Estate agents grrrr. What would make selling your house easier?

[dhw]

We are starting an Estate Agency specialising in family homes. We are aware that agents generally have a pretty poor reputation and we aim to change people's perceptions - (at least locally).

What in your opinion would attract you to selling your home through a paticular agent?

We have lots and lots of good ideas about how to make it a good, honest, friendly service, but your feedback would be very gratefully recieved.

DHW

Doing something to justify the fees (around here houses practically sell themselves...)

Being present at viewings, following up viewings to see if people are interested and if not, why not. (I once went to see a house twice and no-one ever followed up my visits - I would have been mighty peed off if I was the seller...)

Not expecting sellers to rush home from work because you have arranged a viewing at short notice and ensuring that viewers do turn up. (I once rushed home, tidied up, delayed feeding and bathing my toddler and the viewers never materialised.)

I have quite a bit of experience with Estate Agents (and have worked as one myself, ducks to avoid flying rotten eggs) and imho these things are really important:

Bearing in mind that the agent works for the vendor, not the buyer:

Giving honest feedback from the viewer on every viewing. Last house we sold, we had about 10 viewings. We sold quite quickly, but never heard what the others liked/didn't like about the property.

In this hot market, NOT sending round people on viewings who are not in a position to buy. Helps enormously if they have already had mortgage advice. Too many people go out on a Saturday just to "get a feel" for what's available. But it takes a lot of effort for families to have their house tidy enough for a viewing, and fit in around the rest of family life, so only serious buyers should be allowed, without the express permission of the vendor.

Fees are important too. Moving is cripplingly expensive and sometimes you wonder exactly what the Estate Agent has had to do for their £thousands.

Being honest to the vendor about what you could do to improve your chances of selling. Ie. not having dirty undercrackers lying around on the floor etc. Need to be upfront.

At the same time, being honest with the viewers about what the property is actually like - so they don't turn up and are going to be instantly put off by things like - oh I don't know - being near a pub, or on a busy road, or needing a new kitchen, etc etc.

Thats all I can think of for now. Will come back if any more occur to me.

Good luck with your new business - I always loved being an Estate Agent and am thinking of trying to get back into that line of work. But then it really is a young people's game isn't it - what with people expecting you to do accompanied evening viewings and Sunday viewings and everything. Estate Agents aren't ever supposed to have any time off, are they?

Just for starters....

Wide clientele and advertising network.
A tailor made, personal service identifying those who may genuinely be interested from the unliklies (I could spot them coming through the door why couldn't the EA ?), keeping prospective buyers in touch and tipping them off before marketing
Accommodating attitude - no sighs when you say a viewing is inconvenient due to school holidays , guests , kids teatime/bed mayhem etc
Offering to do the viewings without having to be asked all the time then sighing at the inconvenience
Not being beaten by flat generalisations in feedback ie 4th bedroom too small (perhaps actually presentation and preconception), "needs work", road busy(perhaps not all the time? and good for transport ) but having responses which may turn things more positive
Personal knowledge of the property and locality to aid above
Being proactive !

Thought of another one already - this really happened to me. I viewed a property with serious damp issues - musty smell and great strips of wallpaper peeling off the walls. When I pointed this out the EA showing me round said it was probably due to the fact that there was wet washing drying in the house (there was wet washing, but, honestly, WTF???).

Honesty, and being properly briefed on any probs in the property are v. important. Saves a lot of time and heartache when surveys throw up a problem.

Please listen to the wants of the buyers.

I once had a viewer who had specifically stated no main road. The estate agent had lied about the location of my house (on a busy road). The viewing was a complete waste of time for all concerned. I'd had to take time off work as well so I was really cross.

I think I've also had a rant about this before but PLEASE don't call a 5' x 5' study a reception room! Another time wasting exercise.

Good luck with the venture.

We specified to the Agent that they must point out we had no central heating. Every single viewer who came round expressed surprise that there was no heating- so obviously hadn't been told. They were just wasting everyone's time.

One time they rang at 8.30am on a Saturday morning with viewers who wanted to come round now. We had 4 very small children and were all still in bed. The Agent got very grumpy when we said no. (By this time it'd been on the market for months and we'd got really fed up).

We also had people sent round who clearly didn't want to live on our estate in the first place or were looking for a different sort of property. The Agent's idea was that the more they sent round the more likely to find a buyer.

We changed Agent and only had 2 people sent round in a couple of weeks. The second lot bought it.

oh and measure the actual dimensions of the rooms - no "maximum" (ie from the back of a wardrobe into the door recess in an l-shaped room - it is meaningless when you are trying to compare like for like. The best details I saw had clear floor plans (those on Rightmove tend to be fuzzy and too small to read)with the various dimensions clearly shown, and less narrative.

Oh, agree VERY strongly with Liz. Very irritating when you have no idea whether it's worth seeing the house or not because they can't give you basic information about the size/shape of the room.

Also, an agent who can give you advice about accepting offers. Who the best buyer is (ie reliable, got their finances together, no chain, know their solicitor is fast) if you get more than one offer.

We accepted an offer the first day of viewings and then get another from one of that day's viewers 24 hours later. I had no idea whether it was worth going back to the first viewer or whether that would merely piss him off and make him walk away. The agent had met them, surely it's part of his job to assess what sort of buyer they are? Wouldn't mind if the agent had said 'well, if you do x, there's a risk of y' but to just get a blank 'dunno' is very irritating.

I know it's a hard one to call but they sell LOTS of houses, they must have a clue how often people walk away if another buyer offers more... or how often people who have come in second actually go through with the sale.

fantastic feedback thanks everyone.

twoisenoughmum - you're not in brighton by any chance are you?! We'd love to give you a job you sound perfect!

Thanks so much for the feedback everyone - this is so very very helpful.

DH has just been reading these (is that allowed?!) and says this:

1. lots of you mention the importance of being honest about a property's shortcomings when BUYING, but if you were SELLING how would you feel about us being upfront about your property's pitfalls?

2. how important do you feel it is to have your property in the local paper? Or do you think that most people find their property online these days?

Finally thank you all VERY much for your thoughts, anecdotes and feedback - it could not be more useful. It's great that so many people think the same as we do about EAs (which we're not).

I would never ever use an agent who didn't do floorplans

DHW - sadly, not near Brighton, no. Thanks for the offer though!

dhw I would like the agent to be totally honest about everything so that there are no nasty surpises down the line.BTW are you doing lettings?

1. lots of you mention the importance of being honest about a property's shortcomings when BUYING, but if you were SELLING how would you feel about us being upfront about your property's pitfalls?

Interestingly we asked the agents who came to value whether we should update certain features (doors, windows, flooring etc) . Their response was no but lo and behold they became "excuses" for viewers losing interest. Would rather they had been honest in the beginning tbh - we could have spent some of the 15k we've dropped and done a lot of it ourselves. We were told it was "realistically priced to sell" but it has become evident that it was less saleable as a result if it "needing work". Trouble is once you embark on selling doing any work is harder.

2. how important do you feel it is to have your property in the local paper? Or do you think that most people find their property online these days

I still scan local papers but the majority of our viewings came via Rightmove and I saw houses before they got into the paper by seeing them appear on Rightmove or being tipped off by the odd on the ball agent. Rightmove etc has its pitfalls though as it often means the agent hasn't met or really spoken to the viewers in any detail and sometimes only have a mobile contact number to follow up on . One guy was really creepy but "had seemed enthusiastic to view " and some had misconceptions based on the written details and lack of local knowledge.

online

Thanks Lizs

I have just put my house on the market recently, The things that sold our agents to us were...

1. No contract - we can walk with just 2 weeks' notice. This gives me reassurrance that they won't promise the earth until I've agreed to their 10/12 week contract and then they turn out to be rubbish!

1. Floor plans and photos are a must. I know that quite often I have a very good feel for a property before I go to view if (if it has got floor plans and photos) but more importantly, I can cross off houses that are blatantly unsuitable (like no hallway, if that was really important to me!)

1. The fact that all the agents come to see our property within the first couple of weeks of putting our house on the market. That way, they are all able to sell our house to potential vendors.

1. Being on rightmove - obviously! But not only that, having all our details accessible from rightmove, not just 3 photos and a brief description.

1. regular contact and knowledge of what they are doing to market the house. Feedback phone calls and sheets so we can see exacl;ty what they have done to market the property and what comments we have got from potential buyers!

HTH

Also, accompanied viewings are great - but one agent told us we had to be out of the house when they did them - not always practical with a 3 year old and a 2 month old! A bit of flexibility is needed here!

Floorplans on the details are always helpful to give people an idea of the layout beforehand.

Clear, proper, floorplans with acurate measurments - most definitely yes. Decent amount of varied photos as well on the website/printed details. I can never understand the ones that only show 4 pictures of the garden, or the front of the house from 3 angles and none of the interior - what on earth can be going on inside? - very off putting. Website advertising is now, I think, the most important aspect - and because people will search and bring up loads of results, your advert has to look good or it'll just get passed by.

Also photos - make them flattering and get a proper photographer to do them by all means - but don't take the piss on the wide angle lens - the pictures of my parents house made the rooms look ginormous. So of course when people turned up they kept saying the rooms weren't as big as they expected...they weren't that small but if the photos make them look enormous and they're not it's a bit pointless!

oh god yes - no massive lock in contract periods. We just had to give one weeks notice, and the rate ended up as just under 1% - that was a lot more attractive than anything else that anyone could offer. We also went with an independent (and newly set up) agent precisely because he was so enthustiastic (the other independent local agent seemed really complacent and frankly rather uninterested) and showed us all the people he already had waiting for a flat like ours. He was right - it sold in a week for the full asking price.

Thank you ALL very much for your feedback. It's great that your views tend to reflect our own so much - not being estate agents ourselves.

bump for anyone else who has any thoughts!

me again
Another thing that winds me and others up I'm sure is 'estate agent speak'. E.g. things like ' two large windows to the rear aspect' - right, so it's got windows at the back then (for some reason the word aspect really bugs me, usually it's just superfluous - might just be me). Using 15 words where one will do. Calling areas made up names, or places they really aren't at all, and saying places are desirable areas when they're clearly not. And stretching the truth on how close things are to stations, shops etc. There's a difference between showing something in the best possible light and just lying! (Am not suggesting, obviously, that you would do any of this, but plainly mainly agents do and anyone who doesn't would shine out to me!)

And correct grammar and spelling both on the internet and on any written details. Personally, when I see badly written things, I go off the agent a bit - it's easy to fix and creates a good impression. Picky, but when you're up against lots of of other agents to get business, I do think it makes a difference.