Selling House Privately (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter Kneeza
- Start date
Sold ok, but contract and everything signed snd money in bank? If so hope mine goes as fast we was always told 12 weeks.
Kneeza
Well-Known Member
In fact, of all the houses I've sold (six before this one), none have taken twelve weeks. Don't forget also that I don't have the complication of buying, and neither does my purchaser have to sell, so a lot of potential complication is removed from the transaction.
Biggest potential problem is that he decides not to proceed, and then all bets are off!
Biggest potential problem is that he decides not to proceed, and then all bets are off!
Going to message you privatly quickly since you have sold a few houses.
Kneeza
Well-Known Member
Had a meeting with an (our usual) agent the other day, at which he valued the house about 20k higher than I thought.
He based that on local values having increased by 10-12 percent over the last 18 months or so, which rather surprised me. One a few doors down, in similar doer-upper condition was advertised last year for 145k and sold quickly for 154k so the trend seems feasible I suppose.
Another has recently gone (advertised for 230k) but that is in better, improved, condition. Mum's has had no real improvements (none that would add significant value).
We also had a lady from a few doors up knock the door saying her son was very interested - so that's two of them! However, she's since tried to low-ball us (as I sort of expected) so have pretty much discounted that.
Chap next door is still showing interest, but the valuation rocked him slightly, so who knows?However, he has said he has an appointment to discuss the possibility with the bank next week.
So, after much reflection...
Overall, I'm now erring on the side of putting it in the hands of my agent, a small independent. They've done a decent job for us in the past, and have realistic charge scales, and I probably don't need the hassle of dealing personally with potential purchasers right now.
Gawd, I'm so conflicted.
As a footnote: What Keiran said appears to be absolutely correct. The days of 6-8 week conveyances seem to be behind us now. Gov-type agencies (search-wise), solicitors, etc are currently snowed-under due to unprecedented demand. 12 to 14 weeks are more the norm over the last year.
Who knew? Not me
He based that on local values having increased by 10-12 percent over the last 18 months or so, which rather surprised me. One a few doors down, in similar doer-upper condition was advertised last year for 145k and sold quickly for 154k so the trend seems feasible I suppose.
Another has recently gone (advertised for 230k) but that is in better, improved, condition. Mum's has had no real improvements (none that would add significant value).
We also had a lady from a few doors up knock the door saying her son was very interested - so that's two of them! However, she's since tried to low-ball us (as I sort of expected) so have pretty much discounted that.
Chap next door is still showing interest, but the valuation rocked him slightly, so who knows?However, he has said he has an appointment to discuss the possibility with the bank next week.
So, after much reflection...
Overall, I'm now erring on the side of putting it in the hands of my agent, a small independent. They've done a decent job for us in the past, and have realistic charge scales, and I probably don't need the hassle of dealing personally with potential purchasers right now.
Gawd, I'm so conflicted.
As a footnote: What Keiran said appears to be absolutely correct. The days of 6-8 week conveyances seem to be behind us now. Gov-type agencies (search-wise), solicitors, etc are currently snowed-under due to unprecedented demand. 12 to 14 weeks are more the norm over the last year.
Who knew? Not me
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
Sounds like you’ve underpriced it.
Kneeza
Well-Known Member
You know what, you might be right.
The agent has done the 'offers around' thing, quite wisely I think. Considering they pitched it 20k higher than I thought, I wasn't going to argue tbh.
D
Deleted member 5849
Guest
Hmm, you're currently doing a fine advocacy for estate agents!
Kneeza
Well-Known Member
It'll never last!
However, they are doing a decent enough job so far.
Good news, we just had our survey done last week so we're at final stages now contracts being written up
Kneeza
Well-Known Member
Did I say 'crazy market'?
We've had four viewings this morning (the agent undertakes them all - they can earn their crust) and one has already resulted in an offer.
15k over the asking price...
What's going on?
I'm def not counting any chickens, but if it comes off, that's already 35k more than I was expecting to get. He DID say to market it at 170k and expect more, at which I probably looked at him rather askance, but hey, what do I know.
At this rate there may even be enough left over to treat my dragon and the kids!
To put things into daft context, 35k is nearly four times what I paid for my first house in Southam (admittedly 45 years ago).
We've had four viewings this morning (the agent undertakes them all - they can earn their crust) and one has already resulted in an offer.
15k over the asking price...
What's going on?
I'm def not counting any chickens, but if it comes off, that's already 35k more than I was expecting to get. He DID say to market it at 170k and expect more, at which I probably looked at him rather askance, but hey, what do I know.
At this rate there may even be enough left over to treat my dragon and the kids!
To put things into daft context, 35k is nearly four times what I paid for my first house in Southam (admittedly 45 years ago
).
Kneeza
Well-Known Member
Ha. I would but I'm suffering with the Tom and Dick chunderguts atm, so I'll pass.Good work mate, you've played this well. Must be a bit of relief that things are looking promising. Treat yourself to a beer, tell the missus that I said it would be ok.
Another offer in this afternoon btw, but lower.
chiefdave
Well-Known Member
I had the same problem. Took 18 months to find somewhere!
Asked an estate agent and he said it’s buy to let snapping them up without a viewing. Easy for the estate agent as they’re sold without them doing any work but annoying when you can’t even get to view anywhere before it’s sold.
Kneeza
Well-Known Member
Yes, I do wonder if there's a bit of that going on here.
Sky_Blue_Dreamer
Well-Known Member
Fucking buy to let market is a scourge on people trying to have their own house.
As it's a business proposition they can raise more finance and put in higher offers, which they then make back by charging higher rents, taking more money from the pocket of those having to rent and leaving them with less resources to be able to get a mortgage. And so the cycle continues.
Needs sorting out, but if you make it more expensive all that happens is the cost gets pushed onto the renters and they suffer even more. If you were to cap rents how much would it be and how would you enforce it?
chiefdave
Well-Known Member
I was signed up to every estate agent and online service going and as soon as something came on the market I'd book the earliest possible viewing. The viewings would get cancelled as the property was already sold.
The estate agent I spoke to about it said once they have one or two properties they can get 100% interest only mortgages with little trouble. I was renting in the same road I now own in. Was £900 a month to rent, and that was at the bottom end there's loads in the same area that are over £1K a month. He reckoned an investor could get a interest mortgage for around £300-400 a month without too much hassle. I struggled to get a mortgage as despite the mortgage being hundreds less a month than the rent I'd been paying for years it was apparently 'unaffordable'.
But if you're selling its obviously good news!
Kneeza
Well-Known Member
I agree there's some truth in that, but not all landlords are the same.
I used to have three buy-to-lets (only one now) and didn't put the rent up on any of them in all the time I had them, and no, they weren't overpriced to start with.
The one I still have, a very nice flat, is apparently undercharged by about £140 per month according to my agent, but I'm happy to have happy tenants.
We're not all avaricious bastards, fortunately.
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
Same. Some places I’d ring up the day they were put on the site and they’d already had an offer accepted. One I viewed first day first viewing and someone had already bid from the advert alone.
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
Sorry but you are. You’re hoarding limited resources and extracting wealth from those less fortunate. That’s just capitalism, nothing personal.
jimmyhillsfanclub
Well-Known Member
Hes not hoarding resources though is he? ......if he boarded it up & left it vacant waiting for a price spiral then I'd agree.....but there will always be a need for a rental market.
Thats not to say the rules & mechanisms around the BTL market arent dogshite.....but thats part of a wider problem that succesive UK governments of both colours have refused to address, namely propping up a substantial part of the economy against an over-inflated housing market...
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
He is. There’s a housing shortage and people rent because they don’t have access to capital. He’s not doing it out of the goodness of his own heart he’s leveraging his capital to get someone poorer to create an asset for him.
I bet if his tenants had a deposit they wouldn’t be renting.
By the by, I’d probably do it too if I was fortunate to have been earning during the housing boom, but it’s rentier behaviour.
jimmyhillsfanclub
Well-Known Member
Not everybody renting wants to buy....I'm sure many do, but many people also choose to rent for many different reasons.
Full disclosure: I still own my first house which I've rented to students for many years now.
I am not (and never was) a BTL landlord.....I bought my first house which was a wrecker of victorian terrace in a, shall we say, less than desirable area of Liverpool back in the 90s......I lived in it for 9 years whilst I did it up, paid it off then kept it & moved on....
...and I have to say, my student tenants get great value when compared to alot of these off-plan investor pods that have been thrown up all over University towns & cities over the last decade or so....
chiefdave
Well-Known Member
Before my divorce I hadn't rented for years and I was surprised how much it had changed. It used to be a case of just going to an estate agent, being shown round 2 or 3 places that matched your criteria and picking one. They were generally an affordable price, in decent condition and maintenance done when required. Sure that wasn't across the board and there were lousy landlords back then but I never really had any issues other than you rarely got your deposit back.
When I needed somewhere post-divorce it was a completely different story. Hard to find anywhere at all let alone something that matched what you wanted. Rents through the roof and the poor state of a lot of properties was astonishing. A lot of rental properties are so badly maintained you can literally walk around my area and pick out which ones are owner occupied and which are rental just from looking at them from the outside. In the last place I rented I had no cooking facilities for 6 months after the cooker packed up and at one point the cladding on the front of the house was falling off in chunks. You could see outside through the wooden frames under the window, even that wasn't enough to get a fast response, was like that for weeks.
We're simply not building enough houses. We've got 3 Conservative councillors here who are dead against proposals for some new houses on unused land. They claim the infrastructure in the area isn't up to it. At the same time they're also in favour of building a massive factory a couple of minutes down the round which will increase the use of the infrastructure they say can't cope at present
When I needed somewhere post-divorce it was a completely different story. Hard to find anywhere at all let alone something that matched what you wanted. Rents through the roof and the poor state of a lot of properties was astonishing. A lot of rental properties are so badly maintained you can literally walk around my area and pick out which ones are owner occupied and which are rental just from looking at them from the outside. In the last place I rented I had no cooking facilities for 6 months after the cooker packed up and at one point the cladding on the front of the house was falling off in chunks. You could see outside through the wooden frames under the window, even that wasn't enough to get a fast response, was like that for weeks.
We're simply not building enough houses. We've got 3 Conservative councillors here who are dead against proposals for some new houses on unused land. They claim the infrastructure in the area isn't up to it. At the same time they're also in favour of building a massive factory a couple of minutes down the round which will increase the use of the infrastructure they say can't cope at present
Sky_Blue_Dreamer
Well-Known Member
There are of course good and bad landlords, but the point is more about the access to housing.
Even though yours were underpriced according to the agent, were you still making more from the rent than you were spending on the mortgage and upkeep? You had three rental properties, which are three properties that were not available for those wanting to buy a home.
If you're the person that bought it, you're paying the mortgage. If you're the renter you have to cover that mortgage and the desired profit margin of the owner. So the person who's being told they haven't got the money for a mortgage is paying out more than the person who does. It's a rubbish system.
Part of it is of our own making though. Many of these properties were bought from council stock but when it came to selling it's about getting the highest price rather than caring about whether it'll be bought by someone looking to set up a home and be a part of the community. Others of elderly people with no relatives just getting sold off by solicitors without a care.
There are certainly people who buy up these properties solely with the intention of making money from them, doing as little upkeep as possible to keep costs down.
While you certainly sound like a decent landlord it's still adding to the issue of a lack of housing and it being unaffordable for many trying to get on the ladder.
I've often wondered if it might be more successful and cheaper if a young couple went to the bank and said they wanted to buy a house as a business proposition and investment to let it out rather than buying a home, then just let it to themselves at the same cost as the mortgage? Bit more paperwork and checks but would work out better in the long run.
If I was uber-rich I'd definitely consider setting up a business of buying houses then finding people who were looking to set up a home and charging them the same amount as the mortgage and steadily transferring ownership over to them. But I'm not. So I can't.
EDIT: Just seen the post below as to how it came about. Seems like it wasn't a conscious decision to be a landlord as a business
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Kneeza
Well-Known Member
Mate, you're very welcome and entitled to your opinion, and to a large extent I agree.
There's context though.
The two we had originally were our own homes, and due to us buying a home together (we'd separated and got back together, and she'd got a job on the coast and I'd just taken early retirement) and both houses had massively devalued (2008 and all that) we were pretty much forced to rent them out or go bankrupt.
The third one, the small flat that we still have, was bought for my daughter who needed to get out of a bloody awful abusive relationship (the other two were already rented fairly long term and were both 3-bed houses) is still in negative equity, but I'm intending to sell anyway next year, hopefully to the tenant. Thankfully (if slightly annoyingly
) my daughter met her life partner shortly after moving into the flat and now has kids and a mortgage with him.Both houses were sold to the tenants, at very small profits.
Yes, I detest being a (almost accidental) landlord, and the sooner I get out of it the better for my own mental health - but not my bank balance.
Kneeza
Well-Known Member
Eight offers in on mum's house now. All bar one over the asking price, and the agent has indicated that he will ask them all for their best and final offer tomorrow morning.
I've agreed to accept one tomorrow, by close of office so it gets listed as SSTC.
That's basically four working days since it went on the market.
Crazy.
I've agreed to accept one tomorrow, by close of office so it gets listed as SSTC.
That's basically four working days since it went on the market.
Crazy.