Worth changing estate agents?

idingsdale

Morning all. I've been trying to sell my house, have been on the market 11 weeks. It's in a part of the city thats really desirable and identical properties have sold in a matter of days - although I understand that the market is a bit slow at the moment.

We found a local agent with GetAgent and they've been pretty good in many ways. The advert represents the house well and we've had a decent stream of viewings, but they're starting to dry up now. I've dropped the price, expecting an influx of viewings but seen no uptick at all. We did start at a slightly cheeky price and recieved a full asking price offer 2 days after listing, but that collapsed a week later. Our price is now really competitive for the area and condition.

At the moment, the only thing I can do personally is to change agents - but in a world where people are almost entirely using Rightmove or similar, I cant see that appearing in a different shop window would be worth the hassle of changing. I challenged a larger local agent to tell me why they'd be any different - the only thing I was convinced by is that they have more stock, so will be able to talk to more potential buyers about mine (buyer calls about house A, they say "how about this one instead").

I have seen a number of properties changing agents then being sold very soon after - which brings me to the crux of my question. I know the 14 week rule on the portals means it wont show as new within 14 weeks - but does this count when its a different agent? While I have no desire to break the rules or deceive buyers, I can see that popping up in hundreds of mailboxes as a new property with new photos would work to my advantage and might explain the other quick sales.

And more generally - if I'm happy with the service my agent is giving me, should I switch to try and speed up the sale or is it "better the devil you know"?

Many thanks!

kinger101

Possible it's still overpriced. Everyone looks online so which shop window it appears does not matter. If it's on Rightmove, people know about it. Having said that, it can be worth changing agents to get a new listing (as you suggested), and appear again in e-mail alerts for "newly listed" properties.

If you post your listing (we can find it from postcode), others can comment on how they view yours compared to others nearby.

Generally, when an agent says "how about this one" you know it won't meet any of your criteria.

moneyistooshorttomention

Wondering what standard your photos have been done to?

I've certainly seen the same house advertised with two different agents before now - and one agent having a much better set of photos than the other one.

I know that one of the reasons I chose the EA that sold my last house was the standard of their photos. With the added corollary that - even with the EA with the "best" photos one might still have to watch what angle they've taken them from (eg I rejected one of the ones of my courtyard garden I had - as it focused towards the rather close house at the back. Duly swopped to one focusing back in on the things I'd put in that courtyard garden instead).

idingsdale

Thats what I thought, I'm sure the "new listing" thing explains why changing agents works.

Regarding value, its quite a hard one to pin a value on - it's a nicely presented victorian 2 bed terrace in a desirable area, the sort of thing buyers really like around here. The main thing (and consistent with the feedback we're getting) is that it's a bit small. However, its priced accordingly

Apparently I'm not allowed to post links - 2 bed detached in EX41EW

Number 1 sold at 185 3 years ago - it's identical except the lounge/diner were still separate (a downside in my view). 3 next door sold at 160 a year ago and was a total wreck. Larger 2 beds are 215k+ with really nice ones popping up at 230+. There are larger properties not too far away (even some 3 beds) for the same price, but in much less desirable parts of the city which have always had much lower prices (Exwick mainly is geographically quite close but much lower values).

We started at 220k and got offered that on the Monday after being listed on the Friday before. We dropped to OIEO 210k and had quite a bit of interest including one offer of 190k and have just dropped to OIEO 200k now we've found a house we really want to buy. I'm fairly sure the price is where it needs to be but we're just not getting the people through the door

idingsdale

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Wondering what standard your photos have been done to?

I've certainly seen the same house advertised with two different agents before now - and one agent having a much better set of photos than the other one.

I know that one of the reasons I chose the EA that sold my last house was the standard of their photos. With the added corollary that - even with the EA with the "best" photos one might still have to watch what angle they've taken them from (eg I rejected one of the ones of my courtyard garden I had - as it focused towards the rather close house at the back. Duly swopped to one focusing back in on the things I'd put in that courtyard garden instead).

I actually think they're really good, they're better than a lot I've seen! They've literally just re-done most of them, not because they were bad but just to freshen the listing up a bit and see if that can stir any interest

jennhg88

Post the link with spaces and someone will fix it

circuit

Someone near us is playing musical estate agents at the moment. His property did appear as a new listing when he changed over, so I presume there is some trick that allows EAs to get around that Rightmove rule.

Of couse, the real reason he's switching agents is that his property is quite clearly overpriced (50k more than ours has just sold for, with less floor space -- and "offers over" to boot).

Your cheeky offer may well be an indicator of the level you need to be at to actually sell.

Cakeguts

A lot of people are put off by the offers in excess of and don't even bother to look.


It looks to me as if the kitchen is the same one as when you bought the house is that correct? What have you changed since you bought it?



The point is that it didn't take me very long to find the pictures from when you bought it and compare them to the ones now. It even looks as if you have the same carpets as when you bought the house? I could be wrong but this is what your viewers are going to think.


So what have you done to the house to increase the value by nearly £50k in 5 years?



The £190k offer is likely to be close to what your house is worth now.

Silian

idingsdale wrote: »

...
Apparently I'm not allowed to post links - 2 bed detached in EX41EW
...

I can only find a 2 bedroom terraced in that post code.

As someone else suggested, post the link (or just the id from rightmove)

Cakeguts

Silian wrote: »

I can only find a 2 bedroom terraced in that post code.

As someone else suggested, post the link (or just the id from rightmove)

It is a 2 bed terraced. Read the OP again.

Silian

Cakeguts wrote: »

It is a 2 bed terraced. Read the OP again.

Cool, OP must just have mistyped. In that case: This one?

https://m.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/49473247

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-57513231.html