Smart Feeder - Light sensor values

[snowberry]

As some of you will know, I put my house on the market at the beginning of September; I've had 2 viewings & 1 no show ( ). I had a courstesy call from the agents who said the market had gone completely dead in September...

Last week she called to ask if I'd consider a price drop fro £157k to £150k. I'm a bit miffed at this as (as prices are right now) it's quite cheap in the first place & that would be a big drop for me. I said no, that things would pick up in Feb/March & she said that they 'had plenty of people through the doors, but they don't want to look at yours. '

I feel that if I dropped my price, there would be someone making an offer tomorrow & they will have got a result for minimal effort on their part

I'm open to offers, but I'd rather they negotiated from my original asking price; I always view a house up to over about 5k over what I'm prepared to pay...

 

Am I being unreasonable?

[lillybettybabs]

That's a tough one,

I was in a similar position with my flat, i ended up renting it out so there was just enough

to cover the mortgage etc.

Maybe drop the price by a thousand or two to show you are willing to take an offer (if you can afford to)?

[Old Speckled Hen]

Negotiation 10% downwards has always been the agents' mantra but I'm afraid with the market as it is and is expected to remain vendors must expect to get 20% less than their original asking price. Our house has been on the market since April last year and we have dropped our price substantially (It was at our instigation though).

We have someone dithering over it at present.

It's nothing wrong with your house, I'm sure, just the way things are going at the moment; so much financial uncertainty.

However, everybody is in the same position (except London where prices have risen in the last year!) so the house you buy will be commensurately cheaper.

I wish you luck. If you are not in a hurry, stick to your price and see if you can tart the house up and declutter a bit. I'm sure spring will bring more buyers out.

If people ask why the house has been on the market for so long just say ,"well, we've had two/three people who wanted to buy but they couldn't sell their house"

I've moved so many times the next will be in a box

[Duncan08]

Why not try another estate agent. They are all touting for business at the moment.

The valuation is free, and it would at least give you another opinion on the value and whether the drop your estate agent suggested is reasonable.

 

And, have you house doctored. I dont look at decoration and furnishings as I want to change it to be mine. Our house now was minging when we looked at it, but it had the right layout and ticked all the boxes. I knew I would be ripping everything out so looks were not important. BUT Most people don't.

 

We saw a house we wanted, and put ours up cheap for a quick sale, £99k. The kitchen was a bit of a disaster, the wallpaper downstairs had seen better days and was very dark, the morning room was full of junk.

Anyway we didn't get a sale in time for the one we wanted, but got the bug and decided we wanted to move. We ripped out the kitchen and put in a new one, moved the back door to improve the space in the kitchen and repapered downstairs. Cleared out a load of the junk and put it in a friends garage. Spent £8k

Two months later we had 3 people after the house after only 3 days of putting it on the market, at £125k

 

I know it is so stupid, I would rather have had it at £99K and put my own kitchen in, and wallpaper up, but on the whole people do want the house to look "cared for".

 

Good Luck, its horrible waiting in limbo for something to happen.

[freddie]

Duncan, you are so right. I always look up to view a room as the ceiling gives a much better idea of the size of the room!

Declutter, really good clean, and repaint if needed, sometines the change of carpet does the trick, everything neutral... most buyers have no vision, and need bland and light........ Good luck. I have my aunts' house on the market again now, as the buyer diddled about for 4 months, then changed his mind I dont expect it to sell before the spring, as the garden looks barren at this time of the yr

[abwsco]

What are the agents particulars and photo's like? Only asking as I've recently seen one where the pictures were dreadful (loo seat up, sink full of dirty plates, mess everywhere) not saying yours are like that though and descriptions naff as well. Sure some people are stupid and will only go off pictures first.

[snowberry]

I completely decluttered & repainted the house neutral colours; I was a bit irked at the estate agent insisting on the living room light being on for the photo as it screams 'not enough light' in my book!

Unfortunately I won't move to another agent as it is a very cleverly worded contract that says: If after the contract period you keep the house on the market with us you will incur no fees. If you do decide to take it off the market, you will have to give us 3 weeks notice in writing and pay a fee of £600

I did read through the contract but they have it worded so well that I had to read it 3 times before I understood it. She wasn't letting on was she?!

 

I think I have worked out that if end the contract, I won't be liable to any fees.

I will make their lives miserable!

[BizzyMomma]

Is there anything in the contract forbidding you to use a second agent?? You might give this current one the proverbial boot up the a** they need to start pushing people in the direction of your house if they find out it's also on a rival agents books as well? Try to find a "no sale no fee" one, or maybe even get your house valued by a couple of other agents and if it comes in at more than your current asking price, you can then go back to your existing agent with those valuations saying "Well this is why I won't reduce my price"......

[Duncan08]

What was the contract period? If it went up beg of Sept they have already had 6 months by the end of Feb.

 

You can still get the other valuations just to give you a valid comparison.

 

Also keep a close eye on your area.

 

mouseprice.com give you sales data for your immediate area if you enter your postcode.

 

I have signed up for their newsletter not because I am moving, but it is interesting to see what the nearby houses are going for, I have a nose when I am walking the dog

.

It tells you Land Registry recent sales, with the full address on and the selling price

Discounted property, which will be local properties that have offered price reductions

Other properties for sale,

Chain free properties

A summary of the local market and highs and lows along with rental properties.

 

If nothing else it will give you some evidence of the market in your area and something to tackle your estate agent with.

 

Send a friend in to ask about property that your house meets, see if they get your details, again, often with this type of thing you have to start getting a bit cleverer than them, if your friend doesnt get your details you want to know why. If they do ask your friend for an honest appraisal of how they portrayed your house.

 

Start being demanding, make them want your house off their books if only to stop you hassling them!

 

Good Luck

[Wolfie]

Hi Snowberry

I'm sure there's nothing wrong with your house, it's just such a difficult market at the moment. Your estate agent doesn't sound very positive about your property. I echo the above - get another agent in! Boot up their bottoms

 

We are up for sale. We have had three couples say they "just need to sell theirs"

 

Comments from viewers:

 

"You have a Obsessive Compulsive Cleaning Disorder" - no, clean is

 

"We didn't want a swimming pool" -

 

"Are you taking The Budgies with you?" - The were at this comment

 

"We didn't want a bungalow" -

 

"Your plain cream walls are so dull - I would have lots of colour in this house."

 

"My Boxer dog would not like your cream carpets", the carpets aren't included in the sale.

 

But one day, some nice person will arrive with a large bag of £££

 

Good luck Snowberry and keep

[cloud]

"We didn't want a bungalow" -

Well, that and other comment just show how little care Estate Agents take in selling your house. I know it not always the Estate Agent's fault but when we were looking for a house we were constantly being offered houses that didn't even meet our basic requirement. My mother, who has just moved, kept being pushed to look at houses when she'd clearly stated she needed a bungalow because of the stairs.

 

Also it seen as normal by Estate Agents to get you to drop your house price rather than them to do more work. If they have had you house on the market for nearly six months then it would be reasonable for them to think maybe your house is overpriced. But it would also be reasonable for you to get some other opinions. Get a few more estate agents to value the property. You can use this information to renegotiate with your existing Estate Agent and also it help you know who you might change to in the future.

 

My mother did this and it was amazing how much more effort the first Estate Agent put in once they realised what was happening.

[snowberry]

I'll eat my hat before I pay the EA off with £600 for doing nothing rather the commission for a sale. It was priced low in the first place for a quick sale.

[Old Speckled Hen]

 

Comments from viewers:

 

 

 

We've had two viewers complain that the house was on a hill. It's called Hillside....bit of a give-away that

"Ooops, word censored!"ody has complained about the price and the one offer we had was pretty close to the asking price but they got cold feet and backed out.

 

I'm amazed at the number of people who haven't even got their house on the market yet.

I thought you got your offer in then went looking.

How wrong!!!!

[Yorkshire Pudding]

Last time we sold, one lot of viewers complained that she couldn't see any children from her daughter's school playing outside.

 

The house was 100 yards from a different school - not her daughter's - and it was pouring with rain at the time.

 

Nowt so queer as folk!

[Goosey Lucy]

We've had 'It's a bit dark.'

Nothing wrong in that I suppose except it was an evening viewing in December

[chuckmum6]

I'm amazed at the number of people who haven't even got their house on the market yet.

I thought you got your offer in then went looking.

How wrong!!!!

 

Well, that's me I'm afraid, we will put ours on as soon as we see something we want to buy, nothing yet. We are happy in our home, but we need to move near to our work/school, however if there is nothing we will stay put until there is. We can have the house on Rightmove in 24 hrs or so.

[sadietoo]

What bothers me is that when you are selling they want you to drop your price...when you are buying no one seems to want to take an offer and you are persuaded that your offer is unreasonable?

 

We had an issue with a retirement flat we were selling as exors. it had been completely refurbished two years before sale with new kitchen bathroom carpets and decoration...but we were up against other cheaper flats in the same block and the market is a bit flooded around here..the buyer dithered around for so long that she annoyed her buyers who dropped their offer, and guess what we were expected to pick up the difference. Perhaps because it was an executor sale and so we weren't quite so emotionally involved since it wasn't our own home, we agreed to drop half of the amount suggested PROVIDED exchange of contracts happened by a specified date (it was about a week away..as stated the buyer had messed us about for a couple of months by this time)....when no exchange happened, we put the price back up....and guess what ..The Estate agent offered us a substantial drop in our fees (half of the discount the buyer wanted) if we kept the offer on the table for a bit longer....we did complete at that, but effectively we had dropped only a quarter of the discount the buyer wanted originally...

 

The moral...hold fast and stick to your guns...if you are selling at a price less than you want to make sure to attach a condition to it...early completion immediate exchange whatever...it's amazing what you can achieve if you keep faith in your own property to sell...yes there are others on the market, but if yours is clean, tidy and can be lived in straightaway without any messing about many buyers will not want to lose it..no matter what the market it doing