Joint or sole agency?

HouseHunter_2

you may remember from my earlier post that I've had my house on the market for nine weeks now and no offers. Viewing are now happening at a rate of maybe one per fortnight and I really feel we need to do somethng to re-invigorate the campaign. I called another agent who is keen to take the house on and also feels it is NOT overpriced despite me making it clear that I would be happy to drop it a bit for a quick sale (we have seen two houses we REALLY like).

Anyway, both agents would be happy to go joint agency at 2%, sole agency for 1.5%. I'm concerned about having two signs out but other than that I can't see why we shouldn't go for joint agency, it would add maybe £600-£700 on to the fee and a bit of healthy competition might not hurt n'est p'as? and presumably I can go back to a sole arrangement at any time as there doesn't seem to be any tie-in. So that gives me the option to kick one to the kerb if they turn out to be useless...SEE YA:wave:

What does the board think?

Jorgan_2

How is the fee being split between the agents, if at all? To get them to work hardest for you, make sure they are on a winner takes all basis, not 70% & 30%, highest to the agent who actually sells the property.

Potential buyers do sometimes think that two agents involved means you are desperate to sell and will offer accordingly. If anybody enquires as to why you are with two, don't tell them that you are keen to sell, it could be that one agent covers a slightly different area to the other, so you are widening your options.

HouseHunter_2

Jorgan, that is a brilliant idea, and absolutely true as well when I come to think of it. the one agent is a specialist in the particular part of town that I live in and the other has a branch network across the whole town. Bingo! :T

re the fee split, I hadn't though of this and had assumed it was winner takes all. I will check.

Jorgan_2

Best to check on the fee, the agents may split it between themsleves, but you really want them both doin their best for you. I was acting in the sale of a property a while ago when the other agent approached me wanting to do a 50:50 split. I refused, we do all the work & they get a half the fee or worse for the vendor, both agents sit back & do nothing, hoping the other agent is going to sell it.

HouseHunter_2

I've now signed up for joint agency, having checked it's on a "winner takes all" basis. I've had to give two weeks' notice to my current agent and in the meantime I've had a viewing from a woman who spent about 5 minutes in the house, I was convinced that she wasn't interested however now she has emailed a list of questions about bills, council tax etc. fingers crossed...

lovelldr

If i were you, I would have told the estate agent that you were considering to go dual agency, and that there has been a lot of interest from the other agents, they told you that the amount of viewings you had was very poor etc. Give em a kick in the backside. Do this a few weeks before going multi-agent, as they will probably start working harder to do the work and get a sale, before the other agent even has a chance! That's what we did, and fortunately it worked

Fingers crossed everything goes through!!!

HouseHunter_2

hi lovelldr

yes, we had already done this, with little impact and now they have the final two weeks to try and get a sale before it goes joint agency.

MissMotivation

HouseHunter wrote:

hi lovelldr

yes, we had already done this, with little impact and now they have the final two weeks to try and get a sale before it goes joint agency.

Probably an obvious question but have you actually asked the agent why they think the property is not selling?

No agent benefits from having a property on the market for a long period of time, don't forget that they are laying out money for advertisements, board, internet, staff time etc.

Maybe the price is a little on the optmistic side and a price re-adjustment might make the differance? Do the photo's do the property justice, is the description right?

If I was you I would make an appointment to see the senior person in the branch and agree an action plan and also ask to see their web stats (especially if they are on Rightmove) that will give you an indication of what the web activity is like.

Hope this helps!

HouseHunter_2

MissMotivation wrote:

Probably an obvious question but have you actually asked the agent why they think the property is not selling?

No agent benefits from having a property on the market for a long period of time, don't forget that they are laying out money for advertisements, board, internet, staff time etc.

Maybe the price is a little on the optmistic side and a price re-adjustment might make the differance? Do the photo's do the property justice, is the description right? !

yes, I've asked these questions: agent is adamant that i shouldn't reduce the price. Photos seem fine and the description too. New agent is also happy with the price.

MissMotivation wrote:

If I was you I would make an appointment to see the senior person in the branch and agree an action plan and also ask to see their web stats (especially if they are on Rightmove) that will give you an indication of what the web activity is like.

Hope this helps!

Again I've done this, spoken to the manager, they send regular stats in any case. 350 odd hits to the web site and 14 viewings to date. I just don't think their sales staff are very good if I'm honest: rather young and wet behind the ears (they have had some turnover since we put the house on with them). Fingers crossed a bit of competition will reinvigarete the campaign.

Today i received the new details in the post and they look 100% better than the first lot. The old ones were fine and looked nice but these just leap off the page. I'm considering just sacking the old agent and going single agency (I have til next saturday to decide).

courtjester

Bear in mind that the World Cup has had a major affect on activity in the property market - football may not be everybody's cup of tea, but that doesn't stop it from influencing buyer behaviour during the tournament.

Activity has already significantly improved since the final game, so most areas should now see a surge in more positive interest. I would hold on to your price and marketing for the present to see what response this gives you and write off the last 4 weeks as unrepresentative.

If you have signed joint sole agency agreements, you could also consider advertising privately with a decent national property website as sole agency terms do not prevent you from selling privately outside the terms of the agency contract providing you select your advertising service carefully. You could save a substantial sum in commission and if you tell both agents you are doing this, this will also serve to chivy them along with their own efforts on your behalf.