One or two agents

googler

SimonMrGreenWard wrote: »

It's a complete myth about buying lists of agents being different, they all have the same people registered.

Fact is, nobody cares who your agent is, it's all about how your property is marketed on Rightmove.

Get a few agents round and have them produce a set of details prior to signing up ........

In response to the poster on having two shop fronts - everyone goes on the internet. Paper advertising and big shop fronts are there to attract sellers, not buyers.

Have you spoken to 'all' the agents, and do you have access to 'all' their buyer lists? If not, your first statement is unsupportable.

It only matters to be on Rightmove if the majority of properties in the area are displayed there - and there are places where they aren't. If other websites hold dominance, then RM has no advantage.

Do you seriously expect that any agent will take a full set of photos, measurements and assess every part of a property, then print a glossy brochure, as part of a 'free' valuation? Have you managed to get any agent to do this in the past? Are you talking from experience, or wishful thinking?

Nobody looks at shop fronts to buy property, eh? - well, I can look on my high street, and people don't stop to look at the TV repair shop's window - they don't stop at the pharmacy window and browse, they don't stop at the sweetie shop window ....... but the one place you will find people stopping, browsing, and looking to see what's new - the EA's windows. Day or night. Prove me wrong.

Gwhiz

SimonMrGreenWard wrote: »

Only ever need one agent. It's a complete myth about buying lists of agents being different, they all have the same people registered.

Fact is, nobody cares who your agent is, it's all about how your property is marketed on Rightmove.

Get a few agents round and have them produce a set of details prior to signing up, whoever does the best job, so long as you like them, go with them. State your position clearly and consider putting a low guide price to encourage lots of viewings and hopefully you'll still get fair money and a quick sale.

Good luck.

In response to the poster on having two shop fronts - everyone goes on the internet. Paper advertising and big shop fronts are there to attract sellers, not buyers.

Total rubbish! Many people care and not all property sells on the Web.

delmar39

petunia100 wrote: »

How do you know if they've sold similar properties to yours, can you view their records?

When our new agent came around to do the valuation they brought with them 4 brochures of properties that they had marketing and sold on our estate. The brochure stated the asking price and they'd written what it actually sold for on the brochure. I guess what I'm trying to say is ask them to demonstrate how they've sold similar properties to yours in your area. You mention that your property was overpriced. Now this is a tough one, but when your new agent comes to value they'll know exactly what it's up for as they look for the details (if they've anything about them). We had two valuations by potential new agents and both of them said that our original agent had overpriced by £5k - it was up for £234,950. They said keep it on for this, but expect to get £229-£232k. In the end we sold for £227k, so they were not far off. It's all a matter of trust and how you feel about the agent doing the valuation, but get a good one and they'll be able to give you the right advice. You can talk to them about lack of viewings, overpriced value and strategy to sell. Tell them about the issues you've had with current agent and negotiate a reduced contract period on this basis. Tell them that you don't want a repeat of these issues. This way you've been up front from the beginning and therefore expectations are clear from the off. Good luck.

Eric1

googler wrote: »

Nobody looks at shop fronts to buy property, eh? - well, I can look on my high street, and people don't stop to look at the TV repair shop's window - they don't stop at the pharmacy window and browse, they don't stop at the sweetie shop window ....... but the one place you will find people stopping, browsing, and looking to see what's new - the EA's windows. Day or night. Prove me wrong.

In my area, SE not London, RM is by far the main source for serious buyers.
Some people do stop and browse the EAs' windows, but I think most of them are the proud sellers

delmar39

Gwhiz wrote: »

Total rubbish! Many people care and not all property sells on the Web.

I have to agree with this. We sold our house via a buyer who trawled EA offices for property details. They didn't get them from Rightmove. Our first agent was awful, but our second one was very professional. If a buyer calls or pops in to a bad EA this could jeopardise them proceeding so whilst people may not care about the EA, the EA can potentially be the difference between making a sale or not - our first EA hardly ever answered the phone so lord only knows how many potential buyers slipped through the net. All these things play there part and as yet not everyone goes through the web....:)

delmar39

Eric1 wrote: »

In my area, SE not London, RM is by far the main source for serious buyers.
Some people do stop and browse the EAs' windows, but I think most of them are the proud sellers

Accepted. RM might be the main source, but eventually they will have to deal with the agent and if the agent is poor the end result could be no sale. It happens.

DVardysShadow

petunia100 wrote: »

I've reduced it by 20,000 now, as I realised that they had way overpriced it and I'm very annoyed about it as all they did was waste precious time putting it on the market too high to serve their own greed, as their fixed price commision was based on the value of the property.

If their commission is fixed price, it does not serve their interests to put it on the market too high - they would be putting it on too low to be sure of a sale - unless they have put you up a price band.

SimonMrGreenWard

I'm talking from experience. I've spent an absolute shed load of money on advertising property and the response was that we got naff all enquiries from it. 85% of all our enquiries come from the internet, the remainder from boards.

People do walk in to the office, but most are just browsing and the rest have seen a board or something online and want a chat about a specific property.

Serious buyers go online. You really think people would risk missing out on their dream home. If the elderly don't have access to go online, we get calls from their children to enquire about property that they've seen online.

SimonMrGreenWard

I was a mortgage broker previously, working out of local independent EA's. Same thing.

One thing estate agents do badly is how they handle the enquiries. I get loads of people register through Rightmove, but I know that most EA's in this area only answer enquiries if they're for a specific property.

Buyers 100% do not care which agent they buy through, unless their dream home is on multi and they get a choice.

petunia100

DVardysShadow wrote: »

If their commission is fixed price, it does not serve their interests to put it on the market too high - they would be putting it on too low to be sure of a sale - unless they have put you up a price band.

Obviously not, as the fixed price was based on the value of the property. I should know I was there when the ES got out his chart which showed the different price bands that their commision is based on.