Ditch estate agent? Or am I being impatient

[Alacazoo]

We put our 3 bed detached up for sale in February with a local agent. Had 5 or 6 viewings over the following month, no offers and feedback was that house is immaculate but there are negative things we can't change - 3rd bedroom too small, drive too narrow etc. In April the viewings tailed off to none so we decided to switch to another agent and simultaneously reduce price by £25k hoping this combination would get things moving.

The house has been up for sale with the new agent for almost 4 weeks now and despite the reduced asking price they have not arranged ANY viewings. When questioned they just say it's a slow market, buyers are price sensitive, maybe we should reduce again. Despite their great reputation we have found communication poor so far - I had to chase up the sale board and any updates are due to us contacting them.

I'm wondering if it would be impatient to get rid of this agent too and find another. But would a third agent in such a short time sound alarm bells for prospective buyers? Is no viewings in 4 weeks to be expected in this market and we should stick it out? We are in a rural market town in the south west if that makes a difference.

I'm being indecisive. Please help!

How does the price of your house compare to other similar ones in the area? Are other houses selling? I'd probably stay put for now, but ask them what the strategy is going forward, other than reducing the price, which you have already done.

Honestly if you’re on right move and the photos are good and the price is right it will sell.

More likely to be the price than the agent. “It’s a slow market” and “buyers are price sensitive “ just mean the price is too high. If you are serious about selling now, you should drop it. If not, take it off the market.

I’d stay with your agent for now, but maybe ask if they’re doing any additional advertising - promoting the property on their social media pages etc.
If your house is on their website and places like Rightmove or Zoopla then you may need to look at reducing the price again if you’re wanting to move soon. If you aren’t in a rush to move then you can wait for the market to pick up. It’s not a great time to be trying to sell, in alot of places the market has become fairly stagnant. If interest rates go down then we should start to see houses selling again 🤞

Your agent is pretty irrelevant as long as they are basically competent until you get an offer and then a good sales progresser can be important.
You exhausted the pool of potential buyers in the first few weeks. They will have chosen somewhere else or be waiting for someone to drop price.
Have you done the thing where you pretend to be a buyer of your sort of house then have a look at what you can get for your money? If yours is still the best for the money you might get lucky eventually. Otherwise it’s a matter of deciding if you have to move and then you reduce the price and become one of the picky buyers for the next one.

I don't think that most buyers even notice the name of the agent so changing again isn't a problem. The price is the big factor and if you are willing to drop again, you could do it with the current agent, then change afterwards if still no interest. It is just a very slow market.

No but EAs are meant to have lists of potential buyers that they contact and offer viewings to. They don’t just rely on right move

Get someone to ring up and enquire about houses in your area and see if they are pushing yours . If not you have an agent problem.

Could you advertise on social media yourself, maybe join a few local groups on FB and see if there's any interest in houses in your area.

Prices are now falling, if you really want to move house you need to catch up with the changes in values. Your agent is telling you this as softly as they can.
It likley, according to the news, that the next change in interest rates will be an increase not a decrease - so that will set back prices further. This is great news if your up sizing. It might be worth withdrawing and letting the falls work through ?

Well, in theory, but as PP said, the most likely keen buyers might already have seen it with the first agent, and it will take a while to build up a list of newly interested buyers for a particular house with the market so slow.
I am just putting my house on the market and chose an agent who mostly operates in nearby more expensive area and does a lot of advertising, thinking that locals would see it on rightmove or see the board anyway, so this might bring in more viewings . But I am not holding my breath and expect to have to drop the price a fair amount in order to sell.

If you have barely had any viewings in the last 2-3 months and none in the last month, it's very likely that you need to reduce again.
What percentage reduction was the 25k reduction? It might be too small a percentage to make a difference.

Absolutely this. Blaming the agent is the easy option, rather than accepting the uncomfortable truth that the price is too high.

Everyone looks on Rightmove for houses these days. So long as it’s on there, the agent makes very little difference.

There’s a house near me been on sale for months. They’ve got a new agent - and gone on for the same price! Waste of time

Thanks all. I think I'm going to ask a friend to phone the EA to see how well they promote the house, if they pass that test we'll stick with them.

We already reduced from £285k to £260k. I spoke to DH last night about coming down to £250k (figure suggested by EA) he's not keen but we want to move this year before secondary school applications open so I think we'll just have to suck it up!

The market where we are is dead. My dear 85 year old neighbour put her house in the market at a suggested price of 850k two years ago. It is now on at 650k with her third agent and she still can’t sell it. We are in, what was, a very sought after village but I wonder if people have fallen out
of love with village life.

I think people still crave that lifestyle. Its just become unaffordable with house prices having become so out of whack with affordability. Once prices have settled back to reflect this things will start moving again. Might take a while though

So the EA has already suggested reducing it to £250k? They obviously know what the problem is then.

Is her house up to date with little work needed?

I'm sure she's a lovely woman but she has been badly advised. People have not fallen out of love with village life. I'm sure many find it extremely desirable still. The problem is the price. Prices are so far out of line with incomes that they are unaffordable for most. The property of an eldely person is often dated at the very least and not infrequently in a state of disrepair. Potential buyers will look at these sort of properties and just see that they need to spend even more £££ on work. I wonder how much you bought it for and when and how that compares to now and the relevant income ratios.

It would get you in the next RM band if you reduced to 250k. Are there many houses available in the area you want to move to? What is the market like there? If you accept a lower price, you may be able to negotiate more off on your purchase, especially if you are upsizing.

We are in a similar position, also in the south west. Sold our house last November for £435k, after about 5 months on the market and maybe 10 viewings. Found a house to buy, everything lined up, and then got gazzumped in January and the chain collapsed. Put the house back on the market again in April to try and take advantage of the 'spring selling season' but have had a total of 2 viewings and nothing since dropping the asking price 2 weeks ago. Virtually zero communication now from the EA, I have a strong suspicion they've given up. Aside from making another big price drop it feels like the only other lever left to pull is to switch EAs.

we're hopefully moving EA tomorrow, if the new agent's confirmation of terms and conditions is acceptable.

I think what happens at the moment is that EAs are trying to get as many houses on their books as possible to give themselves half a chance of making any revenue - "it's a numbers game".

Once the seller is on their books, they give them about 2 weeks of effort and they're off searching for the next 'catch'. Our agent has done next to nothing for us and they've over valued our property, so absolutely no interest shown by anyone. They won't countenance a price reduction because it will show up on the portals and that's a black mark against them.

So we're not prepared to languish on the market for our property to get stale. The new agent has a wider reach, including London so we're hoping it might attract a different kind of buyer.

Reducing price is the better move, EA"s are not going to make much difference if it is not super competitively priced now.

Price is by far the biggest lever you have.

My parents property has been on sale for a year now and in that time I’ve reduced the price from 290,000 to 235,000 and changed agent. The market really is dead. Price isn’t so much of a factor currently. It’s costing me a fortune monthly.