Selling Houses privately...A warning

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katy
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Selling Houses privately...A warning

Postby katy » Fri May 10, 2013 10:51 am

Most of us have tried to sell privately, especially in Spain with the high commission fees. We stopped trying years ago due to timewasters, people not turning up and scammers. Just read in Sur that a man in Churriana who had a se vende sign received a call requesting a viewing. When the couple came the owner was attacked and tied up and some articles stolen.

Always make sure that you are not alone and have the mobile handy. Once had 2 French couples with kids view our house. One of us would take the dogs out and the other do the "tour". Not only did they seem like timewasters but they split up and were all over the place. Nothing happened but the potential was there.

Likewise if buying and viewing private sales Remember the couple near Benidorm who were murdered! Sometimes Agents are a necessary evil.

http://www.diariosur.es/20130510/local/ ... 00101.html

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Re: Selling Houses privately...A warning

Postby Chunky Monky » Fri May 10, 2013 3:35 pm

Same in the Uk. I was selling a house one time and had this older couple, probably in their sixties, looking around. The guy says "This is perfect, I don't need a mortgage, you'll have a cheque in the morning" Still waiting......... thirty years later.

I don't how sad and pathetic these w@nkers are that such a stupid past-time makes them feel good. :thumbdown:

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Re: Selling Houses privately...A warning

Postby Devils Advocate » Fri May 10, 2013 4:03 pm

Chunky Monky wrote:
I don't how sad and pathetic these w@nkers are that such a stupid past-time makes them feel good. :thumbdown:
Tell me about it. Only arrived home half an hour ago after meeting a couple who'd requested a viewing for the bungalow we've got for sale over here.......what a waste of petrol :evil:

After half an hour of "It's got potentials" and "we'd need to put our satmp on it" I got this..........

Them> Have you ever thought of going up?

Me> How do you mean up :?

Them> You know, turning it into a house.

Me> No, it's a bungalow and big enough for most people I'd have thought.

Them> Would you get plans in this area to turn it into a house?

Me> I wouldn't know, I'd assume so.....why?

Them> Because it's a house we really want?

Me> Then why the f*** have you come to view a bungalow and cocked my Friday up?

Tumblweed :roll:

I'll have to stop doing the viewings I think, as I arrive there feeling aggressive after the numpties I've been inundated with.

We bought a plot of land cheap off the farmer behind to make the garden very big if people want to.
I don't mention this to them at first when I show them around.............anyway this couple just before we flew to Spain last month viewed the place and waxed lyrical about it...........eutopia was not the word.
However the "but" came............"the garden is smaller than we'd like" :mrgreen:

"See that field there" I said........."It's yours"

I kid you not they then said there was too much land...............aaaaarggghhhh Image
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Re: Selling Houses privately...A warning

Postby Nimrod » Fri May 10, 2013 4:18 pm

We lived really deep in the sticks in the UK for 30 years.
The time came to sell because the grounds were too big and taking up all our retirement time.
One Bank Holiday the agent rang to say they had a couple who were really eager to buy.
We cancelled our plans and stayed in all day.
The agent drove them up,we were 3 miles from the nearest bus stop and often got snowed in during the winter.
Four wheel drive was essential.
By chance I asked what car they had.
"Oh,we don't drive"
Me..."But a car is essential,why have you come to view?"
Richardhead..."Well,it was a Bank Holiday and we thought it would be a day out"
FFS!

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Re: Selling Houses privately...A warning

Postby ashtondav » Fri May 10, 2013 4:21 pm

why the f*** have you come to view a bungalow and cocked my Friday up?
Oh you smooth talking b@stard, you. Sales is obviously your forte.

On a more serious note I fail to see how having an agent show the house results in fewer burglaries or attacks. An agent is less motivated to keep an eye on the family silver.

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Re: Selling Houses privately...A warning

Postby katy » Fri May 10, 2013 4:40 pm

ashtondav wrote:
why the f*** have you come to view a bungalow and cocked my Friday up?
Oh you smooth talking b@stard, you. Sales is obviously your forte.

On a more serious note I fail to see how having an agent show the house results in fewer burglaries or attacks. An agent is less motivated to keep an eye on the family silver.
True, although if you are not there and the Agent has the key they surely are responsible for losses...within reason. I always put small items away. Not bad in the UK as they pre-qualify people but must be virtually impossible in Spain.

I dislike viewers who are too chatty or make comments on personal stuff even if it's complementary. I also hate the ones who tap on walls etc

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Re: Selling Houses privately...A warning

Postby Mowser » Fri May 10, 2013 5:08 pm

Estate agents? Pish. A good few years ago an estate agent in Nerja came up with a couple to view the house. They didn't seem at all interested and I couldn't understand why they just went through the motions (a bit like swimming in Nerja).

It turned out they wanted a 2-bed flat in Nerja with communal pool.
Our house at the time was 5 bedrooms and in the middle of Frigiliana.
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Re: Selling Houses privately...A warning

Postby gerryh » Fri May 10, 2013 6:44 pm

Mowser wrote:Estate agents? Pish. A good few years ago an estate agent in Nerja came up with a couple to view the house. They didn't seem at all interested and I couldn't understand why they just went through the motions.
I can quite understand why that happened.
When we where considering moving to Spain we weren't absolutely sure what type/ location of property we wanted. We had a fair idea but were trying to keep an open mind.
So we asked the estate agents to show us a range of properties. Most of which we dismissed very quickly but looked around them without much interest.
One of the properties was an instant, yes, this is what we want.
Cheers
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Re: Selling Houses privately...A warning

Postby Lavanda » Sat May 11, 2013 3:02 pm

Spot on, Gerryh. It's a case of "Don't know what we want until we see it". We were looking for a finca with a ruin to renovate but bought a village house with small garden but fabulous views. Many people ask how we ended up with three completely different places in Extremadura and we always answer, "By accident" but we could say "By LUCKY accident" as the estate agents always threw in the property we "might as well see while you're in the area" and, usually, the estate agent was right - which is why they are estate agents, I guess ...

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Re: Selling Houses privately...A warning

Postby scampicat » Fri May 17, 2013 9:31 am

We knew what we wanted but were prepared to be flexible. We wanted a village house in a village with at least one bar (we didn't want to live 3k up a track). The house itself had to be livable, although we didn't mind doing some renovation work. We wanted windows in all the rooms (you don't always get this in village houses in rural Andalucia!). We wanted some outside space although were happy if this was just a roof terrace. A small amount of land and a garage would be a bonus, but we knew we almost certainly would not get these on our budget. It had to be within our price bracket as we were paying cash, there would be no more money.

Our house ticked all the essential boxes and had a terrific view :), We got our roof terrace but no land or garage. The house was at the very top of our budget so we had to save up to renovate it, although it was livable. (just!). We got windows in all the rooms other than the downnstairs loo/utility, but we didn't mind that. The village, despite only having a population of 400, had six bars :)

We didn't use an agent when we sold it and had one time-waster and one serious viewer, who I'm glad to say, bought it. The sale then took eight months to go through because, unknown to us, our deeds were incorrect and had to be updated.
Last edited by scampicat on Fri May 17, 2013 9:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Selling Houses privately...A warning

Postby Devils Advocate » Tue Jun 11, 2013 2:22 pm

I do get the numpties don't I? This one was unreal yesterday/today.

Estate agent calls and says Mr and Mrs Blah Blah would like to view the bungalow........we agreed to meet in about an hour, so I had a quick shower got smartened up and drove across to the house where I met up with them.

Seemed a decent couple and you can never judge the book by its cover ,but (and I'm sorry for this) the state of their car and where the estate agent told me they currently lived just didn't stack up as a serious viewing, especially at the age they were..............but people do come in to money/win the lottery etc. so I was polite throughout and showed them everything they needed to see, hoping they did have the means to buy if they liked it.

The lady was disabled and struggled a bit on sticks, she obviously loved the house and said so time and again. They commented the gardens were big. I then said I'd aquired an extra 1/4 acre of woods/farmland behind to make a picnic area/allotment/extra garden whatever they wanted. The husband said he does love gardening but he felt the plot was too big for them........I felt I made a mistake mentioning the extra land.

I thought the size may scupper any deal, if indeed they were serious, especially when we parted with them again repeating they were worried about caring for a plot of that size :cry:

Anyhow, the estate agent has just phoned back with their "feedback...............I'm still in abject and angry shock.

She said "Mr and Mrs. Blah Blah loved the house".............then came the expected "but".......they said "the only thing wrong with it was that the gardens were TOO SMALL" WTF. I asked the girl if she was sure that's what they said, she said it was and like me was baffled, especially when she looked at the plan of the house and land. What are these halfwits on? at the price of the house there will NO others in the area with anything like the outside space. I give in :?

Is it just something for them to do on a boring Monday afternoon?
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Re: Selling Houses privately...A warning

Postby oliveview01 » Tue Jun 11, 2013 2:44 pm

When we were selling out old house in the UK we had viewers who loved the house, really wanted it, but one thing made them turn it down- they did not like the very pale green paint in the hall, they would have to re-paint they said! I can´t repeat what I said to the agent!

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Re: Selling Houses privately...A warning

Postby Nignoy » Tue Mar 04, 2014 4:27 am

we are in the process of selling here in Australia, we live in a tiny town on the edge of the queensland, We had to laugh our agent would not accept viewings for sundays,his opinion was 99 times out of a 100 they are time wasters on a day trip, and he also runs a credit check on prospective buyers, one of the first couples , said our shed was not big enuf :lolno: , it is a double garage and workshop, a secure floor area of 136 sqm, it is bigger than my house, the previous owner used to build sailboats init, john and vron

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Re: Selling Houses privately...A warning

Postby anyroads » Tue Mar 04, 2014 1:21 pm

When the people next door were selling, they had one woman (who arrived complete with notebook) look in the oven !

anyroads

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Re: Selling Houses privately...A warning

Postby Chunky Monky » Tue Mar 04, 2014 1:38 pm

I saw 'A Place in the Sun' one time where the wife said, after seeing a property in Spain, "I don't like it, there are some light bulbs missing"!

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Re: Selling Houses privately...A warning

Postby Unicorn » Tue Mar 04, 2014 2:40 pm

The other bad thing is the secondary agent who has the client in the area and wants to show x amount of properties. They arrive at the door and ask 'how many bedrooms have you got?'. Bye bye I say.
I remember a few years ago a delegation came to see a flat, 3 different agents hanging on grimly to this one client. They had all put 5% on making the price silly.

In my opinion the agents here , in general, are rubbish. The main problem is that they ask how much do you want rather than making a valuation. In central London they would come around and say this property is worth this amount and most of the agents were in the same ballpark.

Here the 'how much do you want for yourself?' so they can load on what they want.
Thieves and vagabonds.

katy
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Re: Selling Houses privately...A warning

Postby katy » Tue Mar 04, 2014 6:06 pm

I was impressed with an Agent in Holland when my daughter sold a house. I was there, he sat down and did a comprehensive marketing plan, loads of info.....and all for 1% :)

When the people next door were selling, they had one woman (who arrived complete with notebook) look in the oven !

anyroads


I wish I had looked in the oven at one place we bought. They left a dish of curry in it and it looked as if it hadn't been cleaned for years :(


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