Owning your own home

We'll probably have to, since I'll be starting my new job in September and I don't fancy the commute.

We have friends and family in Oxford, so I think worst case scenario would be that I stay the week in Oxford and come back ror weekends, or we all lodge or rent.

Good luck dude. I'll be interested to see how quickly/ easily you sell. Objectively your part of E12 isn't as wanky as mine but it offers nice solid period housing close to a busy high street and a station. I doubt you'll have problems getting offers - I think where it'll get tricky is if there is a long chain below.

Who did you use to sell your place and did you rate them?

A place just around the corner went for over asking last year with an agents who know the area well and take good pictures etc.

However, they have some weird fee thing where the buyer pays everything and they call it a 'finders fee' or something similar, but it's about 4%.

Sounds OK for us, but surely it's going to put off potential buyers?

I used ee11 based in wanstead. They might be a good choice actually for you and they are a bit cheaper than Douglas Allen etc.

I will drop you a pm to say more.

However, they have some weird fee thing where the buyer pays everything and they call it a 'finders fee' or something similar, but it's about 4%. Sounds OK for us, but surely it's going to put off potential buyers?

Yeah, don't do this. Whichever side of the deal you levy the fees on, increasing it from 2% to 4% is going to hurt you.

I think it's called sale by tender. Which is basically code for we want to fuck u and get u to pay our transaction costs.

I wouldn't entertain it myself and in a softer market it would not be all that attractive.

[Informal] tender is where there’s a final date set and blind offers are made on that date.

Getting the buyer to pay the fee is independent of that definition. Dunno if it has a name other than the one you gave it.

A buyer asked to pay 4% will reduce their offer by 4%, but I reckon it could also be worse than this as they have to find it in cash, so if they, for example, have a 20% deposit and can benefit from lower 80% loan-to-value mortgage rates getting them to pay 4% will reduce their deposit to 16% and they’ll get a worse rate. It might stop them buying altogether.

https://hoa.org.uk/2014/05/the-sale-by-tender-double-whammy/

This is what I was thinking of but am too lazy to type out.

Is this the same as the "modern method of auction" that you hear about?

I’m trying to get one of the heatgeek approved guys round to quote, it seems like they are all pretty busy!

I agree with what you’ve said. But JK floorheating do mill slabs pretty cost effectively.

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If it’s not insulated underneath your basically burning fivers.

I watched some of the first video and it's nuts that people are paying pros to come out, drive to wholesalers etc. just to change a pendant. Also mad that you'd pay for a whole rewire then leave knackered old Bakelite lamp holders in place to trip the consumer unit. Talk about an ha'porth of tar...

Starting to feel like London (our bit of it anyway) is starting to slow. We're the only bidders on a gaff we love. Keep your fingers crossed for us?

I know they get a rough ride on here but I found stow bros good to work with. As a seller

Same. As a seller Stow Bros are great if you keep them in their box (they'll try to undervalue your house so you get loads of offers, which is fine except they make the buyers fill out this 'a little about you' form so you get loads of heartbreaking stories of London's rental markets too). They always go to best and finals too.

As a buyer they're a bit of a pain during the bidding process for the same reason, but they've always been efficient communicators with us.

https://metro.co.uk/2023/01/31/gay-estate-agent-wins-30000-payout-after-bosses-ambush-him-18197627/amp/

They don't seems like nice people to work for tbh and have demonstrated questionable ethics here.

I didn't fill that out when I made an offer with them and told them it wasn't relevant. I didn't get the house 😂

Yes, I wouldn't feel good doing that myself. It's difficult to know why the customer would accept it but maybe they only do it once and regret it.

The second video has a lot more analysis of prices from firms in his surrounding area.

Chestertons always seem to have really low-valued property. I wonder if for the same reason?

It’s a bit of a kick in the nuts, if you own a similar property on the same road.

they make the buyers fill out this 'a little about you' form so you get loads of heartbreaking stories of London's rental markets too

Yuck. If I were selling I would tell them to throw those in the bin. How many stories have we heard "on here" of people that selected a particular buyer because they "seemed nice" but ultimately turned out to be dicks / incompetent?

BTW - good luck with the purchase!!

How many stories have we heard "on here" of people that selected a particular buyer because they "seemed nice" but ultimately turned out to be dicks / incompetent?

That’s probably the point of those forms isn’t it? To try to help understand who is efficient and committed and actually likely to buy.

I’m sure they’re not foolproof, but when there are a load of very similar offers from people in similar buying positions you need to somehow decide who to go for and info on who they are - work nearby as a nurse, kids already in the school, friends with Tristan and Freya at no 23, dad’s a mortgage broker etc. - is at least something.

I don’t know anything about that particular agent being good, so that’s not a recommendation, indeed I remember one of them not wearing socks in their early marketing.

you need to somehow decide who to go for

Combination of largest offer and biggest deposit.

30-something % of sales fall through. I’d choose a more committed buyer over a grand or two that may never come.