Estate agents and selling houses

[HouseNovice1]

Hi,

We are looking to sell our current house, we have never sold before and pretty clueless.

Would anyone be kind enough to talk us through the process?
We have asked a local estate agent to do a valuation for us, should we get some others?

We have a mortgage advisor who’s helping us understand our options and we’ve seen a house we are interested in

Sorry if these are silly questions we don’t really have anyone to ask in rl

thank you

I'd get 3 valuations if I were you. You only want to pay the least possible in commission but you also want one that is good at selling. You want a presence on Rightmove for traffic. Also check out what houses have gone for on your street so you can gage what you might realise. I wouldn't take the highest valuation as your house needs to be well priced to sell.

You only want proceedable buyers (so people who have sold their own homes or are SSTC). You need the EA to be really engaged and try and get an open day (but with appointments so people aren't all crammed in together). I wrote my own lines for Rightmove. You may want to pay for professional photos. Prior to these I scrubbed and decluttered like mad.

I'd go to Town and Country for a mortgage. They have access to tons of banks and limited deals offers and the process is so quick. You'll need a mortgage in principle to go for another house

How exciting! Good luck!

I would get at least 3 valuations personally. Ask their fee, is there a minimum fee (one agent we had, if we had sold below the initial marketing price they would have still got 1% of the initial marketing price even if we'd dropped / sold for £100k less or whatever). Are you tied in for x weeks (varies from you only need to give a month's notice to you're locked in for 4 months here). What is included e.g. professional photos, id checks, floorplan that sort of thing. Do they seem savvy/realistic/honest about the market when you speak to them. There's probably other stuff but that's what first springs to mind. Good luck

See at least three local agents. Which seems to be selling more houses in the area? Are they
marketing houses similar to yours and do they know the market? Ask for back up of their valuations. If they can base those on sales agreed of houses on their books then great. Ask what they think the house will sell for - is this different from the asking price they suggest marketing at? Is there any point marketing at a higher price if you're never going to get? Is there anything obvious your house needs doing to it and price accordingly and have the EA say so rather than being knocked down by a prospective buyer at offer stage.

Consider the target market for your house. Who does viewings? If the EA then is the person who'll conduct viewings someone who will build a rapport with your target market. Who does the sales progression, liaising with solicitors and keeping any chain together? We chose not to use an EA who had a call centre where multiple people who had never even seen the house would do this work.

Ime, a lot of EAs do little more for their money than advertise your house on Rightmove. Some don't accompany viewings. Buyers are likely to be more honest with an EA than with you as the seller. Weekend staff doing viewings who aren't regular full time EA employees seem to have a woefully limited knowledge of houses they are conducting viewings of. One was incredibly rude to me and DP about removing our shoes when we arrived at a viewing in a howling gale!

Remember that things a buyer would like to do to your house which are not strictly necessary to make it livable are not things you should be paying for!

Plus everything @HildasLostSock has mentioned.

Selling a house is the only time I got 3 valuations, glad I did. Values can vary. If you have any friends that have bought or sold recently I would ask who they used and would they recommend. I would also check that they do Saturday and Sunday viewings… some don’t do Sundays, which makes it hard for buyers that can’t view in the week,

There's a great thread on the Property/DIY bit of mumsnet for people selling and buying.
Just remember that every area has its own trends and that what works for others won't necessarily work for you. I am often amazed on here when people are gutted that their house haven't sold after three weeks on Rightmove! But I live in a very very rural area where properties take ages to sell just because not many people live here, it's a completely different market in a town or city.
I'd use a local mortgage adviser. I paid £450 for mine and he's been absolutely amazing.

Go for 3 quotes and don’t just go with the highest. How are you doing viewing? They doing them or you?
estate agents can be slippery and tell you what you want to hear

when I sold they showed 4 people around for whom the feedback showed the estate agents were not showing around clients who would buy it. Eg one had a max budget 100K under the price, one wanted and non negotiable of a big enough drive for two caravans, one wanted to be in nearby town (I was in a tiny village!) so I was unhappy early on. Then moved.

other questions 1. Photo included and who does them. Mine wanted £600 for photos taken by the agent. A private company did staging and took photos for £200 and they were really good 2. % commission it varies
3 always remember they work for themselves not you !!!! It doesn’t really matter that much to you if they sell it for £350 K or £330K there is only £3500 compared to £3300 they will pressure you to accept lower and the buyer to offer higher.

You don’t want people just having a nosey! You need to be a savvy with right move that house round the corner on the corner plot with the slightly bigger garden and a bigger utility - it’s going to get more.

I have finished buying and selling for life but I’m telling it is seriously stressful!!