We're currently selling our first home, at least we were until the buyer dropped out 2 days before contract exchange and now we're tearing our hair out with worry over what happens next and whether the place we're buying will be lost.
Are any lifers able to offer any words of advice or just any stories to help keep us positive?
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Give the agents some shit though
Not the end of the world but teeth shatteringly annoying, should be financial penalties for people who fuck a out like that
Good luck
The owners of the house we were buying said they would wait a little while and it all worked out in the end. And as someone has said above, you shouldn't have too much trouble selling at the moment the way the market is.
Good luck!
Thinking about it again now: A buyer that dropped out may want some money for it. Would be great if agent kept a copy to share with next potential buyer too, assuming no showstoppers in there. I suppose it could be commercial in confidence and not transferable, I.e liabilities for surveyor and their need to protect their market of future business?
Had more frank discussions and had to give more home truths to estate agents than I care to think. I'm sure there are good people involved but the bigger firms (wards, your move, RobinsonMichaelJackson take your pick) are utterly chock full of people who would inject a family member with full bore AIDS to get a sniff if comission.
Estate agents are the biggest cunts on the planet, its that simple.
We had our old house on for 770k and after ONE DAY she presents me an offer for 690k and advises me to take it.
"OK, I will accept the offer if you cut your $30,000 commission to $10,000 on account of the fact you have done absolutely fuck all - deal?"
Unsurprisingly the rancid turd rejected that offer and we ended up selling through another agent for a lot closer to the asking price.
The sooner an 'Uber' for real estate emerges and sends this shower of cunts back to the dole queue the better.
They are highly annoying and get money for doing fuck all.
We are currently in the middle of selling our property, and it's taken since March and one person did drop out of the 3 person chain early on but another buyer soon stepped in fortunately.
I would only suggest direct dialog with any new buyer you find, and keep them onside, and as others have suggested retrieve any documentation that you can, survey etc.
We've sold and will be renting rather than try and tie both ends up at the same time, OK if you can do it, but the process is still incredibly stressful.
Good luck.
#Edit, I have to say I have the same opinion as others when it comes to Estate Agents, but the particular guy dealing with our sale has been on the ball all the way. (A rare commodity - have him stuffed)
We sold the house in a week all for a fixed fee of £750.00 instead of the 1.5% or 1% commission I would have paid an estate agent.
After the above I would never use a high street agent again.
Good luck on you if you saved a couple of grand.
The market is more stable now, compared to 3-4 months ago, I spent a year researching the area, and stayed down there on a couple of occasions to make sure I liked it.
Ironically, I did my own survey, albeit my sons are in the building trade, one is a building project manager, and I did work on several housing magazines over the past 40 years, Home buyers report's are very limited, and yes I worked for the RICS, so please do not take my example. I have done immense research on the house, the owners, even who issued the Gas certificate, Electrics, and visited the local council on 2 different visits on searches\Planning\ Building regs\Enviroment etc.
The way I see it I will do it, then if it goes wrong, I only have myself to blame. My money, so my problem no doubt.
Noticed now days there is a reluctance to deal with buyers and sellers directly.
Of course the reality is living there, ask me in 6 month's....... actually do not bother, I will be moaning about it, the sound of the sea, or somesuch, be rude not to eh!
Saying that, if there are any estate agents on here that can get me survey, party wall work, or designing simple extensions, I will take back my earlier wide boy comments
Now bearing in mind we're in the market for a 5 bed detatched in Petts Wood, you would have thought with the money we're looking to spend, the estate agents would be sending their bestest agent to sell each house.
We were shown around a £1.2m valued house by a spotty 18 year old. We had a list of questions and he couldnt answer a single one. The more we started looking, this became more common. Young Saturday kids that just couldnt answer a question. We was shown around a house in Chelsfield by an agent who had only just moved there 2 days beforehand and didnt know anything about the area. Makes you wonder what the sellers are paying them to do the viewings.
I'm dreading the whole process all over again.
A special mention for C(r)apital at Sidcup. By far the worst Estate Agency I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with. Blatant liars.
I never worked in the office and tried not to visit it, over the time I found that the quality of office staff was quite low as were their wages, there were a few dedicated people but they were in the minority while the agency was charging about 1.25% commission, in the end the agency closed their residential department as it wasn't making sufficient profit!
My general belief is that you get what you pay for, but not in the case of estate agents where it is very hit and miss. My advice is ask around for views on local agents and question the agent on who will be conducting the viewing as the viewer can make or break a sale as JohnBoyUK has described.
I am currently in the process of moving, our agent found a buyer quite quickly but that was as much to do with how we presented the house as anything, on the buying side I found most viewers had sufficient knowledge, as my experience is that the 1st viewing tells you a basic do I like it or not, then go back for a 2nd viewing and insist that the owners are present as they will always know far more about he property.
They say that moving home is one of the most stressful things you can do, and with that I agree.
The estate role has changed greatly since rightmove etc came into play.
Prior to that, you were really dependent on their database of people looking to buy properties but now you can see pretty much all available properties online.
I bought a place and when I came to sell years later, it fell through because the surveyor hadn't picked up on something he should have. The buyer pulled out and it cost a fair old sum to put right.
I made the surveyor pay for it all, as he was at fault.
Have a look at what this guy states"...... One survey I recently had to check had been done by an RICS chartered surveyor, who did the whole thing in 30 minutes. He charged £850 for it. He missed the fact there was a flying freehold. He missed the lack of any fire protection in the attic dividing the space between two properties. He actually diagnosed damp problems in the house next door, not the one he was paid to survey!
I got to hear of them when I worked for Chartered Surveyor weekly, your official publication, part of the builder group.
Have a look at there website, nothing to do with me, or anyone I know.
http://www.heritage-house.org/how-to-pick-a-building-surveyor-for-an-old-building.html
Like all professions there are good and bad. Nothing against Chartered Surveyors, at all, and quite understand the attitude of most people against Estate Agents, most are chancers, and driven by greed, but then there are a few people in other professions like that, including a few in my own profession. He is very critical of damproofing companies.......read this.......
http://www.heritage-house.org/timber-and-damp-surveys.html
or this...... http://www.heritage-house.org/best-fraudulent-damp-survey.html
By the way my own solicitor supplied an out of date Gas certificate, and an incomplete NICEIC notification having checked the online Notification, which is free. The reason for this, they use an 'outsource agency', i.e they do not do it themselves . Of course I checked the land registry, and the enviroment agency, and the quaint 'Chancellory register'. And that was not the half of it.
By the way, got another Established local agent to quote for 0.5% , 'No sale No fee'.....