A question for the UK members.

[craigb]

Tonight, while I was waiting for the news to come on the teev, I was watching this pommy show about selling houses in the U.K. God knows what relevence this has got to an Oz audience, but that's the dreck that we get on pay TV.

Anyway, it appears when you sell a house in the U.K., the vendor is expected to show the punters through the house and act as the salesperson.

Is this right? If it is, then what the hell does the estate agent do?

Over here, an agent will take around 2% of the sale price as commission, but for this they do everything.

The vendor in most cases will not have anything to do with the purchaser until after the contracts have been exchanged.

Craig (the bemused )

[bitingmidge]

Anyway, it appears when you sell a house in the U.K., the vendor is expected to show the punters through the house and act as the salesperson.

I thought when you sell a house in the UK you are expected to buy one in Spain or the sunny parts of Italy or France, or heaven forbid, get a job in Australia as a Union organiser!
:eek:

P

[craigb]

I thought when you sell a house in the UK you are expected to buy one in Spain or the sunny parts of Italy or France

Yes. Preferably, one that's little more than a pile of rubble that's been used exclusively for housing sheep and goats for the last century.

[Rocker]

Craig,

It is true that in the UK the vendor shows the potential buyers round the property. However, in the UK the agent gives potential buyers far more detailed information about a property than is the practice in Australia. In the UK, agents will produce three pages or so of detailed information about a property, including a photo, and measurements of all the rooms. Buyers can go to an agent's office and collect these details for a number of properties that they might be interested in, and take them away to study at their leisure. They can then go back and arrange to inspect the properties that seem to meet their requirements.

Here, agents give buyers minimal info, but instead drive them round to all sorts of properties that the buyers, if they had more info beforehand, would not consider inspecting.

I prefer the UK system, which saves a lot of wasted time on everyone's part.

Rocker

[beejay1]

In answer to your question, the houseowner usually shows interested parties around their own properties. the estate agents commission is for preparing the sales brochure and for advertising in the property usually in the local press or specialist town and country glossies if its a particularly high price tag property.

If the house is such a property or estate often the estate agent will act as the guide or of course if the propert is vacant. More and more people are using internet to sell and cut out the estate agents who in many cases are a complete waste of time as they quite often do not actively promote your property to customers who call into their premises. they are seen by many UK houseowners as parasites and right so in my opinion. that said, there are some good ones around who do actually work for there commission.

The law in the Uk governing the sale of property varies. In England and wales the vendor offers a price and if accepted, usually the asking price or close to it, he can pull out of the deal at any time prior to exchange of contract.
In Scotland, houses are advertised at Offers above a certain price by the vendor and peoplke then submit closed bids usually at 20 -30% above the stated price. Once a bid is accepted by the vendor, there is no pulling out as that is seen as the contract. this means of course in scotland its always wise to sell before you buy otherwise your into bridging loans which are very costly. Youve also in both countries got the cost of conveyencing, surveys and stamp duty etc to take into account so it can be a very costly business.
beejay1

http://community.webshots.com/user/eunos9

[craigb]

I find it strange that something as straigtforward as selliing a property can be approached from so many different angles.

Here, especially in the major cities and when the market is bouyant, by far the most popular way of selling a house is by auction.

The agent will arrange a marketing period, usually around four weeks. During this time, the property is "open for inspection" for about an hour one or two days a week when all the punters get to go through the place and check it out.

Seriously interested parties can then arrange at their expense building and pest inspections .

On the auction day, the vendor will provide the agent with their reserve price.

If the bidding goes above this price the vendor may deem that the property is "on the market" then at the fall of the hammer, the successful bidder is legally required to provide a 10% deposit and procede to settlement or risk losing their deposit.

Horses for courses I suppose.

Which is the best system? I don't know but I reckon a lot of what agents earn is money for jam.

PS
What do the agents charge for their commission?

[Iain]

Real Estate Agents can now negotiate their fee including advertising in Victoria, but we still get shafted with GST on the commission plus all the legals and the highest stamp duty in the country.
Then there are the shonky money lenders who loan to self empl;oyed who have trouble getting bank finance, pity they fail to mention their little fee, knew someone who got stung for $7000 on a $100k loan at 11%.

[adrian]

On a related subject has anyone seen a show on the Lifestyle channel called Property Ladder. It should be retitled A Complete Idiots Guide To Renovation. I find myself almost throwing things at the TV in frustration at some of the things the people do.
Two things I've learned from the show is, don't let a gay male couple decorate your house to sell it and don't let lesbians design the layout of your house.
The couple this week had no DIY experience and were going to do the work themselves in about 11 weeks. They had no idea how to design a layout. Had no idea what the market would pay for the completed property. Had a budget of 22K pound and ended up forking out 83K. Went on holidays to the states during the project and conceived and gave birth to a baby during the project. When the show ended they hadn't had any takers and were almost certain to lose about 30K on the project. I think that's a miscalculation of about AUS$75,000.
I hope they get paid a lot by the production.http://www.channel4.com/4homes/ontv/.../pl_poole.html

[Ashore]

Over here, an agent will take around 2% of the sale price as commission, but for this they do everything.

Craig (the bemused )

Craig
2% when was the last time you sold a property and as far as do everything






You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me.

[jow104]

English agents also give or suggest a valuation also good estate agency businesses usualy have at least one or more qualified surveyors on their staff.

But its still an easy way to make money if the housing market is booming.

Stock costs nothing

(but there are running overheads) Dabbled myself many years ago but there was an housing slump at the time luckily I had an alternative souce of work I could fall back on at the time.

[jackiew]

expect to pay 1% in the uk ( at least that was the case 3 years ago when I sold my house) but you can quite often get a better deal than that. This price includes advertising.

For that the agent produced a 3 page spread of my house with colour photos, description and dimension of each room and the outbuildings and garden - this leaflet could be picked up by anyone visiting their offices. The property was advertised in all of their sales offices - at one point my house was the feature house in the middle of their window with a great big picture. It was also on their website and in the local papers.

The English agent showed the potential purchasers around as I was back in Oz. Older people and single women often ask the agent to be there when someone is being shown around - it doesn't cost anything more but it may mean that potential purchasers don't get to see the house when they want.

My UK agent kept in touch with me by email and let me know how things were going. After the sale they contacted me to find out whether I was satisfied with their service. I got about 10% more than another agent in the same town had told me my house was worth. I gave them 10/10.

I have used other Estate agents in the UK who were basically useless ( both as purchaser and vendor ) - including one who refused to describe my property accurately and who when I took the property off of their books still displayed the property in the window ( to make their window look full ).

I personally prefer being shown the property by the vendor. That way you avoid the chinese whispers of asking the agent a question who then asks the vendor who then tells the agent who then tells you. You can ask to see the heating bills, the rates bills etc. You can ask them about the neighbours.

the duty of disclosure in England is much higher than here. No-one told me about the dirty great housing development planned for the next road although the vendor undoubtedly knew ( plans hadn't been lodged with council so my "due diligence" didn't turn it up ( ). In the UK they would have been obliged to tell me if they'd known about it. You have to disclose things like disputes with neighbours etc on a form before the purchaser is committed to buying.

The concept of an "open for inspection" seems bizarre - just let any tom dick or harry into your house to suss out what you own and what your security arrangements are.

Plus here in Melbourne where you can't make an open for inspection but are interested in the house I've had an agent tell me that it was tough luck I couldn't see the house at any other time. So the vendor loses a potential buyer just because the agent won't make an effort.

[ozwinner]

. This price includes advertising.

.

Used to like that here a while ago too.

Al

[Iain]

No-one told me about the dirty great housing development planned for the next road although the vendor undoubtedly knew ( plans hadn't been lodged with council so my "due diligence" didn't turn it up ( ). In the UK they would have been obliged to tell me if they'd known about it. You have to disclose things like disputes with neighbours etc on a form before the purchaser is committed to buying.

1. Where the hell have you been, thought you were ill or dead!
2. Welcome back.
3. The above quote, it is addressed here, just can't think what it is called but it is a legal requirement on the part of the agent-vendor-conveyancer.

[Sturdee]

3. The above quote, it is addressed here, just can't think what it is called but it is a legal requirement on the part of the agent-vendor-conveyancer.

Iain, I think it is only a required if the purchaser or their solicitor specifically asks for that from the vendor in the requisitions. And sadly that is not as often as it ought to be.


Peter.

[jackiew]

1. Where the hell have you been, thought you were ill or dead!
2. Welcome back

Thanks Iain. Was overseas for three weeks ) and have had a lot on at work since I got back (