advice on choosing an estate agent / joint agency?

23rdspiral

any advice or opinions would be so helpful - we have a hip being compiled seperatly and if we arent careful this will delay us getting on the market.

we are in a v.small town, selling a small house, but with no clear idea of which estate agent to use. our choices are:
A) an internet estate agent (house network) (no tie in that i can see)
a complacient and rude local agent (4 week tie in but they werent too sure!)
C) an interested one in the next town (8 week tie in )
D) or the same agent as the house you like to buy that is in a pricier town a little further away, but only has a couple of houses for sale in this town? (12 week tie in haggled down to 8)

D has said that he could work joint agency with C for a fee of 1.5%, tie in for 8 weeks, which is the same % as B for single agency, who would up to at least 2.5% if we asked them for joint!

? Do you think joint agency really conveys the message that the property is hard to sell? (agent B said this to us)
? Which would you go for?

23rdspiral

wow, so no-one's been in this position then? ok.

poppysarah

joint agencies looks desperate imo.

Are there houses for sale near you? Who are they with?

54druids

chickmug has a good write up on choosing an agent - just click on chickmug to see his/her posts

DVardysShadow

I would go for C. I would be hesitant about A as seller, at least until I had experienced it as buyer [try some test viewings with A to see how it seems to work out?]. If B is complacent and rude, he has had it too good for too long and think how he might treat your potential buyers. D is too far away and the motivation of putting together a chain may not override distance.

Definitely C if he looks hungry to move in on B's territory.

Doozergirl

Not a fan of joint agency unless you have two different markets that might need two types of agent.

I guess I'd include House Network in that as you don't get local advertising presence so might someone else to provide that; however if you are considering house network, I would give them a run first without another agent to see how it goes - they aren't concerned about being dual agents.

I would always pick a nice local agent so seeing as you don't have one, I'd be even more inclined to go with House Network and introduce another agent later if you have to.