Been on the market 3 weeks, 6 viewings, no offers...

PasturesNew

Or buy a do-er upper http://www.green-acres.com/en/properties/5702a-sou1200.htm £75k

£41,000 - with swimming pool!
http://www.green-acres.com/en/properties/2621a-55549.htm

That site is very tempting. Could live like a hermit out there for years. Wearing only a tin hat and foraging for your own food in the bushes.

neverdespairgirl

lisahobden wrote: »

What can I do to make my house more appealing and clinch a sale?? I have cleaned, decluttered, lit candles, etc etc...

Hi Lisa,

I had a look at your link on rightmove, and it's a nice house, well presented.

I do think your agent should pick his measuring systems and stick to them - it's odd having most of the rooms in feet and inches and a couple in metres. Very hard to get an idea overall, don't you think? The list of rooms is a bit odd as well, as it says bed 1, bed 2, bed 3, bed 5. What happened to bed 4? And the place in the description says 3 beds, but the room measurements list 4. I think you need to get your agent to sort the description out.

The kichen / breakfast room looks lovely, and must be a selling point. I agree wiht other posters that the 4th picture makes the living room look a bit gloomy, it's badly taken.

stamford

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Hi Lisa,



I do think your agent should pick his measuring systems and stick to them - it's odd having most of the rooms in feet and inches and a couple in metres. Very hard to get an idea overall, don't you think? The list of rooms is a bit odd as well, as it says bed 1, bed 2, bed 3, bed 5. What happened to bed 4? And the place in the description says 3 beds, but the room measurements list 4. I think you need to get your agent to sort the description out.

.

The Agent is obviously a total shyster

PasturesNew

I think the role of Estate Agent is another one that is suffering from the way things are done these days.

Increasingly nowadays staff are required to undertake every aspect of a job. The reality is we expect people to be specialists in their field, yet their bosses expect them to be what they call 'flexible'.

EAs have to:
- convince you to use them as an agent
- do the sales pitch/get the contract signed
- convince buyers to view your house
- convince buyers your house is worth £X and tip them over the edge into making an offer
- to take photos
- to measure up the rooms
- to describe the property
- to produce the documentation
- to answer the phones
- to make appointments, keep appointments
- to keep the flow of information flowing in all directions
- to rescue chains that are about to fall apart
- managing multiple clients at various stages of offer
- keep the details of all properties in their heads and know their buyers/sellers so they say the right things to the right people to achieve a sale
- putting together the advertising in newspapers
- deciding the overall marketing strategy of their branch
- preparing the offer letters and sending them out

That is a lot of juggling and really many separate skillsets probably.

1] Sales person/general smarmy git
2] Accurate details taker, good diary management, good contact management skills (rigid use of software perhaps)
3] Admin skills for timely production of paperwork
4] Photography skills for the details
5] Writing skills for the details
6] Marketing skills for flyers, postcards, newspaper adverts etc

In an ideal world, there would be a couple of people back at the office just dealing with admin/taking calls/producing letters/managing the diary.

EAs could do what they're there for: to create the turnover by closing deals and keeping them closed.

Other skills could come from training the existing staff with short courses, or outsourcing locally.

Meanwhile, back at the real world, with only 2-3 staff managing the whole business, they cut corners. In the rising market of the last 10 years to sell a house all they've had to do is measure the rooms, take a few photos, scribble down some words about it, pick a bunch of houses to stick in the paper and wait for the phone to ring.

Today's market needs them to work a bit differently if they want to try to stay ahead of competitors.

mariejader

have you sold yet?