What do EA's actually Do?

partialycloudy

So our property has been on the market for two weeks, and in that time we have had two viewings.

I spoke with the EA on Monday evening and he said, in regards to righmove statistics, we are in the top fived viewed properties on their books and he was disapointed that hadn't resulted in more viewings.
The photos are good, and the price is about right for the area. So we are thinking about our options when the contract with the EA runs our (we signed for 4 weeks).
1)Reduce the price
2)Move EA's

We have no problem doing 1 but we are in no massive rush to sell at the moment so would rather hold out a while longer.
But with point (2) what exactly would another EA do differently? Now that properties are on RightMove et al surely it makes very little difference what EA you are with??
Or does each EA have secret marketing tactics?

sugarwalsh

I don't think EA's do much (I'm sure someone will disagree!) and I don't think they do a lot differently from each other in theory. But I do think, when i look at rightmove, that they can differ loads in how they 'sell' a house. The photos can vary, nothing makes me madder than a bad photographer when selling houses. The descriptions can be different too. The lay out they choose to use etc and then don't forget their own site. Some of them have terrible sites.
Also, don't forget their staff. When we were looking for our current home the estate agent who actually listened to what we wanted managed to get us to look at our current home, despite the fact that we had avoided this area. She was worth it to the vendors, most of the others weren't. They stood around looking bored when showing us houses, they showed us inappropriate ones, in short they did rubbish jobs.
Make a point of using different agents to go and look at houses and use the agent you think is the best. You are, after all, paying for a service.
Faliling that, sell it yourself, we did.

princeofpounds

4 weeks?! Give it a chance. I wouldn't reduce price or move EAs in that amount of time unless I discovered something had done wrong.

Yes, there is often little difference between EAs as long as they get the basics right (you would be surprised by how many don't, so I wouldn't dismiss this as trivial).

Sometimes the little things (staying open longer, newspaper adverts, having a London office for second home buyers, being on the high street, having mutiple branches that can cross-sell) can in inject a little luck, and prompt a buyer who might not otherwise be considering it... But these are on the margin.

The most important things are - get it online, get decent photos and floorplans, actually organise viewings efficiently and conveniently.

If those are being done, and time is passing with little interest, then it's most likely a pricing issue (possibly in relation to something intractable like a location problem).

Fire_Fox

Have you reviewed land registry sold prices for your street and area or just for sale ones? Have you decluttered, finished all those niggly DIY tasks, spring cleaned, neutralised loud decor? What's wrong with the listing, are you willing to post your Rightmove link?

Two weeks seems a tad quick to be thinking of changing in this market. It's only been in the window five minutes, has it been in the local newspaper yet?

sugarwalsh

Agree with both the above points.
Also, don't let your EA know you aren't in a rush, you will be put to the bottom of the pile and forgotten about...

motherofstudents

Some agents are much better than others in terms of how they market a property, better photos etc but I think they put the most work in when the sale is progressing. There have been a couple of occasions when our sale would have fallen through if they had not intervened and got things moving. They are good at negotiating and pushing the chain so that it doesn't break down.

Obviously some are good, some not so good but I think if you go in or phone them as a prospective buyer, you can get a feel of how they will conduct your sale. Quite often they have office staff who pretty much do a lot of the work, while the actual estate agents go out to drum up business.

partialycloudy

Thanks, I don't think I would be inclined to move EA's if we had more viewings. Fair enough if people were viewing and not liking what they see but if we can't even get them in the door its rather frustrating.

We decided not to have a floorplan as the shower room is on the small size and we didn't want to put people off even coming to look as the two double bedrooms and mass of outside space more then make up for the small shower room.

The area is very popular and has kept its value over the years but we right next to a school so don't know if that would put people off.

martinsurrey

partialycloudy wrote: »

Thanks, I don't think I would be inclined to move EA's if we had more viewings. Fair enough if people were viewing and not liking what they see but if we can't even get them in the door its rather frustrating.

We decided not to have a floorplan as the shower room is on the small size and we didn't want to put people off even coming to look as the two double bedrooms and mass of outside space more then make up for the small shower room.

The area is very popular and has kept its value over the years but we right next to a school so don't know if that would put people off.

not having a floor plan puts me off viewing more than a floor plan that tells the truth about a property, it implies you are trying to hide something, and I am too busy to investigate what and waste what little free time I have.

get one added! (IMO)

jbainbridge

Some people will be put off by the lack of a floor plan!

partialycloudy

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Have you reviewed land registry sold prices for your street and area or just for sale ones? Have you decluttered, finished all those niggly DIY tasks, spring cleaned, neutralised loud decor? What's wrong with the listing, are you willing to post your Rightmove link?

Two weeks seems a tad quick to be thinking of changing in this market. It's only been in the window five minutes, has it been in the local newspaper yet?

We have looked at similar flats in our area as in our road the prices vary massively! Next door is a three bed mid terrace and was on for £270,000 but the house at the end of the street is a 5 bed victorian detached property with turret!!! and was on for half a mil! Our area is very strange every house is of a completely different size and style!

partialycloudy

jbainbridge wrote: »

Some people will be put off by the lack of a floor plan!

Really??
So if you were looking for a 3 bed property and one came up in your price range and location and the pictures showed it was not a doss hole you wouldn't go and see it purely because it had no floor plan?

( I am not asking this is a snippy way, just geninuely never thought it would be that off putting)
I love seeing a floor plan of houses we would like to view but it wouldn't put me off going to see something if they didnt have one