putting home on the market

However, one can be highly professional and effective without qualifications. It is one of those jobs that is best learned by doing the job. Yes there rogue agents but there are rogues in all professions

Well yes. That was a really rude comment, and you responded with remarkably good grace.

It is true that In the U.K. one doesn't need specific qualifications in either construction techniques, valuing or legal procedures. These services are not normally in house but rather outsourced, eg. conveyancers, structural engineers, surveyors etc.

However, one can be highly professional and effective without qualifications. It is one of those jobs that is best learned by doing the job. Yes there rogue agents but there are rogues in all professions,

Personally I see most high street EAs fulfilling the role of "introducers". Some also act as go between, helping to progress the sale. The best EAs are the ones with the strongest progress departments.

A house sale is not safe until exchange of contracts, 1 in 3 sales fail due to poor progressing.

The best way of achieving your best price and finalising the sale is do work with your agent. Don't rely on the EA for everything, especially with progressing the sale.

I personally prefer to do all viewings myself rather than allowing an EA to do them. I believe than the vendor knows more about the property than any EA can possibly know. They're is nothing more frustrating for a purchaser than being shown round a property by an EA who knows nothing about the property. A complete waste of

With regards to pricing, it is not an exact science. Prices are very much subject to wider market forces......as we seeing at the moment.

I don't think of EAs as 'professionals' at all (or the other examples given) as anyone can just set themselves up as one - without any training or qualifications.

People believe that they will help get the best price for a property. They won't, necessarily, as, being paid commission, they're far more interested in turnover.

I remember the 1988-95 slide only too well. A lot of repossessions.

Spoke to an insider the other day and he tells me that the market is unlikely to pick up until April 2026. He was unable to reveal his sources but he hinted it was from the "high ups".

Your guess is as good as mine, but I suggest it is to do with fiscal policy decisions due to an expected global recession over the next few years. What we are experiencing is not confined to the U.K., it is global. The housing markets in the USA and China are already in total disarray. At any rate most "housing experts" are suggesting that an upturn is unlikely much before Spring 2025 so his timescale may well be right.

The thing to remember is that whilst corrections are necessary from time to time long deep slides are never good news. The human cost is high, repossessions, bankruptcies, divorces and failed relationships, loss of opportunities to move house for jobs, schools etc.

It's not just housing that's affected but many of the ancillary jobs, shops and trades that are linked to house moves. A lot of failed businesses and redundancies are on the horizon. The knock on effect to local economies where prices might drop as much as 40% will be catastrophic.

The people most likely to benefit from falling prices are cash buyers and the "big boys" - Banks and financial instructions, corporate landlords and the like who invest in property because with interest rate rises the "affordability" factor comes into play.

If mortgage rates are three times higher than they were a couple of years ago then mortgage payments will also rise accordingly affecting what is termed as "affordability". This means that banks will cut back on how much they will lend, thus the FTBs purchasing power will be so much less because they won't be able to borrow as much as they could a couple of years ago when mortgage rates were around 2 to 3% rather than the current 6 to 7%. So, even with lower prices, many FTBs will still struggle. It's a vicious circle really.

I'm guessing I am coming over all doom and gloom. Sorry, but I'm just being realistic.

Yes some houses will still sell, but the volume of transactions will be heavily impacted. The houses that do sell will be the ones which are deemed to be the best value for money, irrespective of their condition or whether or not they have been "modernised". My best guess is that actually it is the non modernised ones that will be snapped up by cash buyers who are happy to take on a project. So I would advise most sellers not to spend too much money to get their house "market ready", certainly not any major works such as new kitchens etc. A lick of paint where required, and a few nice plants in the front garden for colour and kerb appeal and leave it at that.

My advice to anyone who wants/needs to sell is get your house on the market sooner rather than later. The longer you wait the worse the slide will get. Also, as I said before, be very competitive with your pricing to try and stay ahead of the curve, otherwise a £10k drop every couple of months or so won't even keep pace with the downturn.

As I said I am sorry to be the bearer of such grim tidings but I have lived and worked through several property slides so I know the devastation they can cause. There will be winners and losers, the trick is to be on the winning side.

Btw. If you or any of the your loved ones are worried about your current mortgage payments, please contact your lenders before you get in trouble. They are likely to be more helpful and come up with a rescue package if they are contacted before the arrears start mounting up.

Good luck everyone.

That's true LuluAugust I am hopeful that DD and DSiL will be able to afford to buy their first house, before they are 40!. They are not in highly paid jobs but I see this as an opportunity except that the interest rates could rise even more.

Agree with DerbyshireLass do declutter, just pack away all your nice bits and piece and leave the kitchen and bathroom you will be hard out to choose something every prospective buyer will like. Don’t forget if you have a real struggle to sell you can always put the house to auction with a reserve price. Good luck

Most of us here can remember the last long slump from 1988- 1995. And slumps like that bring tragedy to some but opportuntities to others.

Both our AC got on the housing ladder as a result of the house price fall. DD bought a an ex-council flat that halved from its nominal value that the tenant had accepted in 1990 to when she bought it in 1993. As a sitting council tenant, her seller only paid a third of the price, so was not out of pocket on the deal. Our DS just benefitted from collapsing prices.

So lower prices will make getting on the housing ladder much easier for first time buyers. Not everyone under 40 works in the gig economy, many of them have good jobs and good salaries, but cannot afford to buy homes anywhere near where they work as they are so expensive. A downwards price adjustment is probably long overdue.

Thanks for sharing your wisdom and experience Derbyshirelass
Well done for selling your own properties so quickly.

DMiLs house has had to go back on the market after the sale fell through but there have been several recent viewings and 2 notes of interest so we are still hopeful that it will sell soon.

Not everyone can wait for prices to drop any further, can they, they need to live somewhere!

I am a retired EA/New Build Sales Negotiators, with over 30 years experience in selling properties, both in the UK and Spain. I am also a serial renovator, buying fixer uppers and transforming them into lovely comfortable and stylish homes. Every property I have sold has sold within a week of being put in the market.

My best advice is.

1. Change your EA, she is rude and obnoxious but even worse she knows nothing.

2. Do not rip out your kitchen or bathroom, or indeed any expensive fixtures and fittings. Just make your house look as clean and presentable as you can, so declutter and a deep clean, including the garden,

3. Price it right.

That's always the best advice for a stable or rising market, however, unfortunately for you we are now in a falling market so you are going to have to be very pro active and work extra hard to get your sale.

I would strongly advise you to find an older and more experienced EA, one who has at least 20 years experience under their belt and who survived the housing market "crash" of 2008. Crash is a misnomer as I will explain later. They will have a better understanding of what's coming and hiw to deal with it.

Forget the Johnny Come Latelies, they will be unlikely to have experienced difficult selling conditions and won't be much help.

Most importantly ensure that your house is priced extremely competitively from the beginning. Opportunistic pricing is doomed to fail in a falling market. You will only end up having to repeatedly drop your price to chase down the market.

In a falling market it is better to underprice to gather interest from several parties, in essence you need to engineer a bidding war. That way you stand a better chance of getting nearer to your required price.

Now what do I mean about house price crashes being a misnomer.

Well, house prices do not crash in the same way that the stock market crashes. House price falls take the form of a steady slide and it can take two to three years to reach the bottom. The current slide has only just started and I'm afraid we've a long way to go yet. I can't give you exact figures because there are just too many variables but we could be looking at a decline in prices of anywhere between 10% to 40% depending on the type of property, the area and the overall state of the economy.

I am sorry to paint such a gloomy picture but I'm afraid it's most definitely no longer a sellers market. If you want to sell you and your agent are going to have to work very hard.

If you do decide to proceed the best tip I can give you is to ensure that you have all your paperwork in order, for example certificates and guarantees for work you have had done, that kind of thing.

At the best of times 1 in 3 sales fail so the trick is to have everything ready to go to minimise delays. The longer it takes to reach exchange of contract the more chances of the sale slipping through your fingers. This is crucial if your buyer needs a mortgage because most mortgage offers are time sensitive. Right now banks and mortgage lenders are being very picky and the number of mortgage products on offer are significantly reduced. We are heading for something of a credit crunch and lending criteria will tighten up even more. Add rising interest rates into the mix and you can see that money is going to get very tight indeed.

I hope I haven't depressed you too much but I want you to go into the process with your eyes wide open. Forewarned is forearmed.

Best of luck.





3. Just make it clean and

Unless you have a kitchen from the 1800s, as we do.

This really would not work, even as it is all solid. Nobody wants this any longer - perhaps not even long ago.

We usually buy houses in need of renovation because we know that we are going to change things and what we throw out - is only fit for that. Although in our current house, I loved one of the baths so much, large room with a comfortable sloping back, that I kept it. It isnow 60 years old and still looks great and, of course, remains as comfortable as ever.

No, you are being quite reasonable.

We're people who are always renovating. However for we add for usefulness not most up to date style, seems styles come and go.

That agent is daft, or cunning. Push hard, call often, get sold.

Oh goodness!
Someone would have been glad of new carpets etc if only people took the trouble to contact an upcycling centre, which would collect it all.

We have new neighbours, the house had been modernised a few years ago and so far we haven't seen a skip 🙂

My late MILs house had new bathrooms, kitchen, paint and carpets before it was sold. It sold quickly for a good price. The skip arrived and everything went in. Still, financially, it was a good investment.

The new people liked the area and schools. They had everything painted white, the original floors stripped and sanded, their own choice of bathrooms and kitchen (ultra modern, minimalistic) before they even moved in.

Back in my house (before I moved to my present flat), I had a long galley kitchen in that dark wood colour. It always looked dark in there.

So, a few years back I got in one of those firms mentioned above. They came , took off all the cupboard doors and drawer fronts and took them away. During the week they were not there, I did sort out, clean and tidy up all the cupboards. Then they brought those all back, now a lovely soft white, even put on new knobs I had for them and re-fitted them. Wonderful job.
The change to that kitchen was unbielvable. It was now such a bright room. Cost a tiny amount compared with having a new kitchen, and even a great deal less than having new (not so solid) doors, etc.

When I moved house, some four years later they were still nearly as good as when they were first done.

Doodledog

What may be a compromise (if you can be bothered to compromise, and I'm not saying you necessarily should ) you could get a respray of your kitchen units relatively cheaply. A company will come in and take off the doors and trims - you don't even need to empty your cupboards!) and refit them in a new colour. That would be a quick fix and if it makes a quick sale more likely you might think it's worth it.

It wasn’t for moving - they’d recently bought the house, but dd and SiL painted some really horrible old dark brown melamine kitchen cupboards in a soft white. The transformation was unbelievable. I don’t know how long it’d have lasted - the kitchen was ripped out a couple of years later when it was extended, but it was certainly a lot more attractive to live with.

I painted my kitchen walls before putting the house on the market. It looked so fresh and cared for. I wish I'd done it sooner and had the benefit of it.

What may be a compromise (if you can be bothered to compromise, and I'm not saying you necessarily should ) you could get a respray of your kitchen units relatively cheaply. A company will come in and take off the doors and trims - you don't even need to empty your cupboards!) and refit them in a new colour. That would be a quick fix and if it makes a quick sale more likely you might think it's worth it.

Our neighbours replaced the bathroom and kitchen before putting their house on the market. The new buyers ripped it all out. Now I think of it we did the same when we moved here as we didn’t like the quality or the configuration. It certainly wasn’t a selling feature for us.

They know that if the kitchen is changed/upgraded the property will probably sell for more and they will get more of the selling price in fees.
They won't have the upheaval and will get more £££'s!

Get a different ,less controlling estate agent!

If you can't be bothered with the upheaval don't do it. Your house may sell for a bit less but does it matter to you at this time in your life?
I think giving the place a lick of neutral paint, get new duvet covers for the beds and some cheerful cushions is a way of smartening a place up ..And invest in huge vases of expensive flower at the viewings. I did several at £50 a pop when I sold my last house. It works. It says its an affluent area and can add £££'s to the price. Less cost and less upheaval.

And of course declutter. You need think of it as no longer your house and remove as much of 'you' as you can, so that you are offering more of a blank canvas for the potential buyers to dream into their own possessions in the space.

It's worth reading online to see what easy things make a house more saleable .

A friend of mine refused to sell her mum's house to a developer who wanted to pull it down and build on it. She went through a local EA, and a buyer was found who seemed very keen to buy the house and love it as her mother had done.

Weeks later, it transpired that he and the developer (and, presumably the EA) had been in cahoots and the house went to the developer after all. Probably legal, but definitely not ethical.

(btw) Georgesgran is spot on about inviting 2 or 3 agents - then, tell them all that you'll go for the lowest selling commission - but don't tell them who the other agents are. Sit back and watch them lower their prices!

Personally, though, I'd use an online agent and show people around myself, as I'm confident to do that.

I'm wary of EAs - especially since our offer on this house was rejected when the dodgy EA realised that we didn't need a mortgage from them too. Their 'buyer' contact disappeared (of course) so it was just as well that we'd popped a note through the door.

Still, we often need to use them (or an online agent) just to sell. Homes are sold in all sorts of states so I certainly wouldn't have the disruption of major work being done.

The place I'm interested in now (due to it's large garden) has been 'renovated' (allegedly) and 'boasts' (horrid EA word) a dark grey gloss kitchen - chopped up by a peninsular worktop - that I'd simply have to change right away. I resent having to pay extra for that, I really do.

A basic country cottage that I viewed had a sky blue bathroom suite. The owner apologised for it but I thought it was just lovely.

Re my previous ‘shark’ post, as they’re legally obliged to do, the blurb about the flat had included the fact that it was owned by someone at the relevant EA. It was rented out at the time.

Prices had shot up during the previous 10 or so years (this was in around 2009) so I can only assume that the vendor had made a whacking great profit, but was either allowing a son or daughter to have it at a much reduced price, or else had one of the aforementioned ‘brown envelope’ arrangements.

Either way, their Capital Gains Tax payment would have been significantly reduced.
I can’t help wondering how common this sort of fiddle is.