Do Estate Agents actively find buyers?

AnotherJoe

heston2014 wrote: »

Hi

Our property has been on the market for a month and we've had 2 viewings so far. It's listed on Rightmove, Zoopla and Prime Location. Just wondering if EA actively find buyers or they just list properties on these websites and wait for leads?

I am losing confidence in our EA, I appreciate it's still early days and market is slow. If they recommend an asking price, then surely it's not overpriced? I was under the impression that EA's actively market properties, no?

We can't progress with our house hunting unless we sell ours. I was expecting more proactiveness from the EA, they do have a portfolio of expensive properties and ours is an ex-council, hoping they've not taken ours on for the sake of 'mixing up' their stock a bit and then leave us to one side and not market ours properly.

Sounds like a mismatch, people who want to buy ex council houses don't generally look on EA websites who sell million pound houses

KatieDee

As a buyer, I can only say that a very small number of estate agents actively updated us with available properties. I assume this is because most buyers are super active and respond immediately to adverts, so they don't feel they need to hand hold as much.

We have had one exemplary EA who knew exactly what we wanted and kept in contact via email and phone whenever something came up (or they had an older property on their books they thought might work for us). They are the highest rated in the area (which only has around 6 EA's in total) but unfortunately we didn't use them to buy in the end.

I think it's a good idea to manage your expectations in regards to selling, but I don't think it's unrealistic to expect agents to actively sell your home to anybody who might be interested.

FreeBear

Was making a few tentative inquires with a local estate agent. Mainly about structural surveys for a property that I was looking at. They started to spam me with properties that I was not interested in and totally unsuitable - This was despite me telling them not to add me to their mailing list.

Ended up having to go in to their office and have loud words with a manager in front of a couple of prospective customers.

So "do estate agents actively market properties ?", some do, and in the process, annoy a few potential buyers.

capital0ne

When selling you can just leave to the EA or you can take a pro-active role.

First did you review the EA's brochure/web offering and ensured your property was represented as well as possible. Were the details accurate? Were the photo's good - take your own if you think not.

Make your own plan on marketing and present that to the eA, for example are nu of thr broadsheets doing a special on your area, make sure your property is mentioned. Can the EA promote your property to developers or investment companies. Maybe a local hospital or uni is looking for a property to house visitors.

Finally tell the EA you'll be visiting him weekly for a review of progress. Once they know that they'll promote your property over others.

Good luck

letitbe90

I think you are suffering from paranoia.