I hate estate agents...

Or - I hate our particular agent...

Our house has been up for sale for 6 mths... we've had 5 viewers. One offer of 10k less than asking price (house is only £160k) which we turned down.

We haven't had a viewing since January and had almost forgotten the house was up for sale! We never hear from the agents unless they've someone interested...

We got a call on Wednesday for a viewing during the day on Thursday (agent has keys), so we swept through the house tidying up (i.e. shoving stuff under the bed)

Our agent never qualifies the leads - they hardly ever know the circumstances of whoever is viewing (e.g. whether they have sold/are renting, what their budget is etc). They only had the name and phone number of this viewer....

We never get any feedback from the agents unless we ring them. Then they "spring" into action and make a call...

Yesterday I went into the village on some errands and popped into the agents. There was only 1 lady in the office and she was from another branch. She checked the system for me and no feedback had been taken (surprise?). The guy was viewing another property with them that day, so she called him, but he was still in the viewing. She said she'd give me a call back later - no call.

We rang today, just before the office closed and were told:

"Oh yes, Mr Murphy bought another of our houses yesterday morning, so he won't be wanting to see yours again. I'll give him a call and ask for some feedback if you like"

I almost said that she shouldn't trouble herself - what's the point?

It's so disheartening. We're thinking about changing agents, but need valuations etc...

Argh!!!

OK, I feel better now........

...Anyone want to buy a house??

is change agents if i was you, its obious they are not all that good,
good luck with selling your place.

if that was Me, id Kick there Butts right out the window, they are getting £££££££££££££££££££££££££ For doing Nothing and they will be Laughing @ you Go Sort them out soon.

You should receive a weekly report from them stating what and how they have been marketing your property. Then you should also be advised of the viewing outcomes.

Alternatively, try to sell your home privately, no estate agent funds either!!

We have just sold a property by word of mouth without an agent - so it can be done. Especially the price of your property as it should attract several buyers.

Wishing you good luck with the sale x

ps maybe we can start an off topic thread Houses For Sale ???

Weekly reports?? We've not even had monthly ones.... one week we went in the office and our house wasn't in the window OR in the office... my Dh played merry hell with them!

We've got a bit of re-painting to do (some touching up where I've accidentally scraped paint off the wall) and then we're going to get it revalued and up with another agent I think.

Shelley
x

I would change Estate Agents....We have just sold our house, we got weekly reports of all viewers and if we had someone view a follow up the next day...

Agree with everyone else get a new Agent.

I have to agree too - get another agent and tell your current one exactly why.

Be a little careful and check out the situation regarding changing, it's been many years since we moved house so things may have changed, but I remember then that you had to leave a certain amount of time between different agents or you had to pay them both - check it out, it may be in the small print of your contract. Don't forget they are a cliquey bunch too!!

CHANGE YOUR AGENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dont forget that you are employing them to do a job for YOU.

If it aint working then fix it!

Tell them how you feel and why your changing, dont feel obliged to be nice and dont listen to any more excuses.

A new agent gives a fresh approach to your house.Always negotiate the fees
and find out what they are doing to earn their money ie-advertising both in local paper and internet, accompanied viewings( this is a must for me)and the all important FEEDBACK!

Dont sign a contract for more than 8 weeks.

Good luck

I am a Negotiator at our local estate agents.

Every vendor is contacted once a fortnight at the least if they have not been spoken to in-between times ie: viewings etc. Two negotiators are assigned all properties between them for these calls - any property 'sticking' is highlighted and we contact the owner to discuss what to do to help encourage viewings.

Every viewer with us is followed up to get viewing feedback which is entered onto our database for future reference and also vendor is rang with feedback.

Sounds to me like your agent is very poor and certainly not proactive. I would definately change agents. Check your contract to ensure there is no tie-in period that you have to adhere to before withdrawing.

The only thing I would say in their defence is that between Oct and March - we have had the quietest time ever for sales and viewings and it has only just picked up recently in the last couple of weeks. If the market where you are is anything like here, things will have been v. quiet there too!

That said their lack of communication is inexcusable!