Selling house/property advice consultant?

[gizmo1990]

This might be a bit of a left field question for the forum but I thought I'd ask here as it's a good source of knowledgable people!

My mum needs to start looking into selling her house. It's obviously a big decision and one we need to get right. I don't live in the UK currently but I'll be helping as much as possible and visit regularly. What we feel we need is some really good advice. By that I mean independant advice based around our specific needs, the house itself, the area and the options available. So basically a service where a knowledgable person can look at the house, take into account/know the market, the area and present us with some options to consider.

On the face of it what I'm asking for sounds like an estate agent in some regards, however my mum has seen two already and all they seem to be concerned with is when she would like them to get started and put it on the market.. What I feel we'd prefer is someone (with knowledge of the area and financial matters) to come in, check the house out and layout some options for us. For example, is the housing market so depressed now that selling would lose my mum a substantial amount of money? What are the sale projections for the area going to be in the future? Is housing development in the area (I suspect due to the age and condition of the house that a developer would be the most likely purchaser, for the land) such that it will attract developers?

I've been looking for such service but drawn a blank. Does anyone know if such a service exists? And if one does, what would it likely cost? If anyone could point me in the right direction I'd really appreciate it.

 

[carmanmemoranda]

Sounds like you may have contacted big chain type estate agents.

Try a small local independant

 

[Notch7]

On the face of it what I'm asking for sounds like an estate agent in some regards, however my mum has seen two already and all they seem to be concerned with is when she would like them to get started and put it on the market.

they want to earn money, not surprisingly and will tell your mum what she wants to hear to get a sale, be careful.

try an independent as Carmenmemoranda above has suggested, some are very good -if you do a search on right move, for your mum postcode plus say 2 miles see what agents are marketing properties -usually it will be say 3 to 5 main ones then a few smaller ones -have a look at the smaller ones, dont be worried if they dont have a bricks and mortar shop front.


No the housing market is not depressed in the UK, there is a massive shortage of housing, but increases in interest rates has made it harder for people to afford to move, so the market is slow.

 

[Dork Lard]

I've always been lucky in having a great relationship with my selling estate agents, not so for when buying.

It's important that you can trust your agent. My general rule is if they're under 30, wear pointy shoes & wear more hair product than the shelve's at Boots then they a no no.

If your mum is selling then all she really wants is an honest valuation, something most estate agents rarely give. Have you thought of engaging the services of a surveyor? After all, this is exactly what they do for the mortgage lenders.

If I were you I would be more worried about something that is recently becoming more common. A whole extended family turns up to view the property, bomb bursts into your house & while you are showing the principles around as nicely as you can the rest are effectively 'burgling' your home.

 

[ETAF]

On the face of it what I'm asking for sounds like an estate agent in some regards, however my mum has seen two already and all they seem to be concerned with is when she would like them to get started and put it on the market.. What I feel we'd prefer is someone (with knowledge of the area and financial matters) to come in, check the house out and layout some options for us. For example, is the housing market so depressed now that selling would lose my mum a substantial amount of money? What are the sale projections for the area going to be in the future? Is housing development in the area (I suspect due to the age and condition of the house that a developer would be the most likely purchaser, for the land) such that it will attract developers?

I've been looking for such service but drawn a blank. Does anyone know if such a service exists? And if one does, what would it likely cost? If anyone could point me in the right direction I'd really appreciate it.

As already stated Estate Agents want to sell the property and make money - not provide options and help

Go online and you can see whats on sale now - and what has been sold for what price

I dont believe anyone can tell you the future price......

i have paid a "Blue Book' registered agent, for probate - which was recommended by the accountant and solicitor for the estate - worth quite a lot - and was not cheap
We were provided with a full report - along with a justification for the land and house valuation

Also have a chat with Purple bricks - we had a really good agent when we sold the property and i also had a local estate agent round - gave them both a grilling (which is my style) the local estate agent sent people round who would NEVER buy the property - i suspect just to show numbers, and useless

 

[Justin Passing]

Get some agents round to point out what's good about your property, what you might gain by improving x y or z, then look around for what you can buy for similar money.
Then you know as much as they do. You might well be able to find a few plus points that they miss, like exact school intake areas, or a detail about the house.

Last place i sold was a detached 3 bed. Nobody of 4 agents pointed out that there was a gap to the fence on the "non sideway" side, so if you extended all over the sideway, you could still get round. Most houses like that had the boundary at the house wall. The garden was better than average, too.

They're always much too keen to just "get it sold" so they get their commission. They seem to think that - in that case - dropping £30k to get it sold would be a good idea. With savings rates at about 2% per annum? Stoopid. *You only need one buyer. I used an agent but put the price 30k higher at 480, than the 450 they all said. There was only one offer at the asking price, a few about 20-40k lower.
It sold last July, and next I heard, there was scaffolding up to build that extension.
I could give several examples. There is ALWAYS someone with the money who wants just what you have, unless there's a streetful of clones for sale at the same time.

Most buyers aren't impressed in the slightest by decoration or lack of it, they see straight through it.
But some are. If yours is good, make it super, else don't bother.
Above all, tell everyone you aren't in a hurry.

* An uncle told me that. On old-fashioned spiv. But he was right about that.

 

[motorbiking]

Depending on where she lives, the market went up about 10% and came down about 5% towards the end of the year. Right now is the worse time to be selling unless you are moving up as it takes the warmer months for people to start looking. Easter is the best time statistically to get a buyer.

What you need to do is find similar properties and look at the sold prices. There are plenty of quick things you can do.
- fill any cracks, a fresh coat of paint on the walls etc. A very thorough clean and declutter, some nice betting, towels, candles smelly sticks etc etc and it all helps a place sell

 

[Justin Passing]

If someone wants the particular house NOW and has the money, they won't worry about whether it's a good time or not.

So if you're selling the house because say your mum is going into a home, stick the price on it as though house prices hadn't dropped. If it doesn't sell now to a "special person", it will when the market comes back up.
You can work out the cost of having the place empty, mine was something like £3k a year iirc. You need to to look at council tax if the place is empty. Organise someone to keep the garden ok, weeds off the drive, etc. It it's remote, pay a neighbour to pop in once a week, let someone park in the drive etc so things move a bit. Make sure the locks are right and it's insured, water off. Keep it at 10°C or so.

 

[blup]

You can do quite a lot at little or no cost to present the house for sale, remember it will be seen in great detail on the online agencies. At the end of the day its down to market forces and who is actually interested in the property. Worse case scenario it goes for auction if traditional marketing doesn't work. There is a world of difference between getting below market price offers and getting no offers at all.

Blup

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

I don't understand why you're bothered about how much they know about anything. It's only worth whatever it's worth to someone else who's got the money. You can look for yourself at other similar houses, sales history, whatever. It sounds like you're hoping they'll uncover a secret stash of gold - if such knowledge actually existed then they'd be quietly buying up all these development gold mines and making a killing, not telling everyone else how to do it for a couple of hundred quid. The reality is that it's probably just what it is - a house.

All you need is to decide a sensible price, and get it on Rightmove and Zoopla as quickly as possible. You can't do this without an agent, but any will achieve this. It's almost irrelevant which agent you use and how much they know about whatever. Get the house in front of buyers' noses and turn it into money asap.

My somewhat extreme method was that I used an online agent to sell ours, I paid £99 plus an optional extra £50 for a sign outside. I took the photos, wrote the description and showed people around. I paid £149 instead of the £8000 that was quoted by an agent. They definitely wouldn't have sold it for more, it was the right price after lots of research. This was an extreme approach, but there are any number of other alternatives, e.g. online agents that charge more but get more involved, and they're all £1000s less than an estate agent and will get you the same price. Nobody looks in shop windows any more, they'll tell you they have "their" buyers that they seemingly keep in a cage round the back of the shop but it's utter rubbish attempting to justify their existence in the modern world.

If you price too low then you'll quickly find out as the phone won't stop ringing. If so just increase the price, there's nothing compelling you to sell at the first price. But it's much more likely you'll start off greedy (as most do, including us), then keep cutting until the phone rings. Not in a panic but perhaps every couple of weeks.

The market is at the tipping point and (crystall ball time) is very likely to collapse this year. Don't start high then waste years chasing the market down. In a falling market you need to get ahead of the downward trend, hopefully you'll sell at a price that makes you cringe now but very relieved later.

Halifax - Internet Banking - Error

Does this look like a thriving market?!...

 

[flameport]

Does this look like a thriving market?!.

It looks the same as the housing market has for years.

Everything above the red line is an increase.
Other than the last couple of months based on monthly/3 monthly, the price has been increasing for the whole year.
As the last months of any year are typically very poor for housing sales, nothing new or surprising here at all.

The annual price trend is still upwards, currently +2% per year.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

The annual price trend is still upwards, currently +2% per year.

By your logic, the queen was alive for the majority of last year, therefore she's still alive. There is a winter dip every year, but nothing like this one.

There are lots of people with interests in property who would prefer it if prices rose forever, but it seems pretty obvious that the wheels have now fallen off. The annual figures will be negative within months, perhaps you'll then start desperately clutching at the per-decade figures?

 

[johnny2007]

If your mum needs to sell, look at similar properties in your area, how much they're on the market for as well as properties sold recently.
That will give you an idea of what's achievable.
Then an estate agent, as they work on percentage, will try to squeeze as much as possible from the buyer.
The major problem nowadays is finding a buyer .
As mentioned, many people are not in the same financial position they were a year ago because of the cost of life increase (thanks to the war?).
But there's plenty of fish in the sea and a house shortage, so I don't see that as a problem for you.

 

[blup]

By your logic, the queen was alive for the majority of last year, therefore she's still alive. There is a winter dip every year, but nothing like this one.

The queen is still alive, we’re a constitutional monarchy, it’s continuos regardless of who the current monarch is.

Blup

 

[Koolpc]

Just shop around for a decent local estate agent. Thats the only real route.