How to politely change estate agents

[DreamsAreFading]

Our house has been up for sale since August. We have had to do all of the chasing with our agent and we haven’t had a single viewing. We have dropped the price by a lot even though it was priced the same as other similar properties at the start. We are long out of the 4 week contract with them. The house is at a give away price now - very little over what we paid for it 18 years ago, and we can’t afford to drop the price any further. The only thing we can think to do is fire the agent. But how do I go about that without causing offence? How do you approach another agent without looking flaky? Do we approach another agent before we fire this one?
Thanks.

Just get a friend to call the agent and say they’re interested and see if they can get a viewing or he puts them off.

Then you’ll know.

Hi DreamsAreFading, Everyone who is telling you that it is too expensive/might be too expensive. Are talking out of their arses. Because you haven't even had any views !

If you've looked on Zoopla at nearby sold prices and you are in the same zone - then the price is not the issue at all. It's all about the agent.

I would get a family member of friend to phone up and ask for exactly your type of home in the price range. Then ask for a viewing.... and you will soon find out how dodgy or just plain lazy your EA are.

If you have a board up then even easier ... 'Hi I have seen your board up on Acacia Avenue, what price is it please ? Great , can you make me an appointment to view please' ...

It will take a few minutes to tell you all you need to know. Although a close friend had a really scummy agent who would agree to contact the vendor for viewings then call the prospective buyer back saying either 'temporarily removed from the market' or 'vendor only does weekend viewings (and then cancel before the weekend) .. of course he never actually contacted the vendor was just forcing the price down to buy himself...

You have no need to worry about politeness. It's a business transaction. You agree to pay them money to market your home to potential buyers. They have failed to do that in the last 3 months so time to move on.

What are you talking about? You don't have to view a property to decide it's too expensive. In fact most people would discount it completely before viewing for exactly that fact, not wait to view.

Having worked for four different firms of estate agents over a period of 25 years I have never been in an office where this has ever been spoken about.

Not to say it never occurs, but I think it's thunderously rare.

"2 bed flats in my area are selling at the same or lower than their 2004 new build purchase price."

How are the sellers taking it, do you know any of them?

No.

Seen it all develop on Rightmove.

That isn't even the worst of it. There are some 1 bedders. These have services included in the service charge (electric heating). Horrible situation to be in with the increased energy prices.

These are below peak price. Eg June 2007 new build 65k, Nov 2022 60k.

I think they are unmortgage-able. BOE inflation calculator shows that inflation on 65K means it should be worth 105K now just to keep level with inflation.

And IMO the actual prices are probably somewhere below that now as Nov 2022 was nearer the peak of the market.

For me HPI is very much a south of England phenomenon. Take midlands/northern new(ish) build and there is nowhere near the increase in prices.

Oh god. Those communally heated flats got done up like absolute kippers when the energy crisis kicked off. They buy energy on the open market and don't lock suppliers into deals. I remember stories of people paying three times what they were last year. There were a few BBC articles; in one of them, some poor woman, iirc, was paying £700 pm to heat her flat.

And I really think it depends where you are in the North. Market towns sky rocketed. Train connection to London? Silly prices. A mate's house on the outskirts of Thirsk went up 100k in value during 21-22.

Basically, anywhere I would like to live that has access to any sort of amenities went up by about 20-25% - ish.

I accept a lot of the North didn't follow suit, but places with a lot of people seem to have risen in value a great deal.

@DreamsAreFading will you keep us updated with progress please?

Thanks for the replies everyone. Yes @KievLoverTwo I will keep you updated.

Definitely change agent and relaunch after Christmas. The photos are hugely important to get viewers in the door. It's worth putting a lot of effort into staging and making sure the photographer knows what they're doing. Check the photos and blurbs on the listings of the agent you are thinking of using next.

Also do as suggested to get a friend to call your current agent about it. It will give you an idea how much is down to the agent or other factors.

I always use estate agents who are members of the National Association of Estate Agents. Always had superior service, never get a national franchise chump who is riding on the back of a reputation they don't deserve, their voluntary code of conduct is highly professional so you know if they've signed up to it they are a cut above.
https://www.propertymark.co.uk/find-an-expert.html

My OH has told me he has read there is a massive uptick in Rightmove activity on Boxing Day. I thought he might have remembered wrong, I always thought it was New Years Day.

Either way, your new agent should be able to tell you which is right, and time a go live release for the best, most active day.

So many chains of estate agents are franchises of highly variable quality.
Unethical bad practice by sharks needs to be avoided.
Don't worry about kicking them to the curb, they clearly don't care about their local reputation nor understand their local market, if they did you'd have had one of two things by now, which are viewings and offers, or a recommendation for a change of strategy backed by sound reasoning.

I wouldn’t worry in the slightest about offending them. Just send an email now…

Hi John

I hope you’re well. I’m writing to ask you to terminate our contract and to stop marketing our property (57 North Street, blah blah) ASAP.

You have been marketing our property since August and in that time we have had zero viewings. We are really disappointed and have no option but to go with another agent, as discussed when we instructed you, we are keen to move and not prepared to drop the price again.

I will come in to your branch at 2pm tomorrow to collect our key.

Thanks

XXXX.

Thanks so much for the link. Our estate agent doesn’t seem to be on there, so that says a lot about them.

That’s good to know, thanks for that. Hopefully sooner rather than later!

Well a little update for you. We text the agent last night and emailed the estate agents office this morning, all very polite - so far we are being ghosted with our property still online. I think it’s very clear now why we haven’t had viewings. If this drags on much longer I will name and shame them.

Sounds like a shockingly bad investment TBH.

Good you've communicated op. But I think your patience, though admirable, is more than they deserve. I wouldn't wouldn't be waiting to see if it goes on much longer.

At this point you absolutely don't want anyone to offer under their auspices, because, can you imagine trusting this bunch of clowns/sharks with handling the sale to completion!!?? Negotiating on your behalf 😱
Even thinking of it vicariously is giving me wafts of sleepless nights!
Shake them off like the parasites they are quickly! Then you can put yourself in the hands of someone who may at least act with professionalism so you can feel like a sale might actually go through.
You're not even out of the blocks with these idiots.

Send this!

I second all suggestions to send this. You want to get out of their clutches ASAP.

Surely by now the "friend" they are keeping it aside for would have come in with a "low" offer?

Is it even on RightMove? No viewings in months is very strange, unless massively overpriced

@ABeautifulThing We have to give them a months notice. I no longer trust them at all. Interestingly I’ve seen 3 houses they were selling recently that had ‘sold’ but have come back on the market, and they are just the ones that have been on my radar. I think it’s definitely shark infested waters.
@CrashyTime Yes, there’s can’t be anyone in the background.
@BecauseTheWorld yes, it’s on rightmove. I don’t understand it. The only way it could be massively overpriced is if our house is demoted from FTB house to uninhabitable, which it really, really isn’t . The houses in the price bracket below ours are either missing vital areas of the house, look stuck in the 60s, have black mould visible in the pictures or are considerably smaller, and yet some of those have sold.