house on market - what to expect re: viewings and estate agent practice

PasseySam

Hi,

Our flat in a popular and desirable area has been on the market for 2 weeks as we are relocating with new jobs. After having 3 valuations which all valued at the same range we chose to market with a large agent after negotiating a 1.25% fee and a 2 week rolling contract.

Since beginning marketing our property we have had 6 viewings and have had good feedback but no offers. Now I know it is early days and apologize for the naive posting here but what should we be expecting regarding viewings and the amount of effort our EA puts into selling out property?

Before signing up the EA told us they had a list of people looking for just our sort of property (I'm sure they all say that) but I somehow expected more interest as there are not that many large 1 bed flats available in our area with gardens. This weekend will be the second saturday in a row with no viewings at all, and only 1 this week. Other flats in ours and neighbouring streets have sold within 2 weeks. I am concerned we have put the price too high but it is not on for much more than other flats that have sold and we do have the private gardens which we were advised would make it much more saleable. As we need to sell soon I am thinking of reviewing the price but don't want to make a rash decision.

Last weekend I took a trip down to the EA to show my parents our flat in their window and it's not there! They don't have any properties in their window just on a wall inside and it wasn't there either. As we live in a desirable villagey-location in bristol there is a lot of passing trade as people visit the popular cafes etc in the village part so it strikes me as strange that the EA isn't pushing my property by using their free advertising space in their huge prominent office window! I have also had trouble getting hold of the agents to get feedback on viewings, but as they are busy and we're new to this I'm not sure how demanding and persistent we should be to get the flat sold?

My question is basically how should we proceed? Should I go and see the agent and push the fact that we need to sell and ask why there are no saturday viewings and why our flat isn't in their window? Should we consider lowing the price even though it's only been on the market 2 weeks?

I have to go to start my new job at the start of march and so would like to not have the stress of trying to sell my house whilst living 100 miles away! As we were under the impression houses in our area were selling quickly we weren't worried but now we're starting to get concerned, especially as we want to offer on a house we've seen in our new area!

I appreciate our flat is new to the market and we need to be patient, just don't want to sit around for weeks if there is something we should be doing to help sell quicker and for the right price.

Cheers in advance for any help or advice.:)

Thrugelmir

You've only had your property on the market 2 weeks. Panic when its still unsold after 6 months!

pie81

I think you really need more feedback from the viewings you've had. "Good feedback but no offers" means incomplete feedback. There must have been SOME reason the viewers decided not to buy the place, get your EA to find out what it was for each viewer. Also ask the EA how many people they have emailed the details out to and what feedback they have had from those people (i.e. what feedback from people who didn't want to view).

It may well be the price - sounds like you have priced at the very top of the range for 1 bed flats. If you are at a price where you are competing with 2 bed flats then 9 out of 10 buyers will go for the 2 bed flat instead. However I'm only surmising here as I haven't seen your flat or the local competition. But ultimately the usual advice if you want to sell quickly is "lower the price".

As regards getting more viewers in - personally I'm not convinced that "shop window" advertising does that much as people generally look by internet now, though it does depend a bit on where you are. I'd be more concerned about what websites they are on - are they on rightmove? primelocation? etc - and do the web details really "sell" the property. If you're willing to post a link we can take a look. I'd also ask to go on their wall inside the shop - can't hurt.
You could also try "mystery shopping" them - call up, pretend to be a buyer looking for a flat in your area, give a budget which is around what yours is priced at, and see if they suggest your place.

PasseySam

Thanks Pie81, really helpful suggestions - I think I'll be going in to see my friendly EA tomorrow and give them a grilling and decide our plan of action.

The feedback has been positive but as you suggest maybe incomplete, and I do feel I've had to chase a little for it sometimes but maybe I'm expecting too much. A couple of people said they may come back for a second viewing but that was a week ago and haven't heard since. So I think maybe a nudge to the EA is needed.

You are right we are priced at the top of the one bed market in our area, but the 2 beds you can get at this price are often badly converted 2 beds where the 2nd bed is tiny and a funny shape, and have no gardens. To get a good sized 2 bed you need to go up about £40k and for one with a garden up even higher. So it is on at a high price but we thought it may be justified at the time, but now thinking perhaps we will be seen as being in too much competition with 2 beds at that price range on face value.

Just checked also and our property isn't listed on primelocation or on findaproperty, just on rightmove! will definitely be speaking to them about that too, as you say most people use the internet for looking at property now and to be not listed on 2 of the 3 major property sites is missing out on potential viewers!

Great suggestions, will try to post RM link later and see what other moneysavers think. Interestingly, should I ask the EA about how many hits we've had for our rightmove listing etc? To see how many people have shown an interest?

Thanks so much for all your helpful advice, definitely food for thought and will take action on these things I reckon! :T:T

pie81

I wouldn't grill them too hard - as Thrugelmir says it's only been 2 weeks - but it's worth pointing out that you need to sell quickly and other properties round you have done so, so you want to find out if there is more that could be done to sell the place.

Re findaproperty and primelocation, they won't be able to put your property on those if they don't subscribe to those sites (EAs have to pay a fee to subscribe). So worth asking but there may well be nothing they can do.

As regards the price - well I can see your points about the second b'room being odd/small and having no garden ... but it's amazing how many people want a second bedroom if they can get one for the same price, even if it's a crap second bedroom and means ditching the garden. It gives the flexibility to have a lodger if needed to pay the mortgage; it also means you can have a child without having to move. One beds are notoriously often harder to sell for that reason.

Mini_Bear

Our new EA tells us how many hits we've had per months and as they have an average for the firm he then discusses whether we have over average or underaverage hits compared to their other properties.
Im not sure how many pics you have on RM but maybe take some additional ones. We only have 6 pics and i would prefer to have a few more.
Good luck with your EA!

PasseySam

OK maybe I'll tone down the 'grilling' to a milder prodding instead - I don't feel particularly annoyed at them as they have brought in viewings within the first two weeks which is quite good compared to some of the horror stories I've read here on the forum. I just want to give us the best chance of selling asap before we have to leave for our new jobs.

Interesting point about subscribing to primelocation and findaproperty - we chose this agent as the fees were significantly lower than the other agent we liked (I know you shouldn't choose based solely on price but....) and I didn't realise that not all agents subscribed to the other sites. The first agent (with the higher fees) gave me a list of which portals and advertising routes our property would be shown on if we took them.. The agent we went with is part of a large national chain so I assumed they too would have maximum coverage - should've checked before but will definitely go check now!

Good points also pie81 about the second bedroom, I can see why many people would go for a 2nd bed so many we should consider dropping the price so we're not so much competing with them. If we drop the price or switched agents will be people see it as suspicious or that we can't sell?

Thanks for much for all your suggestions - first time selling and so not sure how much or little to expect from our agents and numbers of viewings etc. Really appreciate the advice...:T:T:T

goldengirl28

i think you need to consider the other websites as well, i use home.co.uk daily, but rarely look at the others

and i also want internal pictures before i would book a viewing and a floorplan is a nice bonus.

i've noticed in the last few days that there are loads that have no internal pictures, just one of the outside.

do they advertise in the local paper?

scooter_chick

Mini_Bear wrote: »

Our new EA tells us how many hits we've had per months and as they have an average for the firm he then discusses whether we have over average or underaverage hits compared to their other properties.
Im not sure how many pics you have on RM but maybe take some additional ones. We only have 6 pics and i would prefer to have a few more.
Good luck with your EA!

Yes, my EA sends me weekly Rightmove stats, they show how many times your property has come up in a search & how many people have clicked through from the search results to look at the details of your property - again compared with the other properties for that agent. Gives week/fortnight/month numbers so you can see if interest is going up or down!

PasseySam

Yes we do have internal pictures of the flat, no floorplan though as there aren't many rooms! EA said they could do a floorplan if we really wanted one but that they don't tend to on 1-bed flats.

Thanks for the suggestion about home.co.uk. I just checked and ours is listed on there too, and a range of others such as mouseprice, zoopla etc. so that's good, I was worried it was only on rightmove and we'd miss loads of buyers! Home.co.uk looks really useful, might check it out myself! Not sure about the local paper, I never look at the local papers but will check it out.

Off to talk to EA tomorrow I think for an update and assessment of what to do next I think... early days but would like to get things right and get a successful sale at a decent price. Fingers crossed....

PasseySam

Oh thanks scooter_chick, I will ask our EA to give me that info as well as I'm worried that as we've only had on viewing this week and none booked in for the weekend or next week that it was drying up already!

I know I'm panicking early as it's only been 2 weeks and I probably have unrealistic expectations of how quickly we'll sell but I hear so much about people's property selling in a few days in our area (from friends I know buying and selling here) that I'm worrying about it! I really feel for those who've had theirs on the market for ages, I feel worn out and it's only been 2 weeks!