Estate Agents

[shoes]

I need to sell my house.

James Du Pavey seem expensive, but also appear to be an excellent agent, we originally purchased our house from/through them. Are they worth the fee (approx. £3,500 inc. VAT) or can I do a lot better?

Are there any other recommendations? Someone has suggested DB Roberts - can anyone give any insight into this outfit?

Many thanks.

 

[tek-monkey]

You moving mate?

Most charge a percentage don't they, although all a lot of them do is put them on rightmove then field the odd phone call!

 

[hop]

A house sells itself or rather the viewers decide if they like it or not, above all if the price is right it will sell.

If you have a small master bedroom consider temporarily replacing a larger bed with a small one e.g. swap a King Size for a double / queen . It might not seem like much but will give extra clearance when walking around the room. If you have a large chest of drawers taking up several feet of floor space consider moving it to the attic and replacing with a 7 drawer wellington. If the house / garden is overlooked consider getting some temporary screening such as bamboo in large pots, not only will this give height but the wind blowing through the foliage can create a bit of background / masking noise (neighbour / roads / kids playing etc..)
Consider your target market, what age do you likely think they are and what would appeal to them. If you are aiming for a young professional couple and you have a low maintenance garden perhaps consider buying an outdoor wood fired oven / pizza oven so they can imagine spending a lazy evening after work on your sun terrace whilst unwinding with a glass of wine and al-fresco fresh pizza.

A good agent can make a difference and you need to know who will be conducting the viewings. Will the viewing be done by someone who understands the property, it's potential and the local area or will the viewing be done by a younger Saturday member of staff - who may well have never bought or sold a house in their life and have no knowledge of construction, or building regulations. It might sound like common sense but the agent who does the viewings can point out the scope for alterations, the quality of local schools and target their presentation to the viewer such as focusing on a south facing garden for a keen gardener or pointing out the proximity to bars, shops and restaurants for a young couple.

DB Roberts are useless. They could not even value a property I was selling. Nicholsons came across as more professional and the directors undertake the viewings.

At the higher end of the market I can recommend Savills and Knight Frank.I have found the staff very knowledge of properties, the architectural style and local vernacular as well as having a good knowledge of individual fixtures such as home cinema installations

 

[Wormella]

I can only comment from a buyers point of view:

The house we brought was on via Nicholsons - they were great, had no issues that I can remember

We looked at houses one with just about every other agents in Stafford - I remember DB Roberts being particular rubbish at communications and sorting out appointments - although they were all fairly rubbish at sorting out things.

 

[tek-monkey]

I always got the feeling, with pretty much everyone I tried to arrange a viewing through, that I was wasting their time. None ever showed me round a property, it was always the homeowner, but maybe that is the norm with a sub 150k property?

 

[shoes]

Thanks all.... I think I'll stick with James Du Pavey then, they're well known in the area (Cotes Heath) and have offices in Eccleshall, Stone etc. which is the likely market.

The house value is estimated to be a little over £250k, however, I think that will be the upper limit due to Stamp Duty.

You moving mate?

Most charge a percentage don't they, although all a lot of them do is put them on rightmove then field the odd phone call!

Indeed, in a separate direction to cheap date, sadly.

 

[Gramaisc]

 

[Jonah]

I always got the feeling, with pretty much everyone I tried to arrange a viewing through, that I was wasting their time. None ever showed me round a property, it was always the homeowner, but maybe that is the norm with a sub 150k property?

You have to pay extra for the estate agent to do the viewings.

Any why do that anyway, you know your own house better than they do.

 

[hop]

Indeed, in a separate direction to cheap date, sadly.

Why don't you just buy out her share. Would save all the expense of Estate Agents fees, Legal fees on the sale and then the next purchase as well as Stamp duty on the next purchase etc..

If your bothered about payments you can get a 10 year fix with the Leeds Building Society at 2.75% or if you want variable you can get around 1.25%.

 

[proactive]

Indeed, in a separate direction to cheap date, sadly.

 

[littleme]

Indeed, in a separate direction to cheap date, sadly.

 

[shoes]

Why don't you just buy out her share. Would save all the expense of Estate Agents fees, Legal fees on the sale and then the next purchase as well as Stamp duty on the next purchase etc..

If your bothered about payments you can get a 10 year fix with the Leeds Building Society at 2.75% or if you want variable you can get around 1.25%.

Neither of us can afford this really, not with a life outside of what the house costs. It's comfortable on two incomes, no so on one. We have discussed this option though.

 

[tek-monkey]

Indeed, in a separate direction to cheap date, sadly.

Sorry to hear that mate

 

[That-Crazy-Rat-Lady]

Avoid DB Roberts they are money swindling lying bastards.

I could rant....

But that pretty much sums them up

 

[hop]

Neither of us can afford this really, not with a life outside of what the house costs. It's comfortable on two incomes, no so on one. We have discussed this option though.

Sometimes you have to be creative. I don't know your circumstances but I have been creative with my finances in the past. At one point I even acted as a bank. Some simple examples I have used :-

- When I had an offset mortgage I created "linked accounts" which were not in my control but the interest was offset against my mortgage. I agreed with the account holder that I would pay them x percent interest. This was an amount that benefited them and was lower than my interest rate. Its possible you could even link "cheap dates" payout with an offset mortgage, she might not be in a position to buy immediately and also would be restricted in how much she should invest in a tax efficient scheme like an ISA. In the mean time you could offer her full access to the cash and a tax free rate of x (would would hopefully be better than the standard market saving rate but less than your mortgage payment)
- Use of a director loan - I'm a company director I used a loan from the company and placed this in a offset account. I had to pay the company an interest amount but this was also profit to the company. Thereby reducing the overall effective rate.
- Use of a company loan - More complex and I can't be bothered explaining, but I'm using at the moment.

Put your think hat on. Sometimes you will be surprised what you can think of if you want something enough.

 

[shoes]

Sorry to hear that mate

Thanks man, it's been a long time coming and we're parting company amicably. Neither of us has done anything wrong, it's just become apparent we're too different as individuals and some obstacles cannot be overcome (kids and marriage being the primary cause of concern).

 

[shoes]

Sometimes you have to be creative. I don't know your circumstances but I have been creative with my finances in the past. At one point I even acted as a bank. Some simple examples I have used :-

- When I had an offset mortgage I created "linked accounts" which were not in my control but the interest was offset against my mortgage. I agreed with the account holder that I would pay them x percent interest. This was an amount that benefited them and was lower than my interest rate. Its possible you could even link "cheap dates" payout with an offset mortgage, she might not be in a position to buy immediately and also would be restricted in how much she should invest in a tax efficient scheme like an ISA. In the mean time you could offer her full access to the cash and a tax free rate of x (would would hopefully be better than the standard market saving rate but less than your mortgage payment)
- Use of a director loan - I'm a company director I used a loan from the company and placed this in a offset account. I had to pay the company an interest amount but this was also profit to the company. Thereby reducing the overall effective rate.
- Use of a company loan - More complex and I can't be bothered explaining, but I'm using at the moment.

Put your think hat on. Sometimes you will be surprised what you can think of if you want something enough.

Thank you for the advice. The situation is we had a household income which supported the lifestyle associated with a 250k property, however, as it stands, if I were to buy her out, I would be faced with overall bills of around 3/4 of my income, not including bonusses, and quite frankly I want to live more than that. I'm not fussed about having a big house, my only real attraction to this property was the garage. I can find another place to work, and reduce the cost of living massively by living in a much more modest house. This property was an investment for us, we didn't really need it (4 bed detached with no kids). On the plus side, we have overpaid the maximum amount each year so we're a couple of years ahead on the mortgage, the bad news being we've paid almost solely interest since we have owned it... god know what we'll each end up with, but generally, house prices from 2012 to today would suggest that we'll leave with at least what we walked in with, once everyone else has had their pound of flesh. I'll be happy with that.

 

[citricsquid]

Regarding Stamp Duty, didn't the system change... last year I think? I believe it's marginal now, meaning £251,000 isn't going to be the leap in stamp duty over £250,000 that it was when you bought the place, so you shouldn't be tied to that price point.

People start making really poor decisions when houses and homes are one and the same, it's good that you're not emotionally attached to the place, that'll save you from making terrible decisions that haunt you for years to come.

If you wanted to save money there are online agents who will handle the process for you (listing on rightmove etc.) for something like £500 but you'd have to handle viewings yourself. Having seen the process of selling a house through my parents I would personally be happy to spend the extra few thousand pounds to have an agent you can trust to take control of the process, the peace of mind should be worth every penny.

I know from regularly browsing Right Move that James Du Pavey are an agent who take good photos for their listings, which is a big consideration for me when looking at property, the quality of some photographs is truly terrible. I think that would be my first consideration when looking for an agent, whether or not their photos are good -- because that attention to detail will carry through to the rest of their business.

 

[hop]

Thank you for the advice. The situation is we had a household income which supported the lifestyle associated with a 250k property, however, as it stands, if I were to buy her out, I would be faced with overall bills of around 3/4 of my income, not including bonusses, and quite frankly I want to live more than that. I'm not fussed about having a big house, my only real attraction to this property was the garage. I can find another place to work, and reduce the cost of living massively by living in a much more modest house. This property was an investment for us, we didn't really need it (4 bed detached with no kids). On the plus side, we have overpaid the maximum amount each year so we're a couple of years ahead on the mortgage, the bad news being we've paid almost solely interest since we have owned it... god know what we'll each end up with, but generally, house prices from 2012 to today would suggest that we'll leave with at least what we walked in with, once everyone else has had their pound of flesh. I'll be happy with that.

Hopefully you haven't remortgaged since you bought it then, since the redemption penalty if often 3% in first year decreasing by 1% per year.

4 Bedroom house doesn't mean a lot to me, I like to talk about square feet / square meters. However assuming that the square footage is say 2000 square feet or more (I pick this figure since this is what I consider a 4 bedroom family house should be at a minimum) It might be worth considering if you could rent it out, you could possibly remortgage in onto a BTL loan and get some of the equity out which would provide both of you with the capital to move on and still be able to retain the asset and rent it out. Or ask the lender for permission to let. Potentially consider different form of rentals such as renting to multiple tenants, since this can increase the yield. A 4 bed house with (2 - 3 reception rooms) could potentially be rented as a 6 bedroom house. In fact the council would probably allow more since when I have asked about housing asylum seekers they were happy for them to live in bunk beds and be provided a simple meal such as rice and pasta for extra income. Things might have moved on a little since then but I doubt it and the 6 room scenario is no different to how many of the working poor live. Note I have never housed asylum seekers and instead focus on young professionals, I'm merely presenting some options you might not have considered.

 

[hop]

Regarding Stamp Duty, didn't the system change... last year I think? I believe it's marginal now, meaning £251,000 isn't going to be the leap in stamp duty over £250,000 that it was when you bought the place, so you shouldn't be tied to that price point.

Yes it is now incremental and works the same way as income tax in that you pay the higher rate on the amount you cross the threshold, unless it is a second home or BTL in which case 3% extra is added on to all bands. But most people in and around Stafford will pay very little stamp duty, it's basically a tax on the South East.