SunnySussex

We have been on the market since last September and it's still not sold!!!. Probably went on right after the Summer selling had finished (we waited for our PR to be delivered). Big mistake!!!!!!!!.
I dont know whats worse. The long wait to get the PR or having PR in your hand and STILL being in limbo waiting for the bloomin house to sell.

First agents were completely useless but my wife managed to wrange a 4 week tester contract so we got out of that really quick.
Our current agent is getting the viewings (on average 2 a week) but no offers!!!!. A few second viewings but then gone cold. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..........
Gonna see if dropping the price will do it. Thinking about dropping 10K but not sure if that will clinch it or not. With the exchange rate going the wrong direction too (oh wow!!!)

Completely p'ddddddd off
SS

ellsie

We have just put ours on the market but I am not telling where I am going in case a buyer tries to drop the price later in the sale. I am making the agent do the viewingstoo! We have a viewer on friday but she still has one to sell so I am not holding out any great hopes!

dingbat

I am probably going back to the UK, and made some tentative enquiries with estate agents. One large chain (who should probably remain nameless) told me that most houses are stupidly overpriced outside London and that as a cash buyer (even a cash + mortgage like me) I should offer 25% less than the purchase price. He said that people emigrating will take the lower price and that he had a few "on my books". Repossessed houses are also available in increasing numbers too, which is sad. He identified one house I was looking at, and told me to offer nearly £30,000 less than the buyers wanted.

Why are estate agents doing this in the UK? Surely this is unfair on the vendors as puts off potential buyers. Houses here sell in weeks if not days. They are priced to sell, no inflated prices and the so the chain moves quickly.Those of you who are on the market in the UK and have been for months.....doesn't that sound alarm bells? I experienced negative equity in the early nineties and it is a dreadful situation to be in. Maybe people are just being cautious which is why there is a down turn?

The family who were selling the house and leaving for Aus - the estate agent told them I would view but would not offer anywhere near what they were asking. They said OK, which immediately tells me that the house was overpriced.....maybe just reducing the price and having a big advert in the local paper would have been more effective?

iaink

So let me get this straight... the sellers agent is telling a potential buyer to put in an offer £30k below the asking price that he himself agreed upon with his client?

Can you say "conflict of interest"

stubby1974

estate agents only get their money when it is sold and therefore they try to suss whats a good offer and suggest it to the possible buyer... ours did that and i had a fit at them....

selling houses suck i hate it and never want to own a house again

dingbat

Very much so...it's why I posted as this happened yesterday. I've been here so long I had completely forgotten how bad that process is in the UK. I was really surprised at the estate agents comments, but there is no contractual obligation for the estate agents to work for the vendor and only the vendor apparently. Their "contract" is simply to sell the house. Shocking! This was a six bed house up North, it was on for £229,950. He said to offer <£200,000 "because they're that desperate to sell they'll take it". :scared:

stubby1974

totally - you offer £200K, they proved that they have tried to sell the house, thus validaing the contract etc, the owners reject, you come back with £210K and they accept - its a bizarre way the world works... the estate agent probably int he first place told them to put it on for £230K when they wanteds it for £200K so he could make some extra % ... they are evil

jempee

We have told our agent not to tell viewers where we are going also as we dont want them to think we are desperate to sell at any price.

even if we are desperate

jempee

Our agent knows we are going BUT he has been told in no uncertain terms that we are not desperate to sell, that we would rather take it off the market than sell for a silly price. Not quite true but agent needed to believe that

Snave

We rented ours for six months believing the tenants wanted to buy. They let us down and moved out taking everything, even the curtains. As we're in Canada we couldn't argue that we'd not agreed that.
The house has been on sale since they moved - the end of October. In mid January we were told of a burst pipe bringing down the kitchen ceiling. After a lot of expensive 'phone calls the insurance company have told us they will not pay for the damage as the house was empty for more than 60 days.
So the moral of this story:

• Sell it as soon as you know you are leaving for Canada. Don't rent it.
• If you must rent it, agree what the tenant is buying off you (assuming your selling stuff to them).
• Whatever happens make sure the house is securely locked, and tanks drained by the time the insurance runs out. Arrange a freindly neighbour to pop in once a week
• Expect the unexpected. Don't count your chickens.

We've bitten the bullet with not being able to sell. I contacted National Homebuyers http://www.nationalhomebuyers.co.uk/index.cfm last week to give me an offer. I'll post back soon.

h_henry

We talked to various agents about whether or not to divulge that we were going overseas and the general consensus was to tell them as having no upward chain is a bonus. We tell them that we're moving overseas but have no fixed schedule, we can move now if it sells or stay a while longer if it doesn't.

We've just had a manic last minute viewing. The agent rang and said someone was in the office and they come either come now or at the weekend so I bit the bullet and said come now. I had 30 mins to tidy up and make the house presentable. They seemed positive but let's see....

stubby1974

national home buyers are on the bbc watchdog site.. you have to pay them the valuation fee of £450, then they offer you at least 30% lower than the valuation or street price, most people refuse and they keep your £450 becuase they only refund it fi they buy it for their price... be careful...

if you dont need your funds from the house straight away (no idea how the funds things work for PR stuff) you can be out of the country when your house sells once youhave signed allt he relevant bits with your solicitor or appointed him or someone else as your representive...

re: insurance.. someone has to sleep overnight at least 1 night every 30 days to keep the house insurance valid...

Tidge

We had a letter pushed through our letterbox the other day from a couple in the area who were desperate to buy (they were both teachers, but you couldn't tell that from the dreadful spelling).

They stated in the letter "We know you are emigrating to Canada and are desperate to sell," then offered to buy the house for 2/3 the selling price!

My first reaction (apart from "What in the F**k!?!") was that of offence - who the hell are these people, knowing all this stuff about me, how dare she tell me how 'desperate' I am. She obviously thinks I'm an idiot to even consider their paltry insult of an offer....



*rants on and on for some time*

iaink

Find out where they live and leave a burning bag of dogshit outside

They will probably just assume its one of their pupils

dbd33

I advise extreme caution with dog shit antics. For example, before one scoops dog shit off one's lawn with a shovel and then uses the shovel to splatter the shit all across the front of a neighbour's house, one should be quite sure of the origin of the turd. Otherwise one finds oneself up a ladder scrubbing and apologising.