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Selling a house - changing agent? Thoughts?

8 replies

Canitbemagic · 16/02/2021 09:41

I have already moved but in with family over the other side of the country. Had 3 agents value my house. All said declutter, think about changing hall carpet and said same value of house to market. All were local and pushy - but I went with the one that was better thought of locally. I replaced all the carpets. It is a huge house with huge front drive but a smaller back garden (but still much bigger than those on a similar house in the nearest town). There is local playing field that belongs to the village on the same road etc and the front garden you can put 8-10 cars on - so not small.

I paid for photographers and cleaners and decluttered lots of boxes into the garage. It went on the market in November. I wasn’t impressed by the agent though, 15 viewings and not one offer so two weeks ago I phoned them and said, I wasn’t happy as I need it sold. I can’t pay mortgage and rent and it had been 3 months was it on too high- we need to move into our own place down here - I offered to drop the price by £15 K. Two weeks and no viewing and I’m chasing them after each viewing. Literally chasing each viewing for 3/4 days and there isn’t any differs. All the feedback is house great but outside space is too big in the front compared to the back. The photos are good. Cctv has audio and picked up the agent saying a variety of things such as ‘I know this was out of your price range but worth looking at’ ‘I know you wanted 5 bedrooms and this has 4’ ‘yes I agree the outside space is different’ the only feedback to start with was they saw a massive front garden and expected similar in the back instead it is a reasonable size but not overly massive so I asked the agent to point this out before viewing appointments were made. Two weeks ago I asked the agent what to do as I need an offer and house sold and told them I was willing to drop the price. They did so immediately but I would say slightly reluctantly. I asked about viewing and they said they had none lined up. I asked again what I could do and they said clean it - as we haven’t been there for a few months now as that was the latest feedback (!). Didn’t say this to me after the last viewing two weeks ago. So I sent a friends cleaning company in and she said it was clean but has cleaned it through again throughly.
Different agent phoned me end of last week to say they had a one off viewing - was I interested and why was it on the market as it should have been sold and sold quickly. I explained I was on with other agent. They have been pushing me since saying they can do 5 viewings this week (out of time contract with the other agent so I can change) so they got keys from other current agent and went around to value it - they wanted £500 for photos and I said no the photos are good and I paid for them privately. They thought the photos belonged to other agent.
Other agent is keen to represent solely (potential new agent). I phoned other current agent and asked for an update and they said they had no viewings booked and no potential leads to chase.
So options:

  1. Leave with current agent at 1%
  2. Put with new agent as above
  3. Multiagency at 1.5 %

Originally agent 1 would not do multiagency they will now.
Since agent 2 went and picked up the keys from agent 1 and did valuation and returned them agent 1 has not contacted me. This was nearly a week ago. Agent 2 said I won’t hear from agent 1 again and they have nothing and implied that the relationship with them could be over but they are all super competitive here and each agent puts other down. I find it hard to trust any estate agent.

I haven’t signed anything yet.

What would you do?

OP posts:
Mildura · 16/02/2021 09:46

In the vast majority of cases the reason a property is not selling is down to the price being too high. 15 viewings and no offers also points in that direction.

What % does a £15k reduction represent?

If you're up for some brutally honest feedback put up a link of the listing, but maybe not if you're in any way sensitive!

Canitbemagic · 16/02/2021 09:58

It was a 5% reduction. I can not put the link up. Sorry. Not sensitive. But having already said that we aren’t really there - we live and work across the country - although we are back at half terms and Easter etc I don’t really want that on the internet in public. The photos are good the price seemed reasonable. I am prepared to drop it further if needed. It is more what to do about the agent etc

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Mildura · 16/02/2021 10:11

There's probably not a lot of point in just changing agents without altering something else too.

By far your most significant variable is price.

Howver, sounds like your agent is doing a decent job of getting people in to view. What you've picked up on cctv sounds positive to me, they have been succesful in getting viewings from buyers who may not originally have viewed the house otherwise.

Canitbemagic · 16/02/2021 12:43

Drop the price more? Then but do I go multi agency or with agent 1 or agent 2 in the meanwhile? Argh!

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Jarstastic · 16/02/2021 13:28

I’d go sole with the new agent. Slightly different price and different headline photo may make it more like a new property on rightmove etc rather than the old listing being updated with reduced price.

You may as well tap into agent 2’s database. You’ve already been exposed to agent 1’s database. Now agent 1 is reliant on new people coming through rightmove etc and they’d see agent 2’s listing.

ComtesseDeSpair · 16/02/2021 13:29

I think your initial agent is actually being very good in proactively encouraging viewers to consider the property even though it might not be exactly what they’re looking for on paper, with the aim that they see it and like it enough to compromise. It’s a much better sales pitch than what you’re asking they do, which is essentially to put viewers off by saying the back garden isn’t as big as they might hope for etc. I’d be very happy if my agent was getting me viewers who may have originally discarded the house on Rightmove.

What are recently sold prices for similar houses in the same area looking like? Is your asking price slightly outwith a commonly searched for brackets, so not being picked up by the maximum number of people? If you were advised to replace all the carpets, be honest with yourself - do other things look worn or dated and does the asking price reflect that?

Canitbemagic · 16/02/2021 14:27

There is nothing else like it at the moment as everything else has sold. Properties don’t come up often in the village. A tiny two bed terrace opposite sold for £180 K with no parking, a 5 bed larger house with no garage, but big plot, sold for £550 K. Both in the last few months. Mine is 4 bed and large plot but on for £375K - dropped to £360 K now.

OP posts:
Canitbemagic · 16/02/2021 14:28

Also have a larger double garage with mine.

OP posts:
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