Selling privately, advice needed asap!

T

TillyD

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Hi,

I posted previously about selling my house privately. At the moment I have an offer well above the asking price but they have a house to sell and they want us to take our house off the market once we accept they’re offer… fair enough but how do I know they’re house will sell, is it a chance I take? Is there anything else I should be looking at or asking for at this stage.

All advice welcome,

Tilly... Thanks!
 
Tell them you will have the house shown as 'sale agreed' until you have received signed contracts and a deposit.
 
Im an EA (15 yrs) .

Well done on getting an offer privately !
But , beware.
Going 'sale agreed' now is of no benefit to you , and of great benefit to the bidder - unless you have a time frame in mind that suits you.

(ie " i'll take it off the market for 3 weeks, in which time , you are to sign unconditional contracts. If you dont , i will carry on showing the property again to other potential purchasers, if you come up trumps in the meantime - great - so be it")

Either way , carry on advertising the property and take names & numbers from all enquires, after you tell them it is agreed, but not completed.

Some people will put a higher bid in to just to get you to take the house off the market - then when they are in a position to proceed - look to re-negotiate a lower price , once they feel they have the 'upper hand' and YOU need the sale to go through because you have to close on another property etc....

i would also advise that you give it to an EA , tell them before of the name and bid you have (therefore they cant claim commission on THIS buyer - should the deal go through) See if the EA can expose it to a wider audience and get you a better offer/get you the same offer from a bidder that is ready to go (myhome.ie for example is ONLY open to EA's)

Classic example of why some people need experienced EA's IMHO - this scenario could go pear shaped with bad advice given.....
 
Congratulations , it only took you 18 days ! If I'm not mistaken , your contract will be "subject to" the other party selling their house , exchange of contract and deposit don't mean much in Ireland . Everybody can back out of the deal up to the moment when final contracts and the full price has been exchanged . You will be in the hands of your solicitor from here on having done the EA work yourself.
Sale agreed seems to be a good compromise as you probably don't want the hassel of showing the house during the months of waiting for their sale and all the paperwork .
 
Thanks for the advice guys.

We have gone sale agreed and the buyers are calling tomorrow with a booking deposit. Our solicitor is more or less going to take over from here on in.

Pjq, You are almost right, 21 days to be exact and I can't believe how straightforward it all went - touch wood! Having said that the houses in our estate usually sell in a very short period of time so this may have helped.

Tilly.
 
Congratulations.
accepting as bid from someone hwo has not already sold their house is a risk, either selling yourself or through an EA.
A lot of house sales do fall through. There is nothing you can do except
1) Only accept offers from people who have already sold their own
2) Accpet the risk, and sit tight and keep your fingers crossed.

You will have to be prepared for what you will do, if they request a delay
in signing the contract. Their solictor will advise them not to sign, until they have sold their own. If you are going to demand that they sign the contract in a short period of time, then amybe you should put the houe back ot he market and only accept offers from people whose own are sale agreed.

Good luck, its very scary, but it will be over in 3 or 4 months.
 
congrats.I cant find your previous post. how / where did you advertise
 
Hi VT1,

I advertised on the daft website and I got a 'For Sale' made for the outside of the house with phone nos & the daft web address.

Tilly.
 
Hi TillyD,

I dont mean to go on and on -

but my advice is the only advice that
a)is from years of experience and
b) will totally safeguard you.

Best of luck - but I strongly advise you at least to 'cut and paste' my response and forward it to your solicitor.

Best of Luck !

Murray
 
Someone mentions here 'now that you have done the EA work yourself' !!

As you may find out (I really hope you dont, and all goes well !) , an EA's job goes WELL beyond just agreeing the price, this is a common misconception........
 
just wondering, did you get any lower offers from anyone who had already sold their own house or was a FTB? given the downturn in the market you may find that the person you have gone sale agreed with won't have the same luck as you (getting over asking price and in 3 weeks) and may then back out. having saved the money on the EA fees maybe you'd be better off taking a lower offer from someone ready to move in?
 
I didn't get another offer so I had to go with the couple I have.

Murray, I am meeting with them tomorrow and I will put the pressure on and tell them that I need contracts signed in three weeks or the house goes back on the market.

In the meantime I will take details of any callers and I will tell them that I will get back to them to let them know if the house does/doesn't sell.

I am a tad worried that they won't sell their own house but I'd still be worried even if it was through an EA.

Thanks for your opinions so far.

Tilly.
 
Is this EA messing us about?

Just wondering can estate agents do this, it looks like they can do what they want but is this proper order?

Placed a bid on a house that no one was bidding on just under the asking price. Offer not accepted until our house is sold. So as some of you know I put it up for sale myself, without an EA. Someone else comes along places a higher bid on the house we were bidding on but they decide to use the same EA to sell their house. The estate agent didn’t even bother coming back to us to see would we bid any higher yet the other couple are in the very same position that we’re in. We both have houses to sell but ours is sale agreed at the moment. We didn’t even know that there was another bidder until we rang to tell them we had gone sale agreed. They still haven’t accepted our offer until contracts are signed on our side. I just feel that they don’t want us to get the house now because they are selling the other couple’s house. As far as I can see it’s more money for greedy estate agents.

Are they not supposed to come back to the other bidder to update them on bids? Could I report them for this??

Tilly.
 
Re: Is this EA messing us about?

I would write a letter of complaint and copy the vendor. Very quick letter, stating the facts, and request a response before a specific date, say next Friday.
If none forthcoming, send details onto IAVI - it may or may not do anything. If no reposnse, forward details onto Primetime - they are likely to do a follow up of their program last year at some stage......
 
Tilly ,
If you can , go straight to the vendor and tell them you are not happy with this monkey-business . You have good cards , as you are "sale agreed" , they wont want to loose you . Push for completion and tell the vendor that you are happy to have sold your property and if necessary you will rent while you watch the market for a while.
You really found out a lot about what's going on , if any of this info came from the EA you might have to take it with a grain of salt . Is he trying to get an extra few '000 out of you.
pjq
 
Thanks guys!

I found out all of this form the EA. He told me about the other bidder, that they had a house also to sell and it was a FTB house too. The couple that are buying our house also have a house to sell so we're back in the same boat. Two bidders after the one house, with houses to sell. The EA told us that our buyer’s house would probably sell quicker. Yet he's the EA for the other bidder so why would he be trying to help me out too. Maybe he's a nice kinda guy....!!!

I really feel like walking away from this house. The longer it goes on the more disadvantages I can see with it. I'd love if something else came up in the meantime. But for now it's a waiting game from here on in. We don't seem to have any other options at the minute only to wait it out and see who sells first.

Tilly.
 
Hi,

Just getting back to my OP and the advice Murray give me. I still have people ringing up asking about the house and looking for viewings. I am explaining that the house is currently off the market but if the current bidders don't go sale agreed with their own property in the next couple of weeks I am putting it back on the market. Today, I get a call from a guy who really wants to view it and will hold out for a few weeks until I see what is happening with the bidder I have now but he wants to view the house in the meantime, as in the next few days. Would it be wrong to let him view it while it's sale agreed or is it OK considering I have been honest with him and that I will not accept any other offers for the next few weeks. Part of me thinks it wrong but the other half of me knows I am going to lose the house I'm after if the bidders I have now don't go sale agreed.

Any advice... Tilly
 
TillyD said:
Hi,

Just getting back to my OP and the advice Murray give me. I still have people ringing up asking about the house and looking for viewings. I am explaining that the house is currently off the market but if the current bidders don't go sale agreed with their own property in the next couple of weeks I am putting it back on the market. Today, I get a call from a guy who really wants to view it and will hold out for a few weeks until I see what is happening with the bidder I have now but he wants to view the house in the meantime, as in the next few days. Would it be wrong to let him view it while it's sale agreed or is it OK considering I have been honest with him and that I will not accept any other offers for the next few weeks. Part of me thinks it wrong but the other half of me knows I am going to lose the house I'm after if the bidders I have now don't go sale agreed.

Any advice... Tilly
Click to expand...

Hi Tilly D !

Let the other viewer in , but first find out if he is in a better position than your 'buyer' - ie; nothing to sell/FTB (mortgage approved etc) While you are at it - let the other enquirers look also - at the same time/slight overlap - create a 'sense of urgency' ! Nothing to loose - everything to gain. PM me if you want!

Good luck.

Murray
 
Murray,

Having read through your advice and having sold my own property privately i still cannot see any advantage in having an EA on board.

Could you tell me simply what is the biggest benefit of using an EA to sell your house rather than selling it yourself privately ?
 
TillyD said:
Part of me thinks it wrong but ......
Click to expand...
Originally Posted by Murray
Let the other viewer in , but first find out if he is in a better position ....... While you are at it ...... create a 'sense of urgency'
Click to expand...

Mfs , do the above abridged quotes answer your question ? I think that the answer is experience ! However , I also sold without EA , as this common sense is not worth 1-1.5% +vat of my house .

But Tilly , the whole sell/buy and the transfer of title is a shambles in Ireland ( and it won't be fixed because that would not suit developers or solicitors ) , you have to look after #1 . Worry about doing the right thing when you have a 2nd offer to fall back on .
pjq
PS I'm not suggesting that you do anything wrong , just be in the driving seat
 
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