I’m not entirely sure that they will put less effort in if you go joint – if anything, they would put more effort in because they know they have to compete. Competition is important between estate agents – each one wants to be the biggest and best in the area. It would be very unusual for them to think "Oh well, we’ll let them have this one, we’ve got enough on our books anyway!"

What I would do though is if you want to start out with one agent, make sure that you are free to go elsewhere. Make sure you aren’t obligated to, e.g., 3 months with one agency.

I would suggest starting with one agent (not necessarily the one that values your place the highest – but the one who doesn’t seem to be giving you the gift of the gab) – then give it 4 weeks.

It all very much depends on your location and type of property as to how many viewings you should expect. If it helps, we put our 2 bedroom ground floor apartment in Surrey on the market last September. They all thought it would sell straight away. We went with 3 agents to start with. Sole fee for all agents was about 1%. Joint fee was only 1.25%, so we went for it.

In my experience, it’s better to have a few agents on the case. You’ll get more people through your door. We were so glad we went joint when the agency we initially thought were the best turned out to be the worst. They hardly made any effort after the first two weeks. One agency continued to get us viewings month after month. We still hadn’t sold by Christmas, so we got Foxtons involved too! Their fees were hefty, but they got people through the door! Finally, we accepted an offer just after Christmas through one of the other agents and eventually completed last month.

As others have said – not to be pessimistic – have months in mind, not weeks. Estate agents make you feel like you have the most desirable property in the area. Don’t set yourself up for a fall. Work out a contingency plan – i.e. ‘What will happen if we still haven’t sold in 6 months?’ A good plan in the current climate is to consider renting after you complete. It’s much less risky and messy than trying to combine buying and selling. It’s heartbreaking when you find your dream home; only to lose it because your buyer pulls out. If you considered renting for a little while, you’d have much more flexibility, be in a much better buying position, and would save money every month because like-for-like, renting is usually cheaper than a mortgage. It’s taken about 7 months to sell our house – from putting it on the market to completion. We had an offer on the first day – his buyer pulled out; so he pulled out. We had other situations like this along the way. There were low offers, accepted offers and all kinds of hiccups. But be patient, don’t get your hopes up too much, and hang in there!

If you haven’t had any offers at all after 6 weeks, consider getting a home stager (or honest friend) to look at your home.

So in conclusion, I would definitely go joint-agency if you can. If not, I would tell the agent you choose that you will give them 1 month to get an offer made – after that point, you may consider going joint-agency. This should make them want to push your home before other agents get their hands on it. Oh and if they agree but state a joint-agency fee of anything more than 1.5%, laugh in their face!!! (Unless you live in London, in which case, 3% would be about right)

Good luck!

xx Emmie
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Why?

Your home will not go into the MLS system

Exclusive means they will NOT cooperate with another agent.

Why would they not want to do that?

GREED!

They want the entire 6% commission.

If you do list on an exclusive basis forget about weeks and start thinking months since the probability that the listing agent will find a buyer on their own is slim to none.

Go talk to other agents who don’t talk such nonsense of Exclusive basis.
References :

and check out the "Real Estate" Section
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and check out the "Real Estate" Section

You’ll know in the first 3or4 weeks if the house is priced right in the the current market… No interest or viewings and it’s overpriced… not a worry unless you want a quick sale.

Watch for withdrawal fees in your contract. Some agent charge a fee if you take your property off the market and go with another agent.

The market is tough at the moment, many estate agents have too many unsold properties on their books to spend the time required on each property…. my advice – pick a small independent… but not after having at least 3 valuations…
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