House going back on the market after a break. New EA, old EA or both?

[Cookiedoughforbreakfast]

Hi,

Bit of background, our house was initially on the market early summer, last year. We had a decent amount of viewings, but probably less than we were hoping for. Had a couple of offers. One fell through very quickly, another was just too low. We came off just before Christmas.

We have made a few improvements and now believe it is slightly more desirable, but also, it looks like the market has picked up a bit and is in better shape than expected, so we think giving it another go is a worth while idea. God knows where we'll be next year! Recession probably.

Anyway, our old EA were a bit hit and miss tbh. Their original photos were bad and they went live with them before showing them to me, even though I made it clear I wanted to view everything first. They also overvalued, I think and I suspect this was tactical, knowing we'd likely reduce quite quickly, but have to pay a percentage of our original listing price. They are a very well known EA in our area though and do have a better reputation than most. If we didn't go with them, I'd worry about viewing houses with them, in the sense that they might be bitter and so wouldn't be very enthusiastic with our interest and might favour other potential buyers. Perhaps that's me being extra paranoid.

People keep telling me, new agent, fresh interest, but everyone's on Rightmove now and nobody really has loyalty to a specific EA do they? You just view a house you like the look of, no?

Other option is, we use our old EA and a new one, but I've been told this can look desperate. I have to say, as a buyer, this doesn't bother me and it wouldn't send alarm bells ringing, but maybe I'm in the minority.

We'd actually decided to wait until next year, but as I say, the market's looking ok right now, plus we want to extend our family and can't really do it where we are.

Would really appreciate your thoughts please!

TIA

Just giving this a bump

I’d go with a new agent and choose one with excellent local knowledge. Those nationwide agents, with branches on every high street are not as good as the smaller local ones in my opinion.

We tried three before our house sold. The two large chain ones were dreadful. The smaller local one worked very hard for us.

Thanks for your reply, Foxy

They're not nationwide, but do have several branches in our county.

The only small, local agents I know of, don't have the best reputation.

I'd go with an agent who does good photos. Some just use their own camera phone and others actually have professional photographers to do it. It's not always the most expensive ones either, who do that.

Also, I think going with more than one agent looks desperate. Everyone can find you on Right Move anyway.

More than one agent looks weird in the world of rightmove. Especially if one takes much better photos than the other.
You end up wondering if the worse photos are more representative of the house.

Tripped, this agent actually boasted about taking professional photos as standard and I used to notice, before we went on with them, that they took better photos than most. As soon as we signed up though, they seemed to become very amateurish. They did lose a few staff members though.

Glittery, hmm good point.

Make sure you’re not still contracted to old EA in some way. Don’t you usually sign a contract that says if you sell within x months of listing, with them or not, they get the commission?

woman, I think that's only if it's a buyer who they showed round first.

I think we're going to get a few others round to see what they offer, what their selling style is etc. I have a couple in mind.

Just not sure I'm ready to jump back in It's so stressful!

I'd go for an agent that's very active locally, whose photos and floor plans are very good (some aren't), whose blurbs aren't littered with SPAG errors - IMO a sign of a careless/sloppy attitude. And whose listings on RM/Zoopla include plenty of 'under offers'.

I'm not sure it's a good idea to,list with two. They're probably less likely to make the same effort, and it can smack of 'desperate'.

Of course, realistic rather than optimistic pricing will always be a key factor. Personally, if you really want to sell, I'd ask the EA for a realistic valuation, not what he thinks you want to hear. Which is all too often what they give, just to get you on board.

I definitely agree with the realistic pricing. Also sympathy to OP hesitating about jumping into it all again after such a bad time before. It is indeed very stressful and even though you know what to expect and try and keep calm, it gets to most people by the end whatever. Speaking as someone currently on the market but also has moved a lot of times recently. It should get easier, but it doesn't!

GETTING, tbh, our last EA probably are the most active, locally. They do have a good reputation overall, but looking back, they could have done more and once they realised we were considering coming off the market, their communication fell off and they become quite rude and snappy.

Tripped, thanks for the sympathy I do know people who have just stuck their house on the market, sold it, bought another one, no issues and it's all done and dusted within a few months, so initially, we were very naive and assumed we'd be one of those. Oh, how wrong we were

@cookiedoughforbreakfast we are on our 4th move in 4 years at the moment so feel I've served my time, but it's still a horrible business. I've always found that you can so quickly fall out with your buyers/vendors in the process, even though they might seem lovely reasonable people to start with. I'm hoping for a lovely smooth move this time, but already very wound up about it.

Bloody hell, Tripped 😨 4 in 4 years?! Exactly what percentage of your sanity remains?....

I know, Cookie, I know! Just mental. Downsized, then rental waiting for new build, then move to be closer to family, then move again because DH hates it here! So back to square one, with load of money spent on the whole deal. Hoping the next move will be the 'one'!

Wow. Well I really hope this one goes smoothly for you 🤞

My DM and DF think we should sit tight this year, but I think the brexit (sorry) extension date may have encouraged people to take the plunge, possibly while they can. I've certainly noticed a lot more sold signs recently.

We have considered purple bricks, but the reviews seem a bit and miss. Anyone have any experience with them?

We bought our current house through Purple Bricks and they were next to useless when it came to helping all the other EAs and solicitors get the chain working. We had a chain of 5 people and the PB lot were definitely the weak link in it. My own EA was wonderful and earned every penny I paid her, I'd say!

Cookie, thank you for your good wishes! Sorry you mentioned the B word, though...

Ah, ok. Thanks for the heads up, Tripped.

Yes. Twice now. Sorry 🙈🙉🙊

Just to make it even more difficult op, we sold through the agent who valued ours best. Compared us to next door, and told us to go in slightly under. It worked. Another wanted to market very low, do another reasonably high.
The same agent we sold with was the agent oh sold his house with just after we met. They were horrid and tried to overcharge for something outlandish.
You never can tell

It was over ten years apart though, just to add. Reputations stick sometimes

So I have booked in a couple valuations for this week, so we'll see.

Something which I really didn't like about our old EA was how they treated their Saturday viewings. They used weekend staff who literally just had a key to your house and the particulars. Actually, sometimes not even those! The woman they used was always very scruffy and would often come along without the particulars and slag off other houses so it made you wonder what she said about ours.

The thing is, Saturday viewings are always going to be the most popular, because most people work in the week, so on the weekends they need to make sure they have a good representative, who knows the house, the area and perhaps doesn't turn up in a pair of joggers

Cookie, that's terrible that the EA used a scruffy person to show someone round the houses, but worse that she was indiscreet about other clients' houses. I do think some EAs love to gossip about their clients as it's a quick way of bonding with people, so I try to be careful in what I tell ours - lovely as they are. All the viewings seem such an invasion of privacy anyway with people nosing around parts of the house that aren't usually open to public viewing!

The one who sold our house and worked very hard with a purchaser who was awkward, saw through the process himself. He familiarised himself with our house, did the viewings and was able to answer questions accurately.

The useless ones had different people doing viewings and another different one at weekends, didn’t communicate with one another, let alone us and whose blurb and photos wasn’t good.

Our EA so far has been really good - there has been two of them who have done viewings but they now know our house really well, I think. They are both very professional but friendly with people as well. When I showed people round recently I really struggled to not be too friendly (desperate) as it's such an awkward (desperate) situation.