Is it worth changing estate agents?

megabby808

Our house has been on the market for 3 months, at the price suggested by 3 local estate agents. We have have had 3 viewings but no offers. We chose our current estate agent as the house we want to buy is up for sale with them and we thought that this might encourage some proactive action as they would potentially get two sales. We dropped the price by £10,000 a month ago -it's now £129,950- so that seemed quite considerable and £10,000 less than all the EA's suggested initially. The vendors of the house we want are desparate to move to a retirement property so they agreed to drop theirs too so it would be affordable to us if we sold at £10,000 less. Since then we have had no viewings which really surprised us. A similar property two doors away sold for £140,000 last year and we have had a new kitchen, bathroom and conservatory fitted so i think we are compettively priced and it may just be that buyers are few and far between in our area. There have been a few terraced properties sold not far from us with different agents at a price slightly more than ours although they did have 3 beds as opposed to ours which is only two. I got a friend to go into our EA on a mystery shopper exercise to see if she promoted our property and it was only mentioned as an afterthought although it met my friend's criteria list exactly.
My point is, given that most people search on Rightmove these days, what are the thoughts on moving estate agents.Is it worth it or not? Our current agent seems to concentrate most marketing for rental properties so maybe selling houses isn't their main priority? Any thoughts?

hotpot1000

House network, in my opinion you only need to get on rightmove, HN are much cheaper than the high street
there are other online estate agents too

DVardysShadow

Well done for mystery shopping. Although the result seems to be less than conclusive, it does not look very good. But take into consideration whether your property is just one of many in the category with that agent.

I would say that your property has fallen off this agent's radar, possibly because others are howling louder and possibly because your sale is at a lower commission and they are not bright enough to realise that 2 commissions hang on selling yours.

go_cat

What contract are you tied in with this ea.

If out of contract you could try dual agents trying to sell it

googler

hotpot1000 wrote: »

House network, in my opinion you only need to get on rightmove, HN are much cheaper than the high street
there are other online estate agents too

The OP implies they're on RM already, so what advantage would there be in switching to HN?

Gonzo33

My house is currently for sale with an agent where 90% of their business is lettings and 10% sales (roughly). I currently have no choice because they let my property to the current tenants.

As they have been far from proactive in marketing my property for sale I gave them notice after six weeks, and will market the property empty after the tenant leaves with a local more proactive agent as the letting agent is in a nearby town, but not the town that my house is in.

I guess what I am trying to say, albeit in a long-winded way, is that I think changing agents may help.

SG27

"i think we are compettively priced and it may just be that buyers are few and far between in our area"

If it was competitively priced then surely the few buyers in your area would be giving you some interest? As it seems they are being attracted to cheaper/better ones.

DPJames

You're not competitively priced, and there are very few buyers out there.
We put ours up for sale this time last year for £125K (based on valuations around £130K), got a few viewings innitially (just nosey parkers really), then three months later dropped to £109K, but still no interest.
We accepted an offer this month for £90K. WELL under what the three estate agents suggested, but it's a realistic price in this current market.
But it's swings and roundabout because we got £70K knocked off our next house.

Drop the price, and good luck.

zappahey

googler wrote: »

The OP implies they're on RM already, so what advantage would there be in switching to HN?

Probably this bit...

hotpot1000 wrote: »

HN are much cheaper than the high street

googler

zappahey wrote: »

Probably this bit...

SO they switch to HN and pay £x upfront to be on the same website; whereas at the moment, they'll only pay once the property sells....?

Gromitt

They are likely to at least 1% with a highstreet estate agent (so £1000 - £1200 depending on what there house sells for) compared to £399 upfront and all-in. Big saving that'll pay towards your solicitor fees.