AIBU to not accept estate agent's advice

[namechangeforthisthread1]

Named changed as outing.

House has been on market since May at 170k . Only 4 viewings. Estate agent advised us to drop price 2 weeks ago to 160k . Since then it has transpired that in our opinion they were marketing the house poorly/incorrectly (not coming up on search engines/ described as a bungalow rather than house) and we complained. They deny it.

In the last week there have been 4 viewings. Today an offer was made for 150k. The estate agent has advised us to take it on the basis of

• it's a difficult house to sell, hence only four viewings in 4 months
• winter is coming and it's unlikely to sell over winter
• brexit

We don't want to go under 160k but they have advised us to accept offer.

AIBU to go against the advise?

I’d change your estate agent to be honest. I’ve had a very similar thing with ours (as a previous poster mentioned: Bridgfords ). I think many agents do a really sh*t job and do nothing to actively sell a property, then put pressure on the seller to drop the price (so they get a sale without having to do any actual work).

It is in the estate agents interest to sell the house quickly, regardless of how much for. How much are similar properties in your area going for? I would question their marketing and perhaps try marketing it yourself, local Facebook pages seem to do wonders for house sales where I am.

Don’t be pressurised into selling your house for less than it’s worth, the estate agent isn’t interested in getting you a good deal.

Give it another month and change EA.

Ours has been 6 weeks with one viewing. The photos were shit and communication with EA was dreadful - it was an internet based company. They suggested bringing price down.

Spoke to more well known EA and they said stick with price, took some great pictures which have gone on today (Rightmove) and they are positive it will shift. They said summer is notoriously a slow time and always picks up in September as people want to be in new house by Xmas.

I’d change EA

I’d tell them to jog on and do whatever you need to do to get out of, or wait out, their contract then list with a different agent, or privately.

You could probably get out immediately if you could prove they’ve not done what they should have.

As you’ve name changed, why not link to your house & we can maybe help to see why it hasn’t sold/got a low offer - well, other than a shit agent of course.

Could you get the same amount knocked off the house your hoping to move into? Because that would in effect finance it.

Thank fuck I live in Scotland.

It does sound like it was overpriced, but that's irrelevant. If you can't afford to accept the offer then don't.

Your house was probably overpriced before, hence lack of interest. Even if it was described as a bungalow rather than house, I don't think that would put people off. (Something like saying 2 beds instead of 3 beds would put buyers off if it was outside their criteria). You don't have to accept the agent's advice though. Most people expect to put in a bit of an offer, even if the house is reduced. Unless you are prepared to wait, be prepared to accept less than the current asking price, but maybe not £10k less.

As the saying goes: How do you know if an Estate Agent is lying? Their lips are moving. That sums up my view of them. If you had 4 viewings in a week since the price drop, it sounds promising. Can the EA negotiate; tell the people offering that £150k is too low but you might be prepared to deal at say £157k if they expedite things?

@greendale17 or that they think their getting a bargain (a steal)

www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/business/yourmoney/why-a-real-estate-agent-may-skip-the-extra-mile.html

Also, do they give you comps there? Lists of what similar homes in the same area have sold for? If so, is $150K in line with the comps or not

What if you have a house that isn’t like your neighbours.

We had an estate agent turn up carrying a bundle of brochures of Semis with tiny gardens on an estate in the next town. (town wasn’t that great)

Ours was a 4 bed detached bungalow set in countryside with 1/2 acre and outbuildings that you couldn’t see from the road.

ES produced the brochures at the end and valued it at the same price.

Told him if he knew the price before walking in the door he could have saved himself the bother and just phoned the valuation in.

Ended up selling it ourselves for £400,000 more.

I think it is one thing if you live in similarly designed houses. Another if you live in an area that has one off houses or a house that is not like your neighbours

Offering 150k on a 160k house is only about 6% less than asking price. That sounds reasonable to me. Regardless of whether it was inititally marketed at £170, to the buyer the asking price is £160k and they have made a perfectly reasonable opening offer. Are you willing to tell us how much you paid for it? Obviously the buyer can look this up.

Yes you don’t need to take their advice.
Our last house we were encouraged to put on for 250k and sell at 240k but we got offers at 260k when we held onso they just seemed to want to sell ours quickly at the first offer. I’d keep checking if it comes up on search engines.

It’s a scheme. But all of them do it.

They get your business by valuing/offering to market it at the price you want or expect.

They bring few viewings because they themselves have very little footfall or clients and don’t actively market it. They also know that if they bring too many you’ll think that it should be priced higher.

They tell you that the few viewings are because of your property/state of the market and you need to bring the price down.

You bring it down then suddenly they start actively marketing it and telling buyers that you are dropping the price and will “take an offer.”

Buyers think they are getting a bargain and make low ball offers.

Listing as a bungalow could definitely put buyers off when I search I click for houses only no flats etc so the listing being correct and a price drop will of got people looking.

The difference in commission to the estate agent on an asking price of £10k is £200 (based on 2% commission). They'd far rather have the money in the bank than try to negotiate a higher price for you which will deliver minimal extra commission for you.

If your estate agent is on a 3% commission

If the estate agent is on 3% commission they are being robbed blind.

@OP. The key is to figure out what the house is really worth. Reject the offer for now. Book in several valuations and get a zoopla estimate. Look at similar houses and assume the most expensive ones are overvalued.

If you decide £150k is about right you can go back to the buyer in the next week and it's unlikely they will have moved on (though it's always a risk).

If you decide the EAs aren't great then be very clear what you want from them and give notice you are leaving them immediately along with targets to get you to change your mind. Get a friend to cold call them to make sure they are pushing it. Look critically at the rightmove listing: EA gobbledygook, missing details and poor photos are the big issues to fix.

OP's post doesn't sound like Scotland, but I would like to add a warning. I rented out my flat in London for several years after I moved in with DH. When I decided to sell (10 years on) I asked the agents who had been letting it to advise on a market price. Their valuation was £30K short of the eventual selling price, and I suspected that they guessed I was a doddering geriatic and planned to flip it fast.

You can choose to accept what you like but

• describing it as a bungalow not a house will have made little difference to people searching
• unless it literally didn't appear on Rightmove, the search engine thing won't have mattered either.

Offering £150k on a £160k house is perfectly reasonable.

What CatsMother66 says does happen - certainly around here (small town and thriving gossip network).
The estate agents and the small developers have a cushy arrangement going, and nobody stands a chance if ever there is a house needing renovation, especially if it also happens to have a very big garden. It will be empty for a while, and all of a sudden a planning application appears in the local paper to knock the house down and build 4 in its place. A few weeks later a sold sign materialises outside the house, shortly followed by a bulldozer. Some say the local planners are in on it as well. Some even say that the funeral director suggests to the recently bereaved which estate agent to use.

Thanks everyone.

There are complicating factors that are really outing to talk about , but suffice to say that we can only really wait another 10 months to sell and the quicker the better . And that the whole process is long distance.

what happens if you don't sell for north of £150k in 10 months? I'd settle for 155-158 in your shoes if you can't hang onto it. If you had someone else second viewing then you'd be in a stronger position.

your EA does sound bad.

has your EA called all the viewers from this week and made sure none of the others DO want a second view? Told them that it is likely to go under offer soon - that's what they do round me.

Estate agents make the most money by selling houses quick, getting the commission and moving on to the next one - not by getting the highest possible commission.

interrsting consensus developing. Please do continue to comment everyone. It’s very helpful