Do potential buyers actually look at the property details?
Discussion
OP,
We're currently going through the process of buying our first property.
We viewed about 4 properties, the first we viewed looked great on paper, but it didn't have a floor plan, either way (this is coming from someone who works in design) so i understand room sizes etc. Until we got there i couldn't get a feel for the room & envisage how it might look, the agent claimed it was a 3 bed, however it was very much more a 2 bed (2 double rooms) with an office! Due to the way the room was set out, we'd have got a single bed in & literally nothing else, it just wasn't for us.
Similarly, we went to another property, looked 'ok' on the photo's but had no floor plan again, we loved it when we got there, however felt it was overpriced.
We learned that an asking price offer had been made & it was way ouf of budget for us but we left it as we couldn't afford it, fast-forward a week & it's on the market again for £10k less, (with OIEO) however still out of budget. We went to view again & inquired with the agent, who said the vendor wouldn't accept anything less than ask, again i said thanks but no thanks as they had an offer on the table, the agent called again to say it'd fallen through, i made an offer again £7k below the ask that was rejected, they asked if i could come up & i maxed our budget out raising our offer by £2k.
It was accepted.
Whilst neither of them had a floor plan if i even thought i 'might' want to buy it i'd book a viewing.
The one thing i have been with the agents is more than honest, we viewed one property that was painted bright orange and various other colours, i told him one of the main factors we didnt like it (along with the fact the kitchen looked a lot better in photos), was due to the colours (whilst it wasn't a major issue, he relayed his feedback & the vendor went out & re-painted all the dodgy room colours in a neutral colour.
If you want the sticker price you'll probably have to wait, however if i'd found out a place had had a lot of viewings it would make me really think about the offer & why it hasn't sold.
We're currently going through the process of buying our first property.
We viewed about 4 properties, the first we viewed looked great on paper, but it didn't have a floor plan, either way (this is coming from someone who works in design) so i understand room sizes etc. Until we got there i couldn't get a feel for the room & envisage how it might look, the agent claimed it was a 3 bed, however it was very much more a 2 bed (2 double rooms) with an office! Due to the way the room was set out, we'd have got a single bed in & literally nothing else, it just wasn't for us.
Similarly, we went to another property, looked 'ok' on the photo's but had no floor plan again, we loved it when we got there, however felt it was overpriced.
We learned that an asking price offer had been made & it was way ouf of budget for us but we left it as we couldn't afford it, fast-forward a week & it's on the market again for £10k less, (with OIEO) however still out of budget. We went to view again & inquired with the agent, who said the vendor wouldn't accept anything less than ask, again i said thanks but no thanks as they had an offer on the table, the agent called again to say it'd fallen through, i made an offer again £7k below the ask that was rejected, they asked if i could come up & i maxed our budget out raising our offer by £2k.
It was accepted.
Whilst neither of them had a floor plan if i even thought i 'might' want to buy it i'd book a viewing.
The one thing i have been with the agents is more than honest, we viewed one property that was painted bright orange and various other colours, i told him one of the main factors we didnt like it (along with the fact the kitchen looked a lot better in photos), was due to the colours (whilst it wasn't a major issue, he relayed his feedback & the vendor went out & re-painted all the dodgy room colours in a neutral colour.
If you want the sticker price you'll probably have to wait, however if i'd found out a place had had a lot of viewings it would make me really think about the offer & why it hasn't sold.
TA14 said:
Or ensure that the add says 'offers over'
In Scotland (don't know about England) that doesn't matter too much...it may say 'Offers Over' but you'll get offers under and a lot of times even be successful in buying a house with an under offer where it stated 'offers over' so to me that wouldn't make any difference!menguin said:
StuTheGrouch said:
Doesn't matter surely? If the room is 2 x 2 m then the bed will fit either way.
If the door opens inwards which is normally the case then it will open to a maximum of 9cm?We did exactly this in a previous house. This was the spare room- it had a double bed pushed up against the wall (under the window). The door would open fine, there was just enough space to side step at the end of the bed (so instead of climbing over someone already there) and a bedside table on the side nearest the door.
AbzST64 said:
TA14 said:
Or ensure that the add says 'offers over'
In Scotland (don't know about England) that doesn't matter too much...it may say 'Offers Over' but you'll get offers under and a lot of times even be successful in buying a house with an under offer where it stated 'offers over' so to me that wouldn't make any difference!I recently bought a house however before that I went to view 2.
1 was on the market for O/O 230k, had been on the market for 6 months and not a single offer. I felt it was worth 210k as it needed work and couple of major down points. It was rejected point blank and the seller couldn't afford to take the hit.
seen another at offers over but it was in fact very popular and had 3 offers within a day, it was up for O/O 190, went to closing day, I offered 202 and lost it, apparently went for around 205k
The house I have bought now was O/O 175, I initially offered 180 but it was very popular and went to closing again and I offered 188k and JUST got it.
4% below is a good price, ask the agent to phone them back, ask them to up it 1% more and I am sure they will bite.
On the grand scheme of things i am not sure why people bother so much with a few grand here and there when the interest they pay out on a mortgage is a mega b
h anyway. Baffles me
I presume the walls upstairs are just stud walls? Why not move them a bit, to make all 3 rooms a little more evenly spaced? Not a huge job, certainly far less cost than what you could lose to offers. Also, as others have suggested dress the rooms. A room with no bed may leave others wondering if one shall fit. A second hand bed off ebay shall cost peanuts!
Mum and dad have a 4 bed chalet bungalow. It was 5, 4 upstairs. Two of the upstairs rooms were tiny, so they made these in to one decent sized bedroom, works much better for it.
Mum and dad have a 4 bed chalet bungalow. It was 5, 4 upstairs. Two of the upstairs rooms were tiny, so they made these in to one decent sized bedroom, works much better for it.
48Valves said:
OneTwo said:
mine has the smaller rooms but is definitely the best presented
This is the key bit for me. Most people will want to redecorate when they move in. It's more difficult to make rooms bigger.As you mention it was a BTL. I presume that you have given it a lick of trade magnolia prior to putting it up for sale. Buyers will see through this. Even with the new kitchen and bathroom. Many buyers will look at it and think that it will need ripping out and replacing with something of their choosing.
How does the price compare to properties with similar room sizes or even two bed houses?
With that many viewings there seems to be potential buyers in the area but you property may be missing something they are expecting for the money you are asking.
Whilst presentation is important to get people interested (I've often looked at soemthing that wasn't quite right but looked nice as I felt it was worth my time) and always counts at the comparison stage at the end any person/couple is going to look at the actual physical sizes and what their money buys and every single one of them will offer the phrase "yes that one's not as nice but we could do it up for the same money and still have more space".
Chances are your getting some viewings based on it looking very presentable in photos vs other houses but ultimatly the price is too high for the physical sizes, at the end of the day it's not going to cost 10-20k to paint some walls and have a hoover and a clear out, even a new kitchen/bathroom can be defered a few years down the line. My current house had the original bathroom and kitchen in which was holding the price down the agent told me, great as the cost of me fixing those problems is far cheaper than buying a house with them sorted or indeed a smaller house with no issues.
Moral of the story it's very expensive to make a house "bigger" it's very cheap to tidy up the interior.
Might be worth asking the agent what changes you could make to realise your intended price as well.
Chances are your getting some viewings based on it looking very presentable in photos vs other houses but ultimatly the price is too high for the physical sizes, at the end of the day it's not going to cost 10-20k to paint some walls and have a hoover and a clear out, even a new kitchen/bathroom can be defered a few years down the line. My current house had the original bathroom and kitchen in which was holding the price down the agent told me, great as the cost of me fixing those problems is far cheaper than buying a house with them sorted or indeed a smaller house with no issues.
Moral of the story it's very expensive to make a house "bigger" it's very cheap to tidy up the interior.
Might be worth asking the agent what changes you could make to realise your intended price as well.
Generally speaking, your first offer is your best offer. You've hit the market place and everybody in the market has seen your house - from then on its a sliding scale downwards of viewings and offers (and level of £ offers made, due in no small part to time on the market). I often hear "I wish i'd taken that offer" when we go out to see a house thats been on the market a while.
We try and explain this all the time to vendors, but with an offer on the table 5 days into marketing, their first though is always "well, if we have this much interest now, just think how much we will have in a fortnights time!" - usually none, and the motivated buyers who offered have bought elsewhere...
We try and explain this all the time to vendors, but with an offer on the table 5 days into marketing, their first though is always "well, if we have this much interest now, just think how much we will have in a fortnights time!" - usually none, and the motivated buyers who offered have bought elsewhere...
jamescodriver said:
Generally speaking, your first offer is your best offer. You've hit the market place and everybody in the market has seen your house - from then on its a sliding scale downwards of viewings and offers (and level of £ offers made, due in no small part to time on the market). I often hear "I wish i'd taken that offer" when we go out to see a house thats been on the market a while.
We try and explain this all the time to vendors, but with an offer on the table 5 days into marketing, their first though is always "well, if we have this much interest now, just think how much we will have in a fortnights time!" - usually none, and the motivated buyers who offered have bought elsewhere...
Some informative posts on this thread.We try and explain this all the time to vendors, but with an offer on the table 5 days into marketing, their first though is always "well, if we have this much interest now, just think how much we will have in a fortnights time!" - usually none, and the motivated buyers who offered have bought elsewhere...
The agent didn't even try to convince us that the offer we received was worthy of acceptance, their general demeanour at the time (but not their exact words) was "it's a bit low, she'll probably come up a bit if you reject it and tell her a slightly higher number". This wasn't an attempt to generate more commission, the sale is being done on a fixed price.
I've never sold a house in my life, they've sold plenty, I took on board what they were saying and went with their guidance.
I've just heard we've got a similar party currently interested, they're just sorting their financial options out which is taking a bit of time due to being self employed but we're hopeful. No opening offer received yet, just lots of positive comment/2nd viewing and an appointment with the EA's mortgage brokers.
Another question - Why aren't people viewing the property on weekends? I expected this to be the most popular window and discussed with the agent the option of me/the wife doing viewings when the EA isn't available (Sat late PM - Mon AM).
I've done 1 from the twenty-odd people who've been round. Most of the appointments are 1600 - 1715 on weekdays, is the EA 'doing a viewing' then taking the opportunity for an early knock off?
I've never sold a house in my life, they've sold plenty, I took on board what they were saying and went with their guidance.
I've just heard we've got a similar party currently interested, they're just sorting their financial options out which is taking a bit of time due to being self employed but we're hopeful. No opening offer received yet, just lots of positive comment/2nd viewing and an appointment with the EA's mortgage brokers.
Another question - Why aren't people viewing the property on weekends? I expected this to be the most popular window and discussed with the agent the option of me/the wife doing viewings when the EA isn't available (Sat late PM - Mon AM).
I've done 1 from the twenty-odd people who've been round. Most of the appointments are 1600 - 1715 on weekdays, is the EA 'doing a viewing' then taking the opportunity for an early knock off?
OneTwo said:
Another question - Why aren't people viewing the property on weekends? I expected this to be the most popular window and discussed with the agent the option of me/the wife doing viewings when the EA isn't available (Sat late PM - Mon AM).
Assuming buyers are local with family why would they want to spend their weekends dragging children round houses? Better to go in lunch hours or wiggle an early afternoon/late morning. Why spend your own free time if you don't have to?OneTwo said:
I've done 1 from the twenty-odd people who've been round. Most of the appointments are 1600 - 1715 on weekdays, is the EA 'doing a viewing' then taking the opportunity for an early knock off?
I guess when people see a property they like they'll want to view it straight away, which 5/7 times will be during the week. From what I can gather estate agents aren't massively busy at the moment since volume is relatively low, so they may choose to do the viewings to keep them out of the office and answering the phones?
yajeed said:
I guess when people see a property they like they'll want to view it straight away, which 5/7 times will be during the week.
You'd think so, but we've been informed 2 or 3 times of viewings 8/9 days before the actual appointment, what kind of serious buyer is putting a slot in the diary for 9 days time? Other times we've been informed on a Thu/Fri that somebody would like to view on the following Mon/Tue PM, and not over the weekend. I think that because the house is clearly unoccupied there are a few speculative viewers, hobbyists and nosey gits amongst the recent viewers.It's putting me off ever trying to sell our residential property unless we really have to, couldn't be doing with all of this nonsense around a normal family home!
OneTwo said:
The agent didn't even try to convince us that the offer we received was worthy of acceptance, their general demeanour at the time (but not their exact words) was "it's a bit low, she'll probably come up a bit if you reject it and tell her a slightly higher number". This wasn't an attempt to generate more commission, the sale is being done on a fixed price.
I've never sold a house in my life, they've sold plenty, I took on board what they were saying and went with their guidance.
I've just heard we've got a similar party currently interested, they're just sorting their financial options out which is taking a bit of time due to being self employed but we're hopeful. No opening offer received yet, just lots of positive comment/2nd viewing and an appointment with the EA's mortgage brokers.
Another question - Why aren't people viewing the property on weekends? I expected this to be the most popular window and discussed with the agent the option of me/the wife doing viewings when the EA isn't available (Sat late PM - Mon AM).
I've done 1 from the twenty-odd people who've been round. Most of the appointments are 1600 - 1715 on weekdays, is the EA 'doing a viewing' then taking the opportunity for an early knock off?
I asked to view of an after work / early evening for a couple of reasons:I've never sold a house in my life, they've sold plenty, I took on board what they were saying and went with their guidance.
I've just heard we've got a similar party currently interested, they're just sorting their financial options out which is taking a bit of time due to being self employed but we're hopeful. No opening offer received yet, just lots of positive comment/2nd viewing and an appointment with the EA's mortgage brokers.
Another question - Why aren't people viewing the property on weekends? I expected this to be the most popular window and discussed with the agent the option of me/the wife doing viewings when the EA isn't available (Sat late PM - Mon AM).
I've done 1 from the twenty-odd people who've been round. Most of the appointments are 1600 - 1715 on weekdays, is the EA 'doing a viewing' then taking the opportunity for an early knock off?
You get a good feel of what the neighborhood is like in 'rush-hour' (parking, traffic, houses, with kids etc).
It's much more convenient for me to pop by on my way home from work as i'm out and about already.
I don't want to go with my son on a weekend, he'll be 'bored'.
My weekends are generally busy with various other stuff.
So all the reasons summed up in the other posts.
OneTwo said:
You'd think so, but we've been informed 2 or 3 times of viewings 8/9 days before the actual appointment, what kind of serious buyer is putting a slot in the diary for 9 days time?
People relocating to the area? I once scheduled 13 viewings in a day when moving across the country. It takes time and planning to do that so to dismiss a viewer scheduling something significantly in advance is probably a little presumptuous.It's been a while so I thought I'd post an update.
Following a lot more viewings - we ended up with a very interested chain free buyer putting in an offer at 98% of the asking price in late May. He had very few conditions other than he wanted to get in as quickly as possible and wanted us to cancel the 4 viewings that were scheduled in the diary. We accepted this as he'd used the agent's mortgage advisor, so we had the assurance that his financials were all in order.
The plan was that we'd complete/exchange before the end of June, which was around 4 weeks away from when we accepted the offer.
Turned out the legal representative he was using 'wasn't on his lender's list of approved people' so that caused a bit of a delay and reset things when he changed firms. We'd resolved all of our sellers paperwork really quickly and that was sat with our representative ready to go. Not much happened thereafter and the June deadline came and went...
Towards the end of July the buyer was getting increasingly keen to get in by the end of the month (he was in rented housing and wanted out in synch with month end). Some fairly petty enquiries were coming back and forth between legals, chiefly a minor spat over cavity wall insulation stuff which could have been quite expensive to resolve for us. This was eventually reduced to nothing of consequence when we obtained an installation certificate for a whole £10; neither legal party offered this solution, it was just my Mrs ringing around firms we'd dealt with and then speaking with CIGA (Cavity Installation Guarantee Agency), Frustrating, as you'd have thought they'd have come across this issue previously.
Other frustrations included solicitors going off on holiday for a fortnight and not leaving colleagues adequately empowered to conduct business in thir absence and a general apathetic attitude to what is quite an important transaction! If this was the sale of a residential property and we were living out of packing boxes and booking/re-booking removals etc. it would have been a more significant distraction
Anyway, the house eventually sold on 4 Aug - the day we were going on holiday, most inconvenient - which I had predicted to happen - as that's the way things always happen!!
I know, cool story etc., probably needs more dragons and pillaging but I just thought I'd give an ending to the whole house-selling debacle, a situation I shall not be reentering into again for a considerable amount of time if I can help it.
Following a lot more viewings - we ended up with a very interested chain free buyer putting in an offer at 98% of the asking price in late May. He had very few conditions other than he wanted to get in as quickly as possible and wanted us to cancel the 4 viewings that were scheduled in the diary. We accepted this as he'd used the agent's mortgage advisor, so we had the assurance that his financials were all in order.
The plan was that we'd complete/exchange before the end of June, which was around 4 weeks away from when we accepted the offer.
Turned out the legal representative he was using 'wasn't on his lender's list of approved people' so that caused a bit of a delay and reset things when he changed firms. We'd resolved all of our sellers paperwork really quickly and that was sat with our representative ready to go. Not much happened thereafter and the June deadline came and went...
Towards the end of July the buyer was getting increasingly keen to get in by the end of the month (he was in rented housing and wanted out in synch with month end). Some fairly petty enquiries were coming back and forth between legals, chiefly a minor spat over cavity wall insulation stuff which could have been quite expensive to resolve for us. This was eventually reduced to nothing of consequence when we obtained an installation certificate for a whole £10; neither legal party offered this solution, it was just my Mrs ringing around firms we'd dealt with and then speaking with CIGA (Cavity Installation Guarantee Agency), Frustrating, as you'd have thought they'd have come across this issue previously.
Other frustrations included solicitors going off on holiday for a fortnight and not leaving colleagues adequately empowered to conduct business in thir absence and a general apathetic attitude to what is quite an important transaction! If this was the sale of a residential property and we were living out of packing boxes and booking/re-booking removals etc. it would have been a more significant distraction
Anyway, the house eventually sold on 4 Aug - the day we were going on holiday, most inconvenient - which I had predicted to happen - as that's the way things always happen!!
I know, cool story etc., probably needs more dragons and pillaging but I just thought I'd give an ending to the whole house-selling debacle, a situation I shall not be reentering into again for a considerable amount of time if I can help it.
Potential buyers don't seem to absorb what the property is like before visiting. Both times I've bought I've been able to work out why most properties weren't for me without visiting, meaning in both cases I only actually looked at a handful. Many people don't seem to have this ability.
My favourite last time, when I was selling a three-storey home was a buyer saying they "hadn't expected so many stairs".
I was surprised to secure my current home, which has just under an acre of garden, given that I was the nineteenth to view it and couldn't make an offer for a month after that. According to the agent, most people that viewed it were "put off by the size of the garden", which was odd, because I'm fairly sure the advert mentioned the size and had multiple images of the garden.
My favourite last time, when I was selling a three-storey home was a buyer saying they "hadn't expected so many stairs".
I was surprised to secure my current home, which has just under an acre of garden, given that I was the nineteenth to view it and couldn't make an offer for a month after that. According to the agent, most people that viewed it were "put off by the size of the garden", which was odd, because I'm fairly sure the advert mentioned the size and had multiple images of the garden.
Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff