Should I change my estate agent?

[jezzyjj 10]

Getting fustrated I have had another agent round (Haybrooks) They want to charge nearly £3000, the difference is, they advertise in the Property Guide, accompany viewers and 'have several buyers wanting to view on their mailing list' They also have a branch at Crystal Peaks (near me). They want to put my house with a guide price of between lower and £10k higher.

 

 

Do I stay with my current agent and give it longer? Do I pay over £2k more and go with Haybrooks?????? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Don't bother with that as Haybrooks in our experience were awful. They took 3-4 weeks to get back to enquiries we made about properties when we were buying

Choice of Estate agents have a lot less to do with no. of viewings in this internet age and with fantastically useful sites like Right Move which mean you find a house first and then see which estate agent is selling it.

What does make the difference when attracting viewerers is your décor, your presentation [declutter and clean]and good photos which estate agents certainly are rarely capable of. Their websites are usually painful to use too. I've seen houses for sale whilst looking around area and then not been able to find it on agent's website. Found them instead on RightMove.

[gloriagrace 10]

The house is always spotless I spend all day cleaning and decluttering, thats another reason its so sole destroying when it all comes to nothing!

 

The only feed back we get is the house is too small! Do buyers not look at the dimensions?

 

Think Ill give Haybrooks a wide birth from what Im reading on here. They told me only 50% of sales comes from internet the rest from sales staff and property guide.

 

6 months is to me long time in a desirable area!

[jomarch 12]

Hi Gloria- sorry to hear of your experiences but take heart- my house finally sold after a year on the market and I got a good price.

I know people don't always want to hear this but I think the traditional estate agents are not value for money.

I took a risk and went with Move and Save simply because you pay an upfront fee and they get your property on Rightmove promptly. I paid around £500 for the web-site, photographs and a board outside. You do have to pay the energy assessment on top, and there are some extras you can choose in addition but I found them to be patient with my enquiries and sensible with their advice. You handle viewings yourself and control the marketing decisions- but I liked this side of things.

I doubt that I would have had more viewers if I had chosen a high street agent and I did get an offer after three months. However, this sale fell through due to a collapse in the chain lower down. I then made a decision to rent it out, but just when I had found a tenant someone else came along with a good offer quite out of the blue. I didn't take the viewing seriously as I thought the house would be too small for them- but by this time there weren't any other properties around for the price.

Although the sale wasn't without its hitches it finally went through two weeks ago.

I also used Move n Save conveyancers who were excellent and also great value for money.

That's my experience- the right buyers came along at just the right time- I hope the same happens for you.

[jm79 10]

I too have huge sympathy for you Gloria - and like yourself, we have been through it all. Our house was initially up for sale back in May 2011 and its taken us nearly 2 years to sell (just awaiting exchange of contracts any day now).

 

In this time, we've changed estate agents 3 times - starting with Move & Save; then to Express Estate Agency; then back to Move & Save; then to Hunters!

 

I think the main thing was to get on Rightmove so the internet based EA seemed the best option at the time (to save money). A quick sale nearly happened but we encountered a time waster buyer that pulled out on us very late on. Since then (late 2011), we tried to freshen things up by changing to Express, but they were useless! So went back to M&S. After a year of very little productive activity, we decided to move to Hunters as they seemed to be selling a lot of similar properties on our road...and, touch wood, it looks like they have done it with ours too after 3 months.

 

Hang in there, its a horrible time having numerous viewings with no offers, and some of the feedback you can get is ridiculous! As you say, some people don't read the descriptions which wastes your time and theirs! But soon enough, the right buyer will come along.

Edited March 5, 2013 by jm79

[Jeffrey Shaw 90]

One more way to sell is via auction.

Although the price achieved might be a little lower, at least the hammer's fall means that a binding contract arises: no messing.