Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Original poster

Sellers roll call! How many viewings are you gettingin this stagnant market?

974 replies

Pixiedust1973 · 15/01/2018 14:45

I thought it would be nice to update each other with our progress as I seem to of lost the other sellers thread!

My house has been on the market on & off since April last year. We found a house we liked, got a buyer before putting in an offer. Had a low offer but managed to negotiate them up & the house we want down to an acceptable level, just! Turns out after many months that their buyer can't proceed so we decide to cut off from our old agents & start afresh with a 25k reduction for quick sale, making us without question the best house in the area for the price! Comparables being 40-50k higher! Im in an expensive part of Surrey btw, hence silly money for very little!

Been on 55 days now & had 11 viewings, 2 cheeky try their luck offers we can't accept because they're 30k below our asking price already reduced by 25k. Id say that given how stagnant the market is we're getting a reasonable amount of interest. Getting lots more hits online since the new year & hopefully its only a matter of time. The viewers we are getting are proceedable viewers, mainly chain free. Probably explains the low offers! Hmm Had a second viewing on Friday & awaiting their feedback today. Thought they were keen but the later in the day it gets the more nervous im getting!

OP posts:
BuildingThings · 18/07/2018 13:35

@jgm that's interesting. Can I ask how long was the property on the market for?

I think if Flamingo puts it up for £98000 it would include all the people who previously thought that she would be insulted by their offer and create a fair playing field for all. Not everyone has the guts to put in a lower offer, so you would be excluding those buyers.

drearydeardre · 18/07/2018 13:39

flamingo
I also don't want to / wont accept less than its worth!
what it is worth is what someone is willing to pay - no more no less.
What you consider it is worth is immaterial other than give to you a limit below which you will not sell.

BuildingThings · 18/07/2018 13:39

@flamingofridays if you get offers of 92-95k you can always tell them that 98k is your absolute minimum.

People often put in the first offer lower than they're really prepared to pay to test the water. Always be polite and say thank you very much, but if you can come up to 98k - you have a deal. Hope this makes sense! Smile

jgm · 18/07/2018 13:41

@buildingthings 2 days - but this was 2001 so I appreciate it was probably a different market, and we were ftb so in a good position. I actually wish we'd offered less tbh.

FabulousSophie · 18/07/2018 13:43

You don't have to accept less. Just get the EA simply to tell viewers, prior to a viewing what price you would be willing to accept. And even if you don't accept an offer, you will at least know what proceedable buyers are willing to offer for your house. With your current strategy, not one proceedable viewer, out of many many viewings, has been willing to make an offer. Plus, to know how much you could get for your house, you need to know what people would be willing offer for it. So far nobody realistic has been willing to offer you anything. Play it straight, and you encourage buyers to play it straight with you.

flamingofridays · 18/07/2018 13:45

what it is worth is what someone is willing to pay - no more no less

yes I know this is true, but considering we have had 1 offer for the amount we consider acceptable I am fairly confident that we can sell it for what we want. none of the feedback has suggested its overpriced.

building yes that's a good point, when we bought it we offered low and it was rejected (funnily enough because the seller had bought it during the times of 100% mortgages and would have been in negative equity at less than asking) and we paid asking because at the time we loved it

FabulousSophie · 18/07/2018 13:52

You are putting too much faith in verbal feedback. The only feedback that means anything is a hard proceedable offer, or not. People usually don't want to offend, and just want move on with their search without getting stuck talking about houses they have decided not to buy.

flamingofridays · 18/07/2018 13:55

but sophie we have had one offer at what we want - does that not say something?

I know all the matters is a proceedable offer but there is absolutely shite all point taking an offer we cannot afford to take...

ToBeClear · 18/07/2018 13:55

Definitely list below 100k - don't worry too much about exact amount - we listed at xx9,999 in the US as remember that people search between 100s and 50s so you're not even catching anyone right now who is searching up to 100k only.

FabulousSophie · 18/07/2018 13:58

You don't have to accept a lower offer, But your strategy at the moment is generating no proceedable offers. I think you need to give a bottom line price and see if that manages to bring in any offers that you like.

flamingofridays · 18/07/2018 14:07

yes sophie that's true. we seem to have plenty viewings and some second viewings and then it falls flat....

I think tobeclear you're right we're missing out on loads of people who could potentially buy, because we're on at 105.

because if we list at 100 they will see it and maybe pay it but if we list at 105 they would still be able to buy at 100 but they wont even see it in the first place

dp is not keen on lowering it any more yet... we don't have a deadline to move or anything so I can see why he is reluctant but I am much more impatient and for the sake of a couple grand I would much rather cut my losses and try and sell asap.

maybe we will leave it to the end of the month as a compromise, maybe lower to 100 or 99950 or whatever, and maybe try an open day (whilst we are not in!)

may also ask EA to do some new pics when we do this and I can pretty up the garden a bit too before the open day

will speak to dp again tonight and try and convince him

will also google about home staging later (you lot will have me baking cookies before every viewing next!!!!! ;))

FabulousSophie · 18/07/2018 14:09

If you give a bottom line price, it may well generate competing bids, which push the offers above your bottom line. If you only get one bottom line offer, you just sell for your bottom line.

BuildingThings · 18/07/2018 14:22

The only trouble with that strategy is that the longer it's been on the market, the more people will be suspicious of it and it will go 'stale'.

If you wait until the end of the month, it will be on the market for 2 months and this is when people will likely try to put in a low ball offer because they will think you're desperate, while the market continues to decline and what might have been a reasonable offer of 98k now, will turn into an even lower number then.

Also, tobeclear's advice is really good.

I would try to create a multiple offer situation by listing it low now. Cut your losses and move on with your life and be happy! Flowers

JustLurk1ng · 18/07/2018 16:19

Flaming agree better staging and lighting will help. Even some lift adjustment would be super. Also the photos are taken from high up making the rooms look weird - you really need some new pictures - perhaps a new EA. Also room measurements on the floor plan would be great. In terms of the price - you want to sell quickly, you would be ok with 98k so agree list at oieo 98k and stick to it firmly - get estate agent to be transparent about that being a hard lower limit. It's also more than a 5% reflection so will kick off a set of notifications from Rightmove.Good luck!

FabulousSophie · 18/07/2018 16:27

Yes,. Any seller ideally wants to get multiple offers in. Then the house's true current value can be quickly ascertained by the highest bid. I think the best strategy is to try to attract multiple offers around the same time, even if they are low, and then let the bidders decide how high they will bid against each other. If they do not come up to your minimum, you don't have to accept any of the offers.

flamingofridays · 18/07/2018 16:30

agree about new pics - cant get new EA as tied into contract for another 6 weeks and to be honest theyre really good contact wise etc which I really like. others round here are a bit shit to be honest

what do you all think of limiting who you let view?

we have two viewings booked in for Thursday and as of yet I have no idea of position they are in - do you think I should only allow proceedable buyers?!

FabulousSophie · 18/07/2018 16:46

I think you should tell the EA to let viewers know simply that you will not sell for less than £98k, and any viewers who cannot proceed on that basis are wasting everyone's time including their own. However, I do not think you should demand proof of funds before a viewing.

JustLurk1ng · 18/07/2018 17:17

I'm sure the price drop alone will really help! If you don't sell in 6 weeks you can consider a switch of EA.

shabbycaddy · 18/07/2018 22:39

So when you purchased this house in 2014 it went for £10,000 less than it sold in 2009? That straight away would put me off and it’s now asking much more than in 2009.

flamingofridays · 19/07/2018 07:33

Well yes but not that much more than 2009. Lots are the same round here.

FabulousSophie · 19/07/2018 08:19

Why is your bottom line £98k, rather than getting back the £97k, which you paid for the house 3.5 years ago?

Also, if your own bottom line is £98k, by asking for offers in the region of £105k, some viewers are probably concluding that you would not go down as far as your own bottom line, and so they are not even bothering to make an offer that you would in fact accept. It looks to me that you are trying to leave your pricing ambiguous, in the hope that someone will make you a high offer. However, in reality, your strategy of ambiguity is bringing you no proceedable offers, whatsoever, let alone high proceedable offers.

flamingofridays · 19/07/2018 08:22

I didn't pay 97k I paid 87 and a half. Because I wouldn't have enough of a deposit to buy the house I want? Isn't that fairly obvious?

I've also got to pay solicitors fees estate agent fees and 2.5k early repayment fees out of my equity too.

Im not expecting high offers at all. I'm expecting 98-100.

FabulousSophie · 19/07/2018 08:32

At the moment, you are not even inviting offers of £98-100k. Your pricing looks like you are telling offers like that to go away.

Plus, if you can make your target profit of £11,000 on the price in 3.5 years, I think you will have done very well indeed

flamingofridays · 19/07/2018 08:57

I don't think so sophie considering the one offer we have had has been exactly that!

also, I don't see why not it was a shit hole when we bought it, we've done a lot of work....

FabulousSophie · 19/07/2018 09:00

But the one offer you have had is a mickey mouse offer from someone who doesn't have the funds to honour it. It's not a serious offer, it's just someone playing you around.