House selling & buying - best tips please!

[MovingABCs]

Hello lovely Mumsnetters!

We're at the early stages of thinking about moving house. Please can you give me your best advice about any aspect of buying and selling? Thank you so much! 😊

Selling
What's the best fee strategy with estate agents? Lowest fee you've negotiated? Sliding scale structure? There are dozens of estate agents in our local area - how to choose the best one?

What do you think about listing a property with an 'offers from' price versus listing at a price you expect to be negotiated down from?

What tips do you have for making a house appeal to buyers?

Buying
We're looking at buying a 4-bed new build that's listed for £700K. It's been on the market since Apr 2024 and they haven't received any offers yet. (I think it was on for £725K for the first few months.) It feels it may be overpriced and I worry that if we pay over the odds for it, then it'll be harder to sell in the future. The property is in a semi-rural location in the West Midlands.

How much have you managed to negotiate off the list price and how did you manage it?

It might be worth knowing chat new builds lose value for about the first 5 years after they are first bought. It's to do with the cache of buying a new house. Like a new car.

Estate agents - ask for recommendations. Then get three round for valuations, pick the one you like best and ask whether they’ll match the cheapest one’s fee. You can absolutely negotiate on the fee.

House - declutter. Lots. Clean it to within an inch of its life. Do any annoying little jobs you’ve not got round to which viewers would spot. But I wouldn’t do any decorating or anything.

Selling tactics will depend a lot on the type of property you have and the type of area you live in. A classic starter family home in a desirable location where there is little similar on the market might be somewhere you'll get people fighting over it and driving the price up, whereas something where there's 10 almost identical properties nearby, you just need to be thinking about how to stand out from the crowd.

Don’t go with a solicitor or surveyor linked to the EA. Keep everything separated to give yourself more power and objectivity in the process.

Use a local solicitor, one that you can pop into to sign a document etc. We’ve had lots of legal issues with the house we’re buying and it’s been so valuable to be able to get a more personalised response, rather than the cheap national companies (which are fine if everything’s straight forwards but you never know when you first start).

£700k seems a lot for the West Midlands for a 4bed new build. That’s the same price as where I live in the South East and I live in a desirable area with good schools etc.

Price your house competitively, you’ll only be knocked down if not. “Offers over” is pointless, price the house for what it’s worth - not what you need to move to your dream home (it’s on you to be able to afford your new home, not your buyer).

Exactly. Lowball them.

We’ve always got three estate agents in. My advice is pick the one you feel is most genuinely enthusiastic about your property and you feel you can work with. It could be a long process. Also mention & insist on good photos and ask to see them before a brochure is produced or they are added to Rightmove. So many awful EA photos out there.

Regarding staging the house definitely de-clutter even if it’s not too bad. I remove about 30% of my ornaments, I like studio pottery but it makes it seem less personal and more spacious if I reduce them for sale. Also any really strong maybe slightly out there paint colours you may love, I’d probably paint over with an attractive off white. Again makes it look less personal and spacious and people can imagine what they’ll do with the space. Keep it super clean for viewings, it really makes a difference. Also I agree with price realistically, overpriced houses just sit there. Also put a few attractive pots outside and keep the front tidy and attractive because many people drive by before deciding to view. Kerb side appeal is the first impression people will have and that sticks. Good luck.

Selling -

• Offers over is a waste of time in my view. We both ignored it on the house we are buying and had it ignored on the house we are selling. People will offer what they think it is worth to them. In this market, better to be realistic as many properties are sitting around and you have a small window of opportunity to get a decent number of people through the door. After that it's diminishing returns. Do everything you can to price correctly first time and don't get sucked into 'testing the market'.
• Declutter as others have said. When you've been through the house once, do it again. We've gone through 3 times now. Sell / give stuff away on your local FB group, get to the charity shop and the tip. Be ruthless. Remove niknaks (these being ornaments that are not photos), but kids' toys away. Remove family photos for the marketing pictures as they tend to perpetuate online these days and so you don't want any personal info in them.
• Check with the EA that any viewers at least have their property on the market before agreeing to a booking. It's a buyers' market so often EAs will show properties to those who are not yet proceedable. However, you need to weed out the time wasters as it gets disruptive if you are having to tidy and clean all the time for people who are nowhere near being ablet offer.
• Gather all paperwork pertaining to your house now. Certificates, building regs, get your boiler serviced, electrics checked etc. Solicitors, mortgage lenders and buyers are much more thorough these days and any missing documentation can slow things down.

Buying -

• If you think it's overpriced and it's been on the market a year it probably is and no doubt the mortgage lender will think so too. There's quite a bit of down valuation going on right now by lenders, so offering too high can result in renegotations or pulling out down the line.

Instruct an estate agent with an excellent chain chaser.

Worth their weight in gold if done well.

Three estate agents, preferably local and independent.
No one who tries to tie you into a mortgage provider or conveyancer.
Check their contract length. Many are 20 weeks now, which means if you get fed up with them, you can withdraw from the market, but you can’t relist with another agent until the 20 weeks is up, plus notice.

Same with conveyancers. Do not go with an online one at any cost. We’ve just had compensation from the regulatory authority, because the one we were persuaded to go with was so poor.

Kerb appeal, even if it means buying pots of something and washing/cleaning paintwork.
Declutter and then do it again, including the garage and loft. Whatever you haven’t used for years can go, unless there’s a specific reason you kept it.
Depersonalise everything and just have out posh perfume and shower stuff in the bathroom, like they do in the show homes. It probably means having a bag to put the everyday stuff in that you hide and bring out again when viewings are over.

Unless there’s house you’re contemplating is a high end developer or a small local one, 700K is overpriced I think. What’s the square footage? Garden size?
You need to know what is standard in the house, or whether the show home you’ve seen has upgrades. Are there carpets, window coverings, light fittings?

You could ask for stamp duty to be paid, or garden planted.

Don't even think about using an online EA to save money. You need a good EA to keep the sale on track and help troubleshoot if problems arise. Getting a good EA is way more important than getting the cheapest rate possible.

Choose the best one by looking at properties on Rightmove around the same price point as yours. Which one has good photos and clear floor plans? Which one has a lot of SOLD properties? Then pick 2 or 3 to visit your house to talk about their valuation, can they justify it by showing you examples of recent houses they have sold in your area at similar prices. They will tell you their rate of commission and if you ask the question, whether there is any flexibility. Don't compare the rate you end up paying with rates you read on the internet because it is not the same in every area.

Apparently it's hard to negotiate money off with new builds compared to older properties. If you do find you can't get them to drop the price by much, at least negotiate hard on extras they are including in the sale price.

Thank you for all of the great advice!

Do you think if I negotiate a lower EA fee that perhaps they won't work as hard to sell my property?

Interesting to hear your thoughts re the "offers over" pricing strategy. I think we'll list at our asking price and how we achieve it!

I've been making space in the garage today to move things from the main house into. The decluttering has commenced!

Moving house is such a big job!

Just sold my house within 4 days of going online above asking. We had advertised offers in excess of. We're now in the process of purchasing our 2nd home, this is what I did.

DECLUTTER, MAINTENANCE, CLEAN & THEN DECLUTTER SOME MORE AND CLEAN SOME MORE.

I'm seriously talking keeping every room minimal, 1 or 2 items on shelves, reduce photos and display your best, get rid of all your bathroom toiletries, nothing on kitchen worktops other than appliances, stage the hell out of your house with flowers, vases etc.

Go with a local EA who has got a good social media presence. They will advertise your property on all platforms. Pay the EA extra for top quality photos to be taken by a professional photographer, the photos when they advertise online really makes a huge difference online and it is what's going to grab a potential buyer to book that viewing.

I can't help with the EA fee as we have a friend who works for the local EA who did us a fixed priced. It works out around 0.6%. I can't say she was less motivated to sell, she had viewings lined even before I had the photos taken.

Solicitors that the EA recommended was a local firm I was actually going to use them before I got the referral, I didn't mind going ahead knowing the EA cuts a fee, we've saved money elsewhere and my buyer is using the same firm too so it's less headache on that aspect.

Be accommodating for viewings, I really inconvenience myself for viewings for 3 days but it was worth it as now I don't have to break my back cleaning excessively and I can enjoy the last few months I have left of my lovely home.

With the house we're purchasing, it was sat on the market for about 4 months, they reduced the price 2 months later by £25,000, sat on the market a further 2 months, we viewed and offered £20,000 below the reduced asking, they declined and we increase our offer twice which they finally accepted what we said would be our last and final offer. We were prepared to walk away if our final offer wasn't accepted. Our offer was accepted and it is £10,000 below the reduced offer.

If the EA are good, they will guide you towards an offer price. They want to sell that property just as much as you may potentially want to buy it so it's in their best interest to work with you if you are a serious buyer. Have a budget in mind when negotiating, do a local research on the area regarding what has sold nearby that are similar to the property you'd like to purchase and work with that.

That’s excellent advice & tactics from @lemonwrighty

I don’t declutter to quite that extent but I do massively declutter before listing a house & again before viewings. And I inconvenience myself to accommodate viewings. For most people, their house is the most expensive thing they will ever sell and it’s not easy in this market. I try very, very hard to present my property in the best possible light. We’re not a naturally tidy family but when selling houses, we pretend that we are and hope the property sells quickly!

Be careful about shifting too much junk to the garage. Viewers will want to see the garage too and if they have something in mind for it - creating a home office, gym, or shock horror - storing a car, they'll want to satisfy themselves there is enough space.

Lots of good advice above, OP.

Also here is another POV to think about. Neither I nor my family are in any way connected to any EAs, but I am very maths orientated.

Presumably you want to maximise your profit. The commission rate is not necessarily the most useful bottom line. Eg 2.5% on a sale price of £500K still leaves you with £487K net, whereas an EA charging 2% may only achieve a sale price of £475K to begin with. (I have pulled these percentages from thin air as I have not sold in the UK.)

Obviously it could go the other way, also. My point is that I think you would do best to concentrate on the integrity and reputation of the EA. Negotiating a low commission would for me be of secondary importance.

What about starting by finding a good solicitor, and if necessary signing a memorandum of intent? Once you are a client, they can advise on the best EAs. If anyone knows, it is the solicitors.

Thank you for adding to the thread with more advice and for sharing your experiences! 😊

@lemonwrighty It sounds like the sale of your property went really well and that you were very lucky with your EA!

@Gekko21 Good point made re garage not looking like a bomb site. I've zoned it into storage, workshop and exercise area. It's pretty full in there, but it's not looking too bad I don't think!