Multi agency vs Sole agency

iazcac

Our house has been on the market with Estate Agent A since just before Christmas. Only had 2 viewings, and we are now at the end of our fixed contract with them. We picked Estate Agent A as they are the same agent as the vendor we have had an offer accepted on (our logic being if they sell ours, they get 2x commission so in their interest to work hard!). Their fee is 1% + VAT

We are considering whether we should switch to Estate Agent B or go multi agency. Estate Agent B seem very confident (all sales guff?) that they will sell our property. Their fee is fixed but if we get asking price it works out at about 2% inc VAT. Yes more money, but 2% of a sale is better than 1% of no sale!!

If we went with Estate Agent A and B, firm A have said they would increase their fee to 1.5% + VAT. Also worried this would make us look "desperate" to sell - we are very keen but not at any price!

To me, the Estate Agent is irrelevant - if I find a house I like on Rightmove, the Estate Agent is irrelevant and just the number I ring to arrange a viewing. I wouldn't pick a house just because of the Estate Agent - but that might just be me!!

Any thoughts appreciated
C

AnotherJoe

Your house is priced too high.

Rodders53

Price may well be too high? But you've only been on the market for a few weeks in a quieter period for selling.

Location may influence the speed of sale? (Where are you)?

What was feedback from the two viewings you've had? Can you make simple changes that would help the sale? (Tidy up? Cut hedges?)

Agent can make a difference in terms of chasing up vendor and purchaser once introduced, so smoothing and speeding things. And -occasionally - if they have a buyer waiting for your location or house style / condition (that the others in the area do not have on their books). There are still a few Luddites that don't use Right Move but favour a particular agent.

If I see houses on with multiple agents (by whatever advertising medium) I assume there's something odd / wrong / awkward about the property or vendor and that it's likely to be over-priced.

G_M

selling over the christmas/new year holiday period?

mid-winter when people are cuddling up in the warm at home, not tramoing the streets?

It's a quiet time!

I wouldn't go multi agency....... yet.

You could switch to agent B, but if so, insist they tell you how confident they are of finding a buyer fast, at the prive you've agreed. If they say, "very confident", tell them they've got 3 weeks to introduce a buyer!

Or give agent A a bit longer: more people will start lookibg as spring approaches.

DaftyDuck

I used to use multi-agency when houses wouldn't sell, because one would advertise in the Herald, the other in the Mercury, one was in the centre of town, the other had a couple of village branches... that kind of reasoning. I did tend to do it more when changing agent than a deliberate decision to use two, except when the two were really after different markets (nice big old houses, use one "national" agent with wide coverage, one "local" with specialised knowledge, who'd know what a mullion window was...)

Now, so long as they use Rightmove.... that's it! I only switch agent if one has right royally weed me off such that I just want out. No point otherwise.

So, who is actually going to visit Agent B's office and sign up some exclusive "I'll buy through you" clause, be rich enough to actually buy, yet too thick or poor to turn a computer on, type in "www.rightmove.whatever".... get stuck on a search and just not find your property. Yeah, right; "It just so happens, Mr Iazcak, we have a buyer or two who'd just love your house, and yet they are too damm thick to look in another agent's window, and they have no fingers to type with... just sign here and ... here... and here...."

Agents are useful... they really are. They can help keep a buyer on track, they can take the emotion out of a viewing, they can even make a smelly house reek of passably cheap aftershave or Kim Kardashian's latest olfactory concoction... but they are not going to magic up some rich financier to buy your house through them, and only through them...

The days of lists of buyers tucked in a desk drawer, a pencilled comment for school catchment area, a birthdate for the sproglet, a quiet word of a possible house that might just come to market before school lists closed, if the offer price was right... a hushed conversation at the golf club... then a quiet visit one evening from an agent in a quiet suit and Oxford brogues saying he thinks he's found just the chap to hand the house on to ... all gone. As has honour, honesty, winning at cricket, and the ability to go into a coffee shop and ask for a coffee....

If your house is on Rightmove, it will sell as fast with one agent as another. If it doesn't, then the price is too high, or the market temporarily quiet. The market is quiet at the moment, we are all still drunk from Christmas, waiting for the Daily Mail's "Worst Winter For 30 Years" to come true....

Stay with your agent. Good choice, with two in a chain to sell. If no action in another month, consider a price cut, dependant on feedback from viewers.