How often are you calling your EA?

evansmummy

Hiya,
In relation to my previous post asking about how many viewings people were getting....
I'm on day 8 of being on the market without any interest and I'm having to restrain myself not to call the agent to ask questions.
How often are you calling you EA to check on progress?
I know that I'd hear fro them if there was some interest but I think I'm after a little reassurance really

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day 8 .....no viewings!

Honest_EA

I don't know what part of the country you are in but 8 days without a viewing is completely normal where I am (Northern Ireland) and usually if the asking price is attractive it will still take 2-3 weeks to get the first viewing. Sentiment from buyers is so negative at the moment that there will not usually be a flood of people immediately to your property. Just hang in there and wait for your first viewing as it may take some more time.

smcqis

Frig relax its only Day 8, many people go months without a viewing. Is your property competitively priced as most houses go on reflected what price you would like but many end up getting reduced to what people are prepared to pay! I got offer accepted on house that fell 10k 4times from 185 and i got it 10% less than price as it was max I was prepared to pay

googler

Again, it depends on where you are in the country.

If you're in a trendy, popular part of London, I think you might have cause to be concerned.

If you're in somewhere more out of the way, like .... Inverness, Kendal, Grimsby or whatever, then I think this may be the normal course of events in the current market.

DannyboyMidlands

From my point of view as a potential buyer, a lot of vendors are asking for way to much. I've got my eye on a place at the moment that originally went on the market about 10 months ago for a crazy £260k. Then dropped to £240k, £230k and £215k. It's still not worth that amonunt and still hasn't sold. If/when it gets to £200k I might go and have a look.

brit1234

Same as Dannyboy, watching the market but no visits till people price realistically.

May start visiting late autumn after months more of price falls.

westv

DannyboyMidlands wrote: »

From my point of view as a potential buyer, a lot of vendors are asking for way to much. I've got my eye on a place at the moment that originally went on the market about 10 months ago for a crazy £260k. Then dropped to £240k, £230k and £215k. It's still not worth that amonunt and still hasn't sold. If/when it gets to £200k I might go and have a look.

Eh? Why not just go and view and, if you like it, offer what you think it's worth?

DannyboyMidlands

Good question westv. I guess my thinking is that it'd be a waste of everybody's time. I couldn't/wouldn't pay more than £180k absolute tops so would need to make an initial offer lower still. I doubt they'd go for it considering they wanted £260k.

womble12345

If you expect things to happen that quickly you are living in cloud cuckoo land, I am sure the agent told you there are plenty of buyers about, well he may have been a bit liberal with the truth there. I had to wait 2 weeks for my first viewer. If you keep hounding the EA then all you are giving them is a reason to say 'You havent had any viewings because it is overpriced'..... If you really want more footfall through your door then reduce the price, it worked for me.

sonastin

Before you call, its worth figuring out what you actually want to know. Look at your questions through the EAs eyes and make sure what you're asking is something they can realistically answer.

For example "can you tell me if there has been any interest in my property? what sort of interest has there been?" - they can give you rightmove stats on views, click-throughs, requests for details, etc. "why haven't there been any viewings?" - well they're not mind-readers! unless they gave details to someone whose reaction was "eugh no. Not with that bathroom" (or whatever) they can only speculate at what is putting people off. You can speculate yourself without hassling the EA.

When calling for updates, make sure there is a realistic chance that something will have changed since you last called for an update. 8 days is not a bad timescale to approach with a sort of "what was the initial reaction to the property coming on the market" question - maybe "how many people on your database have you sent the details out to?" - I'm guessing they told you they had some fancy matching software that would make sure your details went out to the hundreds of buyers on their database so worth finding out if that was true!

Ciske

You're the customer, there is nothing wrong with asking your EA for an update on what marketing has been done, did they ring around all potentially interested buyers yet or is that still ongoing, where did they publish your property etc. Our EA used to send us monthly updates as well with all the website stats, mailers that had gone out, viewings that were arranged etc. Perfectly reasonable request, IMO.

Also, but that's just my point of view and not proven by stats, if you ring regularly (say every two weeks) for a short update, they will remember your property and have it fresh in their mind when buyers ring in who are looking for anything within your spec. It makes it less likely to sink away in the big pile of properties on their stack. Keep good relations with the EA, they are just like real people and will work harder for people they like.