local estate agent or not

Am selling house and am wondering which of those estate agents i will have to use. Basically I want to know should I use a local estate agent or am I better off going with a non-local one (based in another area about 3 miles away) who is marginally cheaper?
Presume it is all about myhome.ie and sign outside your house and location of estate agents office is not an issue???

If you really feel it's just about myhome.ie and a sign, do you think that all that is worth +1% of your sale price + costs for signage and myhome.ie + VAT?

Have you considered selling privately on DAFT.ie?

Hi,

This previous thread might be of interest Multiple estate agents. If you use the vBulletin search option you may find some others as there are plenty around.

Their reputation in the area should be a good indicator and sounding them out yourself should give you some clues as to their professional or non-professional approach.

I recall some years ago being totally shocked at the brochure produced by one estate agent for a house that we viewed. It was like something that a child had produced and we were allowed to wander unsupervised on our own throughout the house and we could have taken anything. When we asked to see the back garden he could not find the keys for the back door and we at that stage we just walked away.

A relative of mine was looking at moving house recently and asked me to accompany her to a viewing to assess another house she was interested in buying. There were two old swallow's nests (complete with old droppings on path below) in the eaves at the front of the house, one right over the front door which you could almost reach out and touch (the house was only single storey). First impressions were not good! We went inside and had a look around before I asked to look in the rear garden, I was told there was no key for the back door and I would have to climb out the bedroom window if I wanted to see it! The auctioneer involved was one of the bigger long established ones in the area. The usual "make sure your house is clean/ smell of coffee" advice was not being adhered to. The house is still on the market, having been on the market for nearly a year.

To be honest , while it would save some cash, do not fancy doing all that viewing and dealing with people. Even if I pay them 2/3/4k if they get an extra 7/8k they are more than worth their money. Thats a big if!!

The amount of viewing with people is relevant to the demand for your house.

The amount of dealing with people can be quite minimal, once you have a solicitor designated.

hi guys, i am in a similar situation. My house has been on the market for the last 5 months, with a big estate agent. One you might reccomend to a friend. (NOT!)
After 50, yes 50 viewings, i am still not sold. We went sale agreed once, having dropped the price by 20, yes 20 grand. but she pulled out. nothing since then. We are now thinking of changing to a local estate agent, as a house up the road from us sold in 3 days for about 30 grand more than my one was dropped to. Sounds like a stupid question, bit of a no brainer i know, but should i change auctioneers? We have had a few other probs with them to be honest, and at this stage i feel they have lost interest in shifting my place. It as a few issues, not with the property really, but with the location. So not expecting to get top top dollar at this point, just want to shift it without shooting myself in the foot financially so to speak. Any thoughts?

I would negotiate a price with an estate agent i.e play them off against each other within reason. They usually charge an advertising fee of about 200 to put house in paper and myhome.ie. I would not pay more than 1 % of value of the house to an estate agent. If the house wasn't shifting , I would get a mate to take 10 mins out of his day to go along for a viewing and get an impression of his sales technique, is he enthusiastic or just going through the motions?.
Give them 3 months to try and shift house , then go elsewhere. Also check out competiton in your area, good indication on what to expect for your house as well as assessing other possible estate agents.

reddy,
In fairness if after 50 viewings you've not managed to sell the house(depsite houses selling at higher price locally) then you may need to see whats putting people off. Have you asked the auctioneer what the feedback on the house has been?
S

yes. feedback from estate agent crap. Not happy at this point. General service from estate agent not what you would expect at all. The house does have a location problem which may put people off, but the house up the road which sold has the same location problem. My house is in fine condiition, it has been renovated recently, spanking new kitchen etc. We also have an engineers report on it from the previous sale agreed and no deal breakers there either. It is also immacculate. I really am beginning to think that my current auctioneer is not bringin in the right people (obviously) and that maybe a local guy has more of a feel for the local market. I may be clutching totally at straws here, but i have to give it a shot, dont you think? i may sound calm, but the stress is actually killing me. I am going to talk to the local guy 2mro, to see what he says. he knows the location etc and see what he thinks. Dunno what to do at this point.