Someone, please buy our house!

[homesick_american 1]

It certainly looks a nice house. The one thing about it which might stop me making an offer if I was in the market is the offers in access of. It conveys a certain amount of unknown about what you might accept whereas if potential buyers are viewing other houses which have the normal maximum asking price shown at least they know what the price is the seller will accept. With yours they don't known that, and that might put them off making an offer.

It is a bit of psychology. The person who brought our house paid 5 grand less then the asking price, but 5 grand more than the agent said it would probably make. They were happy because they had managed to get it below the asking price and to them saved money. Offers in access of doesn't give a potential buyer that possibility. Just my 2 cents worth, if it is worth that.

Thanks for your suggestion. Well we had it on the market for 134,950 with our a first estate agent and our new agent suggested the whole offers over situation. I was never really familiar with it and thought it was just the system that was done in Scotland. I think if we dont have an offer in a few weeks, we will reevaluate the price. I would be perfectly happy with 129 or even slightly less at this point!

I also think in the US that people are a bit more bold, putting in cheeky offers, etc. Whereas in the UK, people seem not to dare. I'd be happy with a cheeky offer - at least it is a starting point for negotiation!

Uh people in the UK DO make cheeky offers. We had an offer for 20k GBP below our original 195k asking price.

[Converse34 1]

Uh people in the UK DO make cheeky offers. We had an offer for 20k GBP below our original 195k asking price.

That's fine - at least it opens the doors for talks! I love to negotiate.

[Linababe 0]

Yes it can take some time selling I had the same issue - but then again my fiance dave and i started our visa last year but we put it on hold for a while - so my house was up on th market end of last year but then off agai and then when we worked things out i put it back on the matrket in May this year. Your house looks really good for a very good price nothing like mie lol - mine is a 2 bed semi-detached and it was on the market for £132,000. Just this week I had an offer of £123,000 im thinking of taking it!! Lucky for me i have aback up which is one of the neighbours but he will only go up to £120,000.

In my case I really wanted to sell to an invester rather than a family wanting to move right in - as I need the money from the sale to organise all the other things for my move so I had a criteria on who i sold to. I just didnt want the hassle of moving to another place temperary with my 3 cats and then move to states. So I have an agreement to stay in this house for atleast 2 months after the sale is completed!

Good luck I really do hope you do sell quick as I said its in good condition and for that price it is not bad! but bear in mind ppl that want to buy a home for themselves to move in are finding it hard to get mortages now a days - hence why i insisited on investers as most of them have money upfront and dont have to take a bigger mortgage.

Lina (UKC)

[Linababe 0]

Oh yeah i did find that also about pricing the house - I actually thought of placing a higher price and assumed ppl will knock me down - but my agents told me to price it reasonably low and then move up - bbut as it turns out i got a lower offer anyways but its not bad as I am happy with this offer:) I also need the money from this house sale to buy us a bigger place in the states - and I believe in Ohio where I will be moving to the house market is not too good as in ppl are defaulting mortgages etc and it seems alot of houses are going foreclosure - and well with the profit I make we should be able to buy a house outright with no mortgage!

NOTE TO MYSELF!: I MUST go over to my agents today and sign the contract to take the offer!! Lets just hope te buyer doesnt back out:)

Lina

PS I am with Best-Move Estate Agents - www.bestmove.uk.com - they have a few investers lined up if you wish to sell to an invester:) if you contact them and decide to put your house up with them tell them Lina from Leicester mentioned them:) they will take great care of ya:)

Edited July 20, 2007 by Linababe

[Linababe 0]

PS I am with Best-Move Estate Agents - www.bestmove.uk.com - they have a few investers lined up if you wish to sell to an invester:) if you contact them and decide to put your house up with them tell them Lina from Leicester mentioned them:) they will take great care of ya:)

Sorry tried to edit this but couldnt - umm scratch that - i looked at the site and they seem to have houses in leicester but i thought she had said verbally they have houses for sale all over the place:)

[Fandango 1,439]

I don't know how the mkt works over there, but do the estate agents show you what's sold and for how much? We do a CMA here in FL- a market analysis which shows comparable properties which have sold within the most recent timeframe. It gives sellers a good idea of reasonable pricing, among a lot of other things.

All I can say is the mkt here is completely different this year than it was for the past two. It's totally chugging along nicely, but it's deffo one which belongs to the buyers. Lots of homes on the mkt, tons for a buyer to have his/her 'picky' head on. I tell the sellers that I work with that it's a 9 month market....where 2 years ago they were pending a sale within a day or two.

Anything will sell at the right price. Depends on how motivated you are. If you guys arent' going to buy a home within a year in the US, I'd personally say why not rent? You'll have someone paying your mtg, and who knows what will happen if you can wind up swinging to keep that house AND getting into a house here.

I'm sure there are rental companies you can speak to. GOOD LUCK!

Edited July 20, 2007 by LisaD

[MargotDarko 0]

Good luck with selling the house.

I hope you don't mind a bit of unsolicited suggestion - the inside pictures and the garden pictures are really nice, but the outside view of the house confuses me. Is that just the back? Or is that the main entrance? If it's not the main entrance, can you post a picture of the main entrance?

[homesick_american 1]

Uh people in the UK DO make cheeky offers. We had an offer for 20k GBP below our original 195k asking price.

That's fine - at least it opens the doors for talks! I love to negotiate.

We eventually lowered the price to 185k and accepted an offer at 180k. The estate agent did all the negotiating though. We sure paid him enough to!

[homesick_american 1]

Renting can be an option but you should use a broker to rent your house so they can market it for you and do the maintenance since you don't want to have to deal with that from overseas. The downside of that is that they take a chunk of your monthly rent payment for that and if you've just bought the house recently (within the last couple of years) you may find that you can barely cover the mortgage payment.

Also, with the Bank of England threatening to raise interest rates there could be a slowdown on the cards for the UK market. Your house is VERY reasonably priced and well within the affordable range for a lot of people including first-time buyers but every interest rate hike makes real estate less affordable for buyers. Plus the psychology of the market could shift and people could hold off on buying, expecting a fall. Right now prices are still going up, but the York market started to skid while our house was on the market. In our old neighborhood there are still houses on the market that have been on the market for almost a year and the general feeling around there was one of pending gloom. Then again, York is not a wealthy area and thousands of jobs have vanished just in the last couple of years so that's having a knock-on effect.

I'd be patient; six weeks is not really that long and with the introduction of HIPs the market is being flooded with property so there's a lot more competition. You could try multiple listings with multiple estate agents but make sure the house only appears once on rightmove.co.uk and that there isn't a forest of 'For Sale' boards out front because it makes you look desperate. The commissions will go way up on a multiple listing but in our case it was the right thing to do. We had ours on with three estate agents and did sell it. We had it on with Hunters for a while and they are RUBBISH. I see you're not on with them but if you're considering multiple listings then my advice is to steer clear of Hunters. Right Move were OK; they didn't sell our house but they had lots of people coming through the door. Rentons were the ones who sold our house in the end. They're part of the Countrywide group of realtors and they trade under the 'Bridgford' or 'Evans & Evans' name in Manchester. I can't say anything about those two organizations but we were VERY impressed with Rentons. In the end they sold our house and that's all that matters, but they were also reachable at all times during business hours and they kept us up to date at every stage of the sale.

[Fandango 1,439]

D is one of those born under a lucky star....seriously, the man has such luck that it makes my head spin! (well he IS engaged to me, LOL)

Seriously tho, when we talked of selling the house, I kept badgering him to speak to an agent, get the house ready, etc. It wasn't a real priority for him, so he was always pushing it aside. I was really getting narked about it! Anyways, one night he goes out into the back to put out the bins, and he sees this man in the street...they strike up a convo...the guy is looking for a house to buy for his daughter. Daughter lives out of the country or somewhere else, and he's trying to lure her back.

So D says he's 'thinking' about sellin the house...guy wants to see it...he comes in, LOVES it...they go into contract to buy the house for full asking price! Along the way, the guy lets it slip that since the daughter was coming back at the end of the year, it was not enough time to rent to someone, and too long to leave it sitting vacant. He then asks D if he wants to rent it back from him...D plays the 'I can't afford it' card...then they guy ASKS IF HE'D LIVE THERE FOR FREE!

This was last year...they have a lease for 0 monthly rent with a 30 day notice to leave. It's now July of the following year and the daughter HASN'T COME HOME YET!

We're expecting the shoe to drop anyday now...but he's had about a year or so rent free.

Jammy git.

[lizaanne 0]

Wow! Really nice house! I am always amazed though by the housing prices in the UK compared to here in the US. Just amazing!! We are doing so much better here than we would if I moved to the UK (our original plan). Glad he decided to move to me and not the other way around!

Good luck selling! It really is a lovely house! I would suggest some bedroom photos - people like to see what sort of storage you have.

~Liza

[Converse34 1]

Good luck with selling the house.

I hope you don't mind a bit of unsolicited suggestion - the inside pictures and the garden pictures are really nice, but the outside view of the house confuses me. Is that just the back? Or is that the main entrance? If it's not the main entrance, can you post a picture of the main entrance?

Thanks for your comments. At the suggestion of our agent, we did not have a front of house picture, but it does frankly, look like an ex council house. And even though we redid the front garden, new fence, etc. it still wasn't all the appealing. So he suggested taking a picture of the back so people could see all the extensions. Also, with the bedrooms, they were really the only rooms we didn't redo 100%, so some of the wall paper is not all that attractive, so we didn't include those either.

So, HA you were right, we did get a low ball offer yesterday. First 119, then 121. We told them we would think about it over the weekend, but Conrad has decided it is too low and we still want something closer to 129. But I am encouraged that we have gotten an offer and know it is a waiting game.

Lina - good luck with your house - keep us posted!!

[Fandango 1,439]

So, HA you were right, we did get a low ball offer yesterday. First 119, then 121. We told them we would think about it over the weekend, but Conrad has decided it is too low and we still want something closer to 129. But I am encouraged that we have gotten an offer and know it is a waiting game.

Lina - good luck with your house - keep us posted!!

Are you going to counteroffer?

8 grand doesn't seem too far away for everyone to come to an agreement!

[Mags 112]

Good luck with selling the house.

I hope you don't mind a bit of unsolicited suggestion - the inside pictures and the garden pictures are really nice, but the outside view of the house confuses me. Is that just the back? Or is that the main entrance? If it's not the main entrance, can you post a picture of the main entrance?

Thanks for your comments. At the suggestion of our agent, we did not have a front of house picture, but it does frankly, look like an ex council house. And even though we redid the front garden, new fence, etc. it still wasn't all the appealing. So he suggested taking a picture of the back so people could see all the extensions. Also, with the bedrooms, they were really the only rooms we didn't redo 100%, so some of the wall paper is not all that attractive, so we didn't include those either.

So, HA you were right, we did get a low ball offer yesterday. First 119, then 121. We told them we would think about it over the weekend, but Conrad has decided it is too low and we still want something closer to 129. But I am encouraged that we have gotten an offer and know it is a waiting game.

Lina - good luck with your house - keep us posted!!

My house was an ex-council house and they can come with some stigma attached. In my experience though they tend to be sturdy and well built houses and I think the layouts of them can be perfect. However, I do find that people like to see the front of the house as a rule, so I think maybe a front and back shot would be good.

People are going to be able to tell it is ex-council - I could - so I wouldn't try to disguise it too much. Work with what you've got and, from what I can see, you have presented it well (no clutter, light, bright, modern and airy looking) so you should get a better offer soon. *crosses fingers*

I sold my house last year but I was lucky. I had a buyer offering full asking price within 3 hours of going on the market. But I was in the outer suburbs of London where the smaller houses are leapt at by first time buyers. I had also removed all clutter and painted it in neutral colours, exactly what the average buyer is looking for.

Good luck and keep your spirits up; it really is a lovely looking little (big!!) house.

Edited July 22, 2007 by mags

[Converse34 1]

Are you going to counteroffer?

8 grand doesn't seem too far away for everyone to come to an agreement!

I don't think they can go any higher. They first said 119 and we said to the agent that we would consider around 125. He came back and said and they said no, it stands at 119. So we said No. Then they came back and said 121. We just said we would think about it over the weekend. The agent also said we could accept it and if higher offer came in between now and the time we close - we could accept it. But I think it is still too low.

My house was an ex-council house and they can come with some stigma attached. In my experience though they tend to be sturdy and well built houses and I think the layouts of them can be perfect. However, I do find that people like to see the front of the house as a rule, so I think maybe a front and back shot would be good.

People are going to be able to tell it is ex-council - I could - so I wouldn't try to disguise it too much. Work with what you've got and, from what I can see, you have presented it well (no clutter, light, bright, modern and airy looking) so you should get a better offer soon. *crosses fingers*

I sold my house last year but I was lucky. I had a buyer offering full asking price within 3 hours of going on the market. But I was in the outer suburbs of London where the smaller houses are leapt at by first time buyers. I had also removed all clutter and painted it in neutral colours, exactly what the average buyer is looking for.

Good luck and keep your spirits up; it really is a lovely looking little (big!!) house.

Wow - 3 hours! That was the pipe dream I was living in and hoping for!