How can I get estate agent to proactively market us?

mr.broderick

Garstang not too far from here..that house is too dear.
In laws live in the more desirable st michaels on the wyre and are trying to sell..can't give it away.

barnaby-bear

Somethings odd in the dimensions, there must be some space missing for a 4 bed house the kitchen is ok size (14 by 13 ok for a breakfast area etc), lounge a sounds pokey ( only 14 by 15 in a 4 bed ????) but that's it - where's the dining room - for 4 bed in that I wouldn't consider without the 2nd reception room listed, I don't see how you could entertain or even shut your kids stuff away or the kids away from each other - although the lounge would be too small for me to consider. Long thin bedrooms and velux windows don't count as real bedrooms. I absolutely wouldn't view your house from the details but maybe it's really nice and works and I would be bowled over but I just wouldn't go and see it *from the details and photos*. If you could hide a lot more of the negatives maybe viewers would come and see the good things?

stormCat99

Hello - i'll try and reply to everyone again :rolleyes:

jennifernil - I think in places the one agent has given min dimensions, so for example in the lounge the shape of the room is square, but with a small square cut out of one corner, about the size of a doorway in each direction. That probably is a rubbish explanation but can't think how else to put it. So they have put the min dimensions, rather than the main room dimensions. In the nearly 50 houses we've seen (and this is detached 4 beds around £400k mark) we have only seen a handful - maybe 4 or 5 - that have a lounge as large as ours. Same for kitchen.

Doozergirl - fully appreciate your point of view and can see entirely where you're coming from. But we have agonised over this, asked friends, estate agents, researched online, and have to agree to disagree with you on this one I'm afraid! I don't think there really is any right answer as I guess each approach would work in different situations. It's a hard one.
mr.broderick - again have to disagree there slightly - and yes I am biased :cool: but I also think that St Michael's is not really quite the same as Garstang! Property prices in general in Garstang are much higher than surrounding areas such as Pilling, St Michaels, even Poulton. I am not saying this makes us better at all, not in any way, it is just a sad fact. We initially looked at other areas such as St Michaels and Poulton as they are a fair bit cheaper, but ultimately, despite seeing how much further our money would go there we couldn't face leaving Garstang. Having said that the market around all of these areas is vv slow at the moment and even prices in Garstang have started to drive down - hence our 2 price drops. There is not a lot we can do about interest rates going up etc unfortunately :rolleyes:

barnaby-bear - I've no idea if the dimensions are right - I am hopeless at visualising sizes of things! All I can say is what I did to jennifernil above - that of the many houses we've looked at there have really only been a handful with a lounge similar in size to ours, same goes for kitchen. Think that is partly why we have struggled to much to find somewhere we like - but finally we may have done Also the room with the velux bedrooms - it is only listed as the 2nd bedroom because it is not en-suite, it is actually bigger than our master bedroom, so if it was en-suite it would be the master. To try and give you an idea, we have it as a 2nd lounge, and at one end is a large corner settee, with 4 seats, and also a fairly large coffee table (nearly 2m square I think?) and some other furniture. Then the other half of the room is completely empty and we have no use for it, but could easy fit another sofa and table at the other end. IYSWIM. Yes Velux may not be for everyone, appreciate that. I am stuck with them though so can't do a lot about it - I think it makes it a lovely sunny room as they let loads of light flood in, and have blackout blinds for when you want it to be dark. But obviously you're right, not the same as window with a nice view.

Also lack of dining room - fully agreed! That is one of the reasons we are moving - we want detached, with separate dining room and just more spare rooms and space in general. Again can't do a lot about that as it's just personal preference - I've been surprised, a lot of our viewers have said they specifically want a kitchen-diner rather than separate dining room, esp the ones with kids. So they can keep an eye on them I guess? Personally I would much prefer a separate dining room, so that's why we're moving!

JoJoArmani

Lovely home - very good price I think for a 4 bed in that area!!

Think the market in this area has died.

I'm on the opposite end of the market - 2bed terrace in Preston near uni for £104,950 - no interest at all for the past 4 weeks.

UK Property shop are rubbish - we had tham value our house - the man who came was scruffy - they gave us the lowest valuation - really hard work to make appointments with them to view their properties - and one of the people I spoke to sounded like a "newby" office girl - no personality and no conversation forthcoming.

Our estate agents are noting to write home about though - we never hear from them either with properties to sell us or about or own sale.

Have you had any more viewings recently?

Best of luck!!!!

JoJo

xela_17

Now that you've reduced the price from 170 to 160 have you made sure the agents are now calling people on their books who were only looking up to the 160 mark, that would not have seen your house when it was 170?

Re the house in general, seems very nicely presented. I do agree with one of the other posters though that the 4th bedroom on one of the agents gives the size about 6ft across, which I would consider a single.

nick22abdn

Just looking through the advert on rightmove and have a couple of suggestions. Your house seems immaculately presented but it is obviously not grabbing any attention of note.

As over stated as this often is, it is kitchens and bathrooms that sell houses. I believe in a recent poll 95% of people actively dislike carpets in bathroos as they think they are unhygenic (my parents have always had carpet and prefer it -just remember you need to present the house as a new buyer would prefer it rather than yourself). Recently sold a few high spec properties and it was always the bathrooms that got attention and sold the place. To freshen it up and make it look more modern I would personally replace the bath panel and toilet seat with white ones - makes a huge visual impact. Depending on your level of diy skill I would also consider changing the colour scheme and retile. This doesn't have to be expensive - best feedback I have had is from the Padova 80 tiles laid in a brockwork style. These are available from Topps for around £25 m2, however I found them from a supplier on ebay for half that - exactly the same make and tile. Really helpful guy and had them delivered in no time.
Luxury touched that make your property stand out dont have to cost much at all. Most potential buyers love the though of underfloor heating with a tiled floor. You can get a full underfloor heating kit for approx £120 if you shop around and is very easy to install before tiling - just take (or get a sparky to take) a fused spur off of the ring main. Laying the wall tiles in a brickwork fashion also makes the room look much larger.

The kitchen looks nice and spacious and in good condition. However, I would guess that the units were installed when the house was built 10-15 years ago? Pine kitchens are not in favour at the moment, buyers seem to prefer clean, light colour units normally gloss. You can buy replacement doors for very little money and it would totally change the look and feel of the place. If you combine these with solid oak worktops they can look superb. Again, oak tops look and feel really expensive but IKEA actually do really good ones (their doors aren't bad either) and you could probably replace the worktops for about £300.

Wood floors are also very popular at the moment and can make rooms look a lot larger. It can be fairly cheap to change your flooring as well dependant on your capability. I have used www.cityfloors.co.uk before and got solid oak flooring delivered for £23 m2 inc VAT.

Switches and sockets can also make a huge visual impact - brushed chrome flat plates look really expensive and modern. Go to B&Q and they'll cost £20 per double socket, go to www.fwb.co.uk and they will only cost you just over £5 each

If you took your property off the market for a month, carried out all the changes and went back to market I think you would see a great increase in the amount of interest as your proerty would appeal to a new set of buyers. Rough costs (materials only) would be £600 for the bathroom, £600 for the kitchen, oak flooring for hall and lounge £500.

I would like to stress that the properties I sell are mostly for under 30's or early 30's and they may not be as suitable for a family home. Then again, I have had plently of good feedback from 50 year old couples as well. If you want to know what sells go and do some viewing round show homes of local developments for inspiration. These people spend a lot of time and effort aiming the property for their target market, steal some of their ideas. If you want to see any of the above suggestions in a room setting let me know and I will send you some pictures through. If you decide to change some aspects not as suggested, let me know. I have used loads of suppliers and may be able to point you in the direction of one who is cheap and reliable.

As for agents, dont choose them by phoning them and seeing what they would charge for marketing your property - they will come over all nice and try and sell you their company. Go through the Yellow Pages and phone every agent in the area asking about properties they have for sale (make upa specification of a house you want). See who answers their phone quickly, has someone polite and knowledgable on the other end, goes to great effort to find a property that matches your criteria, sells you on its benefits and actively tries to convince you to arrange a viewing. Go with whoever is best and you would prefer to deal with as a buyer regardless of their fees. You are much more likely to sell with them.

Sorry this has been a bit long winded and in no way do I mean to be diparaging about your property. However, if it is sticking a complete interior change may bring about fresh interest. As already said, my properties are aimed at about a 30yr old audience. Having said that, in Aberdeen the market has slowed severely in the last couple of months and a glut of properties has come onto the market. I just sold my personal flat in 2 weeks for 50% over the offers over price so these changes still appear to work. If you have any questions feel free to let me know

RHemmings

lynzpower wrote: »

have you got one of your mates to phone up and mystery shop thge EA, they should be falling over themselves to get them round, give that a try and test thier approach.

If I was selling, I'd definitely do this. If the OP tries, can they tell us what happened?

Edit: I must read threads through to the end before replying.

xela_17

I want to hear an update of what the EA said when the OP confronted them with the mystery shopping results!

dnwilliams

Aside from all this there is one fundamental problem. You're using cut price EA's, what do you expect. It's fine to use this type of service if you have an underpriced house or its a sellers market, but they just haven't got the inclination, facilities and werewithal to focus on your property. They've got hundreds of properties nationally to worry about. You need an agent who will bring along his sales negotiators to see your property and then go back to the office and phone it out.

Annabee

Boots_babe

I love that orangey-yellowy canvas (?) in 3 parts that you've got on your living room wall. I've been looking for something like that. Where did you get it?

By the way I think your house looks very nice and well-presented. Don't know your area though so can't really comment on the pricing.