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?

Bungalows round here go at a premium. Not many of them around and a lot of older people want them.

I think it does sound like you're a bit overpriced. My experience was that they tend to put it in a little over what they hope to get just on the off chance that there is someone willing to pay more. If it hasn't gone within a certain time then drop the price.
My experience was also (we were on at a time when prices were dropping) that you get initial viewings, then they dry up, then you drop the price and get a flurry of viewings.
I wouldn't expect to get much more than £150k if you're on at £160k unless you can get two people bidding against each other.

Thing is, you don't know how the market is going to do.
We put our house on the market, and the prices started falling within the week and did so for the next year. We sold for over 30% less than the original price.

However the house we bought had been on the market for around a year before we were looking. We went to look because of that, and we thought that being on for that long they might take a cheeky offer as we couldn't get anywhere near. They didn't.
In that year we were on, they tried I think 4 different estate agents.

It was repossessed and we got it for just more than half what it was originally on for. After we'd bought it, we were chatting to our estate agents and they said that when the owners had been on with them, they'd had offers within 10k of what it was on the market for and they'd refused because they were holding out for the full amount.

It’s not a bungalow.

Gah this is crappy

The property market is dire at the moment in most parts of the country OP, you need to take that into account.

Think you must be in the North because I'm in the South & you might be able to get a flat for £150/60k but certainly not a house. But nothing is selling at the moment.

Change the agents for starters!!

Change estate agent!

You would not believe the difference between estate agents.

We had one come round, just for a valuation really, when I was 8 months pregnant. Coerced me into putting it up for sale immediately at 100k, way below market value, as they used scare mongering tactics such as your estate agent has 'coming up to winter, won't sell then, people won't like this about it, you don't want to be stuck in an unsellable house with two children and no room do you? (I kid you not). So we put it up, (bad pictures and poor RM listing to boot) had a couple of viewings and an offer of 95k, which is what we had paid, 6 years previously. I said no, they basically hounded me for days saying 'you won't get any better offers, the house isn't in a fit state of repair (it was!)' etc. I was almost 9 months pregnant by this point and the final call came when I was competent exhausted and my 9mo old DD was screaming and playing up and was just fed up and wanted them to leave me alone so reluctantly accepted. Next day I called them and said I'd changed my mind, didn't want to accept, didn't like the way they spoke to me and wanted to take it off the market. They demanded their fee was still payable, tried taking us to court, we threatened to get the Ombudsman involved and they gave up in the end.

Anyway, fast forward 3 months. Baby arrived and settled and feeling a bit more level headed. New estate agent, valued house at 110 and put up at 115k (decent pictures and far better RM listing). Six viewings (which the estate agent actually did) the next day and an offer of 114k, which we duly accepted. They were considerably cheaper than the first ones too.

The difference in having good and poor estate agents can be thousands!

I have had loads of dealing with EA and the BS they come out with is phenomenal.

House won’t sell because winter is coming

Answer

In that case I will leave it till Spring .

Or in the case of the one who brought brochures of “similar” properties around to get me to sell for £400k less.

Well if we moved what have you got on your books that is detached in a very large garden, must have outbuildings etc

Answer by them

Well there are properties but they are much more expensive.

Answer by me

In which case there is no point moving.

I have got to a point that I will not put up with the BS any more

The market is dropping - it will go even quieter as we get closer to brexit - try and get them up a few thousand if you can - but i would take the money now and run. I think you will get less in future.

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

Get rid of them and go with an EA more deserving of the commission. When I sold my place I dumped the first 2 EAs due to crap performance and mistakes. The 3rd company were great and my house sold. The deciding factor with dumping the first 2 was thinking how peed off I'd feel if by chance my house did sell despite their shit service. They simply wouldn't have earned their money.

Sorry haven't read all the thread and will post longer answer later

BUT

This is your life and this is also business so you really don't want family involvement , look around at other agents and sack the ones you have
( I don't involve any of my family on a professional basis however good they are - family / friends and business really do not mix well )

Thank so much for all this advice.

Today an offer was made for 150k

It's an opening offer - the estae agent can't know they won't go much higher so counter offer and start haggling - if you don't get the price you want and can wait then do so.

We had opposite being advised not to drop price on property that had been on for over 12 months - got a lot of viewing but most not serious and despite repeated feed back and us asking no floor plan on websites.

We were getting near to a deadline we'd imformed estate agents about from start - secondary school application date in new area.

We inisted on dropping price and immedietaly got a second viewing and offer - slightly below price which we took so we could get moving.

We should have changed agents but DH wasn't keen - though with hindsight he agrees.

I don't have much faith in EAs and find them mostly useless and/or self serving. You really have to do your own homework and research into what's selling where and for how much, and make sure they're doing their job.

When selling MILs house we had a valuation of £1.1m from the first agent which was ridiculous. Neighbour said this agent was a shyster who'd do anything to get business and all his references (letters to him, not online references) were made up.
Next agent seemed nice and genuine, but valued the house at £600K.
We went with third agent, marketed at £900K . It sold for £875K, which is round about what we expected.

The offer you've received is quite reasonable for a first offer. Counter offer with £155, maybe.

If they went for 170k then your house is worth similar

Its not, its worth whatever you can get someone to pay for it, and nobody wanted it at 170k. The fact that there was a rush of viewings after the price drop and an offer shows that it was overpriced.

Change agents. They're looking after themselves not your interests.

Continued thanks

If I understood you correctly, you need to have sold within ten months? So by next July? I would counter their offer - with Christmas then Brexit, this may be the best offer you get, in all honesty. The upper end of the market has been flat for a while now, largely because of the hike in stamp duty on properties above a million, and this is trickling down already now to impact on cheaper properties - Brexit uncertainty round the spring will only exacerbate that, imo. You could be looking at eighteen months from now before it settles down.

If you were listed for $160k, they've offered $150k, you should counter with $157,500, they should come back at $152,500, then hopefully meet in the middle at $155k if all of the rest of their deal is good. Sometimes it is just not worth hanging around for months, or even years for a couple of thousand dollars. If you want rid of the property, then just get it done.

The market is dropping - it will go even quieter as we get closer to brexit - try and get them up a few thousand if you can - but i would take the money now and run. I think you will get less in future

But then what op will buy will also be less

Have told EA that we won’t drop below 155

If the buyers will pay that we have a sale

If they won’t then we go to a new estate agents.

As an ex-EA (13 years ago, but did it for 4 years) you need to change agents. They will be bored of trying to sell your property, their motivation won't be there as they will have new 'exciting' properties to sell, and they are wanting you to agree a quick sale to get their commission.

You've already said you need £160k but have now told them you'd accept £155k, so what they're doing is working, you've dropped £5k.

Go multi-agent, don't agree anything more than 1% in commission, but you can also get agents (smaller and independent) who will offer you lower and have more incentives to sell it for you.

We would have one evening a week where we would get told to go through all the properties on the books and get a price reduction. It didn't matter if they had viewings, we were told to spin some b@llocks about selling it quicker, the buyers aren't out there, and whatever we could to get a price reduction.
I'd get £20k reductions on £400k properties and £5-10k reductions on £150k properties. It was awful, but we were told to do it.

Don't be bullied into selling low, and don't believe what they're saying. Leave them NOW!

The estate agent is right but you say they are crap so I'd change agent.
however, do look at how soon you can change/sell if you swop agents.

Don't tell EA what you are willing to accept because they will only go to that price with offers. They won't push for more as you are happy at 155k

I’d try a different estate agent. They don’t seem to be interested in listening to you.

If other agents come back with a similar price then you can decide whether to sell or hold off.

Change estate agents. But first try getting a friend to call as other posters have suggested.

Agents are happy for you to sell lower as long as it is through them.

New question.

This house sale crap is still rumbling on.

This first seller pulled out, and then someone else offered 155 again. Second time we countered with 159 (against advice of Estate Agent).

It was accepted.

That was a few weeks ago and today the EA has come back to us with

"Sorry for the delay but I have been waiting on the buyer so that I some more news for you. The buyer is having a mortgage and through the mortgage they give a valuation for the property. The valuation report has come out at £155,000. I have a copy of the mortgage valuation in branch and the buyers are saying that they would be looking for the property at the £155,000 following this report. "

AIBU to wonder whether the EA is working for us at all?