Should I change agents?

Wishywashy74

Hi, I'm looking for some advice.

I have had my house on the market since July 24, I live in a nice village where in general houses do sell quickly, there's a wide spread of variety and its seen as one of the nicest places to live around our area.

I'm selling my house to live with my partner as we both want to commit to a future together and we have plans set in place but unable to proceed until I sell mine.

So basically we have a estate agent in the village and over the last few years they basically just had to advertise and the house seems to sell quickly, so I had them come round mine as well as another 3 agents who all gave the same valuation. I will say I did have to chase our local agent for appointment and details after the visit and tbh I didn't get a great feel from them.

I was going to go with another agent who I have used in the past on 2 occasions and they have been great to deal with. However when we got their T's & C's my partner looked over it and found a lot of fees, wordings, costs of exit fees which she did not like (she's a lawyer) so I leave those things to her.

On that basis I went with our local estate agent as their contract seemed simple to understand. However I've only had 5 viewings (1 of the viewings said it took the agents 5 days to get back to them to confirm an appointment, I asked about this and they said most of the staff was sick that week) since going up for sale (all viewings went well and had some great feedback but no second viewings). Now since about the start of August I've had no interest so I've been In to see them and ask what they are doing or what I can do. I asked is it the price and they said no and not to reduce it but then they said the markets slow, everyone is worried about the up coming budget and also there have been the school holidays.

I emailed them about something over a week ago and have never had a response and tbh I'm done with them.

However I'm not sure what to do now going forward. Do I take it off the market with them and get other agents back round and see what they say then pick one of them, I'm conscious of the budget and I was going to wait and see what happens before making a decision but I really do feel my estate agent is beyond lazy and have rested on their laurels for too long.

What would you do?

Slinky

Not answering your question, but does your agent use Rightmove? There's a house gone up for sale behind ours that's with one of the established local agents, and they only use their own very poor website and Zoopla. The house fronts onto a green, so only people walking past would see the board. It's been up for sale for about 3 months now. Unless you use Zoopla, which we never did when looking for our house, you could drive past 50 yards away from the house and not know it's up for sale. It's a probate sale, don't know whether the person selling it isn't very computer savvy, they may not know it's not being widely advertised.

Wishywashy74

Slinky said:

Not answering your question, but does your agent use Rightmove? There's a house gone up for sale behind ours that's with one of the established local agents, and they only use their own very poor website and Zoopla. The house fronts onto a green, so only people walking past would see the board. It's been up for sale for about 3 months now. Unless you use Zoopla, which we never did when looking for our house, you could drive past 50 yards away from the house and not know it's up for sale. It's a probate sale, don't know whether the person selling it isn't very computer savvy, they may not know it's not being widely advertised.

Hi, yes they do use Rightmove, so I’m sure it’s been well viewed. Hence me asking whether I should stick or twist?

Years ago when selling my home with my ex wife the 1st estate agent couldn’t get people through the door, we switched and sold within about three weeks.
Just wondering if I should switch again, I will admit to being so underwhelmed by my current seller 

Slinky

In that case I'd perhaps stick until after the budget, see if it picks up after that, give it til mid November. After that I'd call it a day and start afresh in the new year with a different agent.

Regarding agents clauses and fees etc that your OH didn't like, our selling agent tried to sneak in Sole Selling Rights, under the guise of Sole Agency.  I crossed out all the things I didn't agree with before signing. The agent took it on anyway and sold it.

BikingBud

Slinky said:

In that case I'd perhaps stick until after the budget, see if it picks up after that, give it til mid November. After that I'd call it a day and start afresh in the new year with a different agent.

Regarding agents clauses and fees etc that your OH didn't like, our selling agent tried to sneak in Sole Selling Rights, under the guise of Sole Agency.  I crossed out all the things I didn't agree with before signing. The agent took it on anyway and sold it.

I think if more people did this, after all contracts need to mutually acceptable, complaints about EA might reduce

Wishywashy74

Slinky said:

In that case I'd perhaps stick until after the budget, see if it picks up after that, give it til mid November. After that I'd call it a day and start afresh in the new year with a different agent.

Regarding agents clauses and fees etc that your OH didn't like, our selling agent tried to sneak in Sole Selling Rights, under the guise of Sole Agency.  I crossed out all the things I didn't agree with before signing. The agent took it on anyway and sold it.

Thanks, I was thinking of waiting till the budget is announced and then maybe give them a few weeks then if nothing happens, simply go with someone else.

Miri_J

Have you looked on Right Move / Zoopla for properties that are similar to yours? (Including sold prices) Sometimes EA's will give you inflated prices to get you onboard, but when you look around you find that you are actually selling above what is around you. You may need to have a look yourself and see what you think is available in that price bracket. 

Wishywashy74

Yes I have, tbh I believe it is good value as smaller properties with smaller garages are dotted around the place for not much less. Also the agent themselves said not to drop the price only a couple of weeks ago as it represents good value. 

Just saying what they said.

Bigphil1474

OP, bear in mind the EA has every incentive to sell your house - they don't get paid until it's sold. September through to Christmas is traditionally a quiet period, and add in the looming budget, I can see why things might be slow all round. I think there is also a lull caused by anticipated interest rate cuts. Put that altogether, changing EA's may not result in any improvement.

Generally, if a property is on Rightmove, most potential buyers will be seeing it. Only question on price is if it's just above a cut off e.g. if someone has £475k to spend they might look at properties up to £500k, if yours is up at £520k they'd never see it, and the buyer might never be tempted to stretch their budget up to your asking price. Depends how much of a hurry you are in, but 3 months is probably the time you might want to consider reducing the price, but given the highly anticipated budget, you might as well wait until early November - hopefully the budget will improve the future outlook!