Go with agents who have most houses on?

cloo

So we put my house (which I've been letting for last few years) on market with agent A. All three agents we got to value (A, B and C) had given similar valuations and said we'd sell it straightaway on an open day. Put it on open day weekend before last, only got a few viewers, one low offer we decided not to accept.

We're going away at the beginning of April and the tenants leave (yes, I know this is in theory, but I am expecting that they will) at Easter weekend. So I've decided if we don't sell by the end of this month, I'll take it off while we're away and put it back on with another agent once tenants have left.

Agent B rang today chasing after the house (they seem to have a big rivalry with agent A), so it's probably between them and C. C claim, with some justification, to sell the most houses in the area, so I'm wondering whether it might be best to go with them because if they have the most houses on the market, then presumably they might have the biggest pool of viewers whose attention it can be brought to. Basically, we've been disappointed with numbers coming through and would like to see more and I'm thinking maybe an agency with more potential buyers on its books would be be better. On the other hand, it seems like agent B will have a powerful motivation in getting one over on agent A!

ConfusedofYorkshire

I'm not convinced about the biggest pool of viewers thing. Been who are actively looking are signed up to things like rightmove alerts, they certainly don't wait around for an agent to ringing them.

Even though several agents knew we were looking we didn't get told by them about new houses before we'd seen them ourselves. It was us chasing the agent more than anything else.

benjus

Which one do you like best? Which one do you think will work hardest to get the place sold? Having a lot of properties on the market may just mean that the staff are stretched and concentrate on the properties that will get them the biggest commission for the least work.

I'm not sure that having a big pool of buyers is a big deal either - if the market is overheated most buyers will probably have registered with all the agents in the area to get advance notice of new instructions before they hit the internet; if not they will simply be looking at RightMove etc every day to see the new properties come online.

ConfusedofYorkshire

If I was going to sell a property I know which agent I'd use from the ones I looked round with. It isn't a chain, and he was genuine and knowledgeable. Now maybe he's just a good sales man and actually a crook, but to a buyer he comes across as genuine.

Maybe you should look round some houses with the agents:) see it from the other side.

pinkshoes

Go with the agent you liked the most.

When I bought, I didn't mind which EA was selling the property, although I did tend to avoid Connells!

thestens

We had 3 round to do valuations - Bridgfords awful - pushy, wouldn't negotiate over fees yet were much more expensive than others. They are part of a big national chain but a local one with a quieter, but confident and businesslike manager offered far more reasonable terms so we went with them. They have been fine so far (sold subject to contract). So in my limited experience I'd say go for one you think you can get on with and where you feel the costs are OK.

cloo

Trouble was we really couldn't see much between them when we met... in the end we went for one who was very flexible about the contract so that if it didn't work out we could change agents quite easily. Agent B seem very well rated online for service and pride themselves on it, but I don't know they sell that many houses.

We'll see what happens this weekend, anyway. We got no one last weekend, which was as well as Saturday wasn't great for either me or the tenant. They had one person booked in yesterday for this weekend and are going to try to get any more viewers in open day style this Saturday, so I'll call them tomorrow and see if anyone else has booked on. If we get a few through there's a chance we might shift it!