Which estate agent should sell your house?

[JanieB]

What an interesting thread. When my late father-in-law died his son's decided to break up the family business (a farm). My husband and one of his brothers went into partnership on another farm 30 miles away. We had to sell our house to finance the move and put it in an EA's hands. 1 year later it still hadn't sold and my husband and his brother were commuting every day, not easy when you have a herd of cows to milk every morning and afternoon.

I got impatient as apart from having a full time job and a baby, I was also cleaning two houses. So I took an executive decision and put my own ad in the paper describing the house as a beautiful cottage with fantastic views in a lovely setting (all true) but in need of a lot of TLC. A month later we sold it.

We still had to pay the EA fees and I was rather miffed to find out that they had included some stuff I wanted to keep in the sale, including my solid wood fitted kitchen.

I was also miffed when we took over the farm house a year before that stuff the previous owners had insisted we buy as part of the deal had been taken with them. They left their awful rickety home built in plywood kitchen units, which is why I'd wanted to keep mine. Also a quite expensive all wool carpet (with a horrible pattern) in the sitting room that stank of cat wee. I had it professionally cleaned but it didn't get rid of the smell so I had to chuck it.

Anyway, having at last been able to move into the farmhouse it even though we'd had it for a year, it cost me around £1,000 on the day of the move to replace stuff that had been taken by the previous incumbents, light fittings, curtain rails, bulbs, towel rails, loo roll holders. All minor stuff but it adds up. The house is lovely. It's basically Georgian with refurbs done in Edwardian and the 30's. Some nasty things had been done over the years and I was gradually putting it all right. I loved that house. But I divorced my husband and now have another project bequeathed to me by my 2nd husband.

 

[Penners]

But perhaps our strangest move was a house swap.

What a coincidence, FF - we also did a housed swap! We were in a little cottage, and looking for a larger place in the same area to accommodate two rapidly growing children (oh - and their parents! ) .

We viewed a lovely old timber-frame house about 2 miles from ours, which had plenty of room and lots of renovation to be done. It was occupied by an elderly woman and three of her (adult) grandchildren. While chatting to her, she mentioned that she wanted to move to a small place where there would be much less room, so that the family would leave! We suggested that she should come and see our cottage, which she did. She fell in love with it (as we had done hers) and a swap was arranged, pretty much under similar terms as yours.

 

[mims&pip]

Selling can attract some strange people sometimes.

It definitely can :lol:

After we sold our family home down on the South Coast when our son went off to uni in 2007, we bought a project house in North Essex which we soon came to realise wasn't the place for us. It was a house with an interesting history, having been originally built in Tudor times, then dismantled in the 1930s and rebuilt in a different part of the county by a master builder who was teaching his sons the trade......but that's beside the point :roll:

Anyway, having spent a small fortune on restoration we put it up for sale. The first viewers were obviously only carpet-treaders who were convinced it was haunted - I don't think they'd ever been in an old house before - and that it ought to be used as a film set! Suffice to say they didn't offer.....then we had the couple who came round three, maybe four times, bringing various members of their family each time. Our EA insisted they were cash buyers and very interested, then let slip they were awaiting an inheritance to materialise......we never heard from them again either :roll:

After about two weeks we had a call from the EA saying a couple were driving up from south Essex to view. We were conducting the viewing and they arrived looking fairly normal with new baby in tow and seemed ok, if rather typical TOWIE stereotypes - then she began regaling us with tales of her days as Katie Price's bodyguard and informed us of her habit of keeping a gun in her bra :shock: When she reached in for her mobile - obviously where every self-respecting Essex yummy mummy keeps it - Pip nearly jumped out of his skin :lol:

The most unnerving experience though, was when we were selling the South Coast house. Our EA was doing the viewings and on this occasion I had popped to my parents' as Pip was working. The EA called me when they were done and said the viewers were very interested but had a couple of questions so could I come back to meet them at the house. When I arrived the EA departed, leaving me to deal with their queries and as I walked into our kitchen I instantly recognised the man standing there with his wife. I couldn't think where I knew him from and didn't like to be rude so didn't mention it. They were extremely keen on the house, stated their intention to put in an offer next day and asked if we could exchange email addresses to which I agreed.

It was only after they had gone that I looked at what he had written on my note pad and the name was very familiar, yet I still couldn't place why I knew it. I shot to our office and googled the name only to discover that our potential purchaser was famous, or indeed infamous (on the South Coast particularly, but also nationally) as the man that had been tried (more than once) for killing his foster daughter with a tent peg in the 1990s :shock: He had recently been released from jail after two retrials had failed to reach a verdict and had married again, his first wife having divorced him.

Next day they made an offer which we accepted. I confess to being a little nervous being alone in the house with him when he came round one evening to do some measuring up - even without knowing his history, he had a very chilling demeanour.......but at the end of the day no-one knows if he was actually guilty or not :wink: A couple of years after they bought the house there was a TV programme about the case filmed there and he later invited Barry George (the guy found not guilty of murdering Jill Dando) to stay......

I'm so pleased that the couple we sold to in December were a respectable writer and her school teacher husband

I'm loving this thread too, btw

 

[Flyfisher]

It was only after they had gone that I looked at what he had written on my note pad and the name was very familiar, yet I still couldn't place why I knew it. I shot to our office and googled the name only to discover that our potential purchaser was famous, or indeed infamous (on the South Coast particularly, but also nationally) as the man that had been tried (more than once) for killing his foster daughter with a tent peg in the 1990s :shock: He had recently been released from jail after two retrials had failed to reach a verdict and had married again, his first wife having divorced him.

I can't quite compete with the creepiness of that story but we nearly sold our previous house to a former professional footballer (Irish international, controversially, and Chelsea among other) but he messed us around pretty badly before the agent finally discovered that he couldn't get a mortgage. Not being remotely interested in football, we had no idea who he was when he viewed but in hindsight it was fairly clear that he expected us to know who he was, so it's quite funny to think back about the viewing now. It was only after our agent told us that I looked up his details on the web. Coincidentally, a well-known ex-football manager lived along the road from us, as I discovered one day when returning a wandering dog to its collar address, though they were somewhat overshadowed in the fame game by Lewis Hamilton living just around the corner. All I can say is that while he is famously portrayed as being from Stevenage, he couldn't have actually lived there for too many years as he was around the corner from us in his early karting days. But I digress (unless we start a 'famous neighbours' topic :wink: ).

 

[xanthe]

Hmm, I know rather a lot about the tent peg case (lived in the area at the time and know family members) and would have been very creeped out having him anywhere near me.

Talking of creeped out, my parents are currently selling their house and were thrilled to get an asking price offer. The prospective buyer was in the process of getting divorced and had 2 teenage children. She brought her 15 year-old daughter with her on the 3rd viewing to see the house.

Daughter went down the steps from the kitchen to the cellar (where the well-type water sump is) and had to be carried up in hysterics and taken out of the house screaming that she couldn't be in the house as monsters would get her and drown her in the well! :shock:

The EA was doing the viewing and told my parents that she basically needed a good smacked bottom and had been trying hard to find a reason to throw a wobbly - the house is seriously the least creepy place you could imagine.

Personally, I think she wasn't happy about her parents divorcing and having to leave her childhood home, and frankly no house was going to be any use. Very sad.


The people we are buying from are a little eccentric - they have SEVEN indoor long-haired cats. :shock:

Every single room contained a litter tray, water bowl and filled food bowl. The cats were all in beautiful condition, but the smell was the stuff of nightmares (and there were rather a lot of bits of dried-up hairballs and cat poo). The surveyor was gagging most of the way round. According to the EA, they must have had 40+ viewings (the place is seriously chocolate box and in a great location) and we were the only people who put in an offer. People have said to me that they can't believe I'm prepared to take on a property that smells that bad :roll: ... I'd never thought that people couldn't see past things to the jolly nice house underneath smells/swirly carpets/dodgy wallpaper/damp patches, but it appears that they're thicker on the ground than one would think. Bizarre!

One of the reasons that our move extends over 3 days is that husband is highly allergic to cats and so we have hired a team of the 'murder scene/crack-den' variety of cleaners to go in and scrub the place from top to bottom. I imagine their faces will sink when they realise that the house isn't something with fitted carpets or nice tiled floors and is not going to sparkle in TV advert style!

 

[mims&pip]

Hmm, I know rather a lot about the tent peg case (lived in the area at the time and know family members) and would have been very creeped out having him anywhere near me.

Really, xanthe, that's interesting :wink: I didn't want to say - for fear of appearing prejudiced - but both Pip and I had dealings with Mr Tent Peg during the selling process and he did have a very chilling manner that freaked us both out. We both came away from the experience convinced he was guilty......but I guess we'll never know for certain.

Gosh, seven long haired indoor cats - yikes! I admit to having two (Persians) here, and don't deny they are an acquired taste, but seven is taking the proverbial :lol: Each to their own though, I guess......but not an ideal situation when selling and good for you taking on a property - albeit a chocolate box house - with those issues when your husband has allergy problems and I can totally see why you need to send in the Grime Squad!

Mims x

 

[xanthe]

We'll never know 100%, but I'll bet an awful lot. I don't think much was invested in further investigations.

I've seen lots of those lists of things that put people off buying a house, but never really thought the pet one was that big an issue. I hadn't contemplated the idea of a property being mad old cat lady territory. My parents had Siamese for years and currently a Mau, and I love cats, but even so I was a bit taken aback.

Worst was when I took our 5 year-old on the second viewing - we already knew we were putting an offer in, but DH said he wouldn't buy it if our daughter didn't like it (I might have vaguely mentioned pink 4-poster princess beds on the train down :twisted: ). We got there a bit early and the vendor let us in. Daughter got two steps inside the door and announced that the house was "stinky and mummy, I might be sick". I was mortified.

 

[Feltwell]

Showing prospective houses to your young kids is interesting, to put it mildly - quite aside from the comments.

My son really wanted to move into one house - he wouldn't tell us why but finally confessed he had seen a Lego set he liked on top of a wardrobe.

However, viewing this house was easy. After an initial viewing on my own, I brought Mrs F and our 2 young kids round the following day. The seller's 9 year old daughter was desperate to give our 3 month old son a cuddle, so she sat on the sofa with him keeping him entertained for us. Our 2 year old daughter just wanted to play with their very docile cat and then go on their slide and swing in the garden. The seller was quite happy to stay and keep an eye on all of them, and let us wander round her house and garden at will, free from small person interruptions. Very trusting, but we bought the house so it worked!

 

[Feltwell]

After about two weeks we had a call from the EA saying a couple were driving up from south Essex to view. We were conducting the viewing and they arrived looking fairly normal with new baby in tow and seemed ok, if rather typical TOWIE stereotypes - then she began regaling us with tales of her days as Katie Price's bodyguard and informed us of her habit of keeping a gun in her bra :shock: When she reached in for her mobile - obviously where every self-respecting Essex yummy mummy keeps it - Pip nearly jumped out of his skin :lol:

You forgot to mention it was the 80's, and this was the phone.... :wink:

 

[Zebra]

My son really wanted to move into one house - he wouldn't tell us why but finally confessed he had seen a Lego set he liked on top of a wardrobe.

:lol: :lol:

 

[Penners]

When we sold our last house, in south Suffolk, we had an acceptable offer from a middle-aged couple who were moving out of London. They were, "fed up with living in modern houses, and looking for an old place with lots of character". I suppose that should have set the alarm bells ringing in my ears, but an offer is an offer, so we accepted it.

They duly arranged for a structural survey, which showed (unsurprisingly) that was a patch of mild damp in one of the walls - or so the bored surveyor's Protimeter showed. The couple were furious! They accused us of trying to deceive them by trying to sell them a house that had immense structural problems, and demanded that we reduce the price by £15,000 (they claimed the surveyor had told them that this would be cost of dealing with the damp)!

Needless to say, I told them to go forth and wished them lots of luck in finding an old house that is completely free of damp.

 

[mims&pip]

After about two weeks we had a call from the EA saying a couple were driving up from south Essex to view. We were conducting the viewing and they arrived looking fairly normal with new baby in tow and seemed ok, if rather typical TOWIE stereotypes - then she began regaling us with tales of her days as Katie Price's bodyguard and informed us of her habit of keeping a gun in her bra :shock: When she reached in for her mobile - obviously where every self-respecting Essex yummy mummy keeps it - Pip nearly jumped out of his skin :lol:

You forgot to mention it was the 80's, and this was the phone.... :wink:

LOL :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[mims&pip]

When we sold our last house, in south Suffolk, we had an acceptable offer from a middle-aged couple who were moving out of London. They were, "fed up with living in modern houses, and looking for an old place with lots of character". I suppose that should have set the alarm bells ringing in my ears, but an offer is an offer, so we accepted it.

They duly arranged for a structural survey, which showed (unsurprisingly) that was a patch of mild damp in one of the walls - or so the bored surveyor's Protimeter showed. The couple were furious! They accused us of trying to deceive them by trying to sell them a house that had immense structural problems, and demanded that we reduce the price by £15,000 (they claimed the surveyor had told them that this would be cost of dealing with the damp)!

Needless to say, I told them to go forth and wished them lots of luck in finding an old house that is completely free of damp.

I don't blame you, Penners - that reminded me of one couple that viewed our last house (in rural Wiltshire). They were also middle-aged and looking to move from Hertfordshire - also from a modern house - because they wanted *character* according to both our EA and the husband. The wife, otoh, looked less than impressed throughout the whole viewing - which we had to conduct as our EA was leaving that day having been head-hunted by Hamptons, so they were short-staffed - turning her nose up at beams and woodburner alike, whilst the husband was just plain rude :roll:

Once out in our fairly large (1/3 acre) garden she began asking if all the trees - there were loads of very tall specimen firs, established fruit trees and a beautiful, ancient acer - had preservation orders as she would want to remove them......they didn't, but I honestly felt like telling her they did in order to get rid of her and her obnoxious husband!

Despite them making all the right noises before leaving, we assumed we'd never hear from them again. We were both surprised, therefore, to receive an offer via our EA - for £65k under our asking price "because the house (2500 sq ft) wasn't large enough for the two of them, they didn't like the quirkiness of the way the second floor was accessed (via a staircase put in during the early 1950s, but using reclaimed timbers so looked in character) and would need to reconfigure the layout, adding a second floor extension over the one built by a previous owner in the 1980s".......as you can imagine, we declined :wink:

They did come back with a (slightly) higher offer, but luckily we had an asking price offer the next day I'm guessing they went off and purchased a horrid Barratt-style box in a *village* somewhere with not a tree in sight......

Mims x

 

[Penners]

I'm guessing they went off and purchased a horrid Barratt-style box in a *village* somewhere

Well, I sincerely hope that our unpleasant couple did, because it's the only type of house that would have satisfied them. Probably on one of those new, edge-of-town estates consisting of thousands of virtually identical buildings (except for the one with the inevitable campanile), called something like "Parsley Meadows" or "Waverley Executive Village". :x

Snobbish? Moi?

 

[mims&pip]

I'm guessing they went off and purchased a horrid Barratt-style box in a *village* somewhere

Well, I sincerely hope that our unpleasant couple did, because it's the only type of house that would have satisfied them. Probably on one of those new, edge-of-town estates consisting of thousands of virtually identical buildings (except for the one with the inevitable campanile), called something like "Parsley Meadows" or "Waverley Executive Village". :x

Snobbish? Moi?

Exactly :roll: Why do they call these new *developments* 'villages'?

 

[Penners]

For the same reason that they call them cuddly, fluffy, bucolic names like "Primrose Bank" or (to mention an infamous one in Oxford) "Blackbird Leys". It's a transparent attempt to kid people that they're moving to a lovely Olde Englishe country community, instead of a characterless suburb. They'll probably also build a brand new red-brick-and-chrome pub and call it "The Ploughman's Rest".

:roll:

 

[xanthe]

LOL - I actually live in a 'Barrett Flat" - although the architect obviously liked Sir John Soane as the Georgian pastiche has a lot of Soanian style feature. For central London it is actually very nice - huge big floor-to-ceiling arched windows and nice brickwork and won loads of awards - whereas most of the surrounding modern developments are grim. My father always takes the mickey over my Barrett Home though!

I've been amazed at the ignorance of many people buying old Listed properties. My parents have an almost 400 year-old timber-framed lobby house with Georgian brick front and a C19th extension on the back (kitchen, study, hall with bedrooms and bathrooms above) which is Grade II listed. They have had people who have complained about the beams making the ceiling heights low; that they can't see an easy way to knock through and make it more open-plan; that there aren't enough en-suite bathrooms; that they only like the inglenook in the sitting-room but would it be possible to take out the one in the dining-room; that they don't have double glazing; that the stairs aren't straight etc etc. :shock:

I think a lot of the problem has been the doll's housey Georgian brick front - a very commonl addition to timber-framed properties in the late 1700's. People automatically assume that there will be big high ceilings, big spacious rooms and so on. Instead, it's very much a large timber-framed cottage on the inside.

Most of these people have no concept of what Listed Building Consent would mean. One American couple were stunned when the EA explained to them that they would need LBC for anything they wanted to do and that the CO could well say no. They just couldn't get round the idea that they could own a property outright but not be able to just do anything they wanted.

Fortunately none of them made an offer as the idea of any of them dealing with the results of a survey (nothing needs doing but surveys on old houses are always a bit scary looking) :roll: .

Having spent a lot of time trawling 'tudor house' searches online to look at lighting with beams, I keep coming across 'Tudor Homes' in the USA. Black/white timbers outside. Huge high ceilings with "beams", big fireplaces and decked out like Ye Olde Worlde Castle with suits of armour in the corner and dead things on the walls. I imagine that there would be a big market for such houses in the UK - all the charm :roll: of an old property but with double glazing, flat floors, no nasty draughts and room for the reclining couch and home cinema system.

I understand now why every EA we've spoken to about viewing an old property has instantly asked if we understand what Listed means and look very relieved when I say that I'm on first-name terms with a number of death-watch beetles and don't have issues with rooms with wonky floors and walls.

I imagine a lot of people were put off the house we're buying because other than the modern kitchen/bathroom extension, the rest hasn't had much done to it - no fitted carpets, lots of huge wonky floorboards with gaps in them, few proper ceilings and so on. All things that were a massive attraction for us, but definitely off-putting to others.

I'd would rather enjoy watching a fly-on-the-wall TV series based on people like my parent's prospective buyers trying to buy a Listed building. :twisted:

 

[atticman]

Not had any of the major or creepy experiences listed so far, just a minor, but, to us, hilarious tiff with a buyer.

When we sold our small, one-bedroomed flat in Edinburgh, we took three small shelves with us, forgetting that these would probably be considered as part of the F&Fs.

We then got a very stroppy letter from the buyer's solicitor demanding the return of said shelves, or they would be asking for a major sum of money for their replacement, as the resulting gap on the wall changed the entire character of the room and the buyer was considering taking steps to pull out of the deal!!!

We pointed out that the shelves were 18 inches long, made of cheap white wood, came from B&Q and cost (at that time) £1.99 each, but to no avail!

So, three cheap shelves were duly returned and handed over to a very embarrassed looking selling solicitor.

God knows how much the buyer's solicitor's time had cost him for this, but I'm sure it was worth it!!!

 

[Penners]

Donald, a Scot of my acquaintance, went to visit an old friend who lived in Leith Walk in Edinburgh. He found his friend stripping the wallpaper off the walls.

"So," said Donald, "ye'll be redecorating then, Angus?"

"Och, no," said Angus, "...moving."

 

[MatthewC]

This is a very entertaining thread but I reckon that I won't be around to sell this house as I think we are staying put - there was a thread last year on one's "forever home", wasn't there? I would have been happy to move and do another in a few years time but I think I'm ageing fast and just wouldn't have the energy!