Which estate agent to pick?

[NewMum152]

Sorry for posting on here but I’m driving myself insane! We’ve narrowed it down to 2 estate agents - Douglas Allen and Haart. I have no idea which one to choose. Both seem nice and knowledgeable of the area snd both have Sn office in the town were looking to move to so makes it useful to sell to same agent as buying. Which one would you use? Same commission and everything the same.

and an office

Honestly don’t think it matters all that much. One (probably too honest) estate agent told me that with the rise of Rightmove etc, you tend to get the same buyer regardless of which agent you list with - the differential is how well they then negotiate on your behalf and help to progress a chain. So if you have a better feeling about either, or a house you are interested in listed with one over the other, I’d just make a decision on that basis.

I’m not sure if you are near me but I actually bought with Haart a few years ago and I thought they were pretty good. I didn’t rate DA at the time (though again as a buyer not seller) - they kept sending me stuff that in no way fit our criteria and I got so frustrated by it I stopped opening his emails. But like I say, this was a long time ago and I’m sure it’ll be all different staff by now! So if you were impressed by who you met, that’s a better guide.

From experience - choose the one with the agent you like the most. I cannot stand the two people dealing with our sale, went with them because their commission was lower (and they have sold the house fairly quickly, but that's probably just the crazy market!) But I absolutely hate talking to them on the phone - it's all "I'll be in touch with yourself" and "send the email to myself" and referring to themselves in the third person. Arrrghhh!! I cannot wait to never have to speak to them again!

So choose the most normal person when they do the valuations, not the ones who apparently model themselves on all the stereotypes of what an estate agent is like...

We used Haart a few years ago and found them to be liars and crooks. When we withdrew our property they took us to court! The judge gave them short shrift as they could not prove who had viewed our house or who had made an offer on it. Ask for confirmation of all your dealings with them in writing (emails) and keep them. Be aware that they will price high and then suggest you drop the price after a few weeks but they won't lower their fees, enough though they are a percentage of the sale value they will claim a percentage of their vaulation.

Have a look at how well they photograph and market their properties.... Compare listings on their websites.

If everything is equal pick the one you click best with.

see who has sold the most in your area or sold the most similar properties to yours.

make sure you don't sign yourself into a long sole agency agreement. Give one of the agents 4 weeks max. (a good house with a good price will sell in 2 weeks tops especially in this market) And worse case if they don't sell within the month you can go multi agent or get rid of them completely