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Dinner With Estate Agent Friend


Starla

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HOLA441

Spent last night having dinner with Estate Agent friend and asked for feedback on how the property market is in their area (South East London).

Number of properties sold so far this year: 5

The only thing keeping the business afloat is their rentals.

Anecdote

Seller: I'd like to sell my flat and I need £195k for it.

EA: You won't get £195k for that flat. It's a waste of my time marketing it. If we market at £175k it will have more chance of selling

Seller: But I need the extra £20k to pay off my debts

EA: No one cares about your debts, THE FLAT IS NOT WORTH 195k

The seller was adamant the flat should be marketed at 195k (no offers) and in actual fact he got a 195k offer which he accepted. When it came to the valuation, it was valued at £175k. The buyer dropped their offer price to £175k, the seller reluctantly accepted.

EA friend said they are exasperated by the amount of sellers that *think* their property is worth "X" based on what their neighbours have sold for in the past. They won't listen. So there is the EA's valuation and the sellers valuation which are about 20% adrift.

"Going to work everyday, to deal with idiots who have no idea, is getting very tedious" I am told.

Edited by Starla
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HOLA442

Spent last night having dinner with Estate Agent friend and asked for feedback on how the property market is in their area (South East London).

Number of properties sold so far this year: 5

The only thing keeping the business afloat is their rentals.

Anecdote

Seller: I'd like to sell my flat and I need £195k for it.

EA: You won't get £195k for that flat. It's a waste of my time marketing it. If we market at £175k it will have more chance of selling

Seller: But I need the extra £20k to pay off my debts

EA: No one cares about your debts, THE FLAT IS NOT WORTH 195k

The seller was adamant the flat should be marketed at 195k (no offers) and in actual fact he got a 195k offer which he accepted. When it came to the valuation, it was valued at £175k. The buyer dropped their offer price to £175k, the seller reluctantly accepted.

EA friend said they are exasperated by the amount of sellers that *think* their property is worth "X" based on what their neighbours have sold for in the past. They won't listen. So there is the EA's valuation and the sellers valuation which are about 20% adrift.

"Going to work everyday, to deal with idiots who have no idea, is getting very tedious" I am told.

That's good to hear. I am looking in SE London although will prob wait at least another year. Anyway keep my eye on the market and there are so many more of the kinds of place i want in my price range compared to a year ago. Really promising.

Have a look at rightmove here and flick the type setting over to flats to see a market being flooded.

Good work.

S

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HOLA443

Slug - Glad to be of assistance. The Estate Agents are getting it, the sellers aren't (yet).

I'm told there aren't too many distressed sellers, but I guess that's in the hands of interest rates.

Hang in there.

Satch - I don't blame sellers for hanging out for the highest price possible. It took around 8 months to achieve it and then not achieve it.

Edited by Starla
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HOLA444

My better half made an offer 30k below the agent's price. The agent came back to ask if we would go up another 5k as the vendor was unhappy at our offer. When my wife pointed out the last price one of those houses sold just down the road was on a par with our offer the agent said they would do some research... WTF? Does this mean EAs don't look on the land registry? What are they basing their prices on?

The agent says they have an offer for the asking price. So why are they wasting their time and money phoning to ask us to raise our offer by 5k?

Its not just vendors who are deluded round here. EA claimed prices are rising and houses are selling like hot cakes. Funny, the average time to sell for a 3 bed is around 180 days and 4 beds around 210 days. Stale cake more like. The last one sold like the house we offered on was on the market for around 8 months and sold 20k below the asking price ~ we looked at it before it went on the market as we knew the owner wanted out so we are in a good position to judge their relative values.

I had a similar thing back in '88/89 when I looked at a house in Yorkshire. The owner started off by putting it on the market at 25k (we are talking Goole here) and we said we were interested but along came other buyers and the price rose to 36k in a couple of months. Fortunately the place I was selling had a buyer cry off so we didn't have the money straight away anyway. A couple of months later the vendor phoned up to ask if we were still interested. Unfortunately for her, I'd become wiser with age and I offered 16k, the vendor was incensed but still hadn't sold when I left the area a few months later.

There are bigger fools out there who will pay over the odds but they are getting pretty thin on the ground.

Offer low and sit on your hands.

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