Unhappy with estate agent but what can I do?

jonnytekno

Hi I was hoping for some help from anyone experienced with estate agents.

I need to sell my house as quickly as possible because I am relocating for work. We got 3 valuations and quotes and went with the one we were most happy with (also based on recommendations). At this point I clearly explained my situation and asked for advice on how best to sell quickly.

Unfortunately when it came round to actually do contracts etc I had to leave things to my wife, and she didn't think to check lock-in date or anything - we are in 3 months lock in.

The problem is that we are getting very few viewings on the property and I am suspicious that the agent is pushing other houses over ours where they perhaps have higher commission or less time left on their contract. Obviously this is partially my fault because we didn't negotiate on the lock in period, but I am annoyed because I specifically asked how to sell fast and asked for open and honest advice.

I mystery shopped them last week about another property of similar value and they made no attempt to cross-sell my house.

I don't have time to mess around like this and need to get out of their contract so I can go duel agent - do I have any leg to stand on? or how best do I approach this with them?

Thanks

lincroft1710

Get someone else to similarly mystery shop them, but this time, widen the parameters so the EA would also suggest your house. Some agents aren't pro-active, enquire about house X and that is all they'll give details on.

If the same happens again go in to the EA and ask why you house wasn't suggested. Be calm and polite, but also firm and don't be put off by flimsy excuses.

Unless you can prove the EA is not honouring their part of the contract, you have no grounds for ending it.

fairy_lights

Could there be other reasons why your house isn't getting many viewings? Is it listed on rightmove?
If so I would have thought prospective buyers would be finding it online themselves without the agent needing to push it.

phoebe1989seb

Last year we were in a similar position re: needing to sell quickly (as we had found our onward purchase first ). Having had five valuations from EAs large and small, we went for one of the middle valuations and offered the EA an incentive (an additional 0.5%) if they achieved a sale within 28 days.

Our house was quite *niche market* - a period thatch on a busy rural road and furthermore was mid-range price wise in an area where most properties selling were top end (several million £££) or FTBs. It was not unheard of for mid-range properties to take in excess of twelve months to sell, which was not good news for us.

Our price therefore reflected our desire to sell quickly - or so we thought.....after four weeks we'd had two/three viewings and no offers, so we took the decision to drop the price a little. Our EA was very good and suggested a price that would show up in more online searches as well as advising that at that price we would be most likely to achieve asking price or within £5k of AP.

Within days we had three viewings which produced three offers - one at asking price which we accepted. There was no further downward negotiation after the survey. Our sale was agreed during the fifth week on the market.

Had we not been keen to secure a particular onward purchase we could have hung out for more £££ but as it was we got our new house for a very good price and the whole process, from marketing to completion took 14 weeks. There are two houses in our village that remain unsold from 2013 - obviously overpriced or in no rush to sell.

During the time our house was being marketed we were in daily contact via email with our EA, who was very proactive and on the ball regarding ways to make our listing more attractive to buyers. They employed a professional photographer and the online brochure/floorplan were very professionally presented unlike some we considered using - all important considerations in our case where vendors were struggling to sell.

I do think if you are getting few/no viewings the price is the most likely reason......

Maybe you could post up a RM link

bigfreddiel

Basically you have to realise that an agent is just a salesman. He has many houses on his books so he doesn't care if he sells your house or not, there's plenty more for him to sell. Part of the salesmanship job is to make you feel you are his only concern and that he is doing everything for you to sell your house. This may be true in the first few weeks and then they move on to just building up their stock of houses and clients.

There are two other factors, price and keeping in touch with the agent.

First make sure your price is realistic.

Second be proactive. Check the details, rewrite anything you think needs to be. Think of your target audience. Check where the property is being advertised over and above the usual. Hold an open day.

The successful sale is down to you - the agent isn't that bothered regardless of what they say

Good luck fj

DRP

bigfreddiel wrote: »

Basically you have to realise that an agent is just a salesman. He has many houses on his books so he doesn't care if he sells your house or not, there's plenty more for him to sell. Part of the salesmanship job is to make you feel you are his only concern and that he is doing everything for you to sell your house. This may be true in the first few weeks and then they move on to just building up their stock of houses and clients.

There are two other factors, price and keeping in touch with the agent.

First make sure your price is realistic.

Second be proactive. Check the details, rewrite anything you think needs to be. Think of your target audience. Check where the property is being advertised over and above the usual. Hold an open day.

The successful sale is down to you - the agent isn't that bothered regardless of what they say

Good luck fj

I agree with this, and it relates to everyone involved in the sales process:solicitor, ea, mortgage company/broker, surveyor.

Despite the thousands you'll end up paying them, it absolutely imperative to double-check, do your research, and question them constantly.

getmore4less

jonnytekno wrote: »

Hi I was hoping for some help from anyone experienced with estate agents.

I need to sell my house as quickly as possible because I am relocating for work. We got 3 valuations and quotes and went with the one we were most happy with (also based on recommendations). At this point I clearly explained my situation and asked for advice on how best to sell quickly.

Get on rightmove and look at the competition, make sure it is the cheapest(ish) of those that are compatible.

Also make sure you are pulling in the people in the correct price range

The motivation for those that can spend less to get what they want where your place is at the bottom of the search range is different to those that can get more for their money where yours is top of range.

You could try posting a link and see what people think, priced right places will sell quickly.

Mocha61

Some estate agents over value your property at the start. My daughter had this recently where her house was valued and was told it would be sold in no time, and mentioned open days to, when there were no viewings for couple of weeks, she had to lower asking price, they continually brought people to view that couldnt afford it and gave incorrect information to them regarding offers. They were in a 12 week contract but after 3 weeks told eastate agent not to bother with any more viewings because it was wasting everyones time. Always get several valuations and dont go for the highest.

Hoploz

Just go in and speak to the agent face to face. Have a chat, explain you're keen to sell quickly and that you'd said that at the outset. Ask the agent why he thinks he hasn't achieved more viewings. He will probably come up with some ideas himself, as has been described above.

You must work together on this - keep your eye on the listings and ask for specific changes you think might help. Make sure any measurements given are accurate - you'd be surprised how useless those laser reader things are!

Make sure the photos are as light and bright and clean and tidy as possible. Check thatthe photos show the rooms rather than the furniture. I am constantly amazed by the number of agents who photograph a bed, a toilet etc!

Make sure your house shows its best kerb appeal for people who prefer to drive by before contacting agents.

jbainbridge

It's the price - it always is. If you want to sell 'quickly' you need to drop it - simple.

jonnytekno

Thanks for all the advice

Some more evidence of lacklustre sales effort: I just opened my front door to find a couple looking at the house holding brochures, so asked if they wanted to come in and have a look which they did. I spoke to the agent later in the day, and the couple had gone straight in their afterwards to pick up a brochure. He told me that they had been in the day before and viewed another property - they told us they wanted something in this exact area and seemed to like the house, plus they had come here specifically after having seen the property in the window of the agents. So why the hell hadn't they pushed a viewing in the first place and what if I hadn't happened to bump into them? Also, afterwards when I asked what they thought of the property, they hadn't even bothered to ask them and had just literally given them a brochure.

I understand how it works, I guess I'm just wondering if I can get them to release us into duel-agent, or whether that would even make that much difference?

I'm happy with the price because my next door neighbours (the house is identical mirror image in every way) sold theirs at exactly this price 3 months ago.

I will be speaking to them this week.