Changing estate agent

[twinkydink]

Our property has been on the market for 8 weeks now and we are trying to decide whether to change agents.

We have had 35 viewings and 1 offer but it is not proceedable. I feel like the agents are much more reactive than proactive and I think maybe it's jist time to go with someone else.

I know the market is slow but I am really loathe to have to pay this agent any commisons now ( I know we will have to if the one who offered comes to anything). We had 3 agents come in and we went for the middle one and now I'm tempted to go back to the cheaper one because ultimately I think they all do the same thing!

Does anyone have any advice on this?

We are in Croydon by the way if anyone has any feedback of the market around here!

They seem to have been doing what I would expect. Why not ask them what their strategy is now to get you a proceedable offer?

Ask some friend to be a mystery shopper :) I mean it, it will help you to understand what's happening or if there is anything wrong with EA/flat. e.g. one EA told us that the flat is simply overpriced and that nobody wants to offer because of this. London market is almost dead now, I saw flats that have been on a market for 6 months and not a single offer.

we have asked and they have no suggestions! We have asked about price and they have said feedback they are getting is that it's not over priced.

I think it's the lack of communication I get from them that really gets to me. I know now everything is done by email but I think a phone call every couple of weeks saying this is what we are doing etc would be good. I think they only chase up the process with the offer when I ask them to rather than proactively calling them weekly and then updating me.

a lot of viewers seem to be time wasters too ie houses aren't on the market or not really that interested in moving. It's a very frustrating time to buy and sell around here!

So the offer that wasn't proceedable, do you know why it wasn't proceedable? The EA needs to keep those people on the hook. Similar thing happened to us, we had a good number of viewings and one offer which was on the low side compared to the valuations we'd had. I can't remember all the ins and outs but they lost their buyer in the middle of our negotiations with them and someone in the EA's office decided it wasn't worth following up with them. DP was fuming and determined that as they were our only bite, we weren't going to lose them. We ended up complaining to the manager of the EA and a deal was salvaged. Our buyers had the kind of house that it was not going to be difficult to sell.

Otherwise really your only options are dropping your price to generate new interest or playing the long game.

it's not proceedable because the person at the bottom of the chain hasn't sold their property. so the person buying from us has accepted an offer from someone who hasn't sold. As I understand this person had viewings at the weekend but I have had no update on them. This is the area where I feel they aren't proactive.

we are interested in a property and have expressed our interest while making it clear that we are not proceedable. That agent calls us weekly to see how our viewings are going etc. I feel like our agent is only doing that when we ask them too.

I feel your pain because I can see something like that happening to us! They just donr seem hungry to make the sell. I wonder of some agents are so used to houses selling quickly they aren't used to this slow down market that is requiring them to put in the extra work. I don't mean all agents but I certainly feel that way about ours!