Ask An Estate Agent Anything

Ask An Estate Agent Anything

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Quags

Original Poster:

1,527 posts

260 months

Tuesday 21st March 2023
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KTF said:
Do you ever say no you wont list it to a seller when you have been to see their house and realise its a wreck or going to take forever to sell or does everything have its price and you take it on regardless?
No I've turned down a few over the years, mostly down to the price wanted or the terms.

I don't want things sitting on my books for ages that have zero chance of selling.

Howard-

4,950 posts

201 months

Tuesday 21st March 2023
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croyde said:
Turtle Shed said:
It's called perspective. A "long" lens will compress perspective, a "short" one will exagerate it. Get very close to a kitchen unit with a 16mm lens on your Nikon D850 (as used by the OP) and that unit will look comparatively huge. Things in the background will look small.

An opposite example would be an 800mm lens pointing down a straight at Silverstone.
I know that, ta smile been doing it for nearly 40 years hehe

What I meant for example, was the picture of one room was taken from the doorway but all the windows, units, furniture were stretched, despite being the furthest from the lens.

Here's a pic of a kitchen from a local agent. The 600mm units look ridiculous smile



I can't find anything in my bags to emulate it apart from a fish eye addition for my phone.

Pic of my spare room, despite the distortion everything is in proportion, even the wardrobe door to the right.





Edited by croyde on Saturday 18th March 21:03
This might be a result of using a lens correction profile/adjustment (such as the one available in Lightroom) to straighten the distortion at the edges of wide angle/fisheye lenses. The result is everything straightens out but looks massive near the edges hehe

Gladers01

583 posts

47 months

Tuesday 21st March 2023
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Quags said:
KTF said:
Do you ever say no you wont list it to a seller when you have been to see their house and realise its a wreck or going to take forever to sell or does everything have its price and you take it on regardless?
No I've turned down a few over the years, mostly down to the price wanted or the terms.

I don't want things sitting on my books for ages that have zero chance of selling.
Do you anticipate a large amount of of ex buy to let properties flooding the sales market if the section 21 'no fault eviction' is eventually abolished? scratchchin

Quags

Original Poster:

1,527 posts

260 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2023
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Gladers01 said:
Do you anticipate a large amount of of ex buy to let properties flooding the sales market if the section 21 'no fault eviction' is eventually abolished? scratchchin
Absolutely, especially those with multiple properties. We are still waiting clarification though on what happens if a landlord wishes to sell a property - a lot of lenders won't mortgage a property with a sitting tenant.

The government have zero clue on this, it's staggering how blind they are to the effects it will have. There are easier ways to clamp down on rogue landlords.


troika

1,862 posts

150 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2023
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Quags, how much bank down valuing are you seeing? Presumably it happens more often with over optimistic sellers being bought back down to earth?

Richard-390a0

2,224 posts

90 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2023
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Turtle Shed said:
Quags said:
Turtle Shed said:
I've often see houses on Rightmove listed as detached when they are in fact semi-detached, but never the other way around.

Have you ever deliberately done this?
No, it's a fineable offence, plus I don't understand why anyone would do that. More likely an error on the part of the person uploading it.
Well I assume that an unscrupulous EA might want to put a non-detached but rather decent place in front of those looking specifically for detached. A good example might be a long/thin barn conversion that shares a wall with the adjacent conversion.

I've been house hunting over the past few months, and have seen a number of examples of this. I won't post any, but they are most certainly out there.
I'd suggest a lot of this is down to lazy sellers not checking if their property has been listed correctly. My neighbours opposite lived in a semi but it was listed on Rightmove as a terraced house. More fool them if they don't check the listing is correct & they receive fewer / lower offers etc.

Mandat

3,879 posts

237 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2023
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Quags said:
They're not apart from the fact that link detached owners want the same money as fully detached despite what I might say.

I'm not a fan of them, but that's just me.
How do estate agents define link-detached?

Do they need to share a party wall, or do two independent but abutting walls still meet the definition?

Quags

Original Poster:

1,527 posts

260 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2023
quotequote all
troika said:
Quags, how much bank down valuing are you seeing? Presumably it happens more often with over optimistic sellers being bought back down to earth?
I've not seen any myself for about five years. I've seen it due to an issue with the house from a survey requiring work but not a down value.

Quags

Original Poster:

1,527 posts

260 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2023
quotequote all
Mandat said:
How do estate agents define link-detached?

Do they need to share a party wall, or do two independent but abutting walls still meet the definition?
Well it's basically properties that share no common wall. So living areas.

A link detached to me is via a garage or car port.

Flooble

5,565 posts

99 months

Thursday 23rd March 2023
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Does "Dressing" a house actually work?

Not so much decorative order, but more making a special effort, e.g. have you seen houses sell for different amounts depending on whether the owners got in half-size furniture or whatever to make it look better?

Quags

Original Poster:

1,527 posts

260 months

Thursday 23rd March 2023
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Never sold a house with half size furniture.

Presenting a house well however is paramount. Decluttering, keeping surfaces clean, hiding away shoes, laundry etc. Other than getting the photography and marketing spot on, a viewing can almost be determined on how much effort the vendor has made.

Flooble

5,565 posts

99 months

Thursday 23rd March 2023
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Quags said:
Never sold a house with half size furniture.

Presenting a house well however is paramount. Decluttering, keeping surfaces clean, hiding away shoes, laundry etc. Other than getting the photography and marketing spot on, a viewing can almost be determined on how much effort the vendor has made.
Yeah I could have phrased that better. I know someone who replaced their eight-seat dining table with a four-seat one, so the dining room didn't require you to breathe in and shuffle past the chairs.

I wondered whether that sort of thing actually made a difference.

honest_delboy

1,498 posts

199 months

Thursday 23rd March 2023
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With interest rates rising again today have you seen a softening in prices already, or do you think that's still to come later in the year, or not at all ?


Quags

Original Poster:

1,527 posts

260 months

Thursday 23rd March 2023
quotequote all
honest_delboy said:
With interest rates rising again today have you seen a softening in prices already, or do you think that's still to come later in the year, or not at all ?
If I knew the answer to that I'd be a rich man! (Which despite the perception, I'm not)

It's not turned out to be the start to the year we all feared, the BOE are making positive comments about things expecting to change for the better, we're still way off the carnage and interest rates many of the armchair experts proclaimed would kill the market this year.

I'm optimistic, I'm still listing lots, selling well smile

Quags

Original Poster:

1,527 posts

260 months

Thursday 23rd March 2023
quotequote all
Flooble said:
Yeah I could have phrased that better. I know someone who replaced their eight-seat dining table with a four-seat one, so the dining room didn't require you to breathe in and shuffle past the chairs.

I wondered whether that sort of thing actually made a difference.
It's more about the ease of passage through a house on a viewing.

If it's dark with furniture obstructing your path and you view other houses, that house will seem like the dark small one, whereas if paths are clear, lights are on, it's fresh and clean, it is remembered as light and airy. Reflected as much in the feedback!

Register1

2,129 posts

93 months

Thursday 23rd March 2023
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Turtle Shed said:
I've often see houses on Rightmove listed as detached when they are in fact semi-detached, but never the other way around.

Have you ever deliberately done this?
This is my big gripe.

And how about the end of a terrace row, being described as a semi detached ? another P boiler

dhutch

14,198 posts

196 months

Thursday 23rd March 2023
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honest_delboy said:
With interest rates rising again today have you seen a softening in prices already, or do you think that's still to come later in the year, or not at all ?
Our mortgage advisor is suggesting the news won't have any effect on the cost of a 5year fixed.

Currently a 5yr fixed is cheaper than a 2yr fixed, which are the same as a tracker. So obviously the banks are expecting it to come down slightly even with two years, and down plenty over the 5yearw.

I doubt they are wrong, but it's still a big punt into the future.


honest_delboy

1,498 posts

199 months

Friday 24th March 2023
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A well presented clean and tidy house may not or sell for more but will be more attractive to a buyer ….

We did a viewing ages ago on a flat where there’s was an unflushed lady Godiva in the toilet, without breaking stride the EA flushed it and continued talking about rates or something.

Any “interesting” viewings spring to mind ?

Quags

Original Poster:

1,527 posts

260 months

Saturday 25th March 2023
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I'd wager they attain more than they would if nasty/untidy.

Hahah I've not had that thankfully, but I have a few stories, a couple:

Had a viewing on an empty flat in a town I worked in, the landlord had his own house elsewhere, we had free reign to go.

Arrive for a viewing, meet the prospective buyers, show them round chatting etc, go the bathroom, door was shut which was odd, open the door to see the landlord stark bk naked in the bath snoring. I tried to back out but the couple were already coming in, they bumped into me and we stumbled into the room waking him up.

Apparently he'd been on a night out in town and thought he'd crash at the flat and neglected to tell us. Very apologetic. The buyers left quicker than the size of his manhood shrunk.

Another way back I called a vendor asking to do a viewing that day on her lovely barn conversion, I said if it was a problem as short notice that i'd arrange it for another day. She nervously said "I think it's ok, I had a glass of wine last night that if you could put in the sink before the viewing". No problem, get there early as always do. Walked into lounge, two empty glasses of red, one with lipstick on, a copy of the Karma Sutra opened on the coffee table. Went into the bedroom, lacey underwear on the floor and a bright pink rampant rabbit 'soiled' from the previous evenings activities....

I kicked the panties under the bed and threw the cover over the eagle eared, bead-filled turkey purse probe.

The viewers were none the wiser, the vendor however made a very embarassed phone call to me the next day.

I also once appraised a former gangster/drug dealers house that had a mini zoo in it along with what can only be described as a huge sex shed with different 'scenes' set, cages (for humans) costumes and various sexual implements. It had been repossessed as he was in nick.

surveyor

17,768 posts

183 months

Saturday 25th March 2023
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I had a narrow escape with a viewing a lot of years ago. We held keys, and the vendor was the manager of the property section of the local paper (for those not in the know. before the internet and RightMove, these guys held real power, and advertising was fiercely expensive - £1k a page before discount, in a mining area, in the early 90's). I was fresh-faced and just out of school and checked with a colleague that she had rung the vendor. Was told it was fine and to get on with it.

I heard music as we approached the door. Vendor (lady I hasten to add) appeared in a skimpy gown. Turned out she was off ill and had been on the sunbed. Close escape. Firms partner got a moany call still from her.

She got revenge booking her own viewing on another house, out of hours. She did not turn up. Another moany phone call to the senior partner accusing me of not turning up.

Luckily said senior partner was my dad, so I was broadly untouched...