Anyone else putting their home on the market in early 2025?

[newhomein2025]

Just that really - I'm going to be putting my home on the market soon, and hoping to find something to buy too. It's due to divorce, but I'm actually feeling ready to move on and find a wee place just for me and my teenager. I'm slightly dreading the process, and all the associated hassle, and worried that I won't be able to find somewhere I can afford nearby, but excited to start again. Anyone else planning on selling and buying in 2025 and want to keep me company?

Good luck, everyone. I've booked my first estate agent to come and view in S Oxfordshire and am madly preparing.

What's the current percentages that other people's agents are charging them for a successful sale? My Ukrainian gardener said it's 5% in the Ukraine, just for interest.

What’s the view on price reductions? A couple of properties near me have been reduced but only by 5-10k, after being for sale for at least 3 months or so. They are nicely done and I like the look of both but but I can see why they haven’t sold yet - they don’t have off road parking and are on busier roads, also both semi or terraced, not detached. About 20k less than their current asking price seems more in line with the current market. I’m not going to waste mine or their time going to look at them but wondering if anyone else is finding the same.

1% for us

Congratulations to everyone that has exchanged or completed recently, or otherwise made good progress 😀

My view on price reductions @IWasBornIn1989 is that they should be meaningful or they are unlikely to make any difference to viewings. A price reduction should be about 5% off the current asking price in my opinion.

Ours is 1% plus VAT which was standard. One EA had their fee at 0.75% but went in with low listing prices.

Just heard today that our buyers also want to complete by the 31st March! Sounds completely unrealistic to me, although I obviously wouldn't complain. We've got an onward purchase but it's empty and chain free. Here's to a very stressful 6 weeks!

0.8%

Wow!

The only thing about the commission rate being really low is that I would worry about are the EAs motivated enough to really work hard at selling your house.

But I know @BunnyWilliams has sold so it obviously can work out well.

If the percentage is lower they would need to sell more to get the same amount of money as other estate agents, so presumably they wouldn't not bother. One near us was lower and they were selling a lot more houses than even the second highest estate agent, so obviously worked for them. They've gone up to 1% now which is most round here.

I hope all these solicitors are willing to get the work done to push through sales for end of March! I don't envy them or you all selling for that deadline but can see it's totally worth it!

I think it was probably a tactic to get more properties as the market was so slow. These were the agents our house was on with last time (and very popular in our area) and I'd had a good experience, so didn't worry about using them again.

When we got our listing paperwork, it said 1% and I queried it as it was different to what the manager had said when she'd valued the house. They honoured it without any question.

Fee from the first EA was 0.65%. They seem very visible in the area and came recommended. Second EA coming tomorrow so can compare. From previous experience EAs are happy to negotiate on the fee and come down to get your business.
5% seems high.

So, I've arranged the first EA to visit for a valuation and think I will need a few quotes. So, have got in touch with a couple of big names with local branches and Yopa as a bit of a wildcard. Has anyone used them before?
We are selling in one place and buying somewhere completely different, so I'm wondering whether I should find a different agent who knows the local area we'd be moving to, or if it's just easier having one do everything. Presumably I will need to look through the quotes carefully to compare. I have received a full quote from one agent already (without a visit), which seemed to give a discount for doing both selling and purchasing with them, so I'm not sure if that's the norm. Just trying to get my head round the process.

I do have to say that it puts me off as a buyer if people haven't used a local agent. I just always imagine it would be more difficult and hard to get hold of someone if you really needed to. I might be wrong but that's always my instinct.

We are paying 1% for our EA. There's a lot of competition in the area from other agents so I think the highest we were quoted was 1.25%.

Wrt price reductions, most buyers have a price range they will consider and will factor in being able to offer lower. I've heard it said that you should reduce enough to put you into the next bracket on Rightmove, although I think that depends on your house price as over £700K the brackets get very wide. I think the 5% rule is a good one though and is what we ended up reducing by to get an offer. We originally went for 2.5% but it made no difference as it probably wasn't enough to get us a fresh audience.

I wouldn't go with Yopa @FriendlyLaundryMonster

They have a bad reputation as do other online EAs. Be wary of any EA where you pay fees upfront. Far better for an EA to only get paid when the sale gets to completion so they are motivated not just to sell the house but also to help keep the sale on track.

Our agent said you had to reduce by at least 5% in order to get the benefits on Rightmove, I think it bumps your listing up so it shows as newer (with the reduced price) if you filter by date added

It does. Which is another reason for going with a larger price drop as incremental drops are visible to anyone who has one of the Chrome plugins and can indicate that the buyer and / or the agent has no idea what the property is actually worth. Better to appear confident that your property is appropriately priced.

And concur with @Twiglets1 regarding the role of the EA during conveyancing. This is the bit you are actually paying for. The pre-offer stuff is just a bit of marketing and having an EA show people round (which you could do yourself). It's the chivvying of the chain where you need them. If they aren't getting paid until completion, they have a vested interest in getting it over the line and will chase the solicitors, the other EAs and your buyer. Remember that the solicitors won't do much chasing. They are much more transactional so if there aren't specific actions awaiting their attention you won't hear much from them. It's the EAs who can get your intel from up and down the chain.

I accepted an offer on my house in October. The buyer is going to rent it out. I then reduced the price further because of the stamp duty and didn’t want the chain to collapse.

we were bearing completion and was informed last week the buyers lender is not happy about the lease terms and asked us to contact the freeholder for a deed of change. It’s a mess, the freeholders are being awkward so to get anywhere we would have to appoint a different solicitor to deal with the freehold. I’ve made it clear I am not buying it.

I’ve given the buyer until end of tomorrow to give me an update as I need to know if I’m re listing the house.

Part of me wants to to see if I can get more money as I dropped the price a lot. Next door and another house down the road have also just gone o the market. All houses are the same but mine is end of terrace and has the back garden landscaped. It’s stressing me out !

I’m trying to decide what my offer would be if I love the house I’m booked in for. It’s listed at 400, has been on the market for 6 months, apparently they reduced the price before the new year but I can’t seem to see that/ what the reduction was. They’ve had lots of viewings but not one offer. It needs a lot of work doing, but is priced more mid range rather than factoring in the work.

You want to get the property for a reasonable price particularly if there’s a lot of money still to put in, but you don’t want to go too low and put them off negotiating.

Spoke to my EA and she didn't think it was realistic. Done AML checks today and even that took 2 days as lawyers snowed down

@Completelyjo if you use the Property Log extension on Rightmove in your browser, it shows price changes.
Property Log

If it’s on Zoopla too you can see when it was listed and any reductions in price

A house I like the look of has just been reduced after 3 months on the market, but still about 20k over what we would want to pay. Haven’t gone to see it yet but to me, it’s slightly overpriced for a couple of reasons. It’s a lovely house though, great finish. But busy road and no parking tip it into the overpriced zone for me. I’m off guessing most people feel the same as it hasn’t sold in 3 months, and guessing vendors are not really budging yet on price. Not sure whether to look or not. We sold in a month and most well priced properties are selling quicker than 3 months.

I would view it and offer 20k under the asking price if you like it.