When selling a Property do you prefer to be in or out when the Buyers look round , Do you leave it to the Estate Agents or show the people round yourself .
The property opposite me is being sold , and when viewers come round the young mother and 2 children jump in the car and drive off , leaving them to look round with the agents .
Im wondering how long she can keep this up for .
They probably don’t have a choice. They probably need the money from this sale to get another place. I would prefer to have another place to go, but not everyone has that luxury.
I wouldn’t choose to be in the place when people are looking around, if I could help it. I’d be watching them like a hawk and probably scare them off. But that’s another luxury that only some can afford. The estate agent takes a cut for showing them around.
yes I think I put buyers off when I chose to show them round , when they wanted to go looking in my Wardrobes I said No .
I mean you dont buy a property on the look of the inside of a Wardrobe do you …
The agent and buyer would much prefer the seller to be elsewhere, especially if they are serious about selling the property.
I suppose if the vendor was immobile …but that isn’t a regular occurrence!
I’d hate to be around when a viewing is taking place.
Best left to the agent, the least contact with potential purchasers the better, the situation can become involved and less business like.
I have always preferred to be at home when prospective buyers come to view because I think I know more about the property I’m living in than the estate agent does.
I like to be there to show them round, point out the positive aspects of the property and location and answer any questions they may have.
I do know folk who prefer the estate agent to show viewers around - a good friend of mine recently sold her house - she’d lived there all her life, from birth, for 73 years, and her parents had lived there since they first got married, so selling it and moving on to a new smaller home after her parents died was an emotional time for her - she couldn’t bear to be in the house when prospective buyers came to view it, so she always arranged to be out when the agent brought them round.
I have never entrusted my property sales to estate agents. Instead, I have always sold via a single 2 line advert in a national newspaper. e.g. 4 bed freehold detached brick & tile West Sussex property overlooking the Solent - ÂŁ700K phone 01243 123456. My first sale saw two eager viewers outbidding each other to buy my close to Heathrow house. The successful buyer was a Heathrow worker who paid in excess of my asking price.
I wouldn’t know where to start in selling a property myself , But I guess theres a few that do , my worry would be if I was being Scammed .You would need to keep your wits about you
Selling a property is a nightmare I should know having moved 5 times. The biggest problem we came across is those that just want to be nosey with no intention to buy. Complete time wasters even though agents try and see how interested they are. Buyers will lie through their teeth about the situation they are in as to ready to buy or not.
We even had one who took it as far as exchanging contract at the solicitors then backed out, only later to find he didn’t have the capital to get something half the price.Another claimed he had sold his house we found out later no one wanted to buy because it was on the edge of a quarry. the strangest one that backed out was further back in the chain as someone had shot and killed himself, so the chain collapsed
If we sold again,which we have no intention of, we would get the buyers to put up front 5% of the value of the property with no return if they backed out. Well worth making it a legal commitement considering one looses out considerably if they do in legal fees. Best test to see how intent they are to buy.
There are a couple of things worth noteing, ie no agent no agent fees. In other words if for example you put your home on the market through an agent yet previously told someone you are selling up and the agent has no input, ie advertising, the agent is not allowed to charge their selling fees. The agent has to prove that via a board outside, shop window advert or on the internet attracted the buyer in question.
Next is agents selling fees. How many try and do a deal on their commission? not many I guess, everything is negotiable. even getting a 5 percent reduction on their fees could save several thousands of pounds, harder if with multiple agents.
Then it is not only having sold the property it is agreeing a moving date (out by midday is normal) there is removal arrangements - possibly storage if not moving in to new same day. Here we had to force the seller to get out with threats as he wasn’t prepared to go on the agreed date.
Of course buying a new off the plans home from a builder can be another horror story. One we bought did we found out there was a public footpath right through the centre of the house, true, the builder had to get the planning dept of the council to move the paths several feet away to an open space. Snagging (fault finding)Is another thing. We did it on a new house and when moved in all the cupboads kitchen fronts had gone, the build used them for next door snagging then bought them back
One to watch out for is buying freehold but the builder retaining local amenities such as keeping footpath grass verges in good order to name but one. My son got caught out and has to pay an annual fee as part of the buying contract, even though he was not the original owner
One major thing is a buyer will always try and knock the price down,don’t do it ,although we had to with the kennels. Buyers know the asking price so should be prepared to meet it, if not ask yourself if they are really interested or not
my word Speedy you have some tales to tell , footpath through your house , "I don’t believe it "
Kitchen doors missing … You are the Real life Mr Meldrew ,
And how did you feel when one in the chain shot themselves , did you say to Mrs Speedy another fine mess .
The estate agent I used to sell my last property only showed prospective purchasers around who had buyers their properties, that solved the time wasters and nosy parker problem.
My friend in her 80s has tried for 8 months to move , having got to exchange two buyers pulled out the day before, one saying they couldn’t get mortgage other no reason . She has sold again and waiting to exchange , it’s cost money as solicitors had to be paid for 2 other buyers searches paperwork etc .
Many years ago had house on market , a couple came and fell in love it was perfect they said , the coal fire burning in the grate I offered a cup of tea to chat ( agent wasn’t there ) they sat by fire and wanted house. We shook hands and I never saw them again !
Another house I had on the market , agent had viewings arranged over Easter weekend . Good Friday a buyer offered asking price as long as house taken off the market immediately, I accepted , all other viewings cancelled . The Tuesday after Easter agent rang me to say they were now offering 2 grand less ! As it was I had to accept .
Another house I moved into was left absolutely filthy , nothing cleaned , everything had been moved out and 35 years of muck left behind . When I viewed an old man lived in it , nothing had been done for years but we were assured by daughter it would be cleaned .
@susan_m what a stressfull situation for anyone in their 80s, and your Home selling too .
I wonder does there come a time when age stops one from moving …?
Friend is 82 and very active with a good mind and wants the money , so she’s moving from a three bed large semi into a 2 bed flat . She can enjoy having a spend up and lower bills .
As for me I hope I leave here feet first , the stress of the highs and lows are too much for me plus its about ÂŁ8k to move with all the costings .
Although saying that I saw a lovely 1 bed apartment on rightmove recently had a huge balcony with view but the ground rent and maintenance costs huge 
Yes it is actually true, the builders went ahead and built and they had to move the official path to a new location. This was found out by our the solicitors when doing the searches Our solicitors actually stopped the purchase until the builders sorted it out.
Apparently in the chain of buyers we were in the one who shot himself was a farmer we found out. So not only did our buyers have to back out so did their purchases and a couple of others in the chainwe understood, again told by our solicitors.
We were pissed off as this as not the first time buyers backed out it took us 6 years to sell the kennels. The problem was one was a commercial sale and the bungalow classed as a private dwelling. Getting hold of agents that dealt with both was hard enough and the one that sold for us lived in Sussex and we were in the West midlands. The other issue was buyers getting a mortgage, lenders are not keen to give a a mortgage unless the company books showed worth lending against for a 7 year period. we originally got one from an overseas bank. everything I mentioned is true even down to the “snagging”. AM NOT LYING ELIZA
I had to sell my mothers house after she died just before covid hit. As there was no one living there the estate agent was able to show people around and I had a buyer who had sold her house and not in a chain. Almost 12 months later the sale had not gone through. on questioning the estate agent I was told the buyer couldn’t get a mortgage!
I asked another agent to sell it and in a month I’d had 15 viewings and 3 offers. While I was looking at the offers I got a call from another of the people in the office of another offer. A young couple with mortgage arranged (let down on 3 purchases) offered £5,000 more than the asking price.This I accepted and the sale went quickly through.
Not being able to get a Mortgage seems to be a common theme , When I had my home up for sale , I had a Pub Landlord view , he was giving up his tenancy at the pub . Him and his wife love my property , and I thought I had a buyer , my EA was giving out Mortgage advice to them , I waited a couple of weeks before walking into the estate agent to chase up what was happening ,Oh i was told they couldnt afford a mortgage …
Some times i wondered what my EA was doing , they eventually packed up and left my area.
We are getting a lot of Hong Kong people settling in the new builds around my area , they building communities together … A second veiwing to the house opposite are Hong Kong people , Ive been told they are Cash Buyers .
Its good that they will bring money into the Uk and skills too.
We’ve just been through trying to sell, back in November we accepted an offer above our asking price, we then put an offer on a house, 3 weeks ago our buyer pulled out, turns out their sale had fallen through for the 4th time.We remarketed lots of viewings but only one offer below what we wanted making our purchase not viable, so we pulled out and took our house off the market.
My friend sold her house last year and she wasn’t present at any viewing. I think the estate agent preferred it that way. She sold it anyway and is now nicely settled in hew new home.
I’ve considered selling out house come the spring but I know I couldn’t stand the hassle & worry of it all… . I asked Ady & Paula if they will handle the sale for me & they said yes.
