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Thrifty1

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Hi, looking for some advice please. I have an apartment up for sale since beginning of Sept last with a local estate agent. We had an selling price or AMV of €255k, we were hoping for a quick enough sale and EA said it should sell in a few weeks.

Anyway its still not sold, we dropped the price to €248k after about 2 months to see if it would spark interest.

In the time we have had it for sale we have had 4 viewings (5 months) and no offers.

Another local agent has sold 2 apts in this building since, and 2 more agents have since taken on apts there.

I am wondering should i change EA, im not particularly happy with them, they rarely ring us, are very slow to return calls, etc but i am concerned about changing at this stage as we really need this apt sold soon.

I know some will suggest that the price is too high, it should be what peopl are willing to pay etc, but the EA that sold 2, one was for €260k and the other a one bed for €200k.

Thanks for any advice.
 
Have you discussed your concerns with your existing EA?
If so, serve written notice of your intention to terminate their services from 4 weeks of the date of the letter. That gives your existing agent 4 weeks to get their finger out and chase a sale for you, and it also gives you a chance to shop around and find a better alternative.
You will be caught for double advertising charges with the old EA & the new.
If you haven't discussed your concerns with your existing EA, now's the time to do it!
 
Thanks mo3art, we did say it to him a few months ago and we got the whole, "waiting for the budget" story. I checked with a few other EA regarding this and they all said the same.

Now im hearing this was a great line they all used to explain the slump.

Im just worried we will change and still not be able to sell and will pay double fees for nothing.

Also this EA if a "friend" ie. he knows him, of my husband which makes things more akward.

He is not charging us advertising fees because of this, not thats thats my reason for staying with him.

Do you think if i served notice, he would just forget about trying to sell it altogether?
 
He could either forget about selling it altogether which wouldn't be the best decision considering it is still on his books and he has put some effort into it so far OR he could start chasing leads and bring you a buyer so as not to lose his commission.
Either way it would bring you some sort of resolve on what has been going on.
For what it's worth, no friend would treat another like this, I would have thought that it would be more of an incentive to sell your house quicker actually!
 
If he is not charging the advertising costs maybe this is the problem - he is not wasting his money on advertising the property. Is it on Myhome.ie or similar sites.
Also agree if a friend he should be doing everything to help. I would deffo consider changing EA. Businees is business after all. Good luck and I hope you get sorted soon.
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Hi thanks, he is not charging advertsising fees as he knows my husband but has the property advertised on myhome and daft.
 
If you need to sell you need to look at the price. The next few months may well see even more property come on the market at even lower prices. The same factors that drove the market up can now drive it down. If you need to sell you have to face up to the reality that our property boom is over.
 
We have dropped our price from €255 to €248, we are not the cheapest one in the town.
 
Thrifty1 said:
We have dropped our price from €255 to €248, we are not the cheapest one in the town.
Click to expand...

To be put this in perspective Thrifty, you have dropped your asking price by 2.7%. Does a sign in a shop window that says "2.7% off!" catch you eye? Of course it doesn't.

I'm not trying to be facetious here. I'm just pointing out that obviously the tactic of lowering the price is in the hope of sparking interest in the property, with the best possible result for the vendor being that a lower price sparks a bidding war which drives it back up to your original asking price.

But why on earth waste your time with a 2.7% drop?

A friend who recently couldnt sell a property in Drogheda for months, simply looked at the prices of the other similar houses for sale and undercut everyone else. She sold her house overnight. The other houses remain unsold, their asking prices dropping in 1/2k drips and drabs each month.
 
Soma, thank you for your reply, i realised a mistake in my last last it was meant to read "we are the cheapest one in town". We have undercut everyone else.

While a 2.7% drop may not seem much i think you need to put it into perspective it is €7000.

While it is obvious that should we drop it further it would sell we are not willing to do that.

Like your friend we looked at the price of other apt in the area and cut our price.

Im sure the houses in Drogheda are going for a lot more than my apt and €7000 is hardly dropping it in dribs and drabs.

How much did your friend drop his/her asking price by?

Im not being facetious either Soma but are you a prospective buyer ?
 
In real terms every week that passes your property is losing value, (based on recent data of 0.1% monthly property price rises and inflation of nearly 5%) so you should set the reserve price a lot lower, advertise it yourself and let the market decide what its worth.
 
While it is obvious that should we drop it further it would sell we are not willing to do that.
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Are you willing to hold onto it indefinitely, or do you require a sale soon enough? Could there be other reasons why its not sparking interest apart from a poor EA?
 
Shanegl we could hold onto it for another few months. We have looked at the other apts that are for sale and have sold and i cant see any reason why ours isnt sparking interest.

We have spend a good bit on the decor b4 putting it up for sale, of all the apts ours is probably the most eye catching.

We always make sure it is spotless b4 any viewing, it is immaculate and de cluttered, as regards the apt itself i dont think there is any more we can do.

Its the same story with people we have had in, they have all said the apt is lovely, they will think about it and them the EA cant seem to get in contact with them again ??
 
Thrifty1 said:
Hi, looking for some advice please. I have an apartment up for sale since beginning of Sept last with a local estate agent. We had an selling price or AMV of €255k, we were hoping for a quick enough sale and EA said it should sell in a few weeks.

Anyway its still not sold, we dropped the price to €248k after about 2 months to see if it would spark interest.

In the time we have had it for sale we have had 4 viewings (5 months) and no offers.

Another local agent has sold 2 apts in this building since, and 2 more agents have since taken on apts there.

I am wondering should i change EA, im not particularly happy with them, they rarely ring us, are very slow to return calls, etc but i am concerned about changing at this stage as we really need this apt sold soon.

I know some will suggest that the price is too high, it should be what peopl are willing to pay etc, but the EA that sold 2, one was for €260k and the other a one bed for €200k.

Thanks for any advice.
Click to expand...

Hi, Im an EA (have been for 15yrs) - sounds like the house is on for too much money - simple as that.
If your EA friend has it up on daft.ie & myhome.ie , he is incurring costs that he will not recoup unless he sells the house (and then discounts the costs - approx 300 euro by the sounds of it - off his fee)

Therefore it is very unlikely that the EA is not trying hard enough - it is just that there are too many similar houses on in your area, you havent dropped the price enough to attract (a) buyer/s yet, therefore it would seem that you are not in a real hot water situation yet.

Drop your price significantly - 10% at least - you do not have to accept an offer if it comes in at this level - you will (hopefully) attract at least 2 bargain hunters that will bid against each other, when there is only one left - you have your current market value.(should you decide to accept)

Sincere apaologies if this seems harsh - just stating the facts and hopefully giving you the benefit of my experience.:)

Best of Luck !!

Murray.
 
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