Getting the very best out of your estate agent

[IAmRubyLennox]

Can anyone give me any great advice about how to get the very best out of my relationship with my estate agent?

I don't want to be a PITA, but at the same time, I've seen houses I want to buy and I can't until I've shifted this one.

To be fair, we only put ours on the market a week ago and absolutely everything he's done so far has been timely and efficient, we just have had no interest whatsoever.

(I admit that I am the world's worst instant gratificationist)

Any tips on how to play it?

greggssausageroll or anyone else who's an EA, what makes a good vendor / bad vendor?

Is your price your agent's suggestion or yours? Or perhaps a compromise between the two?

Are you happy with the photos?

Don't expect too much after a week - people are busy over Easter, interest should pick up soon.
Always chase up feedback after any visit ( a decent EA should be contacting you anyway).

The price is the agent's suggestion, but it's exactly what we thought was a reasonable asking price for it, and it seems to be comparable to other houses within the area.

The photos are nice - there's more of the garden than I would have bothered with myself, we have a lovely garden but as a buyer I'm always slightly more interested in what the house looks like.

I know the market isn't great and it needs time, plus the EA showed me some figures of how many properties they've sold in the last few months, and whether they were sold at +/- the asking price, and it all looked encouraging. I just want to get on with it!

I think accepting the agent's price suggestion is the most important part of getting the most out of your estate agent. He clearly thinks your lovely garden is in demand, I'd trust him on that.

Easter is a busy time. If it's a family house, perhaps not much will happen until the children go back to school.

Good luck.

PS Where is your house?

it's in Swindon, in Wiltshire.

You're probably right about people doing more serious looking after the Easter break, everyone I know seems to be on holiday this week.

I posted a thread here 2 weeks ago about feedback (or lack of) and some were saying that a good agent would provide this after every viewing but we came to the conclusion that some viewers' feelings were just too vague (as in "erm, it's just not for us") to be worth giving feedback. It helps but if it's positive, ie a second viewing or an offer, they will let you know.

I would say that if you have children, try to be as flexible with viewings as possible. When I was first asked about a 7pm viewing, I thought it was way too late and encroached on my children's bath/bedtime but I found a way around this with the realisation that some buyers work out of the home during the day even if I don't.

Good luck!

A good relationship with your EA is always preferable....as long as you trust that your EA is doing a good job of course! It's sometimes difficult to judge though. Give your EA a good few weeks. A good EA should be in regular contact with you but don't be afraid to contact them for updates.

Having worked for an EA, a good vendor is a patient one (but I have been in your position too!).....realistic and accepting if a price reduction is necessary...and as flexible as is possible with regard to viewings. Certainly the EA I worked for would feed back to the client after every viewing. Ask how the sales staff are trying to generate interest in your property. A good agent won't mind you being keen to monitor progress. If they are doing a good job, they'll have no reason to not oblige.

Hello. I am an estate agent in Scotland where we have Home reports making the asking price a different subject to England.

School holidays will always be quiet. Most parents will not want to view any property with children in tow. Wait until they are back at school and things might pick up.

Your agent should always give you feedback after viewings. Assuming the viewer takes the call or returns the agents call. A lot don't but your agent should be honest and tell you that. I only call a viewer twice. If they don't call me back with feedback I tell my client that because at the end of the day they are clearly not interested and people hate being hounded. I know I do.

Don't be worried if things don't happen immediately. The market is very depressed. It might not be your agent that is at fault. I have property on with me at over half a million. People are reluctant to spend that sort of cash in fear of redundancy etc half a million is a huge amount in rural Perthshire where property is not as buoyant as London for example. The bottom end of the market is sticking too because first time buyers can't get mortgages and require massive deposits.

Are you on right move? Pm me the link if you want me to look at it for you but I am us it will be fine. Do you have a floor plan? Can you may be do an open viewing after the easter holidays?

gregs - have PM'd you with the link.

Thanks very much all of you, your thoughts are very helpful.

Remember that you don't necessarily want to be a 'good seller' from the EA's point of view, and you might need to bug them more than they'd prefer!

You should expect at least weekly feedback with as much info as they have, such as numbers of paper details given out for your property, the Rightmove stats, any potential viewers, feedback from viewings, feedback from people who they have talked to about the house (which might include reasons why they don't want to view), etc.

Ask them for this info if you're not getting it, and show them that you are not a 'sit back and wait' kind of seller.

The squeaky wheel gets the oil.