One or two agents

mufi

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.

No, but it serves their interests to over-value to get the business in the first place - they know that most people get three or four agents in to value, and that many will simply choose the agent who suggests asking the most money. Thereafter, many vendors will drop the price once they realise it isn't selling, but stay with the original agent because it's too much like hard work to change.

sonastin

The debate about the importance of rightmove is misleading. The real question is where do the EAs advertise and does it overlap. If all the EAs in your area advertise on the same websites and in the same newspapers and in shop windows on the same high street, it won't make any difference if you are going with one or ten because they will all be reaching the same pool of buyers. If one is exclusively on the web and another is exclusively "old school" with local paper / shop window adverts, the chances are they will have different pools of buyers to choose from so there is an advantage to going with both to reach both types of buyer.

In my opinion, the information that is available to a buyer before they speak to the EA carries more weight than how the EA handles the queries. One EA in this area only publishes photos and a brief description on the web and you have to contact them to ask for a brochure with full details and dimensions, etc. There are so many properties on the market in this area that are all so similar and there isn't enough info in their ads to make those properties stand out enough to bother making enquiries. Other EAs present the details so well that I feel like I know the property intimately before I even pick up the phone so I have a pretty good idea that I won't be wasting my time (or theirs) if I go to view it.