Home Buyers, Sellers and Estate Agents, Sell Your House for Cash?
Housing-Market / UK Housing May 25, 2014 - 12:38 PM GMTBy: Nadeem_Walayat
What you need to know about Estate Agents
There will be greater competition in affluent areas between estate agents for business due to higher potential commissions, therefore there is a tendency to more aggressively value these properties so as to secure business and shut out other agents which means houses at least when first going on the market will tend to be over priced by typically 10%.
What house hunters are looking for from estate agents is an efficient, helpful, polite and above all honest service. However estate agents repeatedly get a bad press because many if not most tend to fail on virtually all of these points. Whilst it is true that the estate agents work in the interests of house sellers, however leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of house buyers is not going to help sell anyone's home!
Then there are the outright dubious activities that estate agents can engage in that literally warrants an formal investigation. For instance in a real life personal example, I placed an ALL CASH offer down on a property (non repossession) which was according to the estate agent not accepted by the vendor only to later discover that the property had sold for a near 7% LOWER price than my offer. I am sure this was not an isolated incident and goes a long way to explain why people tend to hold estate agents in such low esteem, as clearly the lack of regulation and large sums involved can prove very tempting to the huge determinant of both sellers and buyers.
I suspect that this property sale and many more are funneled towards favoured buyers, those who have arranged a mortgage through the estate agents mortgage broker! Which means that being a cash buyer does not necessarily put you at the top of the list, but rather those buyers who would generate the most income for the estate agency i.e. fall victim to buying a string of housing market related services at inflated prices such as conveyancing.
Another example of why estate agents cannot be trusted are the property floor area maps that tend to accompany most home listings. Frankly in many if not most cases these floor maps tend to INFLATE the size of the rooms, and especially so for small sized rooms which would put off prospective viewers. For example one house I viewed whilst having a good sized ground floor that was more or less in line with the floor plan, however the first floor bedrooms were ALL inflated in size by approx 1/3rd each as clearly the bed rooms were far too small and had the floor plan been accurate I would never have viewed the property deeming the bedrooms to be of unsuitable size, therefore the estate agent inflated the size of the second floor to get viewers through the door.
So if in doubt measure the size of the rooms yourself, you don't need to get a tape measure out instead a simple method I use is to know the length of my stride and then count the number of strides across the rooms multiplied by x' cm stride length to get an estimate of the actual dimensions of the rooms to compare against the floor plans.
The bottom line is you really cannot trust estate agents, so disregard every promise or statement that they make and instead verify independently, even down to the size of the rooms, which I have noticed tend to be manipulated to make bedrooms significantly larger than they actually are.
Remember that the estate agent does not work for either the buyer OR the seller! The estate agent works for the estate agency to maximise their revenue and profits and if it means ripping off buyers and sellers then that is what they will do! Both buyers and sellers need to remember this when dealing with estate agents.
Home Sellers and Estate Agents
In my opinion home sellers have no choice but to sell their homes through an estate agent as they will tell you exactly how much your property is actually currently worth. Search online reviews for who are ranked as the best estate agents in your area and always obtain at least 3 valuations and go with ability to sell over valuation.
The estate agent will tell you that he works for the seller and not the buyer and that they have your best interests at heart as they seek to obtain the highest offer for your property. However, whilst buyers understand that the estate agent does not work for them, unfortunately sellers only find out after the fact that the estate agent does not work for them either, as the truth is that the estate agent works for the estate agency to maximise their revenues and profits, so basically their perfect scenario is to rip off both buyers and sellers!
See the section on estate agents in the house buying guide for the tricks they pull on both sellers and buyers.
Unfortunately home sellers have no choice but to use a local estate agent, despite the risk of getting ripped off. In which respect every home seller needs to research the experience of other home sellers in the use of the local estate agents and select an estate agent that is experienced in selling your type of property i.e. some estate agents tend to be experienced in selling properties at the lower end of the market whilst others at the higher end of the market.
The key point when entering into a myriad of differing contracts with local estate agents is to understand that you cannot just sit back and leave it upto the estate agent to do all of the work, instead you have to be proactive and constantly chase the estate agent for actionable viewing's.
Becareful of what you tell your estate agent of your financial circumstances as they will likely seek to take advantage of it. Remember an estate agent is not just there to sell your property but also sell you a multitude of commission generating services such as home insurance, mortgages, conveyancing etc...
A good estate agent (there are a few) will only really start to do their job AFTER the offer has been accepted as they attempt to guide the sale through to completion at which point they tend to get paid so the last thing they want is for the sale to fall through.
And ironically you will find the best estate agents in dead markets whilst the worst estate agents will be in hot markets.
Virtually all estate agents will tie you into an exclusivity contract, typically for a minimum of 3 months.
Buy Your House For Cash Services
The broadcast media and internet is littered with adverts for "We will pay cash for your home" services. Such services can seem like a godsend for many home owners facing a relatively lengthy and stressful process of trying to sell their homes via estate agents. The property buying companies tend to give great sales pitches with many testimonials of how easy and simple the whole process is as they take care of literally everything and make great house valuation promises and all the home owner needs to do is sign on the dotted line, so it is no wonder that many thousands of home owners get tempted into take this route.
So, yes the "buy your property for cash" services appear to be a relatively painless, easy way of selling ones homes for a great price.
However there is a fly in the ointment .
In my opinion 100%, Yes, 100% of these company services are a RIP-OFF!
They are RIPPING off Home sellers up and down the country and the faceless, clueless, toothless regulator is doing NOTHING!
Understand this you will be LUCKY to realise even 50% of the value of your home! and worse still there are those literal Sell and Rent services that are out and out SCAMS!
* SCAM * SCAM * SCAM
I.e. services that say we will buy your house from you and then you can rent it back from us. There are literally thousands of horror stories of home owners who have been duped by such SCAM services.
As a home seller, if you only take away 1 piece of information from this home sellers guide then it would be to STEAR CLEAR of ALL such services!
Self Sell Your Home?
Should you sell your own home ? After all there are a number online sites offering packages as cheap as £100 that can seem very enticing when compared against to estate agent costs that could run to several thousand pounds. In my opinion will be a huge waste of time.
a. Even if you do manage to sell your property yourself , it is highly probable that you will have achieved a far lower sale price than could have been attained, thus having saved pennies to lose literally thousands of pounds.
b. It will probably amount to a time wasting exercise where after probably a year you will give up and go to your local estate agents.
The above is just a small excerpt from the Home Buyers and Sellers Guide sections of the New UK Housing Market Ebook available for FREE DOWNLOAD(Only requirement is a valid email address).
| Home Buyers Guide | Page |
| Location, Location, Location | 147 |
| UK Regional House Prices - London Boom | 148 |
| Why London House Prices are Rising | 149 |
| Investing in Future New Mega-Cities | 150 |
| School Catchment Areas | 153 |
| Flooding Risk - Climate Change, Floodplain's and Rivers | 154 |
| Crime Rates | 157 |
| Social Housing | 157 |
| Immigration | 157 |
| Distance from City Centre | 158 |
| Sheffield Best and Worst Areas to Live Example | 158 |
| Ready to Move in or Work to do Properties | 163 |
| New Builds | 164 |
| Attempting to Buy Repossessed Properties | 165 |
| What You need to know About Estate Agents | 165 |
| Buying a House with Solar Panels Installed | 166 |
| Home Buyers Check List | 166 |
| Making an Offer | 167 |
| House Surveys | 168 |
| Conveyancing | 169 |
| Exchange of Contracts | 170 |
| Buildings Insurance | 171 |
| Completion Day | 172 |
| Moving into Your New Home - What to do first? | 172 |
| 1. Take Photos / Videos | 172 |
| 2. Secure the Property - Change Your Locks | 172 |
| 3. ALARM | 173 |
| 4. Secure the Garage | 174 |
| 5. Check Smoke Alarms work | 174 |
| 6. Meter Readings | 174 |
| 7. What to do About Items left Behind and Mail? | 174 |
| 8. Leaving the Property Unoccupied | 174 |
| 9. Gas Check | 175 |
| 10. Post Redirection | 175 |
| 11. Phone Line | 175 |
| 12. Address Change / Register on the Electoral Roll | 176 |
| 13. Transfer Services | 176 |
| 14. GP Surgery | 177 |
| 15. Change Utility Suppliers | 177 |
| 16. Faults & Missing Items | 177 |
| Being Good Neighbours | 177 |
| Dealing with Issues with Neighbours | 182 |
| Dangers of Very Good Neighbours | 183 |
| Home Sellers Guide | 184 |
| Why Do You Want to Sell? | 184 |
| The Secret to Successful House Sales | 184 |
| Are You Ready to Sell? | 186 |
| Self Sell Your Home? | 186 |
| Buy Your House For Cash Services | 186 |
| Estate Agents | 187 |
| Conveyancing | 187 |
| Your House Website | 188 |
| When to Put your Home on the Market | 188 |
| Viewing's | 188 |
| Accepting an Offer and working towards Exch. of Contracts | 189 |
| What if My Property Won't Sell | 190 |
New Housing Market Ebook - FREE DOWNLOAD
The housing market ebook of over 300 pages comprises four main parts :
1. U.S. Housing Market Analysis and Trend Forecast 2013-2016 - 27 pages
The US housing market analysis and concluding trend forecast at the start of 2013 acted as a good lead exercise for the subsequent more in-depth analysis of the UK housing market.
2. U.K. Housing Market Analysis and House Prices Forecast 2014-2018 - 107 pages
The second part comprises the bulk of analysis that concludes in several detailed trend forecasts including that for UK house prices from 2014 to 2018 and their implications for the outcome of the next General Election (May 2015) as well as the Scottish Referendum.
3. Housing Market Guides - 138 Pages
Over 1/3rd of the ebook comprises of extensive guides that cover virtually every aspect of the process of buying, selling and owning properties, including many value increasing home improvements continuing on in how to save on running and repair costs with timely maintenance tasks and even guides on which value losing home improvements should be avoided.
- What Can You Afford to Buy?
- Home Buyers Guide
- Home Sellers Guide
- Top 15 Value Increasing Home Improvements
- Home Improvements to Avoid
- Home Winter Weather Proofing 22 Point Survey
These guides will further be supplemented from Mid 2014 onwards by a series of online videos and regularly updated calculators such as the Home Buying Profit and Loss Calculator, which will seek to give calculations on whether to buy or rent based on personal individual circumstances, that will be updated to include the latest expected trend trajectories for future house price inflation i.e. you will have your own personal house price forecast.
4. Historic Analysis 2007 to 2012 - 40 pages
A selection of 10 historic articles of analysis to illustrate the process of analysis during key stages of the housing markets trend from the euphoric bubble high, to a state of denial as house prices entered a literal free fall, to the depths of depression and then emergence of the embryonic bull market during 2012 that gave birth to the bull market proper of 2013.
FREE DOWNLOAD (Only requirement is a valid email address)
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By Nadeem Walayat
Copyright © 2005-2014 Marketoracle.co.uk (Market Oracle Ltd). All rights reserved.
Nadeem Walayat has over 25 years experience of trading derivatives, portfolio management and analysing the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem's forward looking analysis focuses on UK inflation, economy, interest rates and housing market. He is the author of five ebook's in the The Inflation Mega-Trend and Stocks Stealth Bull Market series that can be downloaded for Free.
Nadeem is the Editor of The Market Oracle, a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication that presents in-depth analysis from over 1000 experienced analysts on a range of views of the probable direction of the financial markets, thus enabling our readers to arrive at an informed opinion on future market direction. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk
Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any trading losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors before engaging in any trading activities.
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