Never sold a house before - any words of wisdom from PH?

[Ace-T]

As the title suggests we are selling our first house. We have had people in to clear the garden, neutral paint everywhere, boxed up a ton of our clutter which is now in the garage. I have had 3 estate agents in to give quotes for their services and price for the house.

I have been reading up on all the legal/estate agent stuff but I am pretty damn confused about what we do next. For example what should I expect for the few grand the estate agents are asking? What actually is conveyancing and why would an estate agent only offer sale conveyancing?

Please feel free to call me naive etc. but this is why I am asking for the benefits of your experience/wisdom!

Here are some virtual pints to say thanks in advance!

[essayer]

Are you buying somewhere? Don't let the estate agent do the conveyancing. Find a well recommended local solicitor and let them handle both sides.

[Four Litre]

Good luck!

You may be one of the lucky ones, otherwise get ready for -

People just dreaming and wanting to look inside your house, with no money or a mortgage offer in theory.
People looking to lead you up the garden path, waste money on legal and surveying fees only to change their mind as "things are going on!"
People looking to lead you up the garden path, waste money on legal and surveying fees only to try and drop offer last minute
Solicitors only looking to drag it all out as long as they can with a view to extract as much money from you as possible
A truly unforgettable unpleasant experience!

[EireEng]

I've never sold a house, but from a buyer's perspective, the professionalism and usefulness of the EA seems to vary wildly.

We've looked at a few houses with multiple agents and to date only one of them has been worth the 000's they're charging sellers. He came across as knowing the vendor, knew why he wanted to move, and what he was looking for money wise. Sized us up as buyers, had a good idea what we were after, knew the details of the house, and knew 90% of the property particulars off the top of his head.


It seems the majority of EA's are just ad-posters to rightmove, and will arrange an appointment to open the front door of your house to a prospective buyer. That's it in terms of value-added. They'll walk around inside with said buyer, repeat most of the info the prospective buyer has already read off the ad, and stare blankly back at any basic questions about the house. I don't know who's responsible for photos / measurements, but a lot of the photos are ste, have rooms missing, poorly lit etc, and then the measurements are missing, or are in mixed units, and/or don't stack up to the pictures / dimensions of adjacent rooms. Make sure there's a reasonably accurate floor plan too.


/rant

[scenario8]

Conveyancing is the legal process involved in selling your property (i.e. The bit your lawyers do/manage). Naturally there are grey areas in practice as good agents will be heavily involved but the lawyers will be doing the doing. Slowly, most likely.

"Sale only conveyancing"? Perhaps a bit of confusion and miscommunication? Some sellers aren't also pursuing an associated purchase (probate sales, for example) so have need for sale conveyancing but none for purchase conveyancing. in the same way first time buyers do not have sale conveyancing to worry about

I know it is hard but do try to select a good agent. Fee is not king and most agents will be in a position to negotiate on fee. Note an agent prepared to drop their trousers on fee displays exactly the sort of negotiating skills you will be looking to avoid when they are negotiating on your behalf.

"Register" as a buyer with agents - or pretend to be a friend so as not to disclose your real name and address - so as to see how they treat potential buyers of your home. You should get an idea from that how they might promote your property. Harder may be to assess how effectively the agent will handle the less glamorous but arguably more important process of turning a viewing into a deal into an exchange of contracts. But there are often clues as to how well they may guide you through that minefield.

On the "how do I make my house appeal?" front just remember the old cliche that you don't get a second chance to make a first impression. Do tidy up. Then tidy up again. Then remove half the st that's left behind. Then get your mum round to clean. Do keep it tidy. Don't think things don't matter or that everyone likes your hobbies that have taken over the place. Put simply most* buyers cannot see beyond their noses and have made up their mind way before they've walked the length o your hall.

Good photos are essential. As is a floor plan. Note a good brochure does not include photos of every room/space. It isn't a comprehensive document, it is a means to generate viewings. I don't include in my cv my failings. Images of a box room or a lean to won't generate interest.

I could go on but TL:DR and all that.

[King Herald]

Does gazumping and gazundering still go on? Or is there some new viral-speak terminology for it.


I did notice the spell check didn't flash red on those words.

For the OP, gazundering is there the buyer drops their offer right at the eleventh hour, gazundering is where the vendor suddenly puts the price up at the last minute. I have experienced both in the past, bloody frustrating after three months waiting around.

[scenario8]

Where are you, by the way?

[Borroxs]

So have you had three valuations? What was the spread? An estate agent may flatter you with a high valuation to get you to sign a contract. 6 weeks later with no sale but list of messing around you might need to set a more realistic price.

I've had a 140k difference of opinion on a house that sold for £352k. That's 280k to 420k. Hard to comprehend. Pinch of salt sometimes required.

If you've got a bulk standard house to sell, it should go fine, and easy. You'll be wondering why you are paying a fee, as they often have to do nothing. If it's something unusual, the EA has to be prepared to do some selling.

If your house is the same as every other house around, consider using a cheap option like purple bricks.

[Wacky Racer]

Plenty of good advice on the internet, (as well on here no doubt)...

Make sure you sort the wheat from the chaff regarding viewers, you will no doubt get several dreamers/timewasters...not really that much you can do about this unfortunately.

Price your house sensibly, and make sure it is spotless at all times, remember first impressions count, just like buying a car.

Negotiate HARD on the estate agent's commission rate, there is a lot of competition out there for your business.

Good luck..



(Mrs WR says hello btw)

[Dave J]

whatever happens keep reminding yourself that it's not sold until you have exchanged contracts. Nothing else really counts for celebration .

[Pete-mojsh]

My thoughts having moved twice in the last three years;

Shop around for estate agents, there are plenty scrapping for business so get the best deal you can
Have a short term agreement with them, if it's not working for you then you're not tied in to them marketing your property for a long time
Shop around for solicitors, find one that can work with your lender and have them look after sale and purchase

Our last estate agent was very good and got us top money, we had some time wasters and three buyers fall through but they kept getting people through the door. The one prior to that was awful, poor communication, we ended up doing half the viewings and we really had a bad experience. Get a few opinions from people who have been buying and selling in the area and make an informed decision. We encountered some really good agents while viewing houses so you can get a good idea of what they will do for your home by how they market someone else's.

[Andehh]

Keep a level head, and don't get too far ahead of yourself!

Edited by Andehh on Thursday 26th January 08:16

[Jaguar steve]

Work on the assumption everybody is lying to you and wants to take advantage of your unfamiliarity with the moving process to screw as much money out of you as they can. Make sure you see and understand the full terms and conditions of any contract you are offered in good enough time to reject it and look for another be.

Work out a timetable of stuff to do and deadlines to do it as soon as the process starts. Stick with it.

Get several quotes for conveyancing - no point in paying for a fast premium service if other buyers and sellers in the chain are doing it on the cheap. The process will only go as fast at the most overloaded, stupid, lazy or inefficient conveyancer.

Get several quotes for moving. Make absolutely sure there's no hidden clauses in the agreement like screwing you for hours of waiting time whilst the movers have a snooze in the truck because the conveyancing solicitor has gone out for a bloody good lunch or your sellers have really cocked up holding the process up on moving day. Find a local firm and have a chat with them rather than just going with the cheapest deal you can find online unless you actually want a couple of sweaty east Europeans stomping mud all over the carpets and breaking all your stuff.

Don't ask me how I know all this I just do...

[wiggy001]

My thoughts as I am currently going through a sale/purchase:

- Make sure the agent advertising your property puts it at a sensible price. We had 3 valuations done and went for the middle one which compared well with similar properties in the area. Don't be greedy as you simply won't sell.

- Work out whether you want to advertise at a price, offers in excess of..., offers in the region of... etc. There are pros and cons to all and it's a personal choice. I think many people will make an offer based on the number anyway, but if someone has a budget of £200k and you say "Offers in excess of £210k" it might put them off, when in reality a £200k offer from them might be something you'd consider after a month of being on the market.

- There seem to be 3 kinds of conveyancing solicitors you can instruct to do the legal work for you: 1) Old school, been doing it for generations family practice based in a town centre. You'll get excellent service but they will cost more. 2) Call centre style company based miles from where you live - cheap but poor service. Then 3), which is the type we went for, which seems to fall between 1 and 2. Our conveyancers are part of a small chain based in Essex but with an office local to me on a trading estate. So far they have been superb, responding to my email questions quickly and everything gets posted on an online tracker so you can monitor progress. Their fee is half that of a few I called in category 1.

- All the stuff about decluttering, first impressions is true. You are not selling a house (bricks and mortar) to most people, you are selling a lifestyle. With the house we are (hopefully) buying, immediately I could see myself sitting at the dining table they had, knew which room my little girl could make her own etc etc. So keep it as simple and clutter free as possible, but still a home (rather than a show home) so potential buyers can picture themselves in your home.

- Actually, on that point, consider an open day if your property warrants it (will it attract reasonable attention on day 1?). Pros are that you have one day to keep the house spotless and hopefully sell. Downside is if no-one comes and your house is still on the market a month after open day - people watching local houses on the market may wonder why it didn't sell, leaving a negative view in their mind.

- Before the estate agent comes round to take photos, check with your neighbours to see if they have any works planned or big delivery trucks coming. The day our agent came to take the photos the house looked immaculate from the outside... except for my neighbour having builders round to dig up their front garden!

HTH

[Rangeroverover]

Borroxs said:

So have you had three valuations? What was the spread? An estate agent may flatter you with a high valuation to get you to sign a contract. 6 weeks later with no sale but list of messing around you might need to set a more realistic price.

I've had a 140k difference of opinion on a house that sold for £352k. That's 280k to 420k. Hard to comprehend. Pinch of salt sometimes required.

If you've got a bulk standard house to sell, it should go fine, and easy. You'll be wondering why you are paying a fee, as they often have to do nothing. If it's something unusual, the EA has to be prepared to do some selling.

If your house is the same as every other house around, consider using a cheap option like purple bricks.

Have a think about the purple bricks thing.......upfront fee paid by you, that will be the last time you get a phone call returned or any form of service; contrast that with someone offering a service who doesn't get paid unless there is a successful transaction. If we have an offer from someone in a chain with PB involved we will normally suggest to the vendor that it will make the transaction v difficult as there will be a break in communication up and down the chain and we should accept another offer . Try and speak to someone who has actually used them, I gather about 20% of customers get decent service. I have people working here who are experienced agents and tried PB they returned to proper agency as the system didn't work

[Borroxs]

Rangeroverover said:

Borroxs said:

So have you had three valuations? What was the spread? An estate agent may flatter you with a high valuation to get you to sign a contract. 6 weeks later with no sale but list of messing around you might need to set a more realistic price.

I've had a 140k difference of opinion on a house that sold for £352k. That's 280k to 420k. Hard to comprehend. Pinch of salt sometimes required.

If you've got a bulk standard house to sell, it should go fine, and easy. You'll be wondering why you are paying a fee, as they often have to do nothing. If it's something unusual, the EA has to be prepared to do some selling.

If your house is the same as every other house around, consider using a cheap option like purple bricks.

Have a think about the purple bricks thing.......upfront fee paid by you, that will be the last time you get a phone call returned or any form of service; contrast that with someone offering a service who doesn't get paid unless there is a successful transaction. If we have an offer from someone in a chain with PB involved we will normally suggest to the vendor that it will make the transaction v difficult as there will be a break in communication up and down the chain and we should accept another offer . Try and speak to someone who has actually used them, I gather about 20% of customers get decent service. I have people working here who are experienced agents and tried PB they returned to proper agency as the system didn't work

I did suggest only using them if the house was extremely sellable and ordinary, but fair enough if you have bad experience with them.

[Wacky Racer]

Also:-

If it is taking ages to sell.....(six months not uncommon), ensure the agent updates the photographs.

It looks very bad if your house is covered in snow, and there are no leaves on the trees, when someone is viewing in June and visa versa. (Obvious the house has been on the market ages)


Don't expect your house to sell in a month, they very rarely do, especially if it is an "estate" type house with plenty of similar one on the market. You will have to bide your time.


I have bought and sold five houses over the years, every time the experience has been a bit of a nightmare for various reasons, but there are always exceptions to the rule, it's a lottery.

[worsy]

Wacky Racer said:

Also:-

If it is taking ages to sell.....(six months not uncommon), ensure the agent updates the photographs.

It looks very bad if your house is covered in snow, and there are no leaves on the trees, when someone is viewing in June and visa versa. (Obvious the house has been on the market ages)


Don't expect your house to sell in a month, they very rarely do, especially if it is an "estate" type house with plenty of similar one on the market. You will have to bide your time.


I have bought and sold five houses over the years, every time the experience has been a bit of a nightmare for various reasons, but there are always exceptions to the rule, it's a lottery.

With browser plugins that show the date listed and price reductions, it is best to completely relist.

[judas]

OP's OH here

Thanks for the advice everyone - very much appreciated

To answer some questions:

• Based in north-ish Nottinghamshire; plan is to move to Derby to reduce 2.5 hour daily commute

• All three estate agent valuations have been the same overall, and pretty much bang on our own expectations value-wise (we did our research).

• We'd like a quick sale so will be pricing accordingly.

• Decluttering: the garage is full of boxed up stuff that used to be in the house, and more needs to go there. Even considering moving all this into temporary storage away from the house.

• Decorating: the house has been painted inside and out, top to bottom, in new-build magnolia and white for the most part, with some feature walls in tasteful but unchallenging wallpaper.

• Photos: if the estate agent photos aren't good enough they will be told so in no uncertain terms. For the amount of money they want they can get it right. If it comes to it, I will take them myself - I have a decent camera and pretty good idea what I'm doing.

• Floorplan: likewise, I can draw this up in a couple of hours and unlike the estate agent's, it will be be accurate (or at least have all the windows and doors in the right place).

• Our plan is to make the place look more like a show home - spotless everywhere and ready to move in (it really baffles me that some people just don't get this ).

• Gazundering: anyone trying this will be told to FRO. Once we accept an offer, the agent will be instructed to ensure the buyers understand that it won't be changing.

• Timewasters/dreamers: resigned to this happening, but I'm hoping the estate agent will at least do some basic qualification before accepting a viewing. For anyone without cash in the bank or a property already on the market the agent can do the viewing.

• Conveyancing: will be avoiding anyone that subs the work out to a conveyancing farm like Countrywide Conveyancing - heard way too many horror stories. I'd much rather pay more for good service than save a few hundred quid and get endlessly dicked about.

• We've already found the house we want to buy: big old 5 bed Victorian terrace. It's been on the market since September and had a lot of viewings but no offers, even though it's empty and needs no work. We know why it's not sold and the reason's don't really affect us. We're in direct contact with the seller and have told him we want it, just need to get ours prepped and on the market. Once our house is ready we'll talk offers on his so we can price ours accordingly to hopefully get an offer without delay. He seems a decent chap with realistic expectations, so I don't see this being a problem. If it is we'll just see what happens and keep looking.

• Open day: will consider this. Is it normal practice to open with this, or do it after it's been on the market for a bit?

• Our house is a 4 bed Barratt's cardboard box built in 2000 in a nice, quiet cul-de-sac of about 70 houses in all. There's one other 4-bed up for sale on the estate, but it's been up for ages as they're asking way too much for it. Overall, the house prices in the village are all over the place with no apparent rationale behind them. We're quite close to the M1 but similar houses closer still sell for more. Absolutely barmy...

• Purple Bricks: not really viable if we need the agent to do viewings. We both work a hour's drive away when the roads are clear so may end up needing to take time off work for every viewing (assuming we get any!)

Our biggest worry is the whole chain thing and the conveyancing. I guess it's just down to getting some recommendation for someone local and accepting it's going to be a complete nightmare.

[Pete-mojsh]

My wife and I were very well prepared for our last move but there are many things you can't control, we had to pull out of a great family home because of chain issues and the flat refusal of the person at the top of the chain to be flexible. We checked the status of the sale of that one recently out of curiosity as it went SSTC within a week of it being resisted and it's still not completed now. We had our offer accepted in February so the chain has been stuck for nearly a year.

Expect problems but there are always solutions.