[marcia]

Well we have just sacked one lot of agents - useless is the most polite thing I can say about them, we ended up doing half their job!!

When we originally wanted to put the house on the market we had quotes varying from £245K to £325K (our house is not like anything else around so they couldn't compare previous selling prices in the area) So we decided to go with a high price to start with as we still didn't have PR at this stage, but we put it on at £295K, had a few viewers, but decided after a month to drop the price to £275K when our PR came through. We have had hardly any viewers around since, we ended up dragging them in off the street when they stopped their cars outside!!! :exit

So kev went down to the agents this week, with the view to dropping the price to £250K (to get below the 3% stamp duty!!) but only if the agents dropped their fees too - as he said to them it's business we keep dropping our price you drop yours or we go somewhere else!

Anyway they agreed to lower their fees, and we wanted the brochure revamping too - the local paper had done a feature on us and had sent us copies of their photos which were excellent, they gave us permission to use them for selling the house so we gave them to the agents on a disc, we also gave them examples of wording which we thought was very good. All they had to do was put it together!!! :uhoh

So they were supposed to put this new brochure together and email ot to us Thursday - we got it Fri at 5 to 5 (cracker jack for those old enough to remember!!) And it was rubbish, you needed an oxygen tank to read the description, no punctuation and it didn't even make sense, and the photos........ they had squished them up and made them square :confused: Well anyone with half a dozen brain cells knows that a rectangular picture will emphasise width, these guys are supposed to be pros!!!!!!

So back down Kev went on Saturday (3 hours he spent there this week!!!) And gave them hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They said it was the new program that made the photos square - so Kev told them they should scrap it and go back to the old one!!! He said if that was the best they could do to sell our property, they didn't deserve the business and he didn't swear at them :eek:

We had to give them 14 days notice but Kev said he was taking that from last Tues went he went down for the first time. We have told them not to advertise it at the reduced price of £250K, (they have muttered something about them still having the fees if it sells to someone they introduced - need to look into that bit - so don't want them bringing anyone in now!!)

The new agents are coming on Weds so lets hope they can do better!!!!

Will we get to NZ before christmas - who knows - watch this space - but I'll be one peed off person if we don't!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[zardell]

Oh Marcia......I am so sorry to hear whats been happening - it must be a nightmare for you all.

Sending every good 'house sell quickly' vibe I've got.

Take care,

Thinking of you,

Loadsa love,

Julie

xx

[southparkers]

Hi Marcia ,
Sounds like you had the same agents as us,They sounded very professional ,young dynamic team Blah blah blah,That was last febuary, we had 3 viewers and knocked the price down 15000.still nothing so called time on them in may, changed agents to one that used Right Move and sold it no problem,we are homeless on 8th sept.So check if they are on Right Move as it makes a big difference to people from out of town
Ill keep my fingers crossed for you,we hope to be there before xmas as well.

april

[Sarah & Alex]

I really hope the new agents get it sorted for you quickly, as we all know you want to be in NZ ASAP ... I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Sarah

[marcia]

Hi Marcia ,
Sounds like you had the same agents as us,They sounded very professional ,young dynamic team Blah blah blah,That was last febuary, we had 3 viewers and knocked the price down 15000.still nothing so called time on them in may, changed agents to one that used Right Move and sold it no problem,we are homeless on 8th sept.So check if they are on Right Move as it makes a big difference to people from out of town
Ill keep my fingers crossed for you,we hope to be there before xmas as well.

april


Yeah they were on right move, but again the description was rubbish - just said 'house' not 'detached house'

I will name and shame them - William H Brown!

But I am sure they are all as bad :(

[Cardiff Irons]

Empathic hug on its way to you (manly handshake and a beer for Kev). I'm sure in any other profession there would be a whole host of negligence claims but, it seems, estate agents don't have any accountability to anyone. Has anyone ever heard of an estate agent being successfully sued?
:cheers

[Angelonthemove]

Good luck with your new agents. We are in the same position, but the war in Lebanon is now hitting people coming to Cyprus what more can go wrong over here. Estate agents do seem to be a crowd of their own all over the world. I worked as a secretary for 6 months for one in the UK and said I could not LIE anymore and left!!

Do they not have internet house sellling in the Uk yet for owners direct? I was thinking of setting one up here just so I could sell my house and not pay them 5% for doing nothing. :D

I even Feng Shui my house using 'how to sell your house with Feng Shui' technique I found on the internet, but now its all over the place with boxes. But if Richard Branson uses it for his business I can use it to sell my house.My mother sold hers in 2 weeks here because it looks like a home & garden advert. I'm hoping when our is empty it may sell quicker.

Good luck to all who are selling their homes

Angela

[gil]

Do they not have internet house sellling in the Uk yet for owners direct? I was thinking of setting one up here just so I could sell my house and not pay them 5% for doing nothing. :D

Yes they do Angela, there are several, including House Ladder, Property Megastore and many others. We are for sale on two private sale sites, and have had zero leads from them both. :no Plus we are on our third estate agent (we being me and OH, Cardiff Irons). Someone somewhere MUST want our house......please?

Marcia, you have all my sympathies and I really hope you sell soon (us too!),
Good luck,
Gil
x

[Debbie]

Well we have just sacked one lot of agents - useless is the most polite thing I can say about them, we ended up doing half their job!!


We had to give them 14 days notice but Kev said he was taking that from last Tues went he went down for the first time. We have told them not to advertise it at the reduced price of £250K, (they have muttered something about them still having the fees if it sells to someone they introduced - need to look into that bit - so don't want them bringing anyone in now!!)

The new agents are coming on Weds so lets hope they can do better!!!!

!

Marcia,
We had a similar problem, I posted about the difficulty we had getting rid of our first agent.
Our agent insisted that they had the right, (and they used it) to advertise our house until close of business 14 days after they recieved writen instruction from us. Bit of a b-gger as we verbally told them they were sacked on a Friday and they didn't get the letter until Monday.
Our new agent advised us to put in writing to the first agent that they had to put in writing the names and post codes of any clients they had introduced and who they had a claim on for commission. That way the new agent and everyone was clear who 'owned' what viewers. I was told that it should only be those clients that they have shown around your home.

Hope it all works out well for you.
Debbie

[katandbob]

marcia, good luck with the new agents, I really think that selling your house is the worst part of this procedure...it really got my goat that I had to pay Jump £3,500 for doing na@f%f all,(we sold our house via word of mouth - Robs work mate told his mate we were selling, and they knocked at the door!) but try as I might they write those silly contracts so you cant get round it.
I think Debbies right, ask for the viewers details and postcodes....if they only sent a few round (dont include the ones you dragged in) you should hopefully be ok.

Kat

[H & Rick]

Marcia, hope it all works out for you in the end. ;)

We are not even on the market yet, been doing some last minute DIY.

Will be getting some of those lovely Estate Agents out in the next week......not looking forward to it at all. :uhoh

Can anyone offer any interesting tips on selling fast...?

I hear that the smell of freshly baked bread & brewing coffee are good atmospheric sale points...if you know what I mean..

Fresh flowers are also a good one.

Alternatively you could handcuff potential buyers to a radiator and threaten them with a slow death until they agree to buy it!!!! :D

[Nienke]

Some advice I got was to declutter the house. Put all your personal stuff away as it will distract people viewing your home. Make sure it's clean and shiny everytime viewers come to look.
I had flowers on the table the whole time my house was on sale.
If you have a garden make sure it's neat and tidy!

Good luck everyone, I know how hard it is waiting for your house to sell!

[zardell]

Some advice I got was to declutter the house. Put all your personal stuff away as it will distract people viewing your home. Make sure it's clean and shiny everytime viewers come to look.
I had flowers on the table the whole time my house was on sale.
If you have a garden make sure it's neat and tidy!

Good luck everyone, I know how hard it is waiting for your house to sell!





That (and a neutral decor) is exactly what we did and it worked for us.

Having said that, the English system of house purchase is absolutely CRAZY and I refuse to believe that our house is sold until contracts have been exchanged and the money is in the bank - but hey, thats just me......

Good luck everybody.......

Julie

xx

[Moorf]

I hear that the smell of freshly baked bread & brewing coffee are good atmospheric sale points...if you know what I mean..




That always used to make me wonder what smell they were trying to cover up :D - I'd stick with a neutral odor to be honest - plus everyone knows it's a trick of the trade so that kinda negates it.. don't u think?

Another tip, if you have dark / shaded rooms or halls turn on all the lights or lamps in the house where it's slightly dark before viewers arrive, instead of slapping them on as you walk around, they won't notice the difference in light contrasts as much. ;)

Good luck with the house sale.

[Lisa T]

Marcia, Kev and the boys,
Hope everything works out and you get a sale quickly.

Ours is still on the market, everyone loves the place but we are getting no-one who has sold to view, so it all seems a bit pointless to me. Done all the usual things - everything neutral, decluttered, clean and sweet smelling, price dropped etc etc, and now I sam gettng the pitying looks ("oh we were sure your house would sell quickly......"). Just getting a bit panicky now - Al has been over there nearly a year now!

I shall be thinking about you all with fingers crossed!
Lisa..................

[Albertz]

Fingers XX, like us Marcia you are destined to be in NZ this year im sure, chin up. :exit

[pinkpiggy]

Hi Marcia, Kev and boys,

I'm sorry to hear you're having such trouble selling your house. That's the bit I really hate - I had to do all the viewings on my own when we moved to Scotland two years as Sam was already up here - it was such a pain. The worst part was trying to keep the boys quiet or organise for them to go to a friends.

I've heard that instead of the fresh baked bread approach (which all buyers are aware of now due to all these DIY programmes on tv) you should just make sure it smells clean and fresh. Buyers just want to know that it has been looked after well.

Do you mind me asking which estate agents you are going to use now? Do they advertise on vebra.com - I don't know if you've heard of it before but it's a bit like the Right Move website and has lots of different estate agents advertising on it - some larger ones that are part of chains and some independent estate agents.

Here's hoping the new agents are better than the old ones. Just keep telling yourselves you will get to NZ before Christmas and I'm sure you will. I'm a great believer in the power of positive thinking.

[Singel]

Sharing how our house was sold in Holland..................

Step 1
Our estate agent advertise the sale of our house and all viewings are strictly by appointments.

Step 2
Our estate agent distribute our house sale leaflets to all the houses within the neighbourhood, hoping that our neighbours' friend or relative might be interested or looking to move into this area.

Step 3
By this time, our house has been on the market for 6 weeks.
Our estate agent advertise all their houses for a "2-Day Special Open Home" held on a Saturday and Sunday from 1pm to 3pm (taking up a full-page advertisement in the local paper on Friday and Saturday). Potential buyers are invited to walk in to those advertised homes and thereafter, they are welcome to go to the agent office for a cuppa and a chat. We were given a huge "Special Open Home" sticker to paste it on our front window or somewhere that is prominent. During the 2-day Open Home, we showed the walk-in buyers around our house while our estate agent is waiting in the office.

2 weeks later, we got an offer on our home and we were told that the buyer saw our house on the Special Open Home day.
:cheers

[jaycee]

Yes, don't dismiss the private sale sites - after a long and unhappy relationship with an estate agent during my last sale, which included having to nag them to even put an advert in the local paper, reducing the price (because they overvalued to get my business, a common ploy) and three withdrawn offers, I sacked them and sold my own house on the Little House Company website. Not only did I save myself over £3000 in fees, but I found out later that I achieved a higher price than the same agent did for a similar house a few doors down the road.

Most of these sites are defined as advertisers, not estate agents, so you are quite entitled to use them alongside a local agent - but it's probably a good idea to tell the agent.

Unless you are lucky enough to find an agent who has people on their books waiting to buy a house like yours, imho there is only one thing that an estate agent can do that a private seller can't - that's to advertise on Rightmove. However there are a few online national agents that can offer that service, for example House Network (http://www.housenetwork.co.uk). It's much cheaper than a traditional agent - no flashy offices or shiny suits to pay for!

Good luck to everyone with their sales :) I do sympathise, I'm dreading the next time - can't stand constantly having to keep everything clean and tidy!

[Paul]

Yes, don't dismiss the private sale sites - after a long and unhappy relationship with an estate agent during my last sale, which included having to nag them to even put an advert in the local paper, reducing the price (because they overvalued to get my business, a common ploy) and three withdrawn offers, I sacked them and sold my own house on the Little House Company website. Not only did I save myself over £3000 in fees, but I found out later that I achieved a higher price than the same agent did for a similar house a few doors down the road.

Most of these sites are defined as advertisers, not estate agents, so you are quite entitled to use them alongside a local agent - but it's probably a good idea to tell the agent.

Unless you are lucky enough to find an agent who has people on their books waiting to buy a house like yours, imho there is only one thing that an estate agent can do that a private seller can't - that's to advertise on Rightmove. However there are a few online national agents that can offer that service, for example House Network (http://www.housenetwork.co.uk). It's much cheaper than a traditional agent - no flashy offices or shiny suits to pay for!

Good luck to everyone with their sales :) I do sympathise, I'm dreading the next time - can't stand constantly having to keep everything clean and tidy!

We used the Little House company and only had a couple of viewings but potential to save a lot of agents fees. Ours certainly appeared on Rightmove via this aswell. Sold eventually through a Team agent who also advertised on Rightmove - they were pretty good as agents go, certainly better than Bairstows who we originally used

Alos check your agents agreemnt to make sure you are sole agency and not sole selling agreement as the latter will mean you would need to pay their fees however you sell the house !!

[David with a dream]

Hi Marcia, Kev & chaps,

Good luck with the new shark's, we are about ready to enter the waters in a week or so.
Being an estate agent must be one of the worst jobs in the world because every one know's they are being screwed for what at the end of the day is money for old rope.
I'm not looking forward to it but it's all part of the tip....Once again good luck guy's..David

[jo b]

Hey guys,


Oriental Lillies (not too many) give off a lovely fresh flowery odour.

Stick a few round the house.

I concur with Julia, lots of neutral colours, mine was and get rid of all your fancy ornaments etc.

I had 3 buyers after mine, because I had decluttered and decluttered 'till we nearly had nothing to sit on :laugh:

Good Luck, and good on Kev for standing up for himself. I bet they didn;t know what hit 'em.

Jo

[jo-and-jeff]

Oriental Lillies (not too many) give off a lovely fresh flowery odour.
I would not recommend strong-smelling flowers, since some of the people who visit your house may have allergies or sensitivites. Strong floral smells, including lilies, drive me absolutely insane, and I have to get away from them as quickly as possible.

When we sold our house, I bought several of those outlet scented oil warmers in Vanilla (http://www.drugstore.com/qxp70303_333181_sespider/glade/plug_ins_scented_oil_refill_vanilla_breeze.htm) (don't know if they sell them in the UK), and plugged them in all around the house. It's a suggestion of baking aroma, but a lot more subtle.

Jo

[Nienke]

Like Singel, my real estate agent distributed leaflets throughout my neighbourhood. And that's just what did the trick in the end, I sold to a lady who lived about 50 metres away from my house!

[jen]

We're stuck in "house for sale limbo" too, & at this point we're old hands at decluttering, fresh-flower displaying, price-lowering, and bailing out of the house at the last minute - dogs & all - for home showings (I'm suprised we haven't gotten reported for suspicious behavior i.e. circling 'round our house over and over to keep the dogs away while it's being looked at!). Our agent's doing the best she can, but there's a LOT of houses on the market here and for the last month nobody seems to be out looking to buy them sadly.

Though after reading this thread I can at least take heart that our walls are all lovely neutral shades and the exterior is BEIGE which is as bland as you can get! fer cryin' out loud :laugh

[Miggy]

Only ever sold 2 houses and we used different Estate Agents for each and both did 'sack all'. I'm with you Marcia we also ended up doing most of their job for them. I wonder if its any better in NZ?

[Babette & Andy]

Good on you not to put up with low standards of advertising / promoting of your house, they (estate agents) get plenty for their money but don't seem to be in the habit of working for their fees anymore :mad:

You may remember we were in the same position some 12months ago. With one agent first, then added on second, but in the end actually sold privately through: http://www.buyitprivately.com/ highly recommend this service. You can upload your best photo's yourself, and I even put some together on photobucket and sent interested parties the link to that for for further info.

Maybe something to look into? As long as you make your (new) agent aware that you're also advertising on the web privately they can't really have any objections. If you get interested parties who are simply walking past, or through word of mouth neighbours / friends than ask them make their enquiry 'official' through the website instead of arranging an appointment through the estate agent - this way you save yourself their fee and pay for your flight tickets instead!!

Sending positive vibes to all you housesellers out there - keep thinking positive, your time WILL come :yes

Babette

[Trigirl]

We’ve also been in house selling limbo for a while. We put the house on the market at the end of May – by last weekend we’d had one viewing from a couple who were “just looking” and hadn’t even put theirs on the market. We’ve also had the house on with the Little House Company with no results.

So last weekend we decided to go multiple agency and instructed 2 other agents. One of them turned up on the Saturday to take photos and do the details, brought people round for a viewing on Monday and is bringing another set round tomorrow. The first ones have their house on the market and have said they are interested in ours and will make an offer as soon as theirs is under offer. The ones coming tomorrow have nothing to sell so that sounds very promising.

Luckily we’re not in a huge rush yet but its still ever so exciting. And we’re obviously keen to get it sold so that we can get on with booking shippers and flights!

[auskiwi]

I just wanted to offer words of encouragement to those in "house selling limbo"...We started adverstising ours privately in mid-May. We had loads of lookers, all with houses to sell (argh), but no offers. Just as I was beginning to feel we would NEVER sell it or be able to move back to NZ, I received two offers last weekend. Both from people out of state who had seen my ad on 'for sale by owner' type websites.

I have sold two houses privately now, and bought one. In fact Im pretty sure I will never sell with an agent again. I really enjoy the process of commuicating directly with my buyers and find if you are reasonable they will be too. If someone is seriously in the market for a house in your area, they are going to search online and drive through the neighborhood-not just call up an agent. I have saved us a total of over $40k in commissions by selling our last two houses privately!

If you are in the states, www.craigslist.com is a great (and free!) place to list your home - in fact, that is where our buyers of this house saw our ad. Another fee option is www.forsalebyowner.com (I think it was $89 to advertise there until the house is sold). It's definately worth a try privately-you just never know.


Amy.

[marcia]

Well we've had out first no show today!

Got up early (after a very late night's racing!) to fly round and tidy up, only for the viewers to do a no show! :no

Whats wrong with people, :confused: why book an appointment then not turn up don't they realise I've better things to do than clean!!!!

Not a happy bunny :(

[StevieD]

Oh no Marcia, (((hugs))) to you. It's blinkin annoying isnt it.

Hey it will happen :uhoh.

I heard a 'old wives' tale the other month. If you buy a statue of St Joseph and bury it in your garden you will sell your house. So if you want to try........:laugh

Jan (Stevie OH)

[willsken]

Marcia... so sorry to hear that, it's so annoying to waste so much time and energy on rude people. Do you think they really aren't aware of the effort people go to before veiwers come? Chin up... September is coming and that is supposed to be a good month for selling! (According to my agent anyway!!! ;) )

[mossum]

I agree very rude indeed !

& yes september is nearly here , holidays will be over & the kids back at school - the real estate market will pick up as people will want to move pre christmas .

good selling vibes to all

vic x

[olivia]

we seem to be the lucky ones as we sold our house in 2 weeks. the only problem is that we assumed that it would take months and today we had a letter from immigration asking for more details about the company OH is going to work for, so now we are going to be stuck for where to live and might have to make use of my parents spare bedroom for a while.

we also had two no shows which made me very mad as i have a 16 month old boy and a dog. don't they realise how long it takes to get babies and dogs clean/fed/walked in the morning without having to worry about clean floors etc

the estate agents we used were on vebra.com bu they still did very little to actually sell our house and even rang up twice to ask me to show people round because they were short staffed! (i refused as baby/dog made it difficult).

keep your chin up, i'm sure you'll all get offers soon,

olivia

[StevieD]

You mean the estate agents show viewers around the house??? :confused:

News to us! :laugh

[olivia]

oh, maybe they weren't so bad after all!

[DebbieC]

Hi Marcia

Shame about your first lot of agents. Maybe the second will be a bit better. (who are they?)

We were lucky, we sold ours after 6 days on the market (2 weeks ago) but now we are waiting for the Surveyor to come round, I hate the Sold Subject to Contract Bit, we are hoping to complete within 10 weeks as the buyers are FTB and want to move in quickly.... and then we will be homeless as we fly to NZ on 31 December. Oh well family and friends watch for us landing on you.

At least in NZ it seems much better buying and selling houses. Once you have decided you want the house and it goes to contract you have to pay a deposit (I presume if you pull out of the sale you don't get it back, at least that's what I was told) and we completed in 6 weeks which was brilliant seeing as though we are still in the UK. OH a Kiwi so we got a mortgage over there. Why can't our systems be as easy and straightforward.

[auskiwi]

Hi DebbieC,
It is a nail biting experience here in the U.S too-houses don't go "unconditional" until the day before the new owners take posession-so in theory you could have moved all your posessions moved out and have the buyers back out a day before they are due to move in! Ugh! :(

From my recollection (bought and sold a couple of homes in NZ before moving to the U.S) in NZ the "unconditional" date is weeks before the new owners take posession, so at least you can be relatively certain of your sale going through before you move everything out!

We are currently going through the inspection phase of our house sale too-had a building inspection a couple of days ago and an appraisal due soon. Even though we were pretty sure our house was sound it was a real relief to hear we didn't have dry-rot, termites or anything else drastic to worry about! :nice1 Now, fingers crossed for a high appraisal...

Best of luck with the rest of your sale process and good luck to those still waiting for an offer!

Amy.

[firstkings]

I echo the Rightmove comment - sadly it's most people's first call, which is why the "private" for sale sites haven't made much impact here in the UK yet. There needs to be ONE well known website. The NZ websites harcourts/trademe/hooker etc are all much better than the UK ones. I asked our estate agent if they could put a link to my website inthe rightmove entry - so I could put loads of photos etc on the site. "I'll ask our technical guys"...nothing happened....Agents did very little. Money for old rope indeed.For £3k plus I'd expect them to help arrange the house/ have it cleaned/painted/decluttered. Imagine that - a firm that actually helps you sell your house. Now that would be worth money

That's off my chest...phew!

David

[jubjub]

It would be quite easy for them to pop a link in the text of your Rightmove ad, but I guess its against their "rules" as what you have written may not comply with the property misdescriptions act, and could leave them open to legal issues..., they are not just being awkward I dont think.

One thing to bear in mind with Rightmove, its just a website for any agent that wants to join and not a reflection on the quality of the agent, just a way of them to get as many properties in one place as poss, and there are now so many on it, you are bound to get a few bad apples (regrettably).

Hope you guys get all your sales through soon.

[marcia]

Agents did very little. Money for old rope indeed.For £3k plus I'd expect them to help arrange the house/ have it cleaned/painted/decluttered. Imagine that - a firm that actually helps you sell your house. Now that would be worth money

That's off my chest...phew!

David


I quite agree - i think they should be the ones to run around like a nutcase for 2 hours beforea viewing tidying the kids toys away, dusting, polishing and pushing the hoover around (only for the viewers not to turn up - they might think about doing a few more checks on people then, before they ring you up and arrange for a viewer to come around!!)

If they did all this they might have earned a bit more of their high fee - but only a bit mind you!!!! :D

[jubjub]

Marcia, I had several no shows (over two sales), and I worked for the agent that was selling our house, and was friendly with most of the girls arranging the viewings! Its sooo bloomin annoying specially the last sale as we had to hide the dog!

Not defending the "sharks", but they get lied to by the viewers! Its a vicious circle....

[Trigirl]

I'm saying this very quietly so I don't jinx anything but it looks like we may have a buyer. We accepted their offer today - the chain is only two houses.

Eeeeek

We might still make it to NZ for christmas!

[keeweescot]

shhhhhh I'll whisper back to you as you don't want any jinxing! hope all goes well & you get a kiwi christmas this year. i've had 5 winter christmases (sp?) now & i think a summer one would take a bit of getting used to - but i'd give it a go! hopefully '07.
we're rooting for you! :)

[nippa&pippa]

been there with our estate agents, we also got rid of first one :raebanana , now currently with second, they are ok so far but had to drop price twice to hope for quick sale, no luck so far.....still slow market at moment, grrr

[DebbieC]

So disappointed, after selling our house within 6 days for the full asking price and then getting an e-mail on Friday saying completion was to be 23 October, we then got a call from our solicitor saying that the buyers have split up!! and so the sale is not going ahead.

I am absolutely devastated and so angry - that's been 8 weeks where we could have still been marketing the house but the estate agents wouldn't let us.

Now its back to marketing the property and trying to sell it before we fly to NZ on 31 December which is probably just a dream now... oh well we are still going even if I have to give my parents power of attorney to sell it.

Why is the process in UK rubbish.

[Trigirl]

Debbie – I’m so sorry to hear your house news. The process in the UK really is rubbish.

Good for you for deciding to go anyway – I think you are very brave.

[StevieD]

Yup, we stuck in the same boat, not enough buyers viewing the house - are we too dear? Well, we are only going on the agents advice and valuation, but a rival agent is marketing and telling his "clients" to drop the value of the house by 10 grand as it will sell that way, then knock the next house value by 10 grand - easy eh? He gets his commission, you get less money than the market value, and the poor sod further up in the chain gets their house devalued too, and it goes on....
Yup, the house system in England is diabolical, and I just can't wait to get out of this stagnant country once and for all.

http://bestsmileys.com/angry1/5.gif

[Trigirl]

Another possible view on that is that your house is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. So if you have to drop £10k to get a buyer it just wasn't worth what you thought it was.

We’ve dropped ours £20k to get our buyer. But that’s how much its worth – it just turns out we overvalued it in the first place.

[marcia]

The system in the uk makes me soooooo mad - you can't go into a car or for that matter any saleS show room, and expect the seller to 'hold' the goods for you without putting down a deposit - so why on earth when you are making one of the biggest purchases of your life does the 'system' allow this absolute farce, of a buyer saying they are having it, no deposit then be allowed to pull out weeks later with no consequences -

IT STINKS!!!!!!!!! :mad:

Some may say we are brave just going anyway without the house sale, but is it the cowards way out - leaving my dad to deal with the hassle - i don't know but we are not sitting here waiting for a buyer, I'd rather watch paint dry!!!!

Good luck to all of us still waiting - it will happen eventually - but i know we all want it NOW!!!!!

[StevieD]

Yea, I agree with the "worth", but the other agent is not helping the situation, in what is supposed to be a buoyant market, with house prices increasing everyday (according to the press) when in effect, quite the reverse is happening.
Yes marcia, it is abysmal the way the housing market works in this country, both for the people involved in the actual buying and selling and the "businesses" - the solicitors, estate agents etc.

Steve

[willsken]

I agree it really stinks that people can just pull out weeks down the line. We are in the same situation with our renter. The man buying it pulled a couple of days before exchange and that was after delaying a couple of times. It's still on the market and I feel very bitter at the wasted 10 weeks it has sat unmarketed. :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[DebbieC]

My house was only a first time buyers house so if we knocked 10k off the price it would not be worth selling it at all. However although the sale did fall through we did get full asking price, so we are not reducing the price just yet, although if we got a cash offer and quick completion we would drop by 5k.... Definitely not cancelling our flights to NZ though as we are having a month on the North Island and the details have all been arranged by OH sister who lives in Auckland and don't want to let her down. Also our house in Blenheim will be empty by end of January and we may as well live there than here....
Fingers Crossed I have a viewing this afternoon...

[StevieD]

Good luck Debbie!!!

[Trigirl]

yes - fingers crossed for you

[Jameelka]

This all sounds so familiar!
We put our house on the market about 20 months ago,and over the time have had 3 different agents and dropped the price by 30k.
As u may know we thought we had a buyer before we came out here,that was going to rent from us while they sold their house,as they did n't want anyone else to buy it.
We arrived here middle August,they were supposed to move in start of Sep,first week we got here had a call saying that they could n't afford to rent but still want to buy it! Grrrrr!!! just wasted about 6 weeks with all of that! so stuck the house straight back on the market,and within a few days had 3 offers,all under what we asked,but accepted one,by now this was the 15/9,chain of 2 so not too bad! Get an e-mail Friday to say they have pulled out,found another house!!!!!!!!! BUT next day had a cash buyer offer 5k less than asked and we have said yes but want to complete within 5 weeks,so fingers crossed for 3rd time lucky!
We did have some money put by to pay the mortgage for about 6 months but that was it.
But they need to do something about the house sales in the UK,it's just not fair the way the system is,even Scotland has it sussed!
Luckily my parents are power of attorney,but it is sressful being so far away,and also worrying as paying rent here and mortgage over there can only last so long!
So good luck everyone,we know what it's like and we are still praying ours goes through this time,but until the money is in the bank nothing is definate! :exit

[Hannah]

Hi all,
have only had our house up for sale for 3 wks. planning to rent if we don't sell by time we leave in January. Our agents seem to be rubbish also - took over a week to get for sale board up, always answerphone when we ring and a month later still have'nt got house details right on advertising material....
Out of interest, what is this power of attorney thing? Do we need to sign this over to someone before we leave if we leave house up for sale? Can we not just appoint solicitor and leave keys with estate agent????

advice/info welcome please!!!!

thanks, hannah

[Smiler]

Hannah

I may be wrong but I don't think the solicitor should act as POA, probably something to do with conflict of interest etc? Or they can do it in a different way because they are a solicitor but they'll charge for all their services too.

All you need to do is to appoint a decent friend or relative as POA and you can do that at a solicitors by signing a document. That person then acts on your behalf signing papers etc. http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/n6w/index/family_parent/family/managing_financial_affairs.htm

I think Cardy or Paul did this with his house and Marcia is too?

Thats not much help at all really is it. :laugh

[marcia]

You can pick up the forms from somewhere like WHSmith - they wanted to charge us £75 each at the solicitors - we were also advised to have seperate people acting for each of us! So my mum is doing it for me and dad for Kev, not sure if they need to keep the forms or the solicitors - we are going down to see them next week after the shippers have been!