Feedback: When you’re selling...

[KittyKK]

I just did another 10 viewings to buy yesterday (chain-free, heavily pregnant and super super keen to find our new home - I really want to like every property I see, as I’ve done a lot of research already to draw up a viewing shortlist).

There’s so much property that’s been lingering on the market for a long time. Maybe the vendors have become jaded after lots of viewings, but I thought I would add some general feedback that I think is disadvantaging potential sales...

1. if you have pets, make sure you’re cleaning and airing the property frequently. 2 of the houses I saw yesterday absolutely stank of cats and dogs (another 2 houses had pets too, but no lingering bad smells, so it isn’t just me being over sensitive). I honestly can’t concentrate in those environments and just want to leave as soon as possible. No idea why the EAs aren’t giving the feedback.

2. open blinds and curtains before viewings. At this time of year, it is so dismal outside, so utilise any bit of natural light you can get.

3. if you need to turn on lights in the day (if the room is a bit dark anyway or the viewing is in the late afternoon), make sure you upgrade to a proper wattage. Dim lighting is depressing. You can buy super cheap light fittings from somewhere like Ikea (so ditch the paper uplighters from 1992).

4. if you decorated 10+ years ago, think about giving the walls a cheap lick of paint. I know I will redecorate anyway, but it gives the impression of not needing to be done immediately. Yesterday, I viewed a house with padded yellow silk walls and stained glass floral doors!! Apparently they spent £200k personalising their new build house 20 years ago 😮 Actually horrific!! The EA said he didn’t want to tell the vendor that nobody else would appreciate this very personal touch. Shame on him, as this house won’t sell until it is halved in price!!

5. if a potential buyer is visiting whilst you’re at home, don’t linger, but also don’t ignore them!! Smile, say welcome, please look around and feel free to ask questions. I was inivisible yesterday to about 3 buyers, which was really awkward. I’m there to buy a vision of a happy family home. At least have some (fake) warmth.

6. if there are broken door handles, skirting boards hanging off the wall, wardrobe doors fallen off etc, get it fixed!! If I see this type of damage left unattended, I start to worry about how well the rest of the house has been kept. If there’s a leak/mould inside...find out why (even if you don’t fix it!!). Yesterday, I got an answer of “maybe it’s the gutters, maybe it’s the roof, maybe it’s a burst pipe from the ensuite” 😂

7. if you’ve got planning permission (or even just provisional drawings) for extensions/conversions etc, print out the details!! This is such a selling point and may sway a buyer that maybe has discounted a proeprty for another reason. I saw a house yesterday that was ugly outside, but ticked other boxes...the EA said there were provisional plans in place to change the frontage of the proeprty. He didn’t know what, but this type of thing could be really compelling. I don’t like it enough to look up the plans myself, but it could have swayed me on the spot.

8. choose a charismatic EA to represent your house!! If I don’t like the agent, then I’m not going to answer their calls, proactively arrange viewings through them etc. I met 2 really unpersonable guys yesterday (appreciate that they’re having a tough time getting sales at the moment). I’m far more likely to go back to the EA I met last week, as he was lovely, chatty, helpful (has arranged for me to meet an architect for a second viewing etc).

9. print out your energy bills and know how to improve the rating! I’m currently renting and paying an insane amount for electricity and gas...in my next house I want to know how much these things are going to cost and if the energy rating is low, how practical and expensive it will be to make positive changes.

10. if you have something out of the ordinary like large trees that need professional pruning, a swimming pool that needs maintenance, a busy car park hidden behind the tree line etc, address potential concerns (or unseen positives) upfront!!

11. I’m viewing large family houses that seem (on paper) to have great storage. I lost count of the number of cupboards I saw yesterday where the contents were spilling out onto the floor. If you don’t have enough storage, I worry that I won’t have enough storage. Now, I think I just saw some excessive hoarding (especially where the vendors have been in the house 20/30 years), but you’re going to have to have a clean out before you move, so do it now!! One lady yesterday had 80+ shoe boxes piled in a guest room??!

12. every room has a purpose!! Sell it with a clear purpose. Your junk dumping room doesn’t easily translate to my serene guest room.

13. if your potential buyer turns up 5-10 mins early, don’t make them wait on the doorstep. Of course, there are emergencies, but if you’re flying around inside the house stuffing things in cupboards or fluffing cushions, I’m already tired and cold on the doorstep... I don’t like viewings either.

14. know your competition!! One of the houses I saw yesterday was full of potential. Absolutely fabulous period property. The price is hundreds of thousands too high IMHO (there’s zero upside for a buyer to spend the time and the money doing the renovations, as they would be spending far more than the top of the market for the area). A few doors down there’s a fabulous house that has been extensively renovated to an amazing standard on a far better plot. The prices are too close. Unfortunately yesterday’s house will get few viewings as a result (needs to be seen in person to appreciate) and then I think they will be appalled by the (reasonable) but low offers.

I think that’s all from yesterday lol. I know it’s a long drawn out process to sell nowadays. Wishing everyone luck in their selling/buying journey.

I’ve got more viewings this afternoon. I really love one of the houses...on paper at least. Fingers crossed it’s our new home waiting x

So see past all that stuff to what the house could be without 80 shoeboxes, and grab yourself a bargain before someone else spots the potential behind the junk dumping room!

If you are super super keen to find a new home, have you considered not rejecting houses for spurious reasons like vendors not being fakely warm enough to you, or having not styled their 4th bedroom as a guest room?

I quite like the sound of floral stained glass doors

That's a lot of points.

We are tenants where the owner is selling and having been told yesterday afternoon that there's a viewing today, we've done our best although won't have met all your points as we don't own it.

I'm working from home and an estate agent will show them round. We are going to be moving out so are getting rid of various things but have at least moved the things in the spare room going to the charity shop into the attic so hopefully looks a bit better.

You're not looking near York are you?

How about suck it up like all the other purchasers? View the property and if you like the bones of it make an offer you think is good, rather than criticise other people's storage and decoration. And as for point No 9 - are you kidding? You sound a nightmare purchaser.

Jeez that was a long post!

You've got to see past it all, it's amazing how many people can't! They'll take all their stuff you can air the place to get rid of the smell of pets etc.

You need to adjust your expectations I think!

I think you're getting a bit of an unreasonable response here OP.

I think these are pretty good points. Maybe not everyone will do/will need to do all of them, but I agree. You're SELLING your house. If you expect someone to pay a decent asking price for it, making it presentable and choosing someone personable to sell it is the least you can do.

So many people just assume their house is worth a certain amount and someone will want it immediately. As you can see all these things it works in your favour as you will probably get a bargain!

Hope you find something good OP.

Miranda - you sound like an amazing tenant! I don't think you can follow all of his when it's not your house!

I don’t think they’re spurious reasons. I’ve bought and sold enough properties over the past 20 years to see behind the facade of the issues I’ve highlighted.

There aren’t any bargains. I want to buy a new house, but I don’t need to buy one, which is probably why I don’t need to make compensations.

Generally these are really expensive properties that have been on the market 6/12/18 months. Every single one is overpriced.

In a buyer’s market with an oversupply (at least in the areas and prices we’re looking at), it’s a shame that vendors aren’t making more of an effort to show the properties in their very best light. Anyway, I hope my feedback helps someone, as it shows another perspective.

Shoe box lady’s house is on the market for £1.6m. The day before I viewed, she turned down an offer of £1.55m from a chain-free buyer, which is total madness. Honestly, that house would be a bargain at £1.3m and not a penny more.

I agree with sky I think. The first time I saw our current home I had to literally step over the body of the vendor, who had gone on a bender and was sleeping it off on his living room floor .

And I'll be honest, buying from slightly useless/unresponsive estate agents is also a favourite of mine - if it's harder to get a viewing because the fuckers don't answer emails/phone back, with a bit of persistence you get yourself a bargain. My first flat was on the market for over a year - in Zone 2 of London, 2012/3 - because it was on the cheap end of the market, vendor was abroad and the agent had bigger fish to fry. It took 6 phone calls to get a viewing.

The problem is that you are not selling a house - you are frequently selling your home.

Some of these points are worth taking on board but most are too time-consuming and expensive to deal with when you are also moving yourself. However I appreciate the feedback - buyers are scarce at the moment.

Some are common sense or courtesy but others I might do if I had a second viewing or an offer.

Generally though most people either love a house or don't. They will have decided within three minutes of walking in the front door. Usually all the other stuff is irrelevant.

I agree with point 9- at least have the info to hand even if it's not printed out (e.g.: we pay £110/month for gas & elec etc.)

And I'll be honest, buying from slightly useless/unresponsive estate agents is also a favourite of mine - if it's harder to get a viewing because the fuckers don't answer emails/phone back, with a bit of persistence you get yourself a bargain.

Totally agree with this, from buyers point of view. But there will be sellers sitting there with all of these issues wondering why they can't sell. I think it's useful for someone to say this stuff!

You say you don’t need to buy a house. I suspect these sellers are mainly downsizing and don’t need to sell. I also suspect the properties aren’t as overvalued as you say. Or why bother viewing them and not already ‘done up’ houses?

Look, I agree a lot of people don't prepare their houses properly to sell - I saw some terrible ones last move (including rat traps left out and one full of cat shit in £1million+ houses), but point 9 - ok let the potential vendor know your energy costs, no problem with that; its this know how to improve the rating! I want to know how much these things are going to cost and if the energy rating is low, how practical and expensive it will be to make positive changes
So you want the vendor to identify all the areas they are losing energy and spend the time and effort to get a range pf quotes to tell you what you may need to spend on your new house to make it energy efficient? Good luck with that!

I don’t need to make compensations.

I have never ever seen a house that was utterly perfect, there's always a compromise somewhere.

Roughly which part of the country are you looking in which currently has an oversupply of houses for sale?

@cacofonix - I don’t mean undertake a personal detailed analysis with specialist quotes! It is something easily found...The house I’m doing a second viewing on with an architect next week had a more detailed energy rating document than normal (so not just a graph saying this house is an F, could be a D).

Example attached. It had an extra few boxes with improvement suggestions and costs of doing the upgrades and costs of savings. Something like spend £1.5k on insulation and save £570 in 3 years in reduced energy costs.

It looked like a standard template. Maybe he paid the assessor an extra £20 or something for the extra info. Anyway, I think it is useful info for a buyer, because the F rating is daunting (I live in a D rated house at the moment and the gas/elec bill is £308 a month!!).

All EPCs are like this, it's just that most agents only display the graph on Rightmove and their brochures. If you ask the EA they will be able to supply you a document like this for each property.

Something like spend £1.5k on insulation and save £570 in 3 years in reduced energy costs.
Which means 8 years of reduced energy costs before you get your money back.

You say you don’t need to buy a house. I suspect these sellers are mainly downsizing and don’t need to sell.

Not the sort of seller I want to be in a chain with particularly. Could be a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy!

I'm not selling my house, but I find your post condescending tbh.

Surely you could see the padded walls and floral stained glass in the particulars? And you viewed the house so weren't put off.

Depending on where in the country you are viewing, then often the buyers for properties at those kinds of prices will choose to rip everything out and do it to their tastes pretty much straightaway. It's more about the size and location of the house than anything else.

the detailed EPC should be made available before you view - it is a legal requirement to have it.

the model is a bit mickey-mouse but you can read between the lines. Ignore the wind farm in the back garden that will take a century to pay off and look for the real information.

think also about how much sun the place gets, which way it faces, is it overshadowed, how old the boiler is, will you have to replace farty transparent curtains with proper thick ones, is it open plan (Stupid) or does it have doors you can close, stuff like that. None of which will show on the EPC...

the actual bill is only a guide, people may be on expensive tariffs, like to walk round naked in mid winter, not know how to use storage heaters, waste hot water by endless tap running, things like that.

Loving the stealth post wrapped up as advice to sellers!!

One might imagine that when buying a property for £1.5m/£1.6m, then paying a stamp duty bill of around £100k, affording the gas bill each month may not prove the biggest problem in the world!

Quite Mildura, quite.....

I think the OP makes valid points and someone struggling to sell may see the benefit, especially with the planning permission. We got a good deal because we did all the research ourselves.