Dealing with estate agents when selling

Hi everyone

I'm selling my house and just wanted to check what I should expect from my estate agent. How often should I hear from them/contact them for an update? The house has been on the market for a couple of weeks; and has been viewed twice, which is a bit disapointing. It was advertised in local paper 2 weeks ago and again today, is in the estate agent's window, has for sale signs directing people from main road and is on their website. I felt the guide price was a bit steep in the beginning and said this to them but they said to wait and see first before lowering it.

Originally I wanted to sell really quickly because I'd found a house I loved but that all went pear-shaped (boohoo) so I'm not under the same pressure. However, I'm discovering that patience is not my forte! Basically I'm not really sure whether what's happening is the norm or not.

Thanks
Rebecca

For all their expertise, isn't it remarkable how frequently the owner knows the value of a house better than the estate agent?

If they've bustled you into an asking price which is unrealistically high, there is a possibility that this was their strategy for ensuring you used them.

Naturally this slows down viewings.

It's water under the bridge now. Smart buyers know they're onto a good thing when an asking price starts to fall. You're probably best to hold out for as long as you can bear it at your initial price. Given that your initial hurry seems to have abated, try to relax and sit tight.

Regarding updates, the estate agent is working for you so you decide how often you want them to speak to you. Never feel remotely embarrassed about calling somebody who works for you. Finish every conversation with an agreement as to when exactly they're going to get back to you and call them if they don't.

Are they giving you a report on every viewing? I'd insist on it and an update within 24 hours re their follow-up on same.

Be a pain - they'll work hard to get rid of you by selling your house. Good luck.

It's usually a good idea to pitch the selling price a bit lower than the price you've got in your head.

My brother sold his house a while back. The first estate agent advertised it at the eventual selling price but nobody viewed it. He switched to another agent who pitched it 10k less and got several viewings. It was eventually sold for the 'originial' asking price.

Maybe people look at the advertised price and automatically add x to it. The important thing is to get people viewing and then let two or three of them bid against each other!

Have you thought about putting it on the internet? Many people these days spend their lunch looking at property websites (and dreaming!)

Pricing the property at less than your target figure, is good advice.
Just speaking from my experience recently buying a house - When we were viewing properties on the internet - in our own minds we factored in between €10000 to €20000 on to the asking price - to get the real price the owner would settle for.
If a property is in good nick - it will attract counter bids driving up the price perhaps even above this figure.

After adding on the €10000 or 20000 if it still was within our budget - we'd go and look at it.

Thanks guys for all the advice. Bit late to change the price now; the market in my area is so small that I notice price changes on houses that I'm not even interested in.

On the one hand the estate agent is not contacting me as often as I would like but on the other, the house is fully advertised (online, in newspapers etc etc). Things seem a bit more relaxed down the country; we don't have to pay anything up front for advertising, for example and mine has been in the papers twice already.

I will probably calm down after a while. Hopefully it will all be worth it in the end.

Rebecca