SteveG Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 My wife and I have just completed (woohoo) on the sale of our flat and what a year it’s been. We originally put it on the market back in January and had 4 valuations - £360,000,£380,000,£380,00 & £425,000 (an amazing £65,000 difference!). Anyway not to be greedy we decided to try and sell it for £380,000. At the time (well in our eyes) we didn’t expect the property market to crash but even then we thought we were playing it “safe”. Anyway, after the first few months the estate agent only managed to get a couple of people through the door and so we decided to drop the price to £359,000. Another month went by and we then changed estate agent as it wasn’t working out. In the mean time the press (who really haven’t helped the situation) just reported doom and gloom. We finally dropped the price to £345,000 and actually sold the place through a private sellers site called http://www.roofandwalls.co.uk for £332,000 .. so that’s £93,000 off the highest valuation! On that note the estate agent said we couldn't sell through RoofAndWalls but they were wrong as they (the EA) weren’t classified as the Sole Seller (otherwise we would have been liable for the fees!) So we accepted the offer and it still took 3 months to complete and that’s with no chain involved!! I’m sure if you got everyone involved in a room for the afternoon we could have sorted it all out there and then! Anyway, we’re out of the property game for a while, renting .. it’s the future! Good luck to anyone who’s selling! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rettah Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 (edited) Good for you. Where was the flat if you don't mind me asking? Was it one of the new build blocks that have gone up in the last 10 years? I remember looking at a flat in St A (in the maltings I think) about 10 years ago and it was tiny for the money. I couldn't believe the prices that people were paying in the new build blocks a couple of years ago and can't see any reason for them not to come down to around the £200k mark. Edit - PS. in terms of the press you have to take the rough with the smooth as it was them who were responsible for talking prices up in the first place.........them and gordon brown. Edited October 30, 2008 by rettah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveG Posted October 30, 2008 Author Share Posted October 30, 2008 Good for you. Where was the flat if you don't mind me asking? Was it one of the new build blocks that have gone up in the last 10 years?I remember looking at a flat in St A (in the maltings I think) about 10 years ago and it was tiny for the money. I couldn't believe the prices that people were paying in the new build blocks a couple of years ago and can't see any reason for them not to come down to around the £200k mark. Hi Rettah, Thanks! It was down in Tyttenhanger (which is about 3 miles outside of St. Albans), we bought it for £299,999 6 years ago and we didn't make any money on it really (well about £25 but we didn't buy it as an investment) but I guess at least we didn't loose any money! The EA's must be finding it really hard especially with all these Private Sellers Sites around. We advertised on the site for free originally and then took out a paid advert (as we thought noone is going to visit RoofAndWalls looking for a flat as hardly anyone has heard of the site!) . We did it for a couple of months using a voucher code a friend gave us coupon-102008, which meant we could advertise on Fish4 Homes, Channel4 Homes and loads of others and it only cost us £20 inc VAT for 2 months (using the voucher code, which may not work anymore). £20 or over £5,000 in commission .. mmmmm Yeah St. Albans is exensive, too many flats and too many people! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveG Posted October 30, 2008 Author Share Posted October 30, 2008 PS. in terms of the press you have to take the rough with the smooth as it was them who were responsible for talking prices up in the first place.........them and gordon brown. Yeah, good point. I think one big lesson we learned was to just get it on the market ASAP. We wanted to sell last year but thought we'd do the place up first .. and then sell in the New Year .. big mistake. Oh well you live and learn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rettah Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 Very interesting on the cost front for selling. If Tesco ever gets its home sales site off the ground it would be curtains for a lot of estate agents. At least now estate agents are having to do some work for their commision rather than just plucking a name of a list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingdangerously Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 Good for you not using an EA. I sold my flat in St Albans earlier in the year through a local EA and they turned out to be such two faced sharks I'm determined that the next time I move I'll go to great lengths to avoid using an EA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherlock Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 That was a very clever plug for your website, Mr Gray... It was the voucher code that gave it away - firstly for making a point of putting it in your post (in bold), secondly the code "coupon10-2008" doesn't really sound like a code that would have been given out in June/July. Reading through your posts again, you've managed to include all the pertinent points you'd want to make in a press release - cost to advertise on the site, saving over EA fees, where your advert will be seen, alerting potential customers to the consequences of being tied into a sole seller agreement... And the most beautiful part is how you garnered immediate acceptance by appealing to the very nature of us all on here... Serving up some uber-bearfood (your supposed sale going through at close to 2002 prices) is guaranteed to make you friends on HPC! Top marks for effort - you can only be a salesman or PR guy to have done that well ;-) Sherlock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussieboy Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 That was a very clever plug for your website, Mr Gray...It was the voucher code that gave it away - firstly for making a point of putting it in your post (in bold), secondly the code "coupon10-2008" doesn't really sound like a code that would have been given out in June/July. Reading through your posts again, you've managed to include all the pertinent points you'd want to make in a press release - cost to advertise on the site, saving over EA fees, where your advert will be seen, alerting potential customers to the consequences of being tied into a sole seller agreement... And the most beautiful part is how you garnered immediate acceptance by appealing to the very nature of us all on here... Serving up some uber-bearfood (your supposed sale going through at close to 2002 prices) is guaranteed to make you friends on HPC! Top marks for effort - you can only be a salesman or PR guy to have done that well ;-) Sherlock Chapeau, Sherlock. Good spot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveG Posted November 3, 2008 Author Share Posted November 3, 2008 That was a very clever plug for your website, Mr Gray...It was the voucher code that gave it away - firstly for making a point of putting it in your post (in bold), secondly the code "coupon10-2008" doesn't really sound like a code that would have been given out in June/July. Reading through your posts again, you've managed to include all the pertinent points you'd want to make in a press release - cost to advertise on the site, saving over EA fees, where your advert will be seen, alerting potential customers to the consequences of being tied into a sole seller agreement... And the most beautiful part is how you garnered immediate acceptance by appealing to the very nature of us all on here... Serving up some uber-bearfood (your supposed sale going through at close to 2002 prices) is guaranteed to make you friends on HPC! Top marks for effort - you can only be a salesman or PR guy to have done that well ;-) Sherlock Hi Sherlock, I’m impressed :-) The post is all true except that I didn’t use the voucher code and the story of how I advertised my property on the site is even more involved. I help run a small software company and as we’ve done a number of property sites in the past and I thought well why not create a private sellers site as we’re getting no where selling our flat with an agent, so I developed RoofAndWalls. Just to prove it here’s the flat but you won’t see it via the Search on the site as we’ve now completed and yes it was our flat! http://www.roofandwalls.co.uk/content/view...5b-38b0757c867b If only we could afford a PR advertising company and the way the posts evolved wasn’t planned but my original post was a valid posting but it was also to aid traffic to the site, I have to admit and why not if it works? The voucher code will still work for anyone who’s interested and as a gesture of good will I’ll waver the cost completely for the first 10 readers of this article. Just email me your RoofAndWalls property link via http://www.roofandwalls.co.uk/content/enquiry.aspx and then I’ll upload it to the other sites for free. I’m not sure how publicly I can keep tabs on how many free slots are left, I guess I could create a new page on RoofAndWalls or perhaps update this page (ideally putting links to the properties that have been posted by users but I’ll probably get banned or something). Ideas welcome! ;-) Sorry guys I got a bit carried away but it is a true story, it's just my site. Great work Sherlock I have to admit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_wilkinson Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 (edited) oops... Edited November 3, 2008 by dr_wilkinson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherlock Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 I'm a sad case really... I love digging around online and finding information... It all started when trying to avoid a stalking ex-girlfriend and realising how easily I could be found by piecing together my online traces - a bit of a shock when I realised how much there was! On which note I had already guessed your sale was real, having found the purchase price of your flat in 2003 (although you were out by £2,499!). My post was intended to be light-hearted - I'm genuinely impressed by your salesmanship. I run a small IT consultancy and the hardest part for me is bringing in business and trying to sell; I'm utterly crap at it and wish I could stay technical, but I know just as well that marketing doesn't come cheap. Interesting to see your Yarg link though - I was at Fujitsu Europe when the PalmSecure partnering was going on - did that get rolled out into the schools in the end? I wish you the best of luck with the site though - I sold via The Little House Company a few years ago, and anything that avoids paying a lot of money for what (in my experience) is a crap service from an EA is very welcome indeed. I have friends who gave up trying to sell a flat in Harpenden over the summer, but if they do go back on the market I'll certainly point them to you! Sherlock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveG Posted November 3, 2008 Author Share Posted November 3, 2008 Well I’m genuinely impressed with your detective skills Sherlock! Thanks for the telling your friends, more than happy to do it for free as well. I don’t want to go off the property thread too much so contact me via the contact link above and we can trade war stories ;-) The offer is genuine for the free adverts on Fish4, Channel4 Homes etc .. but I can only afford to really give away 10 property postings, all I ask is if you like the service then tell your friends .. why give Estate Agents £1000’s for pretty much nothing when most sales come from sites like RightMove, FindAProperty, Fish4Homes etc .. Interestingly on that note RightMove and FindAProperty wouldn’t allow me to advertise properties on their site as RoofAndWalls isn’t an estate agent, are they against private sellers sites? I’m sure as time goes on and more and more people turn to selling their property on private sellers’ sites like RoofAndWalls .. and more EA’s go out of business they’ll change their tune. As mentioned we’re renting a 4 bedroom (well it was advertised as a 4 bedroom but it’s more like 2 bedroom and 2 box rooms) house. It’s a new build and there are a few left for sale for over £500,000 but in today’s market you’d have to be mad to pay that. Also, the build quality isn’t great. I know new builds settle and you get a few cracks but there are cracks everywhere and some of them are 3mm in width! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tbatst2000 Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 Sorry guys I got a bit carried away but it is a true story, it's just my site.Great work Sherlock I have to admit! Now go and say 20 Hail Mary's and all will be forgiven. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherlock Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 Interestingly on that note RightMove and FindAProperty wouldn’t allow me to advertise properties on their site as RoofAndWalls isn’t an estate agent, are they against private sellers sites? Absolutely - Rightmove was set up by a consortium of estate agents so they have a very vested interest. I remember that Mann Countrywide were involved from the start; not sure who else... Back when I advertisd on The Little House Co (similar principle) in 2004 ish their listings were added to Rightmove, but that stopped soon afterwards. I guess the big agencies realised that they were shooting themselves in the foot by allowing private sellers to use their facilites so pulled the plug. Hopefully over the next few years Rightmove will lose some of its dominance in the market as revenue suffers (all down to those marketing budgets again!) Sherlock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveG Posted November 3, 2008 Author Share Posted November 3, 2008 Absolutely - Rightmove was set up by a consortium of estate agents so they have a very vested interest. I remember that Mann Countrywide were involved from the start; not sure who else... Arhh ok yeah that makes sense. I'm not sure about your experience with RightMove but mine is that RightMove is soooooo slow. Also if you say I'm looking for a property in and give a post code and then say "exact area" .. the results are rubbish and you get properties miles away from the post code in question. It's a shame I haven't got the marketing budget as er.. I'm not going to mention the site (see above ) but I can get it a lot closer and I'm sure my team can write any cool features people come up with. It also looks like they have got yet another site update due to be launched. Perhaps we could make a free site for "the people" but I don't think my wife would be impressed. This is a very cool tool (and nothing to do with me!) http://www.property-bee.com/ it basically allows you to keep tabs on property description and price fluctuations. It only works on Firefox I think and I guess has already been talked about on this site somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveG Posted November 3, 2008 Author Share Posted November 3, 2008 Now go and say 20 Hail Mary's and all will be forgiven. Done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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