How can I get estate agent to proactively market us?

stormCat99 · 2 July 2007 at 3:19PM

Hi,

Our house has been for sale since mid Feb, at the start had loads of viewings for first couple of months, also an offer which unfortunately subsequently fell through.

Shortly after market went dead - hardly any new houses coming on market on our area and suddenly we had no viewings at all.

So we went to another agent thinking they would be coming to us afresh and hopefully get at least a few additional viewings despite the market slump. Been with them nearly 2 months now and not a single viewing!

Now, I know that the market around where we live has gone very quiet, which obviously estate agent cannot help. But I would have thought that when they got a new property on their books there would be an initial push to get viewings as surely it is embarassing for them that we have not had even a single one.

Anyway, we have just decreased the price today, and I called agent asking what they were doing to actively market the property, because as far as I can see they are just putting us in the paper (although they missed us off for the last 2 weeks due to an error :mad: ), on Rightmove and in their shop. The answer is nothing, they are not doing anything to proactively market us, and they could not come up with any suggestions either!!

So...I'm after some suggestions on good ways to get them to proactively market us. All I have come up with so far is an open afternoon where people can drop in without an appointment between certain times. I can't really think of anything else other than a feature on our house in the paper, and when I mentioned that she just said about how hard it was to get that done as so many other agents vying for the newspaper space!!

Any suggestions gratefully received...thanks.

PintoPotts · 2 July 2007 at 3:24PM

It shouldn't be your job to do their job!

The problem you have is that your property has been seen by everyone in your catchment area, mainly on Rightmove, so people are likely to now be at the stage where they say 'there it is again'.

I had this problem and solved it by taking the house off the market, waiting 3 months and when I put it back on making sure the pictures looked as different as possible to the original ones.

Reducing the price works, if it is significant enough to make someone think they have got a bit of a bargain, otherwise it just underlines the fact that you are having a problem selling it.

Anything will sell for the right money, maybe the agents have been too ambitious, which is normally the root of the problem!

stormCat99 · 2 July 2007 at 3:33PM

Thanks for replying. I think most of what you say is right!

We did try changing the pics a month or so ago but we get our Rightmove stats every week and could see it made no difference

We actually put the house on the market at a price that was under what the agent valued it at, as we wanted to be realistic. It was also our choice today to drop the price - the estate agent didn't contact us to suggest it - well or to suggest anything!

Agreed that we shouldn't have to do their job for them. But when they took the pics some of them were rubbish - the man in the shop even admitted that some of the pics completely missed off portions of our rooms and made them look much smaller than they were. We re-did some of the pics ourselves and it wasn't that hard to get the whole room in and give a realistic picture. Also the textual description was inaccurate and inconsistent so we had to amend that ourselves also.

We figured that if the agent isn't going to help us, we need to help ourselves. Willing to try anything if it is a reasonable suggestion and has a chance of helping!

lynzpower · 2 July 2007 at 3:33PM

have yo uposted up thef right move link here - what are the pictures like? are you pleased with them

have you got one of your mates to phone up and mystery shop thge EA, they should be falling over themselves to get them round, give that a try and test thier approach.

Deals_2 · 2 July 2007 at 3:35PM

well we have had our house in the market for 3 months but the first offer we got within the month but wanted a slightly higher amount and we thought we aim to market it through other estate agents too as a multiple agency at 1%. I have also found being the owner and on the phone to them regularly does help but i am afraid to say there are a lot of rubbish estate agents out there!!!! we now have 2 offers on the table at the price we wanted and we have had it on the market for 3 months. i would try and work out which agencies are good and maybe get a bit involved in making sure you have the right photos and focus on the right things that makes your house stand out from the others in that same bracket range. maybe also too high? maybe ask the agents why they think no visits and to be honest. hope that helps.

boots_babe wrote: »

Hi,

Our house has been for sale since mid Feb, at the start had loads of viewings for first couple of months, also an offer which unfortunately subsequently fell through.

Shortly after market went dead - hardly any new houses coming on market on our area and suddenly we had no viewings at all.

So we went to another agent thinking they would be coming to us afresh and hopefully get at least a few additional viewings despite the market slump. Been with them nearly 2 months now and not a single viewing!

Now, I know that the market around where we live has gone very quiet, which obviously estate agent cannot help. But I would have thought that when they got a new property on their books there would be an initial push to get viewings as surely it is embarassing for them that we have not had even a single one.

Anyway, we have just decreased the price today, and I called agent asking what they were doing to actively market the property, because as far as I can see they are just putting us in the paper (although they missed us off for the last 2 weeks due to an error :mad: ), on Rightmove and in their shop. The answer is nothing, they are not doing anything to proactively market us, and they could not come up with any suggestions either!!

So...I'm after some suggestions on good ways to get them to proactively market us. All I have come up with so far is an open afternoon where people can drop in without an appointment between certain times. I can't really think of anything else other than a feature on our house in the paper, and when I mentioned that she just said about how hard it was to get that done as so many other agents vying for the newspaper space!!

Any suggestions gratefully received...thanks.

PintoPotts · 2 July 2007 at 3:57PM

Yes, I would like to se the advert on Rightmove as well, could give some constructive crticism, can you post the link?

telfordwhite · 2 July 2007 at 4:31PM

tbh, if your house is on with rightmove and the local paper, what extra marketing should you need?
Anyone looking in your area will have seen it. It has plenty of exposure as it is, you can't force people to view.

I think we're down to lack of confidence of buyers in general due to interest rate uncertainty and also PRICE.

Targetpractice2 · 2 July 2007 at 4:44PM

Hi there, any agent worth his fee should be on the phone to you weekly telling you of any interest they have had or indeed not. If not why not..If you have had interest but no offers they should be finding out why no interest...were they just time wasters...wrong colour wallpaper....to close to a road ...price to high....feedback.....

If you are paying them a fee based on sole agency hopefully its linked to only 3 months sole agency at the start ...after that get in there and say I want it marketed by multi agents or change my agent...if your problem is actually not wanting to pay higher commission...post it on a private homesales website which links to some of the major portals. Sole Agency allows you to do this...and as your doing the viewings yourself any legal work can be done by your solicitor (as it would be in any case) If an agent is not providng you feedback then they are doing something wrong NOT you. Ask them where they have marketed your property websites / papers (papers are very pricey btw so you may only get the odd month in anycase). Do they have a hit counter on their own website..? Rightmove is great and the old 70% of home viewers search online now is very true..but actually 60% of those will type into a search engine a location i.e 'homes for sale in' rather than go to some specific websites. Price is not always the issue, it could also be that the agent you have chosen doesnt have a depth of book others do i.e those registered to get details of properties first. How many times have the sent out your details on request? Also consider other properties in the area at the same price with same dimensions if they are better prepared for sale than yours prospects will choose those first...

Your Agent should tell you this...if not, check your contract...and discuss kicking them out...

One of the great tricks they use...if your getting viewings but not offers...it could be they have some other properties similar to yours on their books...if yours is not up to the same standard it could be the 'for this price you could get this dump...or just think for an extra £4000 look it the same one next door !....

One mistake we all make (I sell homes and have done it myself!) is to not see whats wrong with our own property..things you live with and are used to seeing (or not seeing) could be glaring problems for viewers. One example with my place was where the dogs had scratched the back door to get out..didnt bother me, hadnt repaired it as I didnt notice it now...first thing a view says is ..ah you have dogs!.... youve got to look at your place with a critical eye and so should your agent...if they know whats been selling recently (and this could be your problem as they dont seem to from your note) then they can suggest minor changes to improve your chances.

BrixMorta · 2 July 2007 at 4:51PM

Sounds to me as though you should go back to your original EA’s. They managed to get lots of interest and were rewarded by being given the sack. All that work for no fee!

Looks like you have chosen a ‘conveyor belt’ style agent who gets as many on as possible, then just puts them through the system on the basis that a percentage will sell. They don’t have a clue about how to actually sell a house.

telfordwhite · 2 July 2007 at 5:20PM

Targetpractice2 wrote: »

Ask them where they have marketed your property websites / papers

Do they have a hit counter on their own website..? Price is not always the issue,

it could also be that the agent you have chosen doesnt have a depth of book others do i.e those registered to get details of properties first.

How many times have the sent out your details on request?

When I was looking to buy I received all of the above facilities but you know, everytime i received correspondence from selling agents, I had already seen the properties...on rightmove/prime location or the local paper and no amount of canvassing by the EA would tempt me to look at a house I was uninterested in.

You will always get a lot of interest when a house initially goes on but once all the potential buyers who have been looking around have seen it, interest will fizzle out and you will only get the newly looking buyers' interest.

You can't always blame the Estate Agent, It sounds as though the price is too high im afraid.

MissMotivation · 2 July 2007 at 6:06PM

Questions you should be asking them1) out of all prospective purchasers registered with them how many matched your property, how many have they spoken to/sent details to and what was there response?2) How many times has it appeared in the newspaper and what has response been?3) How many hits has the property had on Rightmove and what percentage have clicked through to view full details?4) Why do they think it's not selling? (price too high, too small, wrong area etc)5) What can they or you do to improve it's saleability?Also.....has any other member of staff apart from the Valuer physically seen the property? It's always easier to "sell" a property that you have seen. Are the photo's and description doing justice to the property?The market is very difficult at the moment and a lot of inexperienced EA's will not know how to really push properties......it's all too easy and wait for a buyer to show interest but a really good experienced EA will know how to push to viewings etc.Can you post a link?

How can I get estate agent to proactively market us?

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