Have I over reacted

bulchy

Hi, we've had our house on the market for 6 weeks, so far we havent had any viewings. Yesterday we got a courtesy call from the EA on our answer machine. When OH returned the call, and the EA mentioned that there hadnt been any views on the home, OH politely said that he didnt think the photographs showed the house off to its full potentiel. She snapped back 'well why didnt you say so in the first place?' then went on to ask if we intended dropping the price. OH was left gobsmacked and said he would get back to her. I could tell by his tone of voice that something was bugging him. When he told me what she had said, I jumped in straight away with, well we'll go to another EA. I rang them back and politely said we no longer wish them to handle the sale of our property, and was told to confirm this in writing. Now we have to go through the whole procedure of getting house photographed again, something which TBH doesnt really bother me, but OH isnt too pleased. I will be the one doing most of preperations regarding cleaning tidying etc, he gets the job of showing them around while I take the dogs for a walk so they dont get in the way. When we originally had the house valued, we had 3 EA's come out in anyway, its just a case of ringing one of them back and saying can you come round and take pics and put our house on the market for us.The EA I would like to handle the sale did impress OH in the first place, the only reason we went to the original one in the first place is, the solicitor they use handled our exchange of land with neighbours and a build over sewage agreemnent we have.
My question's after this essay is, have I over reacted to the lady's attitude or would others have done the same. As this is the first time we've ever sold a house, we dont really know much about the ettiquette involved. We did intend reducing the price to hopefully gain more interest in the place. Also have I put this in the right forum? sorry if I havent.
Sue

alanobrien

Six weeks and no viewings, imho either something is wrong or the EA is doing nothing. Either way they are not working for you so change the Agent.

bulchy

Thanks alan. I was starting to feel the same, but like I say, we havent had any experience with EA's, so others opinions are appreciated.
Sue

saverram

hi,
i havent done any house buying or selling, but i have seen on the TV that if we make minor changes to the house like moving furniture, bit and pieces to look in a more attractive way and take photographs it might be helpful.
it will also help get many viewings and u dont need to drop u r price.
i hope it may be helpful.
all the Best with u r house selling.
Hope to listen good news from you

saverram

mrcow

bulchy wrote:

Thanks alan. I was starting to feel the same, but like I say, we havent had any experience with EA's, so others opinions are appreciated.
Sue

Don't worry about over reacting. It sounds as if you've lost confidence in this company anyway so you DEFINITELY don't want them to be there when your sale does take off (trust me, you want a compnay that you feel comfortable with as sales can be long and stressful).

The only thing to be careful with is to check the agreement that you signed up with them. Does it give them exclusivity to the sale for a set number of weeks? Check the small print on your agreement, as they will pursue you for any cancellation charges if you go with another agent too soon...........

bulchy

Thanks saverram, the EA that I want to contact now do actually 'dress' the house before they take the photographs. He commented on how he wouldnt need to do much to the house before he took the photos, if the house was in the same condition when he returned, by this I presume he meant how tidy the house was :rotfl: as we did work hard to prepare it.
Sue

bulchy

mrcow wrote:

Don't worry about over reacting. It sounds as if you've lost confidence in this company anyway so you DEFINITELY don't want them to be there when your sale does take off (trust me, you want a compnay that you feel comfortable with as sales can be long and stressful).

The only thing to be careful with is to check the agreement that you signed up with them. Does it give them exclusivity to the sale for a set number of weeks? Check the small print on your agreement, as they will pursue you for any cancellation charges if you go with another agent too soon...........

I didnt think of this, but I'm almost certain that we arent tied to them in any way. Will have a check. I sent them an e-mail to say we no longer require there services and they havent replied yet, so if we are tied to them, then I will just write them a letter saying as from whatever date we are tied to them, I no longer require there services.
Sue

Jorgan_2

As you have just discovered, house moving can be stressful. If you go with a new agent, firstly make sure you are out of contract from the first agent, get them to put it in writing that you are.

Make sure the house is well presented when they take the photos. I have taken thousands of photos of houses & can spend half my time tidying things up, moving one piece of junk from one room, taking a photo, then moving said item back. I've asked some sellers if thay had remembered we had an appointment to take the photos. Get the property looking its best, its the first introduction many willl have had to your home.

Ask the agent to show you the photos that they intend to use for the marketing. if you are not happy, tell the agent to take some more.

As for the solicitor side of things, you will be able to use which ever solicitor you like.

seek_2

hi i had the same problem about 6 weeks ago on my house.

and it all comes down to one thing the price.

i lowered my house price down from £118,000 to £108,000 i had 4 viewing at straight away and had a buyer with in 4 days.

have a look around your area and see what other house they can look at in the saem price range it will tell you if you need to lower or not.

but at the end of the day no viewing i think will mean the price is to high.

seek

AndrewSmith

There are generally 4 things that affect the number of viewings you get on a property.

1 you cannot change, 3 you can.

the 1 you cannot change is Location.

The 3 you can are Presentation, Price and Agent. Each one is not mutually exclusive though. Eg:

To get the highest price you must have the presentation spot on and the Agent has to be enthused about your property.

dougk_2

You can also take some pictures yourself (especially if you have a digital camera) and supply them to the estate agent if you prefer. Also I would give it a go and advertise on the web yourself and save a fortune on EA fees!