Pricing your house for sale

We are hoping to put our house up for sale in mid/late May. We've been monitoring myhome and PPR and had a loose idea of the value of the house. So far we've met 4 estate agents and two of them are possibilities.

EA 1: Values the house around 225/30 but wants to list it at 195 to get clients through the door. He is confident of it selling for at least 30k above the asking. He was a little arrogant although he gave the very good impression that he knew what he was talking about and his no nonsense conversation style did make me feel that he operates in a slick manner. This EA takes 1.25% commission on the sale price.

EA 2: Values the house at around 235/240 and would list at 220. He was a young EA representing a very large chain which has a local branch. However, he seemed astute and hungry for the business. This EA takes 1.5% commission on the sale price.

Personally, we need this house to make a minimum of 220.

Is a strategy we should follow (other than our gut) in pricing the house and choosing the appropriate EA? Both have good websites, photography and clear detailed house outlines so in that respect, I would be happy to choose either.

We used a well known EA who sounds like your number 1 above. Talked the talk but couldn't follow through. We should have known because all the clues were there. He kept talking about all the houses that he had sold in the neighbourhood. As ours was an executor's sale we met him over a year or so and every time we met him he came up with the exact same stories. He dropped a lot of names. In the end we got €50k less than he was absolutely certain that we would get. We also had only 18 viewings (18 brochures handed out) with over €1k spent on printing brochures/website etc. In the end the house sold itself as it was purchased by someone we had contacted before the auction independently of the EA.
Looking back on it now I am annoyed that we even did business with this person. He got his money very easy. We even managed to get his commission down to 1%....big deal.
In the past I have sold my own homes on two previous occasions. Homemade sign. Printed up my own A4 style brochures. Showed clients around. Got the price I wanted.
If you feel confident enough to do this then try it. If there are other houses for sale on your road with EA's signs outside them, you will get a spin off from them.

Thanks Grizzly. He didn't by any chance bring along the bidding book to demonstrate the number of bids in local properties? I'm not confident enough to sell it ourselves so we'll definitely be using an EA.

Did he underprice your home initially? If so, why do you think the number of viewings were so low?

Hi Newbie. We literally put our house on the market last thursday with one of the large chain EA (local branch). We went with them because of our gut instinct. We got a good vibe off of him compared to the other 3 EA we had around. He seemed like he really wanted to sell the house compared to the others who hummed and hawed and honestly didnt seem like they wanted the business or the bother. The EA we went with gave the highest valuation (which was in line with the bank valuation) and because we're in NE we obviously have to sell for that certain figure. He put the house up for 5k less than our absolute desired amount (just above bank valuation) which is perfect considering another EA said to put it up for 40k less "to get people in the door" which just terrified us!

First viewing was last night, and EA is chasing one of the viewers today as they appear to want either a second viewing or to make an offer. Obviously the house is only up a week so I'd be surprised if it all works in our favour so early, but I'm glad we've gone with this EA in the end. I've been happy with their service so far from the EA himself, to the admin staff in the office. Charging 1.5% and cut the price of the outlays for us also.

Also I dont feel like this EA is dictating to us. Instead we feel like we're holding all the cards and he's going by our instruction. In all I'm glad we went with out gut instincts.

Newbie! said:

Thanks Grizzly. He didn't by any chance bring along the bidding book to demonstrate the number of bids in local properties? I'm not confident enough to sell it ourselves so we'll definitely be using an EA.

Did he underprice your home initially? If so, why do you think the number of viewings were so low?

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I would use an agent if you don't feel confident enough to sell yourself, however I would negotiate the fee- Don't pay more than 1% and limit the spend on marketing. Photos, sign and online listing on myhome.ie and daft.ie (total spend on these should not exceed €500) are more than ample.

Newbie,
We recently sold - end of 2014. Our house was in great condition,well kept and basically ready to move into straight away. Had 2 EAs out to value it, both basically said the house would sell itself.
One was female EA, driven and talked the talk, like your no nonsense slick guy ( charging 1.25%). She suggested we go low to "create a frenzy". Was impressive and seemed to know her stuff. (Don't let someone like this fool you!)

The other was local EA who wouldn't overly fill you with confidence but a genuine guy (0.8%). He left it up to us saying the house would find it's own level no matter if we priced high or low. He was confident that we would get the basic we wanted for it.
We too just wanted to clear the remaining mortgage on it.
They both referred to the pricing bands on myhome and daft 're setting price of ours.
Both said they had people lined up who would be interested.

Went with male EA, he was local, our house wasn't going to be a hard sell and he was cheaper. Very few viewings but all who viewed the house placed a bid.
I wouldn't worry too much about the numbers going to view your house,people still not moving too easily but if house is in good repair it will sell itself and if you're not looking to hold out for huge profit (we just wanted to be sure to clear mortgage,though went 15,000 over which paid legal fees etc for move) go with cheaper option. Can you haggle with one of them? Get another EA out? We actually found that bit difficult would you believe, 2 of the bigger well known EAs we rang never got back to us!

The EA we used told us that in our area houses were selling fantastic and he almost guaranteed us a certain price. He pitched it quite high but at the time, about 18 months ago there was a bit of a mini boom. When we gave him the business he went quiet. Adverts in all the main newspapers only brought in 18 viewings. Despite saying that he knew numerous people that would be interested (located beside a well known rugby club) none of these people turned up. In the end he basically just shrugged his shoulders when the house realised the lower price. In my opinion he only wanted our business and was prepared to say anything to get it. As mentioned this was an executor's sale and there were certain family members who wanted to go with a "brand name" EA., because they are into brand names.
If it were me I would have chosen the local smaller estate agent. In the end all you are looking for is a sign outside your door and as Eithneangela says don't overspend on all the frills.

There is a very local guy but his website and photography are shocking so we would have to pay for a professional photographer. By the time we've done that I think we'd be better going with the better known chain EA who happen to also have a branch in the local area. I haven't haggled re commision rates yet and to be honest I'm terrible at that. Is there negotiation space these days?

It may make no difference which EA you pick but EA 2 sounds closer to what I'd go for, and, while I'd ask for a reduction in the fee (they'll probably match the 1.25%), I wouldn't get hung up on it.

Newbie! said:

I haven't haggled re commision rates yet and to be honest I'm terrible at that.

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I look for discount where possible . . I just ask "what is the best price/rate you can do?" and more often than not I get a discount.

there's definitely room to negotiate on fees and outlays with all EAs I reckon. Its worth trying anyway.

We started our conversation with "fees" being the upfront issue as we said we didn't want to waste our time nor his. When he said 1.5% then 1.25%, we said that we would not consider giving him the business for over 1%, all said in a nice manner. He seemed more than happy with this figure. Consequently however his attitude changed and he didn't give a toss what price we sold the house for in the end. Maybe he was annoyed that we talked him down to 1%.