Serious question

We are looking at selling our home to move locally

Not used an agent for several years so hoping for some advice from the wise!

What makes a good estate agent and why. What should the agent include in their service and what sort of fee is acceptable- not looking for any specific agents- just tips to finding a good one.

Thanks
Richard

Honest – this is the number 1 criteria
Local knowledge (need not necessarily be a small local firm but that’s my preference)
Fees 1% to 1.25% are reasonable (VAT on top remember)
They should show buyers round in most cases, they should prepare quality photos (these days often with some arial drone photos too)

100% you should try and find one via recommendation. Get a few agents in to view / value the property and put it with the one you want at the price you want (if the agent you like doesn’t suggest the price you want then use your/another agents valuation price).

I have had the full gambit of agent experiences from excellent to taking one to the ombudsmen (and winning) for dishonest practice

We’ve been fortunate to have used 3 excellent agents over the last 10 years that I would have no hesitation in recommending. And by that I mean named agent, not necessarily the company (NW6, W9 and WR14 if anyone is interested 🙂 )

A printed, signed terms of business with clear pricing, definitions and obligations/rights with respect to any joint agency, sole agency, completion/exchange/fee triggers etc.

Any agent that isnt on Prime Location and Rightmove should probably be not considered these days.

Thanks for replies so far please keep your experiences coming

the internet

I used housesimple (the £200 plus vat package), I saved well over 3k and that was at the agent 1% haggle rate)

Pros
– savings (it’s not quite throw away but deffo at the worth a punt level)
– you are closer to the facts and have the numbers of the people concerned
Cons
– you need to do the viewings
– you need to detect bs
– you need to do your own haggling etc
– you need to tart up the advert to get it how you want
– you are closer to the facts and have the numbers of the people concerned
Evens
– you need an epc
– you need a solicitor
– imho pretty much everybody will do RM/Prime/Zoop and gearth/ streetview etc before enquiring
– you will get t***ts direct and via the agent (*to be fair I got one honest eejit – they had a definite immediate cash buyer on their place[no survey done] – not surprised when they pulled out[and I didn’t take it off the market after I got their offer either] and a set of tourists [who to be honest were pretty up front] – we wanted to see what we could get for X)
– imho – if a survey gets done you might be going somewhere

deffo in the worth a punt category

We went with a strong local independent in North London.After meeting most of the local agents,we chose the strongest performing. We made sure we got got on with them and we all understood each others requirements.
They negotiated on their fee & managed the sale of our flat& house purchase through the same office.
The prospect of two sales made them very interested in moving things along. The agents involved will be used again & turned out to be sound blokes.They were straight taking , nononsense.They returned our calls &
hassled both sides of the chain – vendors & legal.

Ours have been brilliant, they really have. We were lucky living in a village location that they’re also a village sort of personality/mindset, we’ve had more than our money worth out of them over the course of the last 15 months that’s for sure… it’s been a LONG process, but I can safely say, we owe them a drink when it’s all over.

Hmmm, a “good” estate agent; cavalier attitude to the customer, ridiculously inflated promises of vast sums of money for your property, zero attempt to sell it whilst charging a ridiculous sum for a piss poor website page and a single advert in the newspaper next to the meeting singles page and the ad that says “beware of the leopard”, trying to sell your property to a mate of his at a “good” price……

I could go on.

What makes a good estate agent and why.

One who gets you more than you thought possible when you sell your house, in the timescale that suits you. Anything else is just ‘window-dressing’.

tbh I’ve never had a problem with the different Estate Agents used on the six sales we’ve had – maybe, ‘you get the Estate Agent you deserve’?

The top criteria for me is that they don’t work for McEwan Fraser.

In my experience pretty much everone uses rightmove as the first place they look for a house. Search locally for houses and see who does the best entries on there.

Some near us are rubbish. No floor plan, one blurry photo of the outside and a poor description. When we were looking there was one agent that didn’t use rightmove because the “wanted to create exclusivity”. I thought that was a nice idea. They have since started putting properties on there and actually do a good job of it.

Think about where your buyer is likely to come from, the agent should have offices where the buyerer is coming from
we were pretty sure that our buyer would come from out of area.
We guessed our buyers would likely come from a flat somewhere closer into london and move out to somewhere to a bigger house with a fast train station.
one of the few things estate agents can do is to introduce a buyer to an area that they had not thought of. Zoopla will only show you areas that you have asked to see.

Go with personal recommendations. Ideally an agent who is recommended in spite of difficulties in the sale.

It depends on where you live, but getting an acceptable offer on a house at the moment is easy. If you like the quality of advert for their other properties, their other properties then they will find you a buyer too. It’s if you end up in a long chain/have problems that the agent earns their commission. Finding one that won’t BS you in this situation is the challenge.

FWIW, it’s far more important to get a good Solicitor. Selling houses is money for old rope IMO.

Bit of 4×2 and some nails, should be able to knock some sense into them, after that the Internet.

+1 for what Mike said. I’d also suggest a JCB and about 40m3 of concrete. The latest jape seems to be a string of incompetently arrange viewings where the buyer never gets told the correct time. My cynical side says they’re “punishment” viewings for giving them their notice.