Selling house - Agent has sent no viewers

SouthCoast

why wait until now?

Because they are lazy and you don't chase them!

fredmila

Do I need to chase the EAs all them time and tell them how to do their job, that I will pay them for?
wait a minute I think I answered the question

fredmila

Kez1983 wrote: »

I did that for my friend yesterday, and the EA were actually really good, suggested it straight away and offered to arrange a viewing. Seems there just isnt many people looking around where his house is!

Was it the same EA as mine?

googler

OP - Tell us why you picked this EA in the first place.....

fredmila

It was the EA that suggested the average asking price (I went for his price like they do in Sarah Beeney and other programmes) plus it was the one with the shortest contract period and I was right in thinking I might have to get rid of him, as soon as the contract was finished, if he did not perform.
The rest of his sales pitch was the same as all the others.

googler

OK, it's brand-new, never been lived in, and it looks as though you built it on a land plot having demolished something else. On the assumption you built it, or commissioned it.....

I think the front looks very forbidding. I don't know what, but it needs something to soften the first impression. Why is the front door blue, and the garage door white? Why don't the windows match either the front door or the garage door?

What's on the ground at the front? It looks like stone chips with weeds growing in patches. It needs more definition, or some attention. It needs a defined pathway and driveway to the front door and/or garage door.

I think you need to look at hiring some furniture, accessories. and 'staging' it for photos and viewings. You need to give folks more of an idea of what can go in there.

Your kitchen may be of 'superior' design and build, but the photos make it look like a mortician's parlour....... I'm afraid I'm picturing cadavers on the island unit......

Why hasn't your agent got metric as well as imperial sizes for the rooms?

Honestly, for an agency that claims to have been operating since 1835, you'd think they could do better than this.....

googler

fredmila wrote: »

I have to say that I always disliked the agent's pictures. One of the sales agents took them instead of hiring a photographer. His pictures don't do justice to the fancy finishes and fittings we put in the house. I took pictures and they are much better but I was not going to do the agent's job and give them my pictures.

You should have given the agent the better pictures.

Doozergirl

fredmila wrote: »

Doozergirl: I cannot do my own viewings if the EA does not send me anybody. Being a new house I prefer to present it as "modern minimalist" unoccupied and unused (everything being new), ready for people to move in. It is a blank canvas for people to play the designer and fill it with garish curtains, rugs, things hanging from the walls and clutter it with furniture. If it was an old house I agree that it may be better to show it with furniture, curtains etc.

fredmila, I appreciate that you haven't had any viewings and I have offered advice over two posts based on my own experience. It's preferable to sell a house empty but sometimes they don't carry enough 'wow' to pull it off. People fall in love with houses and primarily that love is when they find 'home'. Often when a house is empty they just see 'house' and it can feel cold, especially with the choice of floor finishes, which obviously help the underfloor heating work efficiently but it doesn't create any cosiness to a viewer.

I wouldn't call your house modern, minimalist - it's a very conventional new build from the outside - a family home. Sure, it doesn't have any carpet but a lot of the f&f's are not modern minimalist, it isn't off-centre enough to pull in a niche market who love the 'different' feel of it or the uniqueness of the fittings - I don't mean to offend you by that at all but I think you are playing the designer by thinking that what is already there will stand up alone. A lot of viewers just don't have the imagination and even in a big room they'll be standing there wondering where their sofa fits. It's great when an emmpty house sells and even beautiful houses sometimes don't sell all that quickly. When ours sell empty, they sell quickly, otherwise it's time to create the bread and coffee smells for them! I think with no viewings at all something needs to be done and I'd suggest that means creating 'home'. The big developers do it, yes they can afford it when they're using one show house to sell many others but for the little guy, you have to try it empty, then if it fails, rethink.

Dare I say that that my experience of selling houses very much includes selling large, untouched houses where I myself have paid great attention to detail in the finish. You can't tell a buyer what they themselves see. If they can't see it when a house is empty then I would furnish it, and I have done as well a few times where I've had to - in fact, I've moved in just to get the house sold and it really works for me although it's incredibly inconvenient, it pays.

Address the agent first. Your pictures say 'poky', the room dimensions say otherwise - that is one thing stopping your viewings. The fact that the spiel they gave you was the same as all the others explains it all. If they don't sound special, they aren't.

Is there a proper shower in the house? When you get those viewings, people will be looking for one, I'm sure.

googler

See how the US of A looks at it;

http://homebuying.about.com/od/sellingahouse/qt/WhatisStaging.htm

fredmila

The drive is made of the usual gravel and the photo was taken at the end of the autumn when there were still leaves on the ground. It is cleaner now. I put a bit of variety outside: only the front foor has a non-neutral colour in the whole house. A bit of spice rather than the usual boring white window frames with white doors.