Thinking of switching EA - please advise

nikym

Hi

We have had house on marker for 8 weeks - had 3 viewings, no joy as yet. We are on with a local firm that charge £400 up front then £400 on sale of house. bascially, they email your details to people on their books and put you on RM. There is a lot of new build in the area and we have a lot of competition here, so we are thinking a more traditional EA might 'push' our house a bit more? Is it enough to just be on RM these days? We will either have to give 4 weeks notice to our existing EA or we ca go dual agency right away but will be liable to pay them their £400 if the other agents sell first. We have reduced the house to encourage more viewings and it seems competitively priced (IMHO) . The current EA keeps suggesting a couple f thousand off here and there, that wont make anydifference, I feel? I feel like cutting our losses, going with a new traditional EA, a newbit of marketing and maybe a new price? I would be very happy to receive Any advice please

oh, our current EA says 8 weeks with 3 viewings is early days - is it ? I really don't know

many thanks

Cannon_Fodder

8 weeks in this market is no time. Remember the snow?, depending on where you are that stopped people getting to work, let alone having jaunts out to see property.

What was the feedback from the 3 viewings? Fancy posting the Rightmove link for opinions?

If you are prepared to consider a new price, then why not do it with the people you have already paid £400 to..?

Seems silly to half pay 1 EA and then pay a whole fee to another EA, just to end up on Rightmove again - even my IT-wary parents check Rightmove on my behalf!

Depending on the price a couple of thousand could be substantial - it would at least make up for the revised stamp duty level, if falling between £125k and £175k.

Doozergirl

It would be interesting to get a proper look at the existing details to see if anything can be improved upon before you decide to change. You could give the current details a shake up first, give notice and then see how it goes over the next four weeks? At least you'll be keeping your options open and won't waste another £400.

nikym

thanks v. much for your replies. I'm very interested in your views on RM and the 8 weeks being not too long in the scheme of things. Thanks again, your time taken to reply bothof you is appreciated.

Doozergirl, I think this is what we may do, if we do anything now - give notice to avoid paying the extra £400.

Thanks again

Niky

Fire_Fox

I agree that eight weeks is nothing, given the weather in January. Have you researched land registry sold prices to see whether you house is priced realistically?

googler

Agreed again, 8 weeks is nothing, not when I can see houses in my area that have been on the market since early last year.....

jeffmasson

don't do what we did

we where with one ea who was crap for 4 months no viewings so we talked to a few other ea's and decide to swich. the new ea's tells us to leave it on with the old ea till its on there system all ok so far. but then we get our first viewing from old ea and a offer. arr mad panic as signed up with two ea's so after all the fees we could not buy anywhere the flat was only up for 115000 and the fee would have been min 4k.

i am starting to think all ea's are crocks you have to pay them a % of the price you market at not the selling price so they have no motavshon to get the best price and if you put it on with two ea's you have to pay them both not just the one that sells it so they can just sit back and do nothing and still get payed. rant over

bandofbrothers

Do what your gut feeling tells you.

My original EA was little to be desired.

No updates from their office at all.

I did all of the the following up.

They ask for a % of the sale when I signed the contract, but were doing no work for it at all.

adg1

jeffmasson wrote: »

I am starting to think all ea's are crocks you have to pay them a % of the price you market at not the selling price so they have no motavshon to get the best price and if you put it on with two ea's you have to pay them both not just the one that sells it so they can just sit back and do nothing and still get payed. rant over

Whilst I am sorry to hear about what has happened to you, why have you ended up paying two fees?

All EAs who don't charge flat rate fees take a percentage of the achieved sales price - otherwise they would massively over value your house, reduce the price to get it sold and reap the rewards from the higher original asking price. That woud, indeed, make them crooks.

Percentages reduce, hence commissions for the negs reduce, when property is dropped in value - it is in their interest to sell it at the highest price, as fast as possible.

The only way that EA1 can still come after a commission is if EA2 sell the house to a party EA1 introduced to your home (and had some influence on in the sale of the property). EA1 can give you a list of all the viewers they have had in the period you have been on the market with them so you don't end up with this double commission trap you mention.

OP - You have already paid for the services of EA1 so run their contract down and then employ another agent who will talk about your house to the potential buyers and who they will have built up some form of relationship with the buyers they have been in contact with for the last x amount of time. A computer simply can't do that. From what you say, your EA has charged you £400 for a plastic board, a listing on RightMove and to email some details out to all the buyers on their books, buyers who they have the details for as they have enquired about a property from rightmove and the other aggregators. Have they qualified their buyers? Do they know about their financial states?

If that method of selling a house worked we wouldn't have estate agents. There would simply be a set of computers lined up emailing out property details to buyers who send in requests through places like rightmove and findaproperty.

This is, afterall, a far cheaper business model than to pay £000's for a real person to do the same job. Why don't they do it? It doesn't sell your house. AND you have to give them the other £400 if you employ a real agent alongside them.

Your EA has it easy! You pay them £400 upfront, they do nothing, you then have to employ another agent to actually sell your house, and they STILL get the remainder of their full fee!!! Where is their motivation to sell your house!?

MissMotivation

jeffmasson wrote: »

don't do what we did

we where with one ea who was crap for 4 months no viewings so we talked to a few other ea's and decide to swich. the new ea's tells us to leave it on with the old ea till its on there system all ok so far. but then we get our first viewing from old ea and a offer. arr mad panic as signed up with two ea's so after all the fees we could not buy anywhere the flat was only up for 115000 and the fee would have been min 4k.

i am starting to think all ea's are crocks you have to pay them a % of the price you market at not the selling price so they have no motavshon to get the best price and if you put it on with two ea's you have to pay them both not just the one that sells it so they can just sit back and do nothing and still get payed. rant over

Unless you have a special agreement with your EA, the % is on the sale price and not the price you market at.

If you sign up on a Sole Agency with 2 different EA's then yes, you do have to pay both agents. You should have asked for a Multi Agency Agreement where you only pay the EA that introduces the buyer.

jeffmasson

MissMotivation wrote: »

Unless you have a special agreement with your EA, the % is on the sale price and not the price you market at.

If you sign up on a Sole Agency with 2 different EA's then yes, you do have to pay both agents. You should have asked for a Multi Agency Agreement where you only pay the EA that introduces the buyer.

every ea in our area chages a set fee or a % of the price you market it @ so if you put it up for £150k and they chage 1% and you sell it for £100k you still pay £1500 plus vat on top not £1000.

plus the agents we singed up with had in there t & c that if you went multi you had to pay even more and still pay if the other agent sold it i am sure the rest are the same but i did not read anyother t & c just the ones for the agents we used...