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From The Times

July 13, 2007

How to sell your home in a hurry

The experts share some tips

LUCY ALEXANDER

IF YOUR house stubbornly refuses to sell, never fear – here are some expert tips to help you get things moving:

Phil Spencer, of Garrington property search company and Channel 4’s Location, Location, Location , says: Make sure you select the best agent for the type of property you have. Look in the window to see if houses like yours are advertised there. Then fix the right price, bearing in mind that the market calms down in the summer, so there’s no point being too ambitious.

First impressions are vital. Tidy up the front garden and the drive and paint the front door. Kitchens and bathrooms sell houses, so get cleaning and polishing. Buy things such as a new kettle, new bathroom lino, new door handles. Clear out clutter, turn the storage room into a bedroom, then ask a friend to come round and give their honest opinion.

If your house still doesn’t sell, ask your agents why they haven’t sold it and how you can help them do their job.

Ed Mead, sales director, Douglas and Gordon, says: The two most important factors when selling a house are presentation and price. Most people will have an emotional response to a house within ten seconds, so you have to be tidy and your children can’t leave their underpants on the floor.

Even more important is price. The majority of the market is a little sticky at the moment, so you need to attract the most number of buyers. A high price is not going to get people through the door, so put it on at a guide price at the bottom end of your expectations, and you should then get several bidders who will push the price up. That takes balls, though.

If it still doesn’t sell, drop the price to appeal to a whole new level of buyers – there’s no point tinkering at the margins.

Sarah Beeny, presenter of Channel 4’s Property Ladder, says: I strongly believe there’s no such thing as a house that won’t sell. If it isn’t selling it’s too expensive. The Martins (see story on left) may have dropped their price by £100,000, but that’s clearly not enough. The danger in today’s market is that there is huge optimism in terms of value, so estate agents will come up with a figure they hope to get, and the vendor spends that in their head. Look at what you can buy in your area for the price you’re asking. If you need to drop the price, take the house off the market for two weeks before launching it with a new agent at a price at least 10 per cent lower.

There are also cosmetic things you can do that may make a buyer pick your house over someone else’s. Cleaning the windows is the most important: it will make rooms look lighter and brighter.

jayne essex uk : How much do you want for your home? And yes, we really are a no-chain.

Pat, FL, USA,

Jane: I am an estate agent and we have saying: Buyers are liars. It is so often what the buyer tells us that makes us look bad such as "I am a cash buyer". Sadly we have no choice but to believe what they tell us. You shoud ask for proof of funds to be shown soon after agreeing a "cash" purchse. Mostly we are a hard working and surprisingly honest bunch. we get a bad rap for often no fault of ours!

Matthew Smith, London, UK

Tanya:

'very competitive price'

clearly not, as no-one's interested.*

*the price of your property can go down, as well as up. the value of your property is what people are prepared to pay for it, not what you like to think its worth inside your head.

Hugh, London,

I'm trying to sell my house in Bedfordshire and have put it on at a very competitive price. However, people are getting put off because groups of kids and teenagers hang around the area - we've already had a number of viewings cancelled and a no show because of this and it's really getting me down - most of the kids do no harm but they've been tarnished with the 'hoodie' brush and people aren't bothering to find out if we've had any problems. 50% of the viewings we have had didn't like the house's 'position' in the village (near a BP Garage).

My Estate agents aren't much help - they don't know how to handle the objections raised in relation to this isue so we're missing out on prospective buyers, plus the market has really slowed down in the last 2 months so we're not getting enough interest in the first place.

Tanya, Toddington, Bedfordshire

Forget agents, do it yourself. That way you only have your own interest at heart not an estate agent's commision. Just sold my property myself online on a new website brightproperty.co.uk Will do the diy approach again if i need to, it was easier than i thought.

We all book holidays online today so why not sell our houses! I just about to book my week in the sun with the money i have just saved!

andy waugh, braintree, essex

So James (below), if buy to let is banned, who will people rent from?

Andrew, London, UK

I believe the problem is estate agents and their lack of dealing with each property as and individual home. I have had my property on the market for 6 months and had two buyers who estate agents told me were cash buyers, when it came to exchange of contracts 'chains' were discovered by my solcitor and the proposed purchasers did not have the money. I was assured by estate agents that the purchasers wanted to move in within 6 weeks, dropped the price of the house and packed everything away. I am now living surrounded by boxes having had the last sale fall through two days ago because I was lied to by the estate agent who told me they were cash buyers.

jayne, essex, uk

Ban Buy to Let Buying,, Those people are strangling the country for their own selfish aims, where is the future in that??

James, london,

Don't buy or rent an house on a council housing association estate you may end up living next to a drug dealer and have a job to get rid of them. Housing Associations don't really care.
Check out the neighbours, if the area is run down don't move in if its cheep.
Renting does not mean you can move away easily, don't go for the first one you see, look around.

Peter, Bexhill, UK

Houses just aren't shifting in England and Wales at the moment, fact!

L Perry, Newport,

i think that was sarcasm

sara, manchester,

What a house that won't sell!! This can't be true....for every house there's at least 1000 buyers; with 100s more pouring across the Channel every day. Drop the price, pure madness!! Don't lower the price, raise it for God's sake!!!

Percy, London ,

Why don't you just admit it? We've had the boom, now comes the bust.

Darren, Plymouth,