We like many others on this site have been on the house market for a good few months. We are getting really fed up with the whole house selling issue and the negative press that is causing problems for many people trying to sell.

I'm trying to think of new ideas to encourage viewings and hopefully offers. One of the options is to go dual agency. I hope this would create a bit of competition between the agents. This would cost us more money in fees which is fine if we sell but don't want to fork out more money if it doesn't work well in practice. What are people's experiences of dual agency?

We have also thought briefly of advertising the house for offers in excess of. This would obviously be a decent amount less than we are on for now. I wonder whether this would encourage viewings or not. Would this encourage people to make offers less than that amount because of the current housing market in the UK. Has anyone used this approach in England and how has it worked?

Any other ideas welcome.

I'm trying to be positive about the whole thing as we are lucky enough to move to Canada and there are worse things we could be worrying about.

Estate agents will be desperate for any business they can get. I would sign up with as many as you can find, but tell them you'll not pay any extra commission for going multi-agency. There's no reason why you should.

OK two effective things that we did (and we needed to sell quickly too albeit not in such a slow market).

1. Obviously we did the usual tarting up inside but we had a chalet bungalow and they are not the nicest looking things We noticed a lot of people driving by looking at the house but proportionally very few viewings so I did a Groundforce exercise plus we also kept one car in the garage (after clearing it out completely) and parked the other one down the street (always!). It opened up the front on the house and it did get us more viewings.

2. We offered to pay the removal costs for our buyer (up to a max - can't remember exactly what it was now - maybe £1,000?). That was kind of an added value thing as most buyers had budgeted for stamp duty, etc but to cut back on costs most people were going to do the removals themselves. Wouldn't say it would work everywhere but it did the trick for us! Our buyers were delighted as they had a young family and it saved them a lot of hassle.

Oh I would also say take a really good look at the marketing material that the estate agents are putting out ... make sure that the photos (particularly exterior shots) are up to date ... no snow in June!!! well maybe in Calgary
Also look at the internet page - would you go and look at your house?

Good luck! J

Have tried to keep the fees the same. Our current agent has agreed to keep to the 1% fees (which is the sole agency fees we negotiated). The agent we have invited to quote for dual agency said they could not get near to the 1% and the best they could do for dual agency is 1.5%. We might have to get some others to quote but the one who quoted the 1.5% do seem to have a lot of boards around and seem to sell quite a few also. I suppose the extra 0.5% is not a lot if it gets the house sold.

Also could get a friend to call up about houses in your area see what response
they get ?

If they get shown the brochure see what the estate says about your property etc just a thought,

also get other peoples opinion of your house and how its presented, curb appeal and how it can be improved, its a tough market out there,

good luck hope you have a result soon.

If you've done everything like de-cluttering, neutral paint work, necessary repairs, groomed the garden etc., etc.,.

IF the house is getting sufficient exposure, and you have to sell quickly.

SORRY but its the price, I know its a real bummer, but you just have to keep reducing the price till it sells. In a buyers market, everything else being equal, ALL you can do is reduce the price for a quick sale.

If your not in hurry, then you keep the price up and just wait.....................

Make sure your house is on for less than your rivals! this is the only way to get a quick sale!! simple

Thanks everyone for the advice. We have done the tarting up of the house etc. Our house is also a few grand cheaper than the same house style down the road. We are going to keep a check on the price and are considering dropping it again.

Has anyone had experience of dual agency and/or prices in excess of?

...'said it before - I'll say it again - "housenetwork.co.uk". We were lucky - very lucky (got the full asking price and completed earlier this month).

I think dual agency demotivates the individual agents. I think changing agent is more effective and ensuring you have a proactive one.

I also don't think offers in excess would work in England. I did an exercise on the psychology of price setting at Uni and once people have a figure in mind, then they base all their decisions round that and suggesting a lower price to them, even if you are expecting more, would indicate to a buyer a lower figure.

It's also what people know and understand that is important and that's why deviating from the norm is difficult.

I was offered a flat yesterday and as I had to explain to the person offering, it's just that I cannot get a mortgage at a reasonable rate with reasonable fees at the moment and that is using one of the big brokers, who can normally get good deals with a good deposit and excellent credit record.

We're currently listed with two agents - neither of them charge extra for multi agency - one is on 0.75% inc VAT, the other 0.75% + VAT, both of them as useless as each other..... I honestly think estate agents have had it easy over the past 5 years and they just don't know how to sell in a buyers market.....

We've reduced just over 5% on asking price in 6 weeks so far to no effect....

i think you're right there!
i've not sold a house for over 10 years but have now been on the market for just under 2 weeks (housenetwork so no agents acting uselessly!) one of the viewers we had last week said they were trying to get to view another house but the estate agents were being a real pain saying things like "it's too far for us to come out for a viewing!!
if the vendors knew their agents were being this obstructive they'd have a fit!!! unbelievable!


rgilbert - don't know what to say with regard to house-selling tips, it's not always about dropping the price, if there's no buyers it doesn't matter what the price unfortunately so much scaremongering going on in the media putting people off even thinking about moving let alone going out and trying to get a decent mortgage etc!

my sister had "sold" their house just before easter to the one and only viewer for only £5k under the asking (down in w.sussex), 10 weeks down the line days before exchange the buyers pulled out because "they were unsure about the state of the market"!!! these people weren't buying a house for the short term..........

i'll stop the rant now before i get myself too riled up!

hi, my house is currently up for sale with 2 agency..and its a winner takes all scinareo...then you wont pay them both..which ever sell the house gets the commission...i was going to put my house up with more then 2 but then it just looks like your house is unsellable and that you are desperate (even though we know you are )..also doesnt look nice with loads of boards outside...so 2 i think i enough. i have reduced mine by over 30k and still no interest...my house is still unsold and im so glad i didnt wait in the uk for it to sell...as i am now in canada and just bought my first house here

Hi thundercat

How many viewings have you had through the housenetwork website?

Rgilbert

We are also in the same position, received Residency Visas in May and trying to sell house, had 1 viewing who was a total time waster , originally advised that selling price should be £260,000 to £275,000.00 but put on at £249,950 to keep under the stamp duty threshold of 1% and hoped for a quick sale.
Now reduced to £244,950.00 last week, so far no more interest so will wait till mid July and then think about another reduction.

Most of the agencies in the area advertise on www.rightmove.co.uk but the agent we are with also sells alot of properties in our village.

Also put on the internet with free avertisers;
www.movehomeonline.co.uk
www.houseladder.co.uk
www.homesonline.co.uk

So fingers crossed