putting home on the market

If only we could!

We are looking to move again before long. You don’t need to guess who we will approach!

When I moved back in 2019, it would never have taken place but for the perseverance, and professionlism of a lady working at the EA;s I used. I cannot praise her enough. From the time the house went on t he market she was the one who carried out all the viewings. When offers came in she was the one who advised me.
When the potential buyers pulled out almost at the end of the process, she actually came round to give me the bad news ( not just a phone call), I cried on her shoulders!!! At the point I wantede out completely, but she persauded me to give her four more weeks, and YES within four days she had two more offiers, both above what the previous buyer had been paying!!!

It was she who spent a whole workingday on the phone trying to track down the legal team for the people at the bottom of the chain who wwr holding up the exchange of contracts. And, it was she who kept me closely informed on the day of completions, as to how the monies were progressing. So, informed us that my flat could have keys collected to allow furniture removal people to start unloading nearly three hours before Solicitors got round to informing me of this!!!
Highly professional throughout.

Just for fun...

Sold a house last year. Had 4 valuations. 3 for around £240k, 1 for £270k. Initially I thought the valuer was a tad optimistic but when I looked closely at the competition and market conditions I realised she was probably right,

Their fee was 1%. The other agents fees were 0.75%.

I went for the more expensive agent. I sold at full asking price. Fee was £2700, plus vat. If I had sold at £240k with a 075% commission I would have paid a fee of £1800, plus VAT. For the sake of an extra £900 in fees, I made an extra £30k.

The EA knew their stuff, knew the market and were prepared to put in the effort. They didn't take the easy route of a lower asking price for an easy sale and offering a low commission rate to secure my business.

One of my better decisions.......lol.

Franbern. How lovely to hear someone actually praise their EA. We are a much hated and maligned species up there with tax collectors and traffic wardens.

I too have provided tea and sympathy (and chocolate biscuits). It goes with the job. Lol. I have also jumped in the car and acted as a courier when necessary.

Anything to keep a sale on track.......😁

We have had 2 excellent experiences with EAs. The last one, through her highly experienced manner and professional negotiations, got us a far better price than we could have dreamed of. However a rather junior person who was dealing with the sale of my late Mother's old cottage told me I needed to accept a low offer as a similarly-built one in the local area had recently collapsed!! (Mum's had been standing for over 150 years). Ridiculous and very immature I thought. There is a huge difference but I have faith in most of the ones where I live. I would never dream of selling a house without the advice of an estate agent even though I would set the price.

mabon1 Any buyer can do those jobs themselves" Am I being unreasonable?

No, You're not unreasonable.

I do note, when looking to purchase near our home, many people very easily paint the entire interior cream, kitchen included - rather makes it all appear clean and sparkly (if windows sparkle as well).

Wahoo......💃. Someone else praising their EA. Thanks Skydancer.

Yes there are incompetent EAs and their are some downright rogues. But they are not all bad. Honest.

A good one is worth their weight in gold.

Oops wrong "there". Bloody predictive text. Lol

We have recently had a valuation and will make a decision in the next month to stay or sell.
We negotiated fee to full payment if we sell within 5% if the asking price in 3 months it then reduces on a sliding scale.

Good luck, whatever you decide. Hope it goes well. .

Meant to say Skydancer. The young whippersnapper dealing with your mums house obviously hadn't got a clue.......if Mums house has stood for 150 years, surviving storms, tempests and WW2 then it isn't going anywhere.

If there was any doubt as to the integrity of the house then a structural survey and an environmental search would have highlighted any potential issues. The price could have then been renegotiated if necessary.

When I mentored or trained newbies I always taught them never to try and bluff their way through a situation when they were out of their comfort zone. It isn't professional and it only makes them look foolish.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

I would definitely change estate agents! If she was so abrupt and rude to you ,cant see her being the kind of person you want showing people round the property. I think you should leave your rooms as they are now and not put yourself through a lot of hassle which may not be appreciated anyway. Having moved many times both here and abroad, can I make a few suggestions? Look in the local paper and at property you see for sale in your area, to gain an idea of the general prices in your area., and if you see several similar to your own place from a particular estate agent go to them. If you have some young friends or perhaps a niece or grandchildren, you could ask them to come in and make HELPFUL suggestions. When we live somewhere , it is our home and we do not necessarily notice particular things. So for example, I am a great book reader and have various books about on the go at the same time. If I was going to show the house I would probably put them away for that time, and move things just a little to make it look more spacious. But if your house is well maintained then people will make their own changes as they want to, and I would think you are just wasting money , unless there is some major problem . One thing I have always done is to have a little house book, as I have always had champagne taste and beer money! So in a notebook I have 3/4 pages for each room. It has the window size, how many rolls of wallpaper needed , curtain size etc. With this I have been able to find quite a lot of things from charity shops or in discontinued lines etc. With the wallpapers I usually buy 2 extra rolls if I really like them and they are cheap . Also note on a plan of the room any things under the floor and where there are any trapdoors if any etc. At the back I used to put the names and numbers of plumbers electricians etc that we had used over the years and when I sold the house presented the book and the extra paper etc to the new people. This allowed them time to get sorted and have the local people to contact if they needed. If you are downsizing you might have some things that you know that you do not want to take with you? If you are sure about them then you might be able to dispose of them now and save yourself some cost and effort when you actually move. I am a similar age to you , so wouldnt do it now but when we used to move we always got a couple of nights bed and breakfast close to the new house. Very worthwhile, so that if there were delays with furniture arriving or things didnt work , we had somewhere clean and restful to be able to go and get showered and have a rest and not have to do the beds immediately.! I wish you all the best with the move., and I used to find that when the people viewing were commentating on the things that we had liked and made us buy the property, they were often the people who bought the house. Good Luck

I agree with all the advice to change agents. Do look round to see who has sold signs up in your area. Quite often they will have a list of people looking for property there. I had three agents to look round and went with one who loved my house, told me not to do anything because people would change things and had sold houses down my street. It sold really quickly. Good luck

How awful for you, that agent is so rude and is obviously not interested in getting a sale/commission.

Please ask another agent to give advice, and continue until you feel happy with the agent and the advice they give you

I think Mabon1 has probably sold the property by now. She posted this op in August 2023

My very elderly neighbour had a new bathroom installed, it was so nice we got the plumber to install one for us, sadly about 6 months later she became ill and had to go into a care home. Her bungalow was sold and the first thing the new owner did was rip out the bathroom. So don’t waste your money. Whoever moves in will probably gut the house and make it to their own taste.

Friends of ours put their property on the market last year. They'd had tenants living in it who hadn't taken care of it. EA told them not to waste their money doing it up as most purchasers would want to do it themselves anyway. However, the house was on the market for a very long time. They eventually decided to 'tart it up', by replacing the bathroom with a cheap new one, painting the kitchen units, and giving it a lick of paint. It sold the same week, and they got their full asking price! I guess sometimes it pays to spend a little bit of money.

This is an old thread (Aug 23) revived by a spammer.