Next Door Neighbour selling with same agent.

Hi,

We are selling our home and had spoken with an EA. We had decided to sell with this EA but just needed 2 weeks to get place in order. Next thing the EA contacted us to say our next door neighbours are also selling with same EA.

I asked the EA if this would negatively affect our sale...he made a strange face as if to say yes, but just said 'one will bounce off the other'.and 'it's hard to tell in this market' (Houses is in Belfast. Things very strange there at the moment property wise - nothing happening).

I contacted two other EA's for advice and they both jumped in with a 10k less valuation - reason being 'you will sell faster as it's 10k less than your neighbour'!! (They hadn't even seen the house - just two photos.....?)

Now, I believe the neighbour has house on for a fair price, and we would be happy to be on for similar. Still cheaper than similar houses in the area. Our house is in much better nick than neighbours (new kitchen, bathroom, etc) but is the most important thing ito price similar?

Anyway, can anyone give some advice here. This is our first home. Never sold a house before and finding it tricky enough dealing with the emotions of it; never mind playing mind games with competitor EA's. (And I KNOW I'm not meant to be emotional about this).

Are we best to stay with the first EA we liked and had negotiated a good price on; or do we go to competitor who just wants to sell at less than their competitor? The world of selling houses is wrecking my head!

thanks.

Emotion is fine. Gut reaction from most people will be 'oh look fighting neighbours' or 'oops must be major issues with those houses'

I would guess whether you have the same estate or not, most potential buyers will view the second house once they've seen the first & notice next door is for sale also. So you can't get away from the competition element, the question becomes one of negotiation. Is it better to have one agent representing 2 sellers if there's only one buyer?

Looking at houses at the moment and yes to be honest if i see a few houses in the same area for sale i think something is up with the area. i know it makes no sense but buying a house is such a big thing that i dont want to have any unnecessary concerns

If you can give a good reason for selling, there's no reason a potential buyer will not accept your reasons. Why do you and your neighbour both want to sell? Look on the bright side, when a buyer looks at both houses and sees that yours is in better condition for the same money,...well,...which would you be more interested in? Good luck with it.

Hold off if you can until the other house is sold then use the same agent who hopefully will have a list of people interested. Two houses side by side for sale at the same time will lead to a dutch auction and also the possible perception that something is wrong with the area.

oopsbuddy said:

If you can give a good reason for selling, there's no reason a potential buyer will not accept your reasons. Why do you and your neighbour both want to sell? Look on the bright side, when a buyer looks at both houses and sees that yours is in better condition for the same money,...well,...which would you be more interested in? Good luck with it.

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Yes but who would even look at a house, if the one next door is for sale?

As well as that if you buy the one thats in good nick, your living next to a dump.

Better to be the dump cheaper and do it up, at least you have clean neighbours.

slinky said:

Yes but who would even look at a house, if the one next door is for sale?

As well as that if you buy the one thats in good nick, your living next to a dump.

Better to be the dump cheaper and do it up, at least you have clean neighbours.

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I take your first point, and I had actually drafted a reference in my earlier post to a buyer being reluctant to buy a house next door to another that's for sale, for fear of not knowing who his neighbours would be after he'd bought, but then deleted it cos it was getting confusing (...so is this!)!! On the one hand, next door could be sold as a rental, or to "neighbours from hell", but on the other hand no matter where someone buys, the neighbours can always sell up and leave you in the same position!

Regarding your second and third points, I don't know if those are tongue-in-cheek comments, but if taken seriously, and if it was me, I would always take the better of two choices if the price for each was the same, OR negotiate the price of the poorer example downwards, so the final price reflects the cost of the additional work needed to bring it up to the same standard as the better example.

we jsut sold an apartment and 2 other apartments in the same
building were on with our EA (we were first to go up for sale). I have to say I found this helped the sale or our place (the EA also was confident it would) anyone who rang about any of the apartments was automatically shown all on sale with the EA, ours had loads of extras, really nice floors, recessed lighting, expensive ironmongry etc and sold quickly and for a good price. She said we about doubled our viewings by having the other 2 for sale as well

Hi there

We are in the same position at the moment. We put our house on the market in Jan and our neighbour put hers up last week. Both with the same EA. We had a viewer this evening who immediately asked was there a problem with the area! Once I explained our situation he seemed to relax a bit.
Ours is on for £5000 less than our neighbours ( We are in the uk) And ours is much more modern and better decorated.. so this can only go in our favour. Could you afford to drop your price by a few grand?

If two houses are for sale and the better visually looking house is cheaper I would smell a rat. I would thinking oh oh major issues cosmetically covered up.