Just how much of a chance do I give my agent?

[Rob.]

Before I start, I am fully aware that the housing market is pretty grim at the moment, but, having had my house on the market since early February and not a single viewing would I be the only one thinking to look at other agents when my tie-in period is up?
I call the agent each week and he tells me how busy they are and how many "hits" my house is having on RightMove (conversion rate has been in the top 3 of there office) and how they can't understand why I have'nt had a viewing when similar properties are and "We are doing our best Mr *******, I just don't know what else we can do?"

Enough is nearly enough. Or am I being a bit hasty?

[Simpo Two]

Rob. said:

he tells me how busy they are and how many "hits" my house is having on RightMove (conversion rate has been in the top 3 of there office) and how they can't understand why I have'nt had a viewing when similar properties are and "We are doing our best Mr *******, I just don't know what else we can do?"

Yes, he's busy hitting F5 'refresh' to get the hits up.

Hits are worth nothing. What you want is one real buyer with money. The last time I sold a house the internet was still a glint in Mr Berner-Lee's eye, but surely you can self-market these day?

[Rob.]

Good point and possibly self-marketing is an avenue I explore. The thing is, if they are sending details of the house out, are they being followed up on? I'm asking this question in the morning and I think I already know the answer.

[scotal]

How good are the pictures?
How good is the description?
Is there anything about the house that would obviously put people off buying it?
How does it compare to houses of similar type pricewise?

How is your local market, is property moving?

If the house has been on for that long with no viewings there si something putting people off..... you need to work out what that is.

[Rob.]

scotal said:

How good are the pictures?

Plenty of them and of good quality.

scotal said:

How good is the description?

Includes everything and more you'd expect.

scotal said:

Is there anything about the house that would obviously put people off buying it?

Well, it is 80% ownership and I think that could be it.

scotal said:

How does it compare to houses of similar type pricewise?

For what it is where it is very well priced - it's in one of the Melton Mowbray villages and they remain desirable.

scotal said:

How is your local market, is property moving?

Appears to be - and I'm not basing that on information given by my Estate Agent.

[scotal]

Rob. said:

scotal said:

Is there anything about the house that would obviously put people off buying it?

Well, it is 80% ownership and I think that could be it.

You own 80%? HA owns the rest? I guess that might put some off, can the buyer purchase the remainder at the same time? If so have you looked inoto how they would do this, and how much it would cost?

[Rob.]

Yep, HA own the other 20% which I pay monthly rent on. I don't think you can buy anymore than 80% though. I'm going to call the HA I think and ask what, if any support they can offer.

Seemed like such a good idea for me 3 years ago!

I'm not leaving this on for long for obvious reasons but here it is:

ETA and then remove linky

Edited by Rob. on Friday 24th April 20:35

Edited by Rob. on Friday 24th April 20:52

[scotal]

Rob. said:

Yep, HA own the other 20% which I pay monthly rent on. I don't think you can buy anymore than 80% though. I'm going to call the HA I think and ask what, if any support they can offer.

Seemed like such a good idea for me 3 years ago!

Strange scheme I thought you could staircase most of them to 100% ownership, and if you are right then i can see how that would put people off 9sorry)
As you're speaking to the HA anyway, maybe a question about them finding you a buyer would be in order, they might offer that service (if your HA has a website they might lay it all out on there for you.)

Looked at the pictures, not bad. The 2 parking spaces should help. Hope you dont mind the criticism, but the kitchen and bathroom both look a bit dated.
That spells large cost and work to most people.
Also whilst i personally like your grassless garden (horrible overrated green stuff) a few people aren't going to like it.

Just to put the boot into the agent, they've left the door off the 2 bedrooms on the floorplan..... I'm sure they come off the landing, but not everyone is going to see it that way.

Edited by scotal on Friday 24th April 20:42

ETFA. You have an offers over price. Have you always had that? personally i don't like them, you'd be better off having a target price and being prepared to negotiate down from there. It makes people think they have done a deal.

Edited by scotal on Friday 24th April 20:47

[Rob.]

Scotal, thanks for your comment and opinion - it's why I posted the link to be honest. House was showing at £104,950 but agent and I decided on the the "offers in excess of". Yes, kitchen and bathroom are dated and originally I did'nt have pictures of them but decided to include in the end.

[scotal]

No prob, I think you need to get chapter and verse from the HA about what you can and can't do, and whether you can sell through them.

[Rob.]

I'm going to grill my so called 'housing officer' and see exactly what they can do - even see if they will buy 30% off me and make it a 50% buy (cloud cuckoo on my part springs to mind). If not am going to ask for some sort of advice/assitance because they have an interest in the property aswell.

[scotal]

Best of luck. Keep us posted, if only to satisfy my noseyness.

[breamster]

Hi,

A few thoughts aside from the HA issue;

1) Are your house details in the window?
2) Are the house details in the local property papers?
3) Are the photos any good? Someone else has mentioned this. If not, take your own on a nice sunny day and give them to him?
4) Is the description any good? i.e draw attention to good bits and leave not so good bits to the end.
5) Are the details on RightMove?
6) Get a friend to call and pretend to be looking for a house - see how well the estate agent pushes your house.

I've had grief in the past with EAs and usually getting a little pushy (politely!) helps. You should aim to get all of the above otherwise what are they doing for their comission?

If you don't get most of the above tell them they got 4 weeks to show some progress and give them notice.

Houses are selling albeit slowly. Good luck!!

[bazking69]

Houses are selling. As long as they are realistically priced.
You can either wait and see what happens, or if you are in any sort of a rush to sell accept that you will have to take less. £99,950 looks much more appealing than OIEO £104,950

[Rob.]

breamster said:

1) Are your house details in the window?

Yes, and have seen this for myself.

breamster said:

2) Are the house details in the local property papers?

Not every week but has been twice in the last 10 weeks.

breamster said:

3) Are the photos any good? Someone else has mentioned this. If not, take your own on a nice sunny day and give them to him?

Had the front redone as it did'nt look bright enough, had some more internals done at the same time.

breamster said:

4) Is the description any good? i.e draw attention to good bits and leave not so good bits to the end.

I feel it is - comprehensive and informative.

breamster said:

5) Are the details on RightMove?

Rightmove and other websites.

breamster said:

6) Get a friend to call and pretend to be looking for a house - see how well the estate agent pushes your house.

Great idea - will be trying this one.

breamster said:

I've had grief in the past with EAs and usually getting a little pushy (politely!)

That's what I'll be doing later today along with telling them if things don't change I'm serving notice.

Thanks for the help and welcome to PH.

[davidjpowell]

Once a propety starts sticking with an agent its time to move. I (from the agents end) always saw that the property that does not sell quickly is destined to stagnate - I would have to ask (cyncialy) was this the agent who gave you the highest valuation?

I think its just that purchasers get used to seing the property for sale and either filter it out or assume that there is something wrong with it.

Just change agents and give someones else ago. If the notice period is an issue either wait or see if the new agent has the relationship to negotiate a reduced joint agency for the notice period.

[Rob.]

This agent did not value my property the highest - the agent that did thought if worth another £5k - I thought that made it look expensive. I chose the agent because of how good they were when I bought the property through them.

[davidjpowell]

ok - but if your property is sticking - then you need to do something, and in my experience it is either dropping the price or changing the agent that works..

[Highway Star]

Has your agent given you any feedback on people he's spoken to about your property? What have the people on their mailing list who are looking in the price range said? Has he even called them? How many people have they got on their lists?

Calling him once a week to see if there are any viewings isn't enough, EAs try and hide behind Rightmove clickthroughs and that sort of flannel. You need to work them hard and ask searching questions.

ETA - I also don't like the OIEO approach, as a recent buyer (and seller, we exchanged today!), people very much have the attitude of "I will decide what level of offer to make" at the moment.

Edited by Highway Star on Monday 27th April 17:26

[Rob.]

Well, spoke to the agent today and told him of my intentions. Spoke to one of the major estate agents who sound like a uk city aswell to see what they could offer if they were to market the property. All sounded good - wanting to sell the house at £10k less than it is currently on for is a worry though.