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Our experience of buying last year was 'interesting'. Some of which was vendors, much was agent (Clyde).
Bear in mind this is Scotland, where offers accepted are supposed to be binding, and are made by the purchasers solicitors.
Agent tells vendor house is worth £220k, but market at £190 and people will bid up.
Agent markets house as 3 bed, with no proper mention of fourth (downstairs it has to be said) bedroom or large sunroom. This could be see on plans, but not images or description.
Agent tells vendor house is in peachy condition, and no I wouldn't bother tidying garden. (House is not in good nick, and garden was a DUMP)
We made offer of asking price (£190k) almost immediately, including evidence of deposit, mortgage offer and financial adviser involved. It was turned down.
Three other offers were 'accepted' of higher amount. None had either mortgage in place at all, or one had not realised that amount over asking price came out of cash, not from lending.
It was news to the agent that offers over asking price needed to be cash, and than new houses up road under Govt. scheme needed much lower deposit, or that they had any involvement in checking folk making an offer. I was receiving begging calls from agent daily to up our offer - why would I when we were only credible offer on table? Basically after two months of faff, we withdrew offer.
We then had phone call from housing developer down the road direct who was about to lose a sale, and vendors of our house, lose their deposit. Minus agent, and face to face, the developer, vendor and ourselves sorted a deal, agreed timescales, checked mortgages etc. We all moved 3 days after the agreed date, with minmal faff.
And the developer told the agent to go do one on fees, as they had offer from us for 8 weeks that they did not accept.
I personally am going to look at selling direct ourselves in future - you can get onto Zoopla/Rightmove etc via simple third parties now, and I think it would save cost and hassle.
It does sit among a lot of 4 bed houses in the area for the same price. I don't know the area so the others may not be in such a desirable location for schools, main road etc.
I don't know what number you are but what does Zoopla's current values suggest it's worth? From experience their estimates are surprisingly up to date. I am an estate agent of sort, but commercial not resi.
you can get onto Zoopla/Rightmove etc via simple third parties now
Such as? I would be really interested in this.
http://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/blog/online-estate-agents/
(EDIT: that was a quick google, more may be available)
I must admit, yours looks great, and it would tempt me - if it weren't for the fact there is a four bed detached a few streets away with off-road parking at 285K. Even if I didn't like that one, it would make me wonder as a buyer whether I was paying over the odds for yours.
Has Hexham got some kind of weird pricing going on to make yours pretty much the same price as that? Or perhaps yours is on too high.
Estate agents? [i]*ptew*[/i] spit.
The seemingly decent agent who I employed to sell my 3 storey terrace in trendy Summerseat (near Bury) under-valued it for a quick sale and commission. He had lived in the area all his life and knew about the bad reputation of the houses before they were gentrified so suggested a very low price, failing to recognise the fact that the house was perfect for a working young single or couple being well-sorted and close to the M66. The following day I rang and told him to add £10,000 to the price then the next day another £5,000. I subsequently had two young single women first-time buyers making me ever-increasing offers starting at £15,000 over the price the agent had suggested. I took the first offer because I had given my agreement to the woman and I refused to gazump her as the agent then suggested.
Scum, altogether.
Aye too spendy
nice gaff though
There's some value in what an agent can do in putting and keeping a chain together such as getting everyone to accept lower prices than expected because it means they get the house they wanted to buy if not the price they hoped to achieve on the one they're selling. I can't see that happening with only internet viewing and little effective communication. Then there's looking after the chain and making sure no one messses up. Who'd want to be in the middle of 5 internet sellers? At least an agent has the incentive of getting 5 lots of commission and should work hard to keep it together.
The pictures and marketing stuff is childs play nowadays.
I'm not an agent and don't particularly like them but I stll value some of what they provide.
I'm never impressed when the photos show the back of the house first and when there isn't a full wide shot of the front at all. It just says we are hiding something
This^^ & with no wide shot of front, seems to be hiding something? seems a lot of dough for a 3 bed terrace oop in the frozen north
We recently sold our house and the agent didn't really have to do much (17 viewings in one day, nine offers, sold £20k over asking price), but it was after this the hard work really started. They were brilliant in communicating between all parties in the chain to keep everything moving, which wasn't easy given that both top and bottom wanted different completion dates.
Would you believe. They've pulled their fingers out of their respective arses and arranged a viewing for this weekend.
'bout time.
I can see the difficulty in getting the front/back shots. Thankfully Google Streetview helps to sort it out a bit.
What do Estate Agents do? Figure that out before you decide to pay for one. I've now sold twice using Mov8 and was very happy at vfm for £600. Of course, that doesn't include viewing (available at an extra cost) but I'm much happier handling that myself anyway.
Oh - and I'm surprised at how little you get for the money. I'd really expected a lot more in that area. Shows how little I know.
FWIW, we had the option of two identical houses when we last moved. We chose the one that had the much better view, even though it was £10k more. Just goes to show how external factors can influence the price.
Have to say, as someone who's been looking to buy in the area recently, I'd probably see your price as a bit high and the photos as a bit underwhelming - nice enough but nothing that would pique my interest.
If we were still looking I might well have gone for a viewing but I'd be expecting to come away thinking it was 20k+ over the odds. I think people are less interested in haggling
I definitely agree that the lack of a "context" shot hurts the ad too. The house looks perfectly respectable on streetview so it seems odd that there's not one.
Who decided the asking price? You, or recommended by agent? What values did other agents suggest?
My recent experience meshes with Wallop's.
Our agents didn't really know the market (They suggested a price £25k under what it finally sold for) but they did take some good photos.
It was after the offer was accepted that they earned their commission by guiding the process from offers to completion, aligning a chain of 5 with differing needs in terms of completion dates.
I should add - ours was priced deliberately low (at the stamp duty threshold) in order to gain more interest from potential buyers.
oh goodness, don't get me started on estate agents. i simply cannot believe that people responsible for such high value sales are so utterly useless and inept at selling. and that view is based on quite a few years buying/selling houses.
my two of many... a sealed bid that we won, got the call telling us we had won, except within 1 hour we heard that the estate agents had told the next highest bidders our max bid and they had then gone back to the seller with an increased offer from the other party that, yep, was accepted over us.
just before xmas we looked at a house, one of two semi detached for sale. we also wanted to look at the other as it had a different layout and was in better condition and even after a week of pestering for a viewing they would not even return our calls. so we gave up.
Sold my last two houses through marketing only companies. The first was about £200 and the second (higher priced house) was about £500. Both included for sale boards, advertising on their own websites and Rightmove.
The only benefit in hindsight that I would have got from an estate agent that I would have liked was a list of potential buyers already looking for houses in the area. Most of those buyers nowadays though are savvy enough to be checking the websites for new properties anyway and are receiving automated emails.
Of course, that doesn't include viewing (available at an extra cost) but I'm much happier handling that myself anyway.
I don't know how much it varies around the country but where we live estate agents only appear to be involved in viewings if the owner's are dead. Every occupied house we looked round only involved being shown round by the owner.
I have nothing useful to add, I just wanted to be nosy. I like your floorboards.
As Squidlord says, plus I agree estate agents are rubbish, we gave up and part ex'd ours. Should move end of this month hopefully!
I don't know how much it varies around the country but where we live estate agents only appear to be involved in viewings if the owner's are dead. Every occupied house we looked round only involved being shown round by the owner
[i]That[/i] is lazy.[i]
Quite likely OP that you've missed the market. All the data coming through at the moment suggests prices have gone beyond what people can raise enough money to pay for, or are willing to pay.
More than a few people are calling the top of the market and expecting things to drop this year - especially as the lending figures dropped 2nd half of 2014 and new buyer enquiries have dropped.
I suspect a lot of potential buyers are being cautious about overpaying for something which may well be cheaper in a year's time
I like your floorboards.
Thanks. So do I. I like the house, but it just isn't big enough for a bike workshop.
Not only are estate agents a ****less shower of wasters, they are quite often sleazy in notifying their developer or builder pals when a good restoration project comes on the market then ensuring that their pal gets the property at a knock-down price.
Wasps and estate agents... oh, and Scottsh midges. What are they for?