How can I get estate agent to proactively market us?

MissMotivation

Sorry about above post.......seems to have removed all my line spaces

stormCat99

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the helpful replies - only just had chance to log back in and have a proper read.

First of all, just to clear things up, we didn't leave our first agent (House Network), we went dual agent (with UK Property Shop). The single reason for doing this was that House Network do not get us into local newspapers, and also obviously do not have a shop. So we thought we would broaden our marketing scope.

The UK Property Shop Rightmove link - which is the one I raised the thread about - is here : http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-15415796.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

We have another listing (not ideal appearing twice) with House Network, here : http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-14523025.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

The UK Property Shop one shows our new price, the House Network one won't update until later today/tomorrow. I have already pointed out to UK Property Shop that they have not mentioned anywhere on Rightmove that the price is reduced which I would have thought is an obvious tool to try and make you stand out a bit, so they are going to amend this.

So many responses - I'll try to reply to them all.

lynzpower - mystery shop idea is a very good one - thank you. I will see if I can sort out for someone to call up this week.

Deals - we have tried to focus on what makes us stand out. As far as I can tell that is that we have very large bedrooms (4 proper doubles) - our price bracket for looking for a new house is over £100k more than our current property price, and despite looking at big detached properties we have literally only found about 2 that have got 4 proper big doubles.

Also the fact that the garden is completely no overlooked and backs onto open fields. Again, we have looked at almost 50 properties and I think only about 3 of them have not been overlooked so this seems relatively rare.

telfordwhite - fully agreed. However even in a quiet market SOME houses sell, and we just figured we would rather do everything we can to try and stimulate interest. If we still get none then fair enough. For example, we saw an open day on a property that we would never have booked an appointment to view as we didn't think we were that interested. But we popped into the open day and despite having looked at nearly 50 properties, none of which were any good, we found that this was our ideal property :T So you never know how any extra marketing may pay off I guess.

Targetpractice2 - absolutely. They have been v hit and miss with giving us feedback, despite me chasing. Only feedback I have had has been x number of people taking brochure, x number of hits/conversions on Rightmove. No feedback at all regarding how we could improve our property/listing to generate interest.

I agree with your point about not noticing issues in your own home!! Although we are both perfectionist to ridiculous proportions when it comes to having a viewing. Everything has been super-decluttered, cleaned, scrubbed, hoovered. Make sure all toilet lids are down and that both patio doors are unlocked so that I can open both onto the garden rather than filing through one door. Garage tidied impeccably, new bedlinen, honestly cannot think of anything else lol. All feedback received so far from viewings has been very positive - very well presented, spacious, decorated neutrally, ready to move in to. Our major problem - which we are aware of and has been highlighted by a couple of viewers - is slight lack of parking space. We have a single garage, and room for 2 cars on the drive, but there is not much room spare. We always ensure garage is empty and drive is empty when viewers come.

telfordwhite - your other post regarding price....we originally put it on sale at a price that was below the valuations. We have now reduced the price twice. We want to be realistic as obviously won't sell if overpriced no matter much how we think our house may be perfect!! But looking around other houses in our area, there is only one other property which is 4 bedroomed and at all similar to ours. We have actually viewed it and the rooms are much smaller and it is overlooked, so not too worried about competition from that. We genuinely think it is a good price. There are 2 other townhouses for sale near us - marketed as 4bed but realistically 3 plus study, also only parking for 1 car and absolutely tiny gardens. To get anything similar, it is a jump up to around £300k+ - to be honest, having viewed so many other properties it has made us realise how lucky we are with our current house. If only we could make it detached then we would stay as hard to find anything similar.

MissMotivation - you make some good points. We have not asked about how many of their registered people match our house's profile. Will do that asap.Someone from their agency has seen the property - despite pushing we've had no feedback regarding how to improve saleability

stormCat99

Oh my god I am shocked! Taking advice from here I just got my mum to mystery shop them for me, whilst I listened in.

Despite asking for a house that exactly matches our profile, the agent initially said they only had houses in another area! Then said actually they have a 3 bed - well my mum had asked for a 4 bed.

She ummed and erred throughout, didn't try to sell any of the properties by pointing out their features, literally just said Road X, 4 bedrooms, garage, and that was it. So even if ours had got a mention it wouldn't exactly have been given the hard sell!

I am truly shocked that when someone rang up asking for exactly our house they didn't even mention us. I'm really angry:mad: Their manager was due to call me today but I called earlier to chase and still nothing. So I think this will be getting mentioned.

lynzpower

boots_babe wrote: »

Oh my god I am shocked! Taking advice from here I just got my mum to mystery shop them for me, whilst I listened in.

Despite asking for a house that exactly matches our profile, the agent initially said they only had houses in another area! Then said actually they have a 3 bed - well my mum had asked for a 4 bed.

She ummed and erred throughout, didn't try to sell any of the properties by pointing out their features, literally just said Road X, 4 bedrooms, garage, and that was it. So even if ours had got a mention it wouldn't exactly have been given the hard sell!

I am truly shocked that when someone rang up asking for exactly our house they didn't even mention us. I'm really angry:mad: Their manager was due to call me today but I called earlier to chase and still nothing. So I think this will be getting mentioned.

this is exactly what the point of mystery shopping is!

Well done for uncovering the potential sticking point.

Any agent should have ripped your mums arm off to drag her round to see your place and get it sold, even from an EAs pov it doesnt look good to have a property sat on the books having to reduce to sell.

In terms of your presentation, I can see nothing wrong with it at all, spotless, immaculate, anyone could move in. Ill take your word for it onthe pricing, I dontknow the area at all .

However, if the area is on a go-slow, is it really worth moving from your admitteldyl lovely and spacious 4 bed semi -to a detached for 100k more? Is an adjoining wall really worth 100k less

MissMotivation

boots_babe wrote: »

Oh my god I am shocked! Taking advice from here I just got my mum to mystery shop them for me, whilst I listened in.

Despite asking for a house that exactly matches our profile, the agent initially said they only had houses in another area! Then said actually they have a 3 bed - well my mum had asked for a 4 bed.

She ummed and erred throughout, didn't try to sell any of the properties by pointing out their features, literally just said Road X, 4 bedrooms, garage, and that was it. So even if ours had got a mention it wouldn't exactly have been given the hard sell!

I am truly shocked that when someone rang up asking for exactly our house they didn't even mention us. I'm really angry:mad: Their manager was due to call me today but I called earlier to chase and still nothing. So I think this will be getting mentioned.

Disgusting! Make sure you speak to the Manager and tell him..........i wouldn't say it was your Mum just a friend that was looking for properties like yours.

BTW your house looks lovely...really well presented but I think the photo's could be of better quality and taken from differant angles.

telfordwhite

Having looked at your house I have to say I was wrong. It looks to be worth 260 grand of anybodys money. Well presented and spacious in what looks a nice location.

It just has to be general lack of confidence in interest rate stability rather than the price thats stopping it selling.


Stay positive.

kodokan

Just in case you hadn't realised, your two agents have got the house at two different prices.

It's spacious, beautifully presented, and nicely situated, but annoyingly for you the just-over-£250k is virtually impossible to sell at. Are you REALLY expecting anyone to pay above £250k and take the SD hit? If not, just price it at £250k (note: £250,000 not £249,999, then it appears in two RM price search bands).

It seems to be the modern newbuild problem - they're basically a commodity rather than a 'brand', so they're chosen on price, rather like beans. And that's after these type of houses have excluded all the people who don't want a family-sized house with a retirement-sized garden.

It's a tricky market for sellers, but you're obviously working hard, so I hope it goes well for you. And stick it up that agent in the morning!

Good luck.

kodokan

stormCat99

Hi again - and thanks yet again for the feedback.

kodokan - yes we realise about the price difference, unfortunately the House Network listing won't update till the morning. Then they will both show the price of £259950. From the start we've been very aware of the stamp duty banding issue and how that can skew sales. However have seen plenty of people on this board with offers just above this limit, and I guess that I myself would put an offer in just above a stamp duty range if it was a property I really wanted and it compared well with total cost inc stamp duty of other properties. We do expect this to negatively impact on our final selling price - but we did get an offer of £262500 which we accepted (and then subsequently fell through) so guess it is not impossible. Whilst we would consider lower offers than asking price, we don't want to just list at £249999, as we are then inviting offers even lower, down to probably £234k, iyswim. So it is a tricky situation all round with the stamp duty thing

lynzpower - yes I am still really shocked about what we found out. Just goes to show how worthwhile it is to get someone to make a quick call. Yes in many ways we are going to be truly sad to leave this house. We love it, love the location, only sticking point is not detached and we want more space. We have already put off moving for quite a while so gotta bite the bullet at some point. Although you are right, at times seems a lot of hassle but hopefully worthwhile as we are intending to move to somewhere we can stay for many more years from now.

Probably agree photos could be better - all I can say is you should have seen it originally. We have already replaced 3 of them with ones of our own that we took, as they missed off vital parts of some rooms. But yes still could do with improvement. Actually might be a good idea to see if they will come back to re-take a pic of the garden, as it is currently at its best with flowers everywhere.

Thanks to everyone for the positive comments, it is reassuring to know that there is nothing glaringly wrong. Although I guess in a way would have been good to find something! I will be onto EA again in the morning, can't wait to hear what they have got to say. I'll keep you posted ...

jennifernil

Your Bedroom 4 has 2 different sizes given on the different listings, one makes it sound really small, only a single. Could be putting people off.
And for a 4 bed house the lounge sounds small, which also might put off some.

Doozergirl

I disagree about dropping your price to £250,000. I believe in putting a house to market to acheive asking price. The higher you put your price, the more people you exclude. The more sensibly you price it, the more likely people are to see it representing good value for money against those marketing at the same price expecting to be knocked down. Works for me!

At £250,000, above all other price brackets, you will find people prepared to pay asking price because there are more than an average number of houses being marketed at that point. Many will be better than others, but are stuck in your trap also.

I would never market at £260,000 because I would never pay £260,000. You either hold your price at £265,00 which is risky but almost possible that you'll get a bite or you drop to £250,000. At £260,000 but you are excluding more people searching to the SDLT threshold than you are inviting people to offer £235,000 at £250k. If they do offer that, you stress all those plus points you just told us about and you hold out for asking

As someone else very sensibly pointed out, marketing at £250,000 exactly puts you across two areas of Rightmove. You include people looking up to that amount that would otherwise be excluded and you also look to be great value for money to people looking at £250k and over. 3% SDLT kicks in at £250,001, so you're still below it.