Our house has been on the market for nearly six months. We had an acceptable offer after two weeks - right before the whole Northern Rock panic thing. After a week those buyers withdrew. It was then into October and things went very quiet. We have had another offer at a good level but those buyers are struggling to sell.
In total we have only had 9 viewings I think. I do know that the market has been very quiet - a friend who is selling a similar house in a better location had no viewings up to Christmas at all and only one or two since. I have to say I'm not overwhelmed by our agents. They are supposed to garner feedback quickly from viewings - it has always been at least two days and I have often had to chase them. The lady we deal with rang once to chat about the marketing. I wasn't in and when I rang back she wasn't available - I said to call me whenever - she never has. They have never broached the idea of dropping the price either. I'm not too keen on this as I know the market well and what we're asking is reasonable - both the offers we have had are just 3-4% below asking price. I would drop it - but we could only afford to drop it by 5000 so I'm not sure if that would make any difference. I am thinking of changing agents but have some questions.
- Do we need a HIP - we didn't when we put it on the market as they hadn't come in then and the other agent I spoke to yesterday said we didn't as the marketing would be continual.
- What do we do about the outstanding offer we have - if they sell and still want to buy ours who gets the commission? Under no circumstances do I want or can afford to pay two lots of commission!
- What is a standard commission - our current deal is 1% - the agent I spoke to yesterday would be 1.75% - should I try to beat them down?
Thanks for any advice you can offer!