology, people are likely to search for properties 'up to 200,000' or up to 250,000

the solution to that is to glue the joints when you make it

makes a surprising difference to the stability

Essential when it's wooden dowel joints

Indeed, and I always do.

The person who assembled this lacked glue, and clue. They even put the door hinges on backwards on half the units.

Owain

I've noticed (made a point of noticing actually) how quickly each firm of agents achieves a sale in my area. They *do* vary widely and after a while I began to notice a pattern emerging. One agent in particular was converting instructions into sales at a rate *way* beyond what any of the others was able to. At the other end of the scale there's another agent that seems to have its boards up in excess of a year and sometimes more than 2!. I can only guess the s*it-hot agent has a negotiator on its staff that really, really, really knows his stuff. So yes, it can really make a difference.

This is why the system in Scotland is so much superior... Most houses are advertised at "Offers Over" and offers (higher or lower) are invited. Offers are detailed and can include condition attached (e.g. entry date, one price with and one without certain fittings/content included, etc). On deadline day the seller chooses which offer to accept

- highest offer/not highest offer but with conditions that suit them/reject all because they consider them all too low/etc. Offers are submitted in sealed envelopes, so the estate agents "friends" don't know what to bid to guarantee winning by the smallest margin...

Nothing stops buyers from submitting a "take it of leave it" offer during the process, and the seller from accepting it.

Offers put forward are (apart from in VERY exceptional circumstances)

So the market dictates the price, and the seller has full control of the process. Apart from perhaps a couple of very minor changes I really cannot see a more efficient way of doing it.

...and also presenting it very poorly (which really is what their job is all about); photos looks like they were taken on a phone by a child, no floorplan, no room dimensions, no mention of which council tax bracket, etc, etc. For these reasons alone I would try someone else.

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