Is my estate agent doing a good job?

GaggingOrder

Evening all. We are currently first time sellers, or at least we're trying to be. Perhaps we just got caught up in the hype but we expected to sell our house quickly, and after 7 weeks on the market we're a bit concerned by the lack of interest.

Not having done this before, I don't really know what to expect from my estate agent and I'm starting to wonder if they're the problem. We find them to be very friendly and approachable but we're not getting the viewings in the numbers we expected. We spoke to a number of agents and went with these guys because they seemed like decent normal people, not your usual stereotype EA, and I managed to negotiate a good deal on the fee. They had also sold a very similar property at the end of last year for a very good price, so we hoped they might have people who had missed out on that one. At first they seemed to be doing lots but as the weeks have gone by it seems they're just waiting for people to come to them. They're relatively small players in the local area and their rivals occupy better spots in the high street, but we (perhaps mistakenly) figured that was less of an issue in the Rightmove and Zoopla age!

Any tips for what to expect from your agent after the initial new-to-the-market buzz has died down?

For context, it's an ex local authority house so we figure that is a turn off, but it's in a popular part of London where there are few houses, and even fewer in this price bracket. Price wise, we think don't think it's overpriced as we went for the lower end of the 4 valuations we got and two have recently sold for more than we're asking (we thought we were pitching it to attract interest!).

If anyone has any other useful tips for trying to reignite the buzz and generate interest they would be most welcome.

Thanks, Geoff.

ellie27

How many viewers have you had in those 7 weeks?

What feedback have you had from the viewings?

Hoploz

After they have exhausted their list of potential buyers, which they would have introduced to your property when it first came to market, they are indeed as you say waiting for people to come to them.

How long are you tied in for?

People on here will probably now line up to tell you it's over priced but if that's not the case perhaps your listings online aren't doing the best to sell it, eg poor quality photos, or indeed poor presentation by seller can put off potential viewers. (says she sitting watching Amanda Lamb haha)

GaggingOrder

8 so far, half of which were in the first weekend. We've had one viewer come back for a 2nd look but they decided they liked somewhere else better. In general the feedback about the house has been very positive and people's reasons for ruling it out have been more to do with their own circumstances. Hence I think if we got more people in we'd be bound to find somebody who liked it and wanted to make an offer.

The similar houses that have sold in the last year all took a couple of months to get under offer, but talking to the agents we think they had a lot more viewers (assuming you believe them!)

GaggingOrder

We can effectively pull out now as we're past our exclusivity period. I'm not sure what advantage there would be to going multi agency given the likely extra cost but I could be tempted to try and negotiate a better deal elsewhere if things don't pick up.

I think re the price, everything in London is crazy so some people are bound to say it's overpriced, but we thought the fact two have sold for more and the local market has gone up a little since too mentioned we were pricing it attractively. They have held firm on their belief that it is well priced and have advised us not to reduce it yet

The listing isn't too bad but the photos could maybe be better. Perhaps I should ask them to refresh the photos.

pathtofreedom

Does the listing have a floor plan, ones without always put me off straight away. If you post the link people might be able to help with ideas on how to stage it better, so not just to drop the price. Although depending how desperate you are to sell that might be an idea.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Rightmove link...

GaggingOrder

It does have a floor plan. I know what you mean about that being off putting if there isn't one.

I don't want to post a link just in case it gets back to them. Like I said, I find them very pleasant to deal with. I'm just not sure if they're doing enough for us.

We're not desperate to sell, but we don't want to be hanging around either. We're seeing things come up in the area we want to move to and most of them go under offer quickly, so I suppose we just want to get ours sold so that we don't miss out on things. We could have pitched it much higher to try our luck, but thought we'd drum up more interest by pitching it at the lower end of the valuations.

LittleMax

GaggingOrder wrote: »

I don't want to post a link just in case it gets back to them. Like I said, I find them very pleasant to deal with. I'm just not sure if they're doing enough for us.

So you haven't voiced your concerns with them then? Why not? No need to fall out about it, just say what you put in your opening post. We were led to believe there would have been more interest by now, concerned that it's now been 7 weeks, what are you doing or planning to get more people through the door. Then depending on how response goes you could ask them why you should stay with them and not go to another agent.

GaggingOrder

Fair point. I've had lots of conversations with them over the last few weeks where I've expressed my concerns but not necessarily with them per se, more with the situation. They tend to agree that they're disappointed that there hasn't been a stronger response but they aren't exactly filling me with confidence about what they're doing about it. Perhaps I need to come on a bit stronger with them.

Thrugelmir

GaggingOrder wrote: »

Perhaps I need to come on a bit stronger with them.

To do what? You've 8 viewings. No one has made an offer. If you want a quick sale then price the property competitively. Otherwise sit back and bide your time. Somewhere out there is a buyer.