Lancaster & Morecambe 01524 843322
Posted on Tuesday, June 6, 2017
You’d think this home would sell quickly and easily. After all Stone Cottage is a beautiful spacious family home. It’s layout is a little unique, 3 bedrooms upstairs with the 4th bedroom on the ground floor - ideal if you have visiting older relatives. It’s position is quite close to the main road, and the garden is more to the side. It’s on a sceptic tank, not main drains. The windows are an older style double glazing. Are you starting to get the picture……
Address: Stone Cottage, Caton
Price: £350,000
Sold for: £345,000
Number of viewings: 39 with 12 different families
We first met the owners of Stone Cottage back in the Spring of 2016. They were up for sale with a different estate agent and were struggling to sell. The house had been recently refurbished having been previously let out. The kitchen and bathroom were beautiful. The decor throughout was Laura Ashley.
Having studied the previous marketing, we felt it best to bring in the services of a professional photographer. Great photos were going to be key, especially if we were going to overcome one of the key objections of the garden being adjacent to a busy main road.
We sat down and discussed their moving plans. It was difficult. They felt held back by this house. They felt let down by their previous agent. They wanted a premium price, after all they had spent considerably on the home to get it back into it’s beautiful condition.
The home struggled. Feedback was so positive in many ways, yet so negative in other ways. We had one buyer change their mind having spoken to neighbour. We never found out was said. Several viewers felt the ground floor bedroom was simply too small. Others didn’t like the traffic noise when stood in the garden. We changed tact several times.We found a buyer. We agreed a great price. However there was then issues with the conveyance. The deeds were drawn incorrectly. The boundaries were wrong.
It took John ( Mr JDG ) hours and hours of work sorting the issues with this sale. It was far from a straight forward sale. The owner called several times a day out of pure frustration. It was fraught as the problem was with the title deeds. The land needed re-measuring. The neighbours deeds also needed adapting. It was an unusual issue and this shows were an experienced estate agent who really perseveres comes into their own.
We completed this sale in Spring 2017. It was strange as in the end two buyers wanted this house. We had a 3rd express interest if the sale was to fall through. Within time all of the issues were rectified. It didn’t happen as quickly as the owners would have liked however changing title deeds takes time! Not many people realise what goes on behind the scenes at an estate agents. Not all sales are easy and some take literally 100’s of hours of work. This sale alone took over 200 man hours. We never gave in despite the problems thrown at us. It really does pay to choose an agent with experience and tenacity!
