Selling Up...
...buying down.
Jonathan's considering the unthinkable. Leaving.
"I am looking at selling my flat in Greenwich at the Anchor Iron Wharf development to move in with my partner who lives in Sydenham. Not the best time to sell, I know, and if my flat was bigger we would probably moving here."
(Is it really that small? I know you're young and in love - but - hell - this is Greenwich...TGP)
"Now, I know nothing about estate agents having never sold a property before and having bought my property (initially) through a key worker, part-buy, part rent deal, so I was wondering if you could ask your readership for any recommendations based upon past experiences with local estate agents? Can you help?"
The Phantom replies:
I'm not sure I should be helping you with this, J - but I guess that when True Love beckons, even Sydenham doesn't seem so bad.
But to Estate Agents. I don't like to recommend any of them, frankly, but if you've got to use one, I'd say stay local - they specialise and know the area. The only truly local one left, now that James Johnston have gone over to the Dark Side and joined a national, is John Payne (as far as I know - am I wrong on this?) They're not all nice in there - one particularly snooty individual in a branch I won't name took one look at me and told me there would be nothing in my price range (I hadn't actually told her a price at that point...) but all the other people in the company bent over backwards to help and I think on the whole they are very good (as estate agents go...)
Of the others - and there seem to be utterly hundreds of them (including the very oily-named 'Property Wealth' - am I the only one that thinks that name sucks?) - I don't really know. Perhaps everyone else can chip in here?
I shall be sorry to lose you, Jonathan...
Jonathan's considering the unthinkable. Leaving.
"I am looking at selling my flat in Greenwich at the Anchor Iron Wharf development to move in with my partner who lives in Sydenham. Not the best time to sell, I know, and if my flat was bigger we would probably moving here."
(Is it really that small? I know you're young and in love - but - hell - this is Greenwich...TGP)
"Now, I know nothing about estate agents having never sold a property before and having bought my property (initially) through a key worker, part-buy, part rent deal, so I was wondering if you could ask your readership for any recommendations based upon past experiences with local estate agents? Can you help?"
The Phantom replies:
I'm not sure I should be helping you with this, J - but I guess that when True Love beckons, even Sydenham doesn't seem so bad.
But to Estate Agents. I don't like to recommend any of them, frankly, but if you've got to use one, I'd say stay local - they specialise and know the area. The only truly local one left, now that James Johnston have gone over to the Dark Side and joined a national, is John Payne (as far as I know - am I wrong on this?) They're not all nice in there - one particularly snooty individual in a branch I won't name took one look at me and told me there would be nothing in my price range (I hadn't actually told her a price at that point...) but all the other people in the company bent over backwards to help and I think on the whole they are very good (as estate agents go...)
Of the others - and there seem to be utterly hundreds of them (including the very oily-named 'Property Wealth' - am I the only one that thinks that name sucks?) - I don't really know. Perhaps everyone else can chip in here?
I shall be sorry to lose you, Jonathan...
Labels: Estate Agents, Services
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
15:39
23 Comments:
Strictly speaking they're not necessary at all. You need a surveyor and a solicitor, but all the agent does is advertise the flat and show people round.
That said, they might be inclined to work quite hard for their money in their present climate..
Jonathon, I think its a personal thing depending what agent you meet on the day,and wether you get on with them, as the Phantom says some of them can be very snoty. Also the sole vendor rates vary quite a bit, from 1% to as much as 2.75%. There is an agents by the mainline station which boasts "Established 1792" ( I wont advertise their name, but I think that would make them quite locally knowledgeable) Plus these days they all use the same websites to list whats on their books.
I would get all the local agents round for a jelly fight and see who comes out on top.
Hope thats of some use.Good luck in Sydenham.
"all the agent does is advertise the flat"
Well, yeah, but unless you have access yourself to a list of people interested in buying property in the area, that's actually quite a big deal.
A friend has just sold a flat in the Royal Herbert Pavilions (yeah, yeah, not exactly Greenwich) and was deeply unimpressed by any of the agents they tried.
Ended up selling privately to someone who was renting a flat upstairs.
I sympathise
Aren't Meridien still pretty local though? They have branches as far away as Brockley, Lewisham & Lee as well as one in East Greenwich?
t
King Struge the James Johnston of old, I've used them a couple of times and always very good.
When we moved to the area 2 and a bit years ago, the following agents were the ones that caught our attention more than the others:
John Payne; Meridien; King Sturge (or James whatever it was then...); the rest seemed quite obscure, didn't update their websites very often and weren't great at telling us when new stuff came on the market (but then again, it was a seller's market then. Things have probably changed on that score...) Good luck with selling your flat.
I'm looking for my own place....but I think that my £3.65 and the assortment of shirt buttons and bits of fluff from my pocket wouldn't be enough.....pity cause we could both save on the fees.....LOL
I agree with Benedict, get them all around for an 'auction' for the right to sell your flat.....can you video it for laugh????
FWIW...
We've bought through John Payne, found them really efficient, and a good source of advice when thinking of selling our place. All the others were, as you'd expect, snotty/useless/flakey/smarmy etc.
They are all yard dogs- but with the current state of the market expect much more smarm than snoot.
(Written from my artisan's villa nuzzling Central Greenwich (which is kind of how it was described to me back in the olden times when I bought it)).
Doug at John Payne Greenwich has always been really good. He's still there.
Your experience with John Payne is certainly at odds with mine. I've always found them very helpful and friendly. They know the area very well, but they're not too pushy to drive you crazy like most agents. They were instrumental in helping me complete a difficult sale 4 months ago.
Andy - if you're talking to me - then I've written it badly. My experience with one individual was bad - the rest was excellent.
Jonathan, Sydenham !!!! Crystal Palace country !
C'mon, must be some way you can stay in Greenwich, you won't like it there ;-)
I think the rules might be different for part rent part buy schemes (shared ownership).
Basically (please correct me if I am wrong!) commission is paid on the percentage share (i.e 1% on 30% of the value of the property) to the Housing Association who owns your other percentage of the property. So commission will not come into play here, just a good agent who can sell the property!
I had a good experience with John Payne when we bought our house in E Greenwich. They were thoroughly professional and polite to us as would-be first time buyers.
As a former tenant of a home managed by Meridian on Trafalgar Rd, I would not recommend them. Assuming their sales department is anywhere near as poorly organised as their lettings department, I wouldn't ask them to organise the proverbial in a brewery, never mind sell my most valuable asset!
Dear Phantom, there was I thinking I was the only one to get the snotty treatment from a certain someone at JP!!!!
I wouldn't mind but we were looking for a million plus house at the time!!!! (Ok maybe we did look a bit scruffy when we stopped by the offices)
Feeling strangely relieved ......
I agree about John Payne, having used a few local ones, they are definitely the best. Not necessarily the cheapest but worth it.
Harrison Ingram. Lovely people
From a buyer's point of view, I found John Payne great to use. They were very informative and proactive telling me about new properties. When we sell, that's who we will use.
Unfortunately we ended up buying through FJL (only because they had the house we wanted), but when I sell, I would never use them. Their service was abysmal, and I found their definition of truthful to be somewhat flexible.
I found Peter Cottage at Oliver Bond Deptford Broadway to be not too bad. He has a funny way about him but I felt he looked after me and I was buying, not selling.
I have used Winkworth in Blackheath in the past for a number of transactions - including selling my flat in Millenium Quay (which they did in 2 days). I would recommend them as they are local and have been around quite a long time. Also, their office is in a prime spot opposite Blackheath station so gets a lot of viewings.
A hint on the commission by the way, put together an incentive for whichever agent you use to sell it at a higher price by staggering what you'll pay them ie you'll pay their set commission if they sell for the asking price or more, and then you'll take 0.25% off for each £xxxx less than the asking price. Hope that makes sense!!
Thanks all, this advice has been incredibly useful to my partner and I. Going to go and visit a few next Saturday and see what they have to offer me.
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