Selling your house

[RobertT]

Had out house up for about 9 weeks now I think and being abroad means that, while that usually wouldn't be too long, I have a desire to seel as quickly as possible.

Anyone had any luck in improving their estate agents performance? thinking of offering an extra incentive to them if they sell within the next 2 weeks for example at a rate close to the asking price.

I know that our house is at the mid to lower end of prices, so an estate agent after the first couple of weeks doesn't have a huge incentive to put in the extra hours, plus we had tenants for a month of that which made getting any viewings arranged an issue.  Trying to think of ways of bringing it back into focus for them without the usual easy slash the price option given it is pretty well valued in comparison to others I can see on the market.

[Sippo]

A good estate agent will give you good feedback from viewings. I'm presuming you are getting viewings?

[RobertT]

Not really, only two real ones so far, partly because we had the tenants in before.

[Sippo]

Maybe time to swap agents then. We were with Bushey Boys Moovahome and no disrespect to him, but they couldn't get enough people through the door in nine or so weeks. We changed agents, and within a week we had two decent offers.

It's down to the client list.

[Ginginho]

Rightmove tend to be the first place to visit in all honesty, the estate agent is secondary really.

I had contact with pretty much every agent in Swindon when we sold/moved three years ago and then the best by far were Richard James. Very efficient. They knew what we were looking for and found us a house and we had an offer accepted before it had even been officially listed online.

Although there was a fit bird with huge tits at Allen & Harris who also stood out from memory

[RobertT]

Tied in for now, so changing probably isn't an option for a couple of months.  Using Haart.

The best experience I had was when doing-up a house to sell and took all the viewings on myself - the estate agent was chucking people through.  Unless the house is worth 500k, the commission probably doesn't provide enough incentive to tread those hard yards of going out on loads of viewings, hence wondering if giving a short term gee-up might help.  I'd happily give the guys an extra 1k if they sold it this week, rather than take 15k less by dropping the price to do their work for them.

[DiV]

I used Richard James East Swindon branch.
Yasmin said she'd sell my flat at asking price within a week.
They took pictures mid week. Went online Friday. 3 viewings on Saturday. Sold on Monday.

Not really much help I'm afraid

[4D]

+1 for Richard James

[Berniman]

When my estate agent wasn't performing I listed it at another estate agents as well, so listed on 2 at the same time.  It seemed to give them motivation as they sold it within the next 2 weeks.  A little healthy competition never hurts.

[horlock07]

Yasmin said she'd sell my flat at asking price within a week.
They took pictures mid week. Went online Friday. 3 viewings on Saturday. Sold on Monday.

Sounds like a really shit Craig David song.....

[Chubbs]

+1 for Richard James too.

Sold my house without even putting it on the market. That sale eventually fell through but through no fault of RJ. Managed to sell again within a few days.

[Sippo]

Maybe we were the exception, but we found Richard James pushy and very slimey when even enquiring. Kept pestering for the 'job'. Not the cheapest in town.

[Chubbs]

Maybe we were the exception, but we found Richard James pushy and very slimey when even enquiring. Kept pestering for the 'job'. Not the cheapest in town.

Which branch? We used old town and had no issues. My only issue with them on move day was they constantly kept pestering me to get the keys to my old house.
We had already informed them all we had was a transit van so it would mean multiple trips and may take a couple of hours. As the new owners were going to be renting it out we were told they were in no intimidate rush for the keys. It would seem that was not the case.

[jayohaitchenn]

Fuck me if Richard James is the best option. I thought they were all cunts. Especially Yasmine.

[ronnie21]

My son's house is on the market with Charles Hardin in Gorse Hill.  Seems like plenty of viewings but a bit of a problem.  As they are both out at work all day the agents conduct viewings in their absence, came home last Friday and found mud all through the hall and on the upstairs carpets!!  Shitty e-mail quickly sent, apology received but left a bad taste in mouth!!  No puns please!!