If I ring and shout at my estate agent

[Idontneedanotherhero]

Our house has been on the market for 4 weeks today, and in that time, not only have I had no viewers, but I haven't heard a peep from the agent. Not one phone call or email. It is up on right move and zoopla but that's it....not sure whether this is normal?

sorry, just seen you set the price.

yes, the 'sold prices' tab on Zoopla and rightmove shows the purchase history of the house from 1995.

Our agent discussed with us a realistic price and got viewers lined up very quickly every time a sale fell through. This was after the first agent let us down by basically doing sod all after the first offer fell through. so I would be looking to chase your agent, discuss the tactic and make sure they work for you.
At the end of the day, you might have to pay them £000s so you don't want to be paying it for nothing!

The Halifax still values it at what I paid for it, and zoopla values it at what it's listed for. I don't think I'm being unreasonable! I saw all the big agents who valued it higher, I'm not so much of an idiot that I didn't smell a rat there, so I went with a one man band who I liked, clearly I have made some sort of error!

Phone him for a chat, maybe see if he can arrange an open house viewing or something. Does he have it in his window and in the paper?

Just checked some property near me and Zoopla estimates are approximately £10k over the actual current selling prices.

Please think of your pricing now as waiting 8 weeks to reduce will make it stale on the market. Forget what you paid for it, its what someone will buy thats what it is worth. Likewise in our area loads over priced but they dont sell. I know of two that have been on the market for 1 year plus in my area..

Thanks all :)

i think it depends where you live in the country, and even which part of a twon you live in. I live in an area where prices are high (SE England) and in our town they are very high. In this area prices have increased by almost a third and houses go for far more than asking price and often go to sealed bids. However, if its not like that where you live, you need to cut your cloth accordingly. EA know their market, so if you have picked one with a branch near you - so they understand the immediate local area, then you really should go with what they say. Personally I would call them, go into branch and ask them why they think you havent had any viewings. It also depends on your price bracket and size of house. if you have a 7 bed £2million house for sale then 4 weeks isnt unreasonable. If you have a reasonably priced 3-4 bed ina commuter area then there is something wrong with the agent or the listing. Go and speak to them and tell them you arent happy and ask for their advice. Your going to pay them when it sells so you just as well get value for money and ask their advice.

Having just gone through the house buying process myself I have observed that the days of agents having buyers "on their books" and following up with them are gone. Agents would barely give us the time of day if we asked them to look out for stuff for us and we had a very healthy budget. It was very much a case of signing up to Rightmove and getting their automatic updates, then calling the agents and asking to view a specific property.

I'd also say that we didn't bother at all with estate agents' windows - it was always out of date and just stuff we'd aleady seen online.

Have you checked to make sure that the extra 5k isn't putting you just outside some people's RightMove search criteria?

Also, you MUST have a floorplan. We just discounted anything without one.

It isn't in their interests to not sell the property - so from what you have said, I expect that it is over priced

I suggest that you have a professional conversation with them about it. Have you thought about having an open day to generate interest?

Don't forget people are turning to Christmas now, if it's a scale up house rather than first time buyers house people don't want all the viewings and stress over Christmas.

Sadly, Idontneed, I think agents do over price, in order to get you to list with them, so I don't think you can put too much credence on the quote from the Halifax.

You need to look at similar properties on the market now, and recently sold, in your area, and see what they are selling for/sold for, and then see how your house price matches up - and decide, based on that, what is a realistic price for your house.

Unfortunately people aren't going to pay over the odds for your house, just so you don't lose money. And you have to get people in through the door, if you are going to sell - and you will struggle to get viewers if your house is perceived as too expensive.

Okay, I know a bit about Estate Agency, I've never been one, but I worked for one of the biggest ones in the Senior Management side of things at Head Office.

It is a terrible time of year to go on the market in terms of getting viewers - only really serious buyers will be out looking for a new house this close to Christmas. The average house sale is a 13 week type affair from listing to exchange so you have Christmas bang in the middle of that where literally nothing happens. So its people who have been gazumped and have their chain in place who are currently looking for a house seriously, and not much else. The vast majority of people who are thinking of putting their house on the market to then look for one to buy will do so after the new year, sometime in late January and then in the Spring. Things always pick up in the spring. If your house is an "ideal first time buyer" house then this is slightly less of an issue - but if its something that would be somewhere in the middle of a chain then its possible nothing much would happen regardless of price, unless its an absolute steal and you don't necessarily want to be selling for a steal.

That said, your Estate Agent should have a list of "hot buyers", which are people looking for your exact type of property and location in a position to proceed. It might be that they don't have any, due to the time of year, due to being shit at marketing, or due to your house being less popular in terms of location/size etc. If they have done as they should and alerted your their hot buyers and have not had any interest, they should have at least communicated this fact to you.

One thing you can do is get your local friend to either ring them or drop in to the branch, saying that they are looking for a house that vaguely matches the description of your house (in terms of size/area and price, give or take a little). If the Estate Agent does not give them the property particulars of your house, they are not doing their job. It can be tricky to ask a friend to do this, as a good Estate Agent will want to take their details (name, address, email address etc) and probably start asking slightly awkward questions about whether they are on the market yet and that can be uncomfortable for some people so you might want to choose a more outgoing friend who is good at bullshitting if you do that. Its a bit of a pain but it would give you a clear idea of whether they are being proactive in marketing your property.

Good luck - things will pick up in the Spring, trust me.

I agree that a buyer really won't give a shit what you paid for it, or how much of a loss you are making, sorry.

If it's overpriced for whatever reasons, it's overpriced - check what else is on the market for the same price, not just what similar houses are going for. our neighbours house struggled to sell because there were bigger properties on sale for a similar price - it could be that those houses were going for a bit of a low price for a quick sale, but it made theirs look pokey. When they dropped the price, it put it in the bracket of similar properties, and looked the best for that price.

Put your self in the buyers position. If you're selling a three bed in X area then search for that and see where yours comes up. You don't want to be most expensive or least expensive. And if there's ones the sand price see if they're bigger or smaller or have things you don't have.
Of course it could be that everything's slow where you are right now. Your EA should be able to say if that's the case.

Ask a friend to call them and ask about any houses of "your house type". And then see, does the agent recommend they view yours? If not why not?

Tatty if your estate agent doesn't respond to your email questions despite you requesting them to answer, should you take your business elsewhere if possible?

Yes Dangly, ideally. But it is difficult with Agency Agreements because they tie you in to a certain period of time, and this is a contract regardless of whether or not they are doing a shit job. If you list with someone else and they sell for you, the original agency can pursue you for a fee even though they did nothing and lost your business because they were shit. This is where word of mouth is very important.

It sort of goes both ways though - whilst it is really awful that an agency can tie you in (with your consent - you sign the contract!) and then do nothing - its just as common for an Agency to do plenty, sell your house within a week, followed by a fuss free exchange and completion only to find the buyer doesn't want to pay the fee because the agency "did nothing" (because it all seemed so easy) - when in fact they did exactly what you asked them to do which is sell your house.

It is of course hard to know how much an agent has or hasn't done though if they don't COMMUNICATE with you. And it is possibly the reason why so many EA's have bad reputations and as a profession are so despised!

And a step on from museumum - put yourself in the position of having a budget that would mean they could buy your house for the asking price. Search for properties in that price, is yours the best? or if you are a little overpriced, is yours therefore the smallest/worst location of all the houses for sale at your price.

Ah yes I see what you mean Tatty.

I, for one, am results focussed and if an agent sold my property in a super fast time-frame I would be paying up and sending 'thank you' letters but I do appreciate not everyone is the same.

I agree that old 'communication' thingy is the key to happiness in all business relationships!

I'd reduce the price in the hope of getting a buyer before everything goes quiet for Christmas in a few weeks.

Try getting a friend to ring and express interest in properties similar to yours. See how enthusiastic they are. To be honest, this is a v quiet time of year, but regular updates should be given about when they're trying etc.

FWIW we have found twice (have moved a lot) that if you pitch the price right you will get an asking price offer within a few weeks. Pitch it 3k too high and it will put people off even looking. Also think carefully about search parameters if you are near a key borderline- e.g price at just under 200k rather than just over, as people often tailor the searches on property sites exactly to the top of their budget, so won't even look just over the 'borderline' even if you might have considered a slightly lower offer under the right circs. Good luck

Scarlets this would be a good strategy in late August/early September in order to try to exchange/complete around Christmas or just after. We are already in that things go quiet stage. And things will indeed go quiet and halt to an excruciatingly slow level over the festive season. She'd be almost better of to give herself some breathing space over Xmas (who wants potential buyers traipsing through on the lead up? Nobody, which is why there are starting to be none - its not just those potentially viewing, because those potentially viewing will ALSO have buyers traipsing through their gaffe unless they are first time buyers). Hence it all grinds to a halt towards the end of October.

I think the thing to remember with Estate Agents is the biggest thing you are paying for is a "shop front". It is where people will flock when they are looking to buy a house. This might sound obvious, but there is no law against putting up your own For Sale board and waiting for footfall outside your house to deliver you a willing buyer. This seldom happens, so you really should expect for the "footfall" to be interested within a reasonable amount of time, and if they are not, something is wrong. Time of year is one - this really is the absolute worst time of year. One thing is for certain though, if you get a viewing, they are serious about potentially buying your property - in the Spring you might attract all kinds of time wasters. Which is all good, really, though it is a faff. Price is often a factor - but for this tiny 6 weeks of the year, if price is something that is important to you, more important than swiftness or timing, it is well worth biding your time - it can make a £50k difference or more (depending of course on what type of property we are selling here granted)

A priorities/cost benefit analysis might be needed for you to decide how to proceed. Your agency might just surprise you come mid January when you are ready to dump them - that said, it does sound as if their communication is not top notch and for that they should give themselves a ticking off. Managing expectations is worthwhile at this time of year, particularly if the vendor has stipulated a price.

And there is nothing wrong with doing so - if you are willing to take what you get in terms of interest. Its a bit like a Bridezilla thread - of course you can stipulate no children at a wedding, but don't expect everyone to come...