(edit title) Bad mäklare, shady estate agent in Stockholm Cant sell my apartment Options

[djmarko]

I have an apartment in Soder, Gotgatan to be precise, its a 46 sq metres, newly renovated, bought it in 2008 but now that i have a kid, i bought a bigger place and due to move in December, I used the same estate agent that i purchased the place from, got a fair deal as well, they will charge 1.8% of the selling price, i bought it for 2.5mil and i have an evaluation on the property and it is now worth anything between 2.65 to 2.75, a similar sized apartment in my building recently sold for 2.85 2 weeks ago, well the estate agent seemed nic eenough, they took pictures and published it in Hemnet last month, befoe the official viewing, a private viewer requested to see the place and he placed an offer which i though was too low, i mentioned that i will consider his offer after the weekeend viewings, well after the first 2 viewings, we did not get a single bid, he said over 20 people visited, found that a bit strange, to cut a long story short, the apartment is still unsold, everyone is shocked as they cant understand how a nice apartment can be unsold, last week i thretened to give him a 10 day notice period so i can seek an alternative, within 10 minutes of my mail, he suddenly found a new private viewer who was interested, the next day, he could not get hold of this person to place a bid, i mean it cant be that hard, over the weekend, someone placed a bid which i thought was slightly off but i said i will consider it as well, we had another viewing and we had 3 people in total, one was due to speak to the bank to get a loan decision, well he could not get hold of her after 1 day, yesterday, he calls to give some bad news, all 3 have pulled out including someone that made a bid the other day, found that a bit strange, then i decided to give him my 10 days notice and that should expire next weekend, 30 minutes later, he found another mystery buyer that wants to view this afternoon, think he is playing games, have a gut feeling, he wants the apartment for himself as he did mention quite a few times how he loves the place, anyonbe been in a similar situation??

[djmarko]

I have an apartment in Soder, Gotgatan to be precise, its a 46 sq metres, newly renovated, bought it in 2008 but now that i have a kid, i bought a bigger place and due to move ... (show full quote)

I have an apartment in Soder, Gotgatan to be precise, its a 46 sq metres, newly renovated, bought it in 2008 but now that i have a kid, i bought a bigger place and due to move in December, I used the same estate agent that i purchased the place from, got a fair deal as well, they will charge 1.8% of the selling price, i bought it for 2.5mil and i had an evaluation on the property and it is now worth anything between 2.65 to 2.75, a similar sized apartment in my building recently sold for 2.85 2 weeks ago, well the estate agent seemed nice enough, they took pictures and published it in Hemnet last month, before the official viewing, a private viewer requested to see the place and he placed an offer which i thought was too low, i mentioned that i will consider his offer after the weekeend viewings, well after the first 2 viewings, we did not get a single bid, he said over 20 people visited, found that a bit strange, to cut a long story short, the apartment is still unsold, everyone is shocked as they cant understand how a nice apartment can be unsold, last week i threatened to give him a 10 day notice period so i can seek an alternative, within 10 minutes of my mail, he suddenly found a new private viewer who was interested, the next day, he could not get hold of this person to place a bid, i mean it cant be that hard, over the weekend, someone placed a bid which i thought was slightly off but i said i will consider it as well, we had another viewing and we had 3 people in total, one was due to speak to the bank to get a loan decision, well he could not get hold of her after 1 day, yesterday, he calls to give some bad news, all 3 have pulled out including someone that made a bid the other day, found that a bit strange, then i decided to give him my 10 days notice and that should expire next weekend, 30 minutes later, he found another mystery buyer that wants to view this afternoon, think he is playing games, have a gut feeling, he wants the apartment for himself as he did mention quite a few times how he loves the place, anyonbe been in a similar situation?? ... (hide full quote)

[Essingen]

Difficult to be sure what is going on. Your suspicions may be correct, but may well not be. However, given that he knows you have already bought another property and will be under some pressure if you do not get a sale, I would recommend replacing him pronto and getting someone else to arrange a viewing pretty quickly. December is not far away.

[David S]

I can't speak for the market today, but a little over a year ago we put our apartment on the market, very central, newly renovated etc etc. We got 3 quotes from different agents, all said it would sell immediately.

Ended up taking 10 viewings and more than 2 months and we had to sell at a lot lower than we thought.

In short, the market sucks at the moment.

On the positive note, it meant we also got to buy our house at a lot lower price than the seller wanted.

[djmarko]

Difficult to be sure what is going on. Your suspicions may be correct, but may well not be. However, given that he knows you have already bought another property and will be u ... (show full quote)

Difficult to be sure what is going on. Your suspicions may be correct, but may well not be. However, given that he knows you have already bought another property and will be under some pressure if you do not get a sale, I would recommend replacing him pronto and getting someone else to arrange a viewing pretty quickly. December is not far away. ... (hide full quote)

Absolutely, I have already given him a 10 day notice period expiring next weekend, i hope he can redeem himself within this period but am not so sure based on his track record, I have already set the ball rolling and we have seen 3 new mäklare and they think they can do a better job, they have a huge customer base, have potential buyers willing to buy in söder, some have even sold apartments in my building, already on the job, unless by some miracle, this person delivers but like i said, i dont have anymore faith in him

[djmarko]

I can't speak for the market today, but a little over a year ago we put our apartment on the market, very central, newly renovated etc etc. We got 3 quotes from different ... (show full quote)

I can't speak for the market today, but a little over a year ago we put our apartment on the market, very central, newly renovated etc etc. We got 3 quotes from different agents, all said it would sell immediately.

Ended up taking 10 viewings and more than 2 months and we had to sell at a lot lower than we thought.

In short, the market sucks at the moment.

On the positive note, it meant we also got to buy our house at a lot lower price than the seller wanted. ... (hide full quote)

I am very aware of the market trends, a bit different than 2008 when there was a low price to attract loads of bidders, often ending in a bidding war and high prices, these days, they have an acceptpris if thats the right word, where the seller will be prepared to accept, people still bid anyway, then you have the 15% deposit the banks require these days, apartment prices in söder are not cheap especially in the popular parts like Götgatan, practically next to everything, i have noticed the bidding in hemnet is a bit quiet, having said that, there has been 2 apartments in my building that have been sold recently, bididing over within a few days, thats why i believe my estate agent might be incompetent

[Puffin]

Is it the same agent or different agents that sold the other apartments?

Were the sold ones a similar size/number of rooms/view etc

Has the agent given you any feedback from the viewings? Is there any problem that needs to be addressed?

[160kph]

In 2008 we put our central Uppsala flat up for sale with a well known estate agent (the one that looks like a breast cancer appeal charity). The flats above us and below with the same floorplan sold a couple of months earlier for good money before they even went for showing.

The week before our first showing we were getting texts and calls from friend telling us they couldn't find our listing on Hemnet.se, so I called the agent and he said he'd sort it. When it came to the viewing we had 4 couples to the first one and 5 to the second, there should have been a lot more.

Needless to say that despite our flat being of a higher standard finish then the other two we didn't achieve a price close to them. As we had already bought a house and we had a new baby we couldn't face re-listing. I do still think that we should have kicked up a real stink with the estate agent as if no one can see your selling no one will come and look. The thing that bugs me most was his "it's no big deal" attitude to the hemnet mistake. But at the end of the day what would be the chance of anybody admitting culpability here?