vicster Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Does anyone know what percentage of property that goes on the market actually sells? Wondering because I've noticed lots of houses that come onto the market for a few months only to be withdrawn. Is this normal? Or does lots of houses being withdrawn mean something? I imagine you'd get some, but I've seen lots... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whistleblower Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 A very good question indeed. One of the Estate Agents many tricks to get potential buyers on their books. How often have you asked agents to view a property only to be told "it's withdrawn/under offer" Did it ever exist to be sold?? Once my injunction is lifted I will explain the "back to back" scam which lines many an agents back pocket. Bring estate agents into state ownership brothers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vicster Posted March 4, 2006 Author Share Posted March 4, 2006 A very good question indeed. One of the Estate Agents many tricks to get potential buyers on their books. How often have you asked agents to view a property only to be told "it's withdrawn/under offer" Did it ever exist to be sold?? Once my injunction is lifted I will explain the "back to back" scam which lines many an agents back pocket. Bring estate agents into state ownership brothers. Injunction? I'm intrigued.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Once in a lifetime Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Injunction? I'm intrigued.... Read whistleblower's first post ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vicster Posted March 4, 2006 Author Share Posted March 4, 2006 Read whistleblower's first post ??? Thanks, Burnt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyShears Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 A very good question indeed. One of the Estate Agents many tricks to get potential buyers on their books. How often have you asked agents to view a property only to be told "it's withdrawn/under offer" Did it ever exist to be sold?? Once my injunction is lifted I will explain the "back to back" scam which lines many an agents back pocket. Bring estate agents into state ownership brothers. Bait and switch. Some Estate Agents in Harrow were "done" for that. One in particular that I remember had a whole lot of really cheap places to rent in their window. When I went in all of them had "gone". But they were still there weeks later. Funny thing was, I'd later on read in the paper about an EA being done for this by trading standards. Some time later I met trading standards people at the harrow "fair" (or whatever it was called). I wanted to ask them about whether this agent had been the one "done" but couldn't remember the name of the agents. But the trading standards people went on to say "was it XX, was it YY, was it ZZ?", listing a whole lot of agents by name. The trick I'd like to hear about if the injunction is lifted is the "someone else is interested in the property" ploy. Whenever I speak to anybody who has bought a property they all say that someone was interested in the same property, often going on to say that therefore they couldn't offer less than the asking price. I've heard this while looking around for properties to rent too. Never quite sure if some of these competitors are plucked out of thin air. Billy Shears Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrashConnoisseur Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Back-to-back selling. This is when an Estate Agent recommends acceptance of an offer from a 'buyer' with whom he is in collusion. The property is then quickly resold for its real value and the profit shared with the agent. The practice is as old as the hills and prevalent in many lines of business... 'Fiddles': http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,...,782336,00.html Almost all Segelman's violins, it was alleged, had been valued by Biddulph and James Warren at "substantially less than their true market worth"; the instruments were then bought for those sums by Howard Gottlieb or the dealers Bein & Fushi -- and even by the "independent" valuer James Warren. Biddulph received thousands of pounds worth of commissions from subsequent deals that were not disclosed to the estate. Months later, instruments were resold at huge mark-ups, sometimes double the original sale price, the dealers again pocketing a share of the profits. So while in December 1992 Gottlieb paid $2.7m for five pieces, including Segelman's 1717 Stradivari from the master's "golden period" for $1.75m and a 1689 "Arditi" Stradivari for $704,000, Biddulph then immediately provided Gottlieb -- who had paid him a $500,000 "consultancy fee" -- with a $4.52m insurance valuation for those instruments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trompe le monde Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 TLM Does anyone know what percentage of property that goes on the market actually sells?Wondering because I've noticed lots of houses that come onto the market for a few months only to be withdrawn. Is this normal? Or does lots of houses being withdrawn mean something? I imagine you'd get some, but I've seen lots... Funnily enough, I was wondering exactly this to day. Doing my periodic google search on my road name, (just to check what's going on), showed that the house opposite me was up for around 15% above what would generally be accepted as current market value for the road. That was about a month ago but no EA board ever appeared outside the house. Today there's no trace of that property to be found , and, annoyingly, I can't actually remember who it was in with. Of course it's perfectly feasible that the owners put it on the market to test the water, declined a board, and have now pulled it. On the other hand, it fits the MO here, whilst also inflating selling price on the books. Unfortunately, I don't know the owners, or I'd ask about it.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
underpressuretobuy Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Does anyone know what percentage of property that goes on the market actually sells? Wondering because I've noticed lots of houses that come onto the market for a few months only to be withdrawn. Is this normal? Or does lots of houses being withdrawn mean something? I imagine you'd get some, but I've seen lots... This has been annoying me too as I have seen houses disappear from the market and you wait for the information to come up on the land registry and it never does. The trouble is, I know that sometimes sales are recorded by the land registry very late and sometimes not at all. So there is no way of telling whether a property sold or not. There are two properties principally that interest me, one was on sale for nearly a million pounds (no, I wasn't looking to buy it) and is situated on a busy, noisy road in Ilford. I thought 'No way is it worth that' but then it disappeared and I have no way of knowing whether it sold for a ludicrous price or whether someone had a word and the sellers took it off the market. The other I would like to know about is the one almost opposite me (which my Mum always comments on as evidence of a thriving market) but the 'Sold' Board has been up for months and months but still nothing on the land registry. I honestly think that if someone withdraws a property from being for sale it should be advertised as such. On the point made by another poster - lettings agents always have properties advertised in their windows which are not available around here. I ignore them because they are always beautiful places at just below market rent and they have always 'just gone'. Yeah, right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyShears Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 On the point made by another poster - lettings agents always have properties advertised in their windows which are not available around here. I ignore them because they are always beautiful places at just below market rent and they have always 'just gone'. Yeah, right. If the properties stay up in the window long after they are going without "let" or similar indication that they are not available, then I believe that is illegal. Try reporting them to Trading Standards. Billy Shears Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrashConnoisseur Posted March 5, 2006 Share Posted March 5, 2006 I honestly think that if someone withdraws a property from being for sale it should be advertised as such. [underpressuretobuy] It's no one else's business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vicster Posted March 5, 2006 Author Share Posted March 5, 2006 I honestly think that if someone withdraws a property from being for sale it should be advertised as such. [underpressuretobuy] It's no one else's business. Perhaps not advertised as such, but EAs shouldn't claim to have sold something - which is exactly what they do rather than admit that it's been withdrawn. I get the impression that lots of people test the market. It's also crossed my mind that others might want to upgrade then realise that they can't actually afford to because the difference in price between what they have to sell and what they'd like to buy is too great - I'm assuming this would happen more when prices are high. Having said that, if you buy at the top and prices fall, you wouldn't be able to do it either. So I wonder if and when there's a point in the cycle when this kind of thing is more prevalent, or if actually the numbers bear no relation to the market at all. It can't be good for EAs, I assume they lose money on these non-sales. My heart doesn't bleed exactly, but I do feel a little hint of sympathy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnG Posted March 5, 2006 Share Posted March 5, 2006 A possible explanation for the 'disappearing property' is 'tyrekicking vendors'. We have one of those opposite us. Every year he puts his prop on the market, working his way through all the local estate agents. When he gets serious offers he 'changes his mind' and withdraws from the market. :angry: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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