Patch Property - they are a £600 fixed fee for a reason

[renmure]

I think the problem AND the benefit of REMAX is the self employed business model.

Yeah, I guess that is right. The ReMax woman we had gave no feedback, no updates, no anything. We decided to go fixed price and the impression given was that the house would sell and she would get her commission whether she went out of her way to work for it or not. (And she told some blatant lies to some viewers)

Changing estate agents wasnt done with the intention of getting more money or a faster sale but was done to almost make the point that "yeah, the house WILL sell but not to your benefit"

[s333fee]

[Sanjøy]

How little am I looking fwd to dipping in to the housing market up here.

[Karen]

Intersting reading.

We are about to put our house on the market and currently considering estate agents/soliciters etc.

So far its:

Remax - too many horror stories to be interested
Estate agents - dont seem to have lots of people banging down the door
Soliciters with ESPC facility - seems the winner so far.

Would welcome feedback from past customers in the West Lothian area.
Or even better why not buy my house? Its lovely and I'm just finishing the weeding so its in move in condition.

I work for the ESPC. Which Solicitor are your considering using if you don't mind me asking?

[Lazydonkey]

Have a look on rightmove, similar yourself for values of houses that have sold in your area to see if they are blowing smoke simply to get your business. Look at the usual estate agents signs that are up around you, they know that area.

Lots of good advice there, but I think this is the key one. I was looking in the New Gorbals mainly and it would appear that a lot of people were told "i can get you this.." when clearly that is pie in the sky.

The vendor i started this rant about was obviously told he could easily get figure x when in reality that just isn't achievable in todays competitive market.

What attracted me to my REMAX agent was that she'd done her research before she turned up.........she'd even viewed 2 properties in my area at my price range and was VERY clued up about the positives / negatives of my property.

Everyone's experience is different but i've sold 3 properties now and this one was by far the easiest and least unplesant.

[Karen]

S333fee

Are you an estate agent yourself then or just had experience of the locals round about you?

[s333fee]

[woody]

Down here in ayrshire i find i've found it's pretty rare for an estate agent to go the viewing, and TBH there's nothing i dislike more. I'd rather talk to the vendor.

The big two down here are goodfellow and slater hogg. I sold my last property last year with SH. I ended up writing the particulars myself and taking the photos. they only got in on rightmove the day before it was sold, again the ad was riddled with errors (basic stuff mostly). They didn't think i'd get waht i wanted and told me several times not to let on how much i wanted. If i'd done that the house would have been up for weeks, not days. Goodfellow are very aggresive, seem to get good prices, but as a buyer i've never enjoyed dealing with them.

[Tom]

Intersting reading.

We are about to put our house on the market and currently considering estate agents/soliciters etc.

So far its:

Remax - too many horror stories to be interested
Estate agents - dont seem to have lots of people banging down the door
Soliciters with ESPC facility - seems the winner so far.

Would welcome feedback from past customers in the West Lothian area.
Or even better why not buy my house? Its lovely and I'm just finishing the weeding so its in move in condition.

I would always use an ESPC or such like as i reckon they have by far the most coverage. I have bought three times and sold twice through ESPC and i've found it excellant. I also prefer to do my own viewings, as I've found people can be more comfortable around the owners than someone trying to sell (view from joe public point of view, apologies to any nice estate agents).

As for solicitors, i've spent ages trolling through particulars, and have found some don't display too well on the web (which i reckon 90% of the possibles use- the paper has tiny print and no pictures). I have bought from Warners once, and then sold with them twice, largely because the particulars are laid out well, with plenty of excellant pictures- that and the particulars to my eye look quite clear and uncluttered. Warners' prices are as competitive as anyone i think, and they are a large, experienced company. So long as you keep on to them, and make sure they do what you want, they they are excellant. I would however recommend reading over the particulars thoroughly before they are published..

I have no link to Warners in case anyone is wondering, but am just someone who has had a fair amount of dealings with them in the last 18 months, and will probably use them again in the future.

HTH

[gorrie]

James... I used Slater Hogg in Livingston when I sold 2yrs ago.

I haggled with the guy for his commission, and they were prepared to do so. He told me what he thought he could sell it for and rather than take his normal rate, I said that we would give him 0.5% less if he got under that amount... and 0.5% more if he got over that amount.

He agreed, and at least that way we knew he'd got a target... so he may try a little harder to get the viewings in.

Remax on the other hand turned up, and asked me what I thought it was worth. I said a figure of 15K over what I really thought and she just agreed... which gave me the impression she either had no clue or was quite prepared to take my money for marketing and leave it on the market for ages whilst over priced.

If selling again though, I'd go ESPC I think... most people browse the web for homes these days and I think the ESPC have all these other websites licked. I've sold once before via ESPC, and always bought via ESPC...

Andy.