Hello there,
We marketed our house with a local estate agent at start of March who seems to sell houses quickly compared to the others. They valued the house at 15k lower than the asking price but pushed them for a higher asking price just to see what was out there and house has had a lot of improvements done, plus there are similar priced houses nearby.
We were going to drop the price but then suddenly things picked up a bit. We've had 3 viewings so far and 1 offer 2 weeks ago which hasn't progressed yet. The price wasn't perfect but would be enough for us to move, so accepted. The guy who offered on our house is a cash buyer but the couple who offered on his are in London and wanted to move up here asap. Only thing was, they hadn't even put their house on the market yet and the estate agent didn't check! The London estate agent has assured him that properties are selling like "hot cakes" down there and an offer would be made within a few days, so he accepted based on this.
I've been chasing the estate agents and have found out the property only went on the market last week. I can't find out where in London it is, but they just seem to be waiting for this couple to get an offer.
I wanted to know, for you MNers that have sold in London recently, are things still selling like "hot cakes" there, or do you think my buyer's been told a yarn? Should I just wait, or set a time limit on this offer? I can't work out whether to change estate agents or not, they never call with updates and make me feel like a massive pain in the arse. They have informed me that people aren't queuing up to buy the house so I should be grateful with the offer and just wait. We've found our dream house in Knutsford but can't make an offer until we get a formal one on this (have tried to offer on it already). The lady who saw it the other day is a cash buyer and recently sold in Clapham so it seems to be attracting people who can afford it. She didn't like the location, which is fair enough.
Offer was 200, house priced at 210. Do you think I should just drop the price to get a quicker sale or keep the price the same and change estate agents? Things seem to have picked up a little here so not quite sure what to do. The agent we picked has a reputation for shifting houses cheaply (we only discovered this after speaking to locals) and is considered more of a buyer's agent locally. But houses seem to stay on the market here for literally years so they all seem pretty rubbish.
I'd be very grateful for any advice from seasoned house-sellers. Where we live has a very stagnant housing market so it's not the same as the SE etc. sorry in advance if my replies are late, trying to play with a clingy toddler :-)
Thank you!
Guillemot xx