[britzy]

Hi ,

We have been trying to sell our house for 8 months now,although we have had quite a bit of interest and offers nothing has come of them.:wahWe now want to get out to New Zealand early in 2009 but really don't want to rent.Has anyone got any suggestions or advise with how they have managed to sell?We are keento move as soon as possible and are going to get some property investors to quote us some prices then possibly drop another 20 k(30k in total).

Thanks

Helen

[IanR]

If you have to sell then you need to drop your price in front of the market rather than behind which, understandably, most people are reluctant to do.

I'd speak to ALL the local estate agents, ignoring the advise of all those under the age of 40 who haven't seen a property slump before and haven't any idea how to deal with it ( a generalisation I know) .. and find out just what it would sell reasonably quickly for ... many of the well connected agents will have buyers waiting in the wings looking for a discounted property.

I sold a property in a week in May... took a bit of a bath on the price at the time but would have lost far more trying to sell it now. I guess it depends on your call on future prices to some degree..

[Carey]

Tell as many people as you can you are selling (if its public knowledge that you are emigrating); we sold to good friends, privately that way!

[YouMeAndThree]

Raffle it :nice1

Lx

[victoria24]

I'd speak to ALL the local estate agents, ignoring the advise of all those under the age of 40 who haven't seen a property slump before and haven't any idea how to deal with it ( a generalisation I know)

i dont always agree with ian but on this one I kinda do, its not maybe an age thing but I think its worth pointing out that a lot of estate agents are historically "order takers" rather than sales people. I assume Ian is sugesting finding agents that think laterally and know how to drive a sale. On this I wholeheartedly agree:nice1

[catt]

I think if any of us had the answer a lot more people who have been waiting for years to sell would not be waiting. It took us 8 months and we dropped our price by £35k...............good luck in finding that elusive buyer and as Ian said you need to be ahead of the market not trailing behind so think about what would be the lowest price you would definitely not go below and think about reducing the price to make it tasty for buyers.:nice1

[IanR]

We're really talking about significant amounts of money here so a little bit of work to maximise a profit or minimise a loss ought to be in order.

A quick tip... download the Firefox browser and then add property bee ... use the two to investigate and diagnose the local market via Rightmove. That will tell you who's been on the market and for how long, how they've reduced their price, by how much etc. etc. ... also look at the rental market.. is it buoyant or are reluctant landlords dropping their prices to get a tenant. Theres's a lot of work you can do yourself if you can be bothered.

[marybelle]

My suggestion would be to put it into auction. Agree between yourselves the lowest price you are willing to take, factor in the commission/auction house cost and put a reserve on it that will give you the price you need.

[IanR]

Not many people paying top dollar at auction though. The 10% down on the day and completion within 28 days tends to limit buyers to being cash or having an excellent line of credit.

http://www.auction.co.uk/residential/pastResults.asp?A=546 gives a decent indication of how things went in December... there are also a lot of repos coming through to auction in February apparently.

[britzy]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply,some good ideas.
Helen

[L00pback]

As said before, to sell a house quickly the main thing is the price but you can leave your price where you want it as long as you offer other value added things (such as leave furniture, white goods and/or even your car) that can make your house more attractive than similar types of house at the same price.

OK, some will point out that if you include your car with the deal you loose out on the money you make on selling the car (effectivly lowering the price of the house), and I agree, but you have sold your house and car in one go which saves a job and its all about making your house more attractive than the one down the road - also it helps make your house stand out from the others after all when was the last time you saw an advert for a house that included a car or something!

Hope this gives you an idea that helps you sell your house.

Good luck

Alan

[stu & amanda]

We were lucky enough to sell our house fairly easily, it went on the market in August and we had money in the bank by November, one grand below asking price. As well as a big element of luck I think it is a matter of actually working hard to sell it.
Check out the prices of properties like yours in your area, get your property re-valued by several agents and price it slightly under the competition
Redecorate in neutral colours, totally de-clutter, move family photos, move kids drawings off the fridge (one person asked us if anyone still lived there)
Keep the outside of the property super -dupa, grass neat, drive weed free, some new plants that are flowering by the door, windows sparkling.

When you have a viewing:
Hoover up, dust.
Clean bathroom ( we used to put out a new soap and clean fluffy towels)
Tidy kitchen , put any pots away, make any stainless steel shiny.
Put clothes away in bedroom.
Tidy kids room.
Get rid of the dog ( we used to put dog bed, dog bowl and any other evidence of dog in garage and one of us would take her for a walk)
Switch all lights and lamps on even in the middle of the day

Ok, so talk about anal and I used to feel a .... every time we did all this stuff, but it’s the kind of thing everyone who’s tried to sell a house already knows - it’s just a matter of doing it!