Owning your own home

Some people aren't really in a position to grasp their requirements - viewings help them sort out what they actually need and what they can compromise on (ask me how I know!).

Useless from a feedback perspective. I found most of the EA feedback useless, really.

We had a few people who viewed our place say they liked the house but didn’t want a downstairs bathroom.

I don't think that's unreasonable really - with every house you view you're going to be weighing up positives and negatives, and you might be thinking that the negatives (small second bedroom, downstairs toilet) could be overcome if you loved the area or garden.

Then when you actually see it you think about what it would be like to live there.

There are definitely places that we saw that looked more promising on paper than in real life.

I found most of the EA feedback useless, really.

Yep. Unless it is 'the property smells bad / is very untidy' there's not much one can do with making a room bigger / changing location / moving a bathroom.
It should be more useful for the agent in terms of only showing properties with xxx feature, but most seem to just show whatever they have on the books whatever you specify.

3 offers on the flat from yesterday's viewings. 1 at asking price, 2 slightly below. Estate Agent is going to ask all 3 for best and final offers with a decision hopefully being made tomorrow afternoon or early Wednesday.

you went with nested right? congrats! we ended up with 5 offers last monday to chose from

Yeah, been really impressed. Will be using their buying service too.

To be fair I viewed a fair few places where there was an incredibly slim chance of me buying them just because they were local and I could stop off on my way home from work.

also EA pictures are ridiculously distorted sometimes. When we started looking, we were so disappointed every time the place looked so much smaller in person. Took me a while to realise that there are no 6 feet wide microwaves etc..

I've had a search but can't find anything. Has anyone on here sold a flat (in London) without an estate agent using Yopa, Iamtheagent.co.uk or similar?

I'm a photographer so I would do the pics anyway and based on two neighbour's recent sales and others currently on the market I have a very good idea of what the place is worth. It's also in a popular area.

From what I can see, the difference is about 5K in commission and I would have to do my own viewings. My partner and I work from home and I'm freelance so I don't think it would be a big issue. Is there something I'm missing? Will it put me in a bad place with an ongoing chain?

Took me a while to realise that there are no 6 feet wide microwaves etc..

Depends if you are viewing @hippy 's place or not

i. All your leads will - initially - have to come from Rightmove / Zoopla / OTM etc. You might be fine with this. It's difficult to tell how much this puts you at a disadvantage. EAs like to big up their 'applicant' lists. They might or might not be worth something.

ii. The one thing that turned me off when looking at PB / Yopla stuff was not being able to view it in the next couple of days at a time that was convenient to me. And I wouldn't return to a place once I got the feeling that the owner was being precious with their time. So be prepared to be available all day every day if you are doing self viewings.

iii. You'll probably have to negotiate yourself. Depends how comfortable you are with this.

iv. You'll need to conduct viewings like a normal EA would do, i.e. impersonally, coldly, impatiently. Anything else is weird. No tea / coffee sit down for a chat nonsense.

Will it put me in a bad place with an ongoing chain?

If you are with PB or Yopla, probably not. If you are with one of the more esoteric - 99 homes I'm looking at you - possibly.

It's not actually 6ft wide, it's just that I took all the shielding off it so it would cook hippy-sized meals. Why zap in, when you can zap out?

fat shaming, reported.

We did one viewing where the owner (and partner and child) were at the viewing and it was a pretty awkward and unpleasant experience (for me) at least.

I felt it was hard to have a good snoop and test/open things when the owner is hovering, and it makes you really rush when other occupiers (partner and child) drop what theyre doing to go stand in another room while you enter the room they were in.

Especially in covid times, we had taken anti bac wipes with us and we cleaned taps/handles etc that we touched and this was more difficult with the owner looming

We did one viewing of a house which was rented to a group of students. We were told the house was empty/no one was in and it was early afternoon so I was a bit surprised when I flung the loft room door open and disturbed a couple in bed together.

oh we had this too, the listing was with a standard local agent, mentions nothing, when we arrived it was rented out, the people had lived there for 6 years and had mountains of stuff in every room. no chance of selling in that state.

I also did a few viewings where the owner was present and it felt a bit weird. May be different if the owner is doing the viewing rather than just lurking/avoiding you.

You're relying on people actively looking at your place online and wanting to view it and then organising the viewing. Estate agents are (in theory) more likely to suggest viewings to clients and will get people viewing who wouldn't necessarily have viewed it just based on the online ad.

It's a tough one to call. In the scheme of things I reckon my estate agent earned their £5k but I've no idea whether I would have got the same price selling it myself.

I've sold a flat and a house and did all the viewings for those. I think the majority of viewings I saw were with the owner, not an estate agent. Didn't really bother me either way.

There were a couple of houses we viewed and ultimately didn't buy in part because the seller was crazy and didn't have an estate agent or other professional on their side to tell them they were crazy. As an example we wanted to complete before school application date (which was ages away) but before the owner wanted to move out. They suggested we complete but they would continue to live in it for 3 months.

I'm glad to hear there's people having a good experience with Nested, one of my good friends works there.

What are their initials?

It's their head of design

Ah, cool. Well I'm happy with their UI, so far.

Recommendations/idea of costs for a full fat survey? House, South London.

Seem to be about £1100 for a house if you mean a building survey rather than a homebuyers

Lots of them are busy / short staffed it seems at the mo.