Seller declining viewings

[Byker28i]

Chamon_Lee said:

Andeh1 said:

If your serious, get your house on the market within the next couple of weeks (entirely doable) and re-request. 4

I find this notion rather stupid.

I currently have my own home and the only way I would even dream of bothering to sell the place is if I had one lined up.

I would view a house and at the earliest after viewing and putting an offer in I would start the process of getting mine on.

This for me also, as every house in the last two years that has come up locally has sold withing 2-3 days, because they don't come up very often. We've had it valued by 2 estate agents who said they have people waiting, plus we know of one new neighbours friends who claim they will buy our house.

If we're denied viewings because of that it seems a little silly, but also we're looking in a very specific area where few houses come up, so it seems unfair to potential buyers to get their hopes up but we wait for ages.

can be seen both ways I guess...

[Byker28i]

Louis Balfour said:

Chamon_Lee said:

Louis Balfour said:

rah1888 said:

Louis Balfour said:

Slow.Patrol said:

Louis Balfour said:

Basically yes.

We really need to look at the property market and how to make it more liquid again.

I'm not sure we do.

We have had decades of Governments using the housing market to boost the economy, by interfering with various aspects. We need to return to houses being homes and not an investment.

That's a different conversation.

Currently, buying and selling homes is more hassle than I remember it ever being. And I've been doing it since the 1980s. It needs to be made easier.

This isn't applicable for the entire country, but a big part of the cause of the housing market being so illiquid is the stamp duty. Relatively modest houses are attracting stamp duty bills of £50k/£60k, meaning people are staying in their current homes for longer, resulting in a lack of stock and causing prices to remain high.

It's a fair point. The SDLT is one of the reasons we won't move imminently.

I would like to know why was this downright robbery of a tax even brought in? What idiot brought it in?
I would understand at anything over 1-2m but its shocking it exists below those levels

It’s because the government always banked on people adding the SDLT to the mortgage and paying it off over time. That isn’t so easy to do anymore, with the sums involved and tight lending criteria.

Where does 50-60K SDLT come from? on a £500K house it's £12500 if you've owned before or £3750 if not

Blimey - thats a £1.1 - 1.2m house...

Edited by Byker28i on Wednesday 15th March 12:09

[Quags]

"People waiting"

Oh dear, I hear this so often. It's a ploy used by certain agents to secure your business. Out of the last 50 times I've been told this, about 2 of them came true.

[Byker28i]

Quags said:

"People waiting"

Oh dear, I hear this so often. It's a ploy used by certain agents to secure your business. Out of the last 50 times I've been told this, about 2 of them came true.

We thought the same with the last house we sold, but had sold the house 2 hours later !

Which was a shock, as we struggled to find anything, but the estate agent went leafleting houses in the area where we wanted to live and house size/type, so it does happen

[superlightr]

Byker28i said:

Quags said:

"People waiting"

Oh dear, I hear this so often. It's a ploy used by certain agents to secure your business. Out of the last 50 times I've been told this, about 2 of them came true.

We thought the same with the last house we sold, but had sold the house 2 hours later !

Which was a shock, as we struggled to find anything, but the estate agent went leafleting houses in the area where we wanted to live and house size/type, so it does happen

I work in Lettings - and we have a landlord client complain to us that we let their property the same day as advertising (as in holding fee taken and references started) and they didnt think it fair they should pay us the fee they had agreed. I highlighted would they prefer us not to let it for 2 months, reduce the price and have no rental income come in? They paid.

Ill give the low down/good/bad/ugly inside story from lettings if anyone is interested shortly. Just sorting a few loose ends.

Edited by superlightr on Wednesday 15th March 12:33

[CardinalBlue]

Lanby said:

We were in the process of buying a seaside holiday home few years ago to spend more time together and during the process our little boy died; it kind of took away our requirement for a holiday home so we pulled out.

But under normal circumstances I cannot understand why anybody would pull out so far along the purchasing process - what reasons did they give?

Just wanted to add my condolenses.

[Gladers01]

Quags said:

It's frustrating how many people think they are automatically entitled to view someone's house because it's on the market (not suggesting the OP is).

You have to apply to have a look, it is the vendors decision and the agent should be acting on that.

Covid did help in the fact that most vendors now will only accept people who are at least on the market. The amount of people who get the arse because they can't view as they've not even had their own house appraised and they are "looking to see what they can get for the money in the area" is mad. We're all guests in someone's house, it's up to them who is allowed in and who isn't.

Oh and for bypassing an agent after already speaking to them, good luck with that, the vendor will still have to pay the agent a fee. You discovered the house via their marketing which makes them instrumental in the sale.

What would happen in the event of the first EA being just outside of their initial contract period and the same 'potential buyer' they introduced goes ahead with the sale via a different EA, would the first EA still be entitled to their fee despite running out of time ?

[Riff Raff]

Gladers01 said:

Quags said:

It's frustrating how many people think they are automatically entitled to view someone's house because it's on the market (not suggesting the OP is).

You have to apply to have a look, it is the vendors decision and the agent should be acting on that.

Covid did help in the fact that most vendors now will only accept people who are at least on the market. The amount of people who get the arse because they can't view as they've not even had their own house appraised and they are "looking to see what they can get for the money in the area" is mad. We're all guests in someone's house, it's up to them who is allowed in and who isn't.

Oh and for bypassing an agent after already speaking to them, good luck with that, the vendor will still have to pay the agent a fee. You discovered the house via their marketing which makes them instrumental in the sale.

What would happen in the event of the first EA being just outside of their initial contract period and the same 'potential buyer' they introduced goes ahead with the sale via a different EA, would the first EA still be entitled to their fee despite running out of time ?

That happened to us. We had to proceed with the original agent, even though they had lost the instruction. From first viewing to completion took about 18 months, and the property was listed on a sole agency basis by three or four agents in that time.

[rah1888]

Byker28i said:

Where does 50-60K SDLT come from? on a £500K house it's £12500 if you've owned before or £3750 if not

Blimey - thats a £1.1 - 1.2m house...

Edited by Byker28i on Wednesday 15th March 12:09

Which in certain parts of the country buys you a nice, but fairly unremarkable house.

Near me: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86062962#/?...

[ChocolateFrog]

Louis Balfour said:

borrowdale said:

I wasn't really looking to move, but we spotted a house on Rightmove that really appealed. On since at least November last year, two agents' listings, premium listing and featured property, recently reduced twice by 50K each time.... i.e. all the hallmarks of a degree of urgency,

I called one of the agents to arrange a viewing, but the seller has given strict instructions that only people with a house on the market and a buyer lined up can view!

Is that a normal thing to do?

Yes.

It cuts down window shoppers.

Worked exactly as intended.

[Byker28i]

rah1888 said:

Byker28i said:

Where does 50-60K SDLT come from? on a £500K house it's £12500 if you've owned before or £3750 if not

Blimey - thats a £1.1 - 1.2m house...

Edited by Byker28i on Wednesday 15th March 12:09

Which in certain parts of the country buys you a nice, but fairly unremarkable house.

Near me: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86062962#/?...

Yup I guessed South East. I can see why people move out...

[Quags]

Gladers01 said:

What would happen in the event of the first EA being just outside of their initial contract period and the same 'potential buyer' they introduced goes ahead with the sale via a different EA, would the first EA still be entitled to their fee despite running out of time ?

The law, or rather a previous ruling is that it's the agent that is instrumental in the sale of the property. A previous agents introduction would normally mean they get the commission and someone could also be liable for the new agents commission if they are on Sole Selling Rights.

However, if the new agent has lowered the price, improved marketing and the buyer who had previously rejected the property comes back and now wants it due to the new marketing, then the new agent would be entitled to the fee ie they were the instrumental agent.

Edited by Quags on Wednesday 15th March 13:19

[Unreal]

Quags said:

"People waiting"

Oh dear, I hear this so often. It's a ploy used by certain agents to secure your business. Out of the last 50 times I've been told this, about 2 of them came true.

Yep. It's bks in the main.

[Sheepshanks]

Turtle Shed said:

We told our agent that anyone was welcome to view our house, but that we would only entertain offers from those who were demonstrably proceedable buyers. i.e - People who either did not have a house to sell, or had agreed an offer on the place they were selling.

We asked them to make sure that viewers were well aware of that when they requested a viewing.

Our EA (selling late FILs place in mid 2020) said an offer from someone who isn't proceedable iis worthless.

They wanted offers in writing, with proof of funds / mortgage offer and if the interested party was selling a house then the EA said they would do a "chain check". They also wanted the name of their solicitor.

Turned out we knew one of the interested parties and they were very unhappy at having to jump through hoops. but they did it. They were already SSTC but their chain was iffy and it did fall apart.

The market, at least around here in the NW, has certainly changed though and I don't imagine EAs getting away with being quite so hard-faced now.

[Sheepshanks]

Byker28i said:

rah1888 said:

Byker28i said:

Where does 50-60K SDLT come from? on a £500K house it's £12500 if you've owned before or £3750 if not

Blimey - thats a £1.1 - 1.2m house...

Edited by Byker28i on Wednesday 15th March 12:09

Which in certain parts of the country buys you a nice, but fairly unremarkable house.

Near me: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86062962#/?...

Yup I guessed South East. I can see why people move out...

No idea what it's specific location is like but that doesn't seem too bad to me. Same house in my area (Chester) could easily be £800K ish. Basic 3 bed semi can still be had for £250K here.

[Actual]

Gladers01 said:

What would happen in the event of the first EA being just outside of their initial contract period and the same 'potential buyer' they introduced goes ahead with the sale via a different EA, would the first EA still be entitled to their fee despite running out of time ?

Make sure that your estate agent contract is not for too long and doesn't have an adverse notice period. Some try to tie you up so that you can only give notice after the end of the contract.

When we were selling and changed agents the first estate agent provided a list of their introductions which was given to the new agent. The new agent also has to agree that they don't get paid if anyone on the list purchases. If the scenario actually arose then I expect that the new agent would fight tooth and nail to find a better offer buyer. The first agent was quite pleasant about the situation although I do recall that on the last day of their contract the first agent managed to get a couple of viewings in.

After 12 weeks with the first agent we sold after 3 frantic days of viewings with the second agent. I think that the up tick was down to fresh marketing and also as sellers we were more experienced and the second agent had professional photographs done which were 1000X better then the first agents snaps. For the photos and every viewing we dressed the house with not a bed cover crease out of place. And we sold.

[superlightr]

Actual said:

sellers we were more experienced and the second agent had professional photographs done which were 1000X better then the first agents snaps. For the photos and every viewing we dressed the house with not a bed cover crease out of place. And we sold.

difference in fees?

[beanoir78]

There are no benefits in a vendor allowing non-proceedable viewings. There are plenty of downsides in allowing random people come and view your home (and its contents).

An agent’s job is to make sure that happens, but some think having 30+ viewings is a positive - it might be for them, but it isn’t for the vendor. I would always challenge my agent that quality is more important that quantity.

[AB]

Sheepshanks said:

No idea what it's specific location is like but that doesn't seem too bad to me. Same house in my area (Chester) could easily be £800K ish. Basic 3 bed semi can still be had for £250K here.

Agree with you on that, makes the £1.1m look a bargain

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/124742975?u...

[Puzzles]

Does this happen at the higher end of the market?

There is no point me selling my house and waiting for a house that I would like to move into coming on the market, it could easily be 12 to 24 months before one does. I wouldn't want to piss around the buyer of my place as it wouldn't be fair.