Tips please: how to sell a house quickly

[dustythedolphin]

Ok I know its an impossible task, but any ideas on how to get a quick sale for our house, which has just gone onto the market? So far we have:

Moved out, so its chain free (though tenanted by immaculate and tidy tenants, whose lease ends in December anyway)
Spent 10K on cosmetic repairs and redecorated to a creamer shade of bland so as not to offend anyone's taste with our taste
Put on market at £25k less than the valuation price

Its only just going on the market, and I want to avoid it sitting there for months as we have our eye on something else. Agents tend to over value, IME, then gradually get vendors to drop the price to something more realistic after a couple of months.

I am unsure whether we should:

Drop the price a bit lower in the hope of getting a quick sale? We could afford to drop another £25-50k at the outset, as where we are buying is far cheaper
Go with two agents agents in the hope they will compete with each other (this worked once before for us, as sometimes sole agents appear to sit on their laurels)

Can anyone give any advice or tips in order to shift the house as quickly as possible?

Its in a very popular area with excellent schools and fab transport etc - very popular & desirable (catchment area for the two best schools) but the market is strange at the moment isn't it?

Has anyone else done anything which helped them achieve a quick sale?

Thanks in advance :)

Its pointless giving them notice so soon, as the house could realistically sit on the market for months. They have agreed to stay until we get an offer, at which point we will give them two or three months notice, depending on the position of the buyers.

They have also agreed to allow viewings and alwyas keep the house immaculately, which is great as tenanted properties often look a bit worn and messy due to the tenants living habits

They are the perfect tenants and we'll be sorry to see them go really

Whats the rest of your area like - selling fast or not?

Hi Tracky

Its quiet at the moment due to the school holidays but it was frantic at Easter and two houses in our road have sold recently at very good prices. The immediate area is extremely attractive for families (catchment for two best schools in borough, if you believe league table results), but very good value compared with surrounding roads (similar house in next road is £100k more).

It will sell, but I suppose its a question of pitching it right in terms of price, as we are keen to sell quickly in order to get the house we have seen here (which has recently dramatically reduced in price by 50%, thus bringing it within our price range).

The house we are selling looks much nicer in the photos than when we lived there, as the tenants are so immaculate (unlike us) and it was all completely redecorated to a blander shade of neutral prior to letting

If we had been there, the walls would have surely been graffitied by our toddler by now!

Apparently September is the 2nd busiest time for the housing market, but the market is very strange at the moment....

Prices where we are buying are ludicrously low, so we are hoping to sell in the partly recovered west London market and buy in the collapsed market here - meaning we should be able to get the best possible value here.

Hopefully it will all work out

Oops sorry I meant Tracey - not "Tracky"

I would go for offers over or oiro - so that you can hope for higher. Hopefully if 2 people are interested then you can win out of it. Whereas if it was a fixed price - you couldn't say 'no I want more'.
I wouldn't go too low - people will pay for quality and in the right area.
Can you put an offer in for the one you want and get the ball rolling on it - and get it off the market?

Are you going to sell it furnished - or as an option to be left furnished?
How much rent are you getting in comparison to how much someone would buy for?
ie - is it possible to sell as a going concern for a buy to let? Ready made tenant?

We buy and sell quite a lot of property. Your tenant is likely to be a problem we will not exchange till tenant is out last time made offer on property it took eviction notice and baliffs to remove tenants despite correct notice being served.

I have buy to let property I would never ever take on someone elses tenants or furniture.
The most successful sale tip we have is limit views to two days a week the agent will then back to back potenial buyers who then feel like there is lots of interest and are more likely to put in offer.

Hi

Tracey Thanks for the advice. The agent has advertised our house as "offers in excess of...".I wanted to drop another £25k for quick sale but agent is adamant that the asking price is very good value.

Lizcats in terms of the tenants, I take on board what you say. We won't have any problems getting the tenants to vacate (I know them very well) and they keep it so immaculately. We have told agent that when the tenants return from hols,they will have to limit viewings to two slots per. week.I agree that a sniff of competition during the back to back viewings may spark some competitive interest.The rental income is high so I will give the tenants notice once we have an offer,though I accept from what you are saying that it may delay exchange dates slightly.

We are negotiating on two properties to buy: On one we have offered them a deposit to take it off the market,if they are happy with with our (not made yet, but will be very good) conditional(on our sale) offer. That is all currently in discussion and is fairly normal where we are (not UK), as the property market is a lot slower , so I am hoping they will agree.

There is another house,which is not on the market, but the owner has said we can view and,if the valuation and our subsequent offer are acceptable to her, she would sell it to us.

So we are gently persuing two possibilies.If the first one accepts our deposit and conditional offer and agrees to take it off the market for us,we will cease looking at others.

Have you thought of having an open day/morning/afternoon - I'm told it's quite effective, and might be easier for your tenants.

Thanks, that's a good idea - have seen that happen for other properties - will ask EA

Bump

OMG have sold the house (STC)

Its been on the market six days and we accepted a very good offer thsi afternoon!