Estate Agent Pushy About Putting Flat on Market

tightasagnats

Jox wrote: »

Yeah we lost our buyer 2 weeks before the vote, we had an open day on 21st May and had 19 viewers and 5 offers. We accepted the highest offer and then they got cold feet on 12th June...Now we are getting offers 30k below the original offer, so we will probably accept one as the house we wanted to buy has also been reduced. Good luck with your sale

Thanks Jox. Shame, that sucks.

I met with agent again today. They said locally it's still a sellers' market - they said no probs with getting similar prices to pre-brexit just the crazy offers have dropped off. I guess only time will tell really, there are certainly not so many properties for sale but that had slowed before Brexit it seemed to me. I wish you all the best.

tightasagnats

sheff6107 wrote: »

I found dealing with agents easy. Just get three round to price, then send an apologetic email to the two you don't want to use saying you've had three round, all were excellent but you're going with one of the other two.

Anyway, I'd go for an online agent in any case.

Do you mean an agent that's solely online? Can you say why? In this area the agents have a very "local" feel and tend to be local themselves and that seems to work well. They are usually very good with customers and those I've met so far this time round are good. Even the pushy guy was being realistic rather than aggressive for the sake of it!

There's a trend locally for open days, create a buzz, and online I assume you have to arrange all the viewings etc to save a few bob?

hazyjo

tightasagnats wrote: »

Do you mean an agent that's solely online? Can you say why? In this area the agents have a very "local" feel and tend to be local themselves and that seems to work well. They are usually very good with customers and those I've met so far this time round are good. Even the pushy guy was being realistic rather than aggressive for the sake of it!

There's a trend locally for open days, create a buzz, and online I assume you have to arrange all the viewings etc to save a few bob?

I'll give my opinion (as I suggested two online ones earlier). An EA will charge around 1% (plus VAT) of the sale. An online one, you can get for under a grand (all in).


If for example you sell at £400k, you're looking at nearly £5k at 1% with VAT. If you call around £4k a few bob and are willing to pay it to have an EA do [some/most of] the viewings, go ahead


If your house is going to sell that easily and quickly, it's a no brainer.


You can still host an open day with an online agent. Yes, you will do the viewings yourself, but I find you do that with most traditional EAs anyway.


You're talking 'London'. I don't really think 'a local feel' comes into it as people buying there will presumably know the area. I'm in E4 and won't need an EA to tell my viewers about what shops, cafes or bars there are, or the lake, or the forest, or sports facilities - I can do that myself


Jx

tightasagnats

Ha ha we're not that far away from one another....I know E4 quite well but it's a bit of a different market from E17 and E10 (i.e. fewer families more couples and first timers from Hackney, Islington, Shoreditch priced out of there. You're right it's not just a few bob, but handling offers, and knowing about who is a serious and likely buyer with all the right things in place would save me stress, and all that is worth it for me to get someone decent in, and I think my agents are. They will attract people who wouldn't go online I think, but I'm not sure there's any real way to know what's best.

They will do the whole open day and eve and want me out of the way which is fine by me. They are a more niche agent, they seem very sensible and grounded. 1% fee as you say.