Listings, viewings and offers thread 2!

[drspouse]

We've filled up the old one! (maybe someone on a mobile device could add a post with this link though?)

Aw I hope it all works put for you schnitzel

Fingers crossed for you Shnitzel.

Week 3, still no viewings (2 cancelled on Sat last minute). I'm a bit down about it all to be honest. The price is now reasonable (for the area/type it is). Patience is all that is needed.

partyI hope you get some people thro the door soon!

Hope things pick up for you party. This house selling business isn't much fun.

WE ARE UNDER OFFER!!!

It is a bit less than we wanted but they are nearing exchange on their own place and will then be cash buyers so we went for it. EA says he had already negotiated them up a little bit so we didn't want to mess around and just accepted it.

Just need to find something to move to, there are 3 places we like, all lovely but none 'perfect' so its seeing where the compromise is really.

We had 7 viewers and had feedback from most of them (albeit very, very vague - they tended to like it and were never seen again!)

Amazing news mammas! Well done.

Thanks for kind words - I never thought selling a house would be stressful, foolish really. I thought "oh, to have a house to sell is such a lucky position to be in - how could it possibly be stressful?". It is lucky of course but stressful too. And really it's such early days! This could take months.

Wow amazing news mama although very jealous! 😂

Our viewers from Saturday left feedback saying they didn't like the area why bloody look then
Arghh, now another house that we really really wanted has come back on the market and we can't do anything about it.
Stressed is an understatement

Great news mama!

After today finding out the house we loved is back on the market, I've seen another one online that looks beautiful, so have booked a viewing for 2 weeks time - I hope we've sold by then!

Our house is on for £350k offers in excess off. Had an offer on Sat for £340 which we turned down. EA told them we could do 345. Been waiting to hear and just have. They won't go higher than 340, aaarrghh!!
Why do people bother viewing a property that clearly states what the minimum the buyer needs is and then offer less? I feel like they've just wasted a whole week on this with us getting our hopes up. They couldn't even let the EA know, he has chased them just now.

The house we have an offer accepted on is going back on market on 1st April as they've given us 6 weeks to find a buyer.

We haven't even got any more viewings booked in, I just don't get it. Feeling very fed up.

So stressful, Honey. Could you ask for 5k discount on the one you want?

Jazzmin, that was the plan. The EA was confident he could get £5k off at the end of the chain which could then filter down, meaning we could afford to accept £345. Otherwise we would need £350. He put this to the people interested in ours but they won't go to 345.
Can't believe how close we have been and now completely back to square one!

Ive been avoiding the thread a little as I was feeling so crappy about things recently - but I'm glad to see a few offers have come in!
We ditched our online EA and I contacted the interested people from that, who said they had asked some questions and they agent never got back to them! Anyway; they've asked for a second viewing tomorrow, which I'm going to host. Praying it goes well!
Also not sure what to do if they want to offer though? That could be awkward? The traditional EA we switched to wont charge commission as he didn't introduce the buyer but charges 1% plus vat for sales progression, which seems really expensive?? But equally not sure what the viable alternative is, as I would trust the online EA to touch things from now on :-/
What do people do when they do private sales? Which essentially would be what this is?

Poochie I would be very careful your online ea dosent try and claim the fee if they originally introduced the buyer?

We had a viewing last night that went okay but again I can never tell.

Another viewing Saturday which will be viewing 12 (I think!)

Poochie, I went with my online agent after a neighbour raved about them. One of the best things she said was the ability to direct message people interested in her house and cutting out the middle man...it's a shame your viewers still had to go through an agent.
As we are saving over £4K using online agent I'm not expecting lots of help if we ever get an offer, however our agent lives a couple of miles up the road and rings me to keep in touch etc. I wasn't expecting any personal human touch lol!
Strangely enough, my parents have sold five houses and never used an estate agent. ( stuck homemade sign up) Bearing in mind all of these were before the age of the internet it's amazing they all completed without an agent chivving things on!

@blackfellpony - they're fixed fee so I'm paying them regardless unfortunately! But thankfully it's only a quarter of what commission would have been. Good luck with your viewing!! Hope 12 is your lucky number!!
@jazzmin - glad you're having a good experience! We get the ability to message people but we paid extra for the agent to host viewings as we work shifts so aren't home an awful lot. Unfortunately though he takes 3+ days to even acknowledge people's requests and is neglecting to respond to questions from people who are interested. I wish it had been different really as the concept is great! The two interested parties are both via the online agent, but if I hadn't intervened they probably would have disappeared completely. Just a bit anxious about what next steps might be if they make an offer, and worried that negotiating might be a bit tricky and awkward?? How did your parents find it? Did they pay someone to progress the sale or did they conveyance themselves etc? Have been searching online for companies that do sales progression and no luck so far!

My parents just communicated with their buyers and solicitors themselves.
My neighbour who recommended my agent said it sped up her sale as her buyer texted her directly to say what they were still waiting in terms of documents etc for so she could sort it out. My agent man said he'd do all the offer negotiation if we ever get any (!) so even if I get offered something directly ill asked them to ring him on his mobile. Just to cut out the awkwardness. Although naturally I'm expecting my first offer to be the full asking price. As my husband says, it must be nice living on my planet....!

In other news I've laid fake grass over a weedy patch at the side of my driveway where nothing grows. Can't decide if I've improved it or not! Still, was only an off cut for £20 on facebay, a decent one so doesn't look like a green grocers. Also bought some plants today, will put in pots so I can keep them. Working on kerb appeal.... I'll take a pic of my new lawn later for your amusement!

Our agent should technically do negotiation as we paid him for that too, but given how long he takes to get back to people I think it would be a disaster.
Haha I'm hoping for full asking price too, but not sure how I'll react if it's a ridiculous offer!!

Nice work on the front garden - kerb appeal is apparently one of the main things! Our dogs have destroyed our turf, but thankfully the viewers already saw that and didn't seem put off! Wish we had gone with artificial in the first place to be honest - neighbours have it in the area their dogs go and it looks really good! Look forward to seeing your photos!!

Honey that is crap news. I'm guessing people do it cause of Kirsty and Phil and other threads on here advising if your not embarrassed by your offer it's not low enough or knock 10% off straight away advice.

It is frustrating but I guess if you can't take it it's their problem - you will get a buyer it's not much difference for someone to come and offer. Just feel better someone liked it enough to offer

I know this might sound like an odd request but I need to ask.

Our mortgage is currently a fixed rate. It expires in august, we can get out of it in July for a tiny fee, anything before that is about £1000. I would love to have completed in July, but if this doesn't happen is it worth me going onto the variable or looking for a new mortgage where I'm not tied in?

I spoke to the mortgage advisor who has gone a bit cold since I said I was selling.

Our house is on for £350k offers in excess of. ... EA told them we could do 345

Your EA really shouldn't be doing that - the ASA made a ruling in November 2013 that an OIEO price used to advertise a property must be in line with the seller’s “bottom line” – the lowest price the vendor would accept.

www.asa.org.uk/rulings/express-estate-agency-ltd-a13-226041.html

If you're willing to accept £345k as your bottom line, then you should be marketing it as OIEO £345k.

Although, TBH, as a house hunter I avoid anything marketed as OIEO - why should I pay more than your bottom line?

We had it on at 365 but no offers or much interest from rightmove so EA advised us to reduce. We'd already had an offer accepted on a house so knew that we couldn't go lower than 350 hence the
O.i.e.o. I don't think this is unreasonable considering 2 neighbours just sold for 357 & 355. I wouldn't care if someone offered 350,001, we would accept it but we stressed to the EA that was the lowest we could afford to go to buy the house we want.
If people don't like that then fine, don't view but if they are going to view then it would save everyone's time if they offered 350 as advertised.

We would only have accepted 345 if the EA could get 5k off the house we wanted which he said he could do. Otherwise we would not accept 345.

I wouldn't have a problem making an offer in excess of a property if I really wanted and had checked to see it was in line with what similar properties had sold for.

Mammy work out how much extra you will be paying per month (we are in this position, sort of). Then you can see how long you would have to be paying it before you would be better off going over to a new mortgage.

Sometimes the extra per month for the variable rate is not really worth doing anything about (for us, we'd have to pay it for about a year for it to be worth dropping our price significantly - we haven't sold yet but are taking out an extra mortgage for the new place) so we are holding out for more.

But ... your EA is in sailing close to the wind re advertising standards regulations if s/he is advertising as OIEO £350k but telling buyers your bottom line is £345k. It doesn't make any difference if the shortfall is being made up somewhere else in the chain.

OIEO works well in a hot market with lots of keen buyers, where you have busy open days and it can get competitive.

We haven't even got any more viewings booked in, I just don't get it.

So the viewings dried up when you switched to OIEO?

No the viewings weren't great before, they weren't coming through rightmove, they were coming from the EA's database.
As soon as we changed to OIEO we got this interested couple who loved the house but won't go higher than 340.