Henry Pryor Says: Time to sack your agent?

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Imagine being trapped in a lift with an estate agent! As if that isn't bad enough, the property bore is banging on about something that you don't want to hear and doesn't seem to apply to you.

Having pressed the emergency button and found that the phone's disconnected, there's nothing to be done but to sit and wait for the nice boys from the fire brigade.

Nothing that is except to listen to what may turn out to be pearls of wisdom that some agents are actually, finally, trying to impart - that the market has changed and you need to plan accordingly.

I am already hearing the cries of some vendors who have been on the market for months and haven't had a single viewer.

The market is freezing up and this means that some are going to find that despite the optimism of the bright young agent who told them what they wanted to hear when they put the house on the market all those months ago, buyers are rarer than lift repair men when you actually need one.

What this means is that for the first time for years, buyers have to be courted.

Agents will ring buyers and try to recall how to say "can I help you?". It's so long since they had to look after a buyer that some can't even remember how their mailing list works. Sellers under 34 have never had to think about a buyer when setting a guide price.

They just took last weeks lottery numbers, stuck a pound sign in front of it and waited for the offers to roll in.

Well, not any more. Despite the evidence of a hardening market from the people who know (RICS, Hometrack, Land Registry - even the ever-optimistic Nationwide) and reports from agents that buyers are making offers 5% or more below asking prices, we learn from Rightmove that vendors in London are actually increasing their prices.

Unfortunately, they go on to tell us that the result is that the average property is now staying on the market for 87 days. It is taking longer to sell your house and when you do, you must expect to get less for it.

If you really do want to sell then make sure that you don't fall for the estate agent who tells you what he thinks you want to hear. The agent who gives you the highest price and often the lowest fee. It is the way to a potential vendors heart and understandably so.

If the tactic does work and you do manage to sell then well done. Most people end up with a call two or three weeks later recommending that you drop your price. Make sure that if you do have to drop your asking price your agent drops his fee too.

Better still, if it's the same agent who recommends you drop your asking price from what he originally advised, sack him! He had his chance and he blew it.

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