To sack my estate agent??

[purplezebracaun]

House has been on the market for nine weeks and not one single solitary viewing...

Every time I ask what's going on i get ohh there's been lots of interest, some people are on holiday but want to view it when they get back but since it's been for sale I've had 5 instances of the following:-

EA: "Someone wants to view your house TOMORROW is it too short notice or is that ok?"
ME: That's fine, what time (so i can be out of the house/tidy up)
EA " I didn't tell them a time as i wanted to check with you first"
ME: "Ok, any time is fine with me..."

Radio silence for an hour

ME: "so what time tomorrow?"
EA: "Oh i can't get hold of them now, they aren't answering"

This has happened five times, each time these people won't answer the phone when the EA rings them back

Do these people really exist? Is this normal? I've never sold a house before so i don't know if there are a lot of people that ring up to arrange a viewing and then don't actually want to view it when it comes down to it.

Are these all delaying tactics to make it look like they are actually trying to sell my house?

Or is it just that these people are ringing up and the EA isn't picking up the message for hours/days later? They are an online agent (not PB!) so they don't actually have a shop its all done via email/mobile

AIBU to send them an email saying you've had 9 weeks, you failed - i'm going elsewhere or should I just suck it up given the slow market at the moment?

Sack the estate agent. That's very poor!

You should definitely at least speak to a competitor.

Have you asked a friend to do a dummy booking, see how it is handled?

You'll need to check the contract you agreed to as to how you can end your contract with them.

My experience of estate agents is shocking. I ended up selling without one and saved £5000. All you need is your house on Rightmove and Zoopla and a good solicitor.

We used a high street agent and they would always confirm our availability for viewings before comitting us to them....but i think your agent sounds a bit crap. What are the terms of your agreement, i think we had 6 months of sole agent advertising.

Whether you stick with this EA or not, my preference would be to say:

"I will take any viewings given 12h notice, with the exception of (times/dates you absolutely can't do).

Please take any viewing requested and let me know ASAP."

You can always add dates or times you can't do. If you subsequently have to cancel a booking they've done, the onus is then on them to deliver the message to the viewer, not hound the viewer for a time.

When I was viewing, I made the appointment there and then in every call.

@thecatsthecats

yep, i told them i can do any day/time as long as i had at least a couple of hours notice and if i was going away or anything like that i would let them know - so either they don't listen or its a delaying tactic.

@Ilikewinter I'm pretty sure the contract said 12 weeks although they have never given me a copy!

Can you just sack an estate agent? Also considering it but $300 get out Clause puts me off.

All sounds very odd.

Unless the market in your area is super dead I’d suggest it’s priced too high and the EAs are bullshitting you about potential viewings.

Yes, do. I didn't think it made much difference until I sold my first place. First agent took crap photos, set the price in a way the encouraged low offers, promised loads of viewers (when the market was very busy) and got only one very low offer, which we turned down.

Next agent took much better pics, got a dozen viewers on an open day and 5 really high offers. I remember some people telling me we should have accepted the first offer, but in the end we got nearly £30k more than that one with the new agent.

Our estate agent usually called saying we have someone wanting to view and we agreed 7pm tomorrow. Is that ok?

9 weeks is outrageous. I used an online agent and they were super efficient ( till they went bust! Tepilo ). I would e expecting most viewings in the first one to two weeks.
Check out your advert on Rightmove and make sure it presents your house in a favourable light.
Ivwoukd definitely consider sacking estate agent. Sounds awful

Definitely check your contract. You'll probably have to wait until you are out of the sole agent period

Estate agents are sometimes the most useless people on the planet.

Trying to see a house this weekend, I’ve had 4 phone calls about it, and every time they are saying they will try to arrange it.... why have we spoken four times about one viewing? I’ve cancelled viewings because some of them feel the need to check with the vender then check with me and then check with the vender again and then check with their boss and then check with sally from down the road to see if it’s all okay.

It can’t be too difficult surely?

@Moomooboo yeah that's what i was afraid of - i don't want them to keep ringing me and checking a time I just want to book the buyers in, if it's not convenient then I will try to work around it and if its really really not convenient then they can ring them back but ffs don't keep them hanging, they are more likely to walk away - which is what i suspect has happened.

The first weekend my house went up for sale the viewings on rightmove were through the roof and where were my estate agents?! Gone away for the weekend! and the weekend after that!

Since then the viewings have been pretty much zero on RM