choosing estate agent/price

[HelloMyNameIsHilda]

Hi all

I'm getting divorced (yay!) and need to sell my house (not so yay!)

have had three valuations done and they vary from 550k to 625k. local EA gave the 550, said maybe market at 575k. A major chain who have offices in all the areas around us , gave highest valuation of 625K and said I should expect maybe £600.

The highest valuers did a great job of talking about their campaign, how they were very good at getting folk priced out of regions nearby round to view what they could get for same price in slightly different area etc. ALL made sense. They also made good points about few things to do to the house to make it look better etc.

The area I live in is very nice indeed. However we are on a busy road, opposite the railway. The price reflects this (a street back you can pay £300k more!)

do I need local EA with less agressive sales strategy and more local footfall or one with wider draw (and higher percentage!)

can't talk to stbexH (he is so useless you simply wouldn't believe it) about it so am turning to you lot for your input. wwyd?

I'd look at which agent has the most "for sale" or "sold" signs in your area and go with them. Since they're all online they will all get traffic, but very often there is one agent which gets more buyers than the others - initially at least - because they are well known in your area.

Major chains can get it very wrong on pricing IME.

And you can always ask the local guys to put the house on for a little more than they've suggested.

problem is there are about 5 agents just down the street and so the for sale signs are a real mixed bag - I'm currently dithering about whether to put on with the big chain but for lower! I do suspect they may be harder working as there commission is higher and they work to earn it. Some of the others don't send thoings through when they say they will/are hard to get hold of etc etc etc

You're looking at paying commission in the range of £6000 - £12000 - 1%-2%

• a lot of money - if you're seriously willing to pay that, then I would make sure I got every penny's worth out of the agent. Will they do the viewings? If you're willing to do them, and you're sure of your valuation and what you will won't accept - have you considered using an online agency - you could pay much less than £1000. That's a lot of celebratory bubbly. I used Housenetwork a while back (so I'm biased) and would recommend them to anyone.

actually the chain are charging a non-negotiable 2.5% which translates into £15K on a £600K sale

still can't believe house could seriously achieve that...though I think that about every valuation over about £250K - house prices just seem so stupid

don't think I can do it myself. am currently holding down two jobs and am out of house pretty much all day every day and any time I'm not working I'm trying to spend with the kids

Blimey!!! But ... I think you'll find that 2.5% becomes very negotiable the minute you tell them you're going with somebody else. But I understand your situation. Seriously though, that sort of price is not justifiable.
So on a £300k house @ 2.5% one would pay £7,500 - you're going to pay twice as much as that. Can they really say they will put twice as much effort into selling your house - or worse, do they only put half as much time/effort into selling the other property?
I find the commission system inherently flawed - surely a fixed fee would be better - gernerally?

I wouldnt worry about using a 'national' because they are national. If you use someone who appears on Rightmove then effectively they are national. We have sold two houses in the last year or so to people from completely outside the area using our local Estate Agent.

Look at the details they produce. Think about how the EA makes you feel. Is this someone you can work with? Is this someone who will give you useful feedback from viewings rather than platitudes?

TBH I would always have the agent do the viewings not you. Viewers dont want to see your home, they want to see their own future home.

What you can do is go with the agent you like and then choose the price. Look at what other vendors are asking and make sure that you offer the best value for the money.

I suggest you do your own homework on the price. Use Rightmove to see what similar proerties are on the market for. Check the asking prices of the ones that are selling then check the land registry for the prices they sold for. Then pick the estate agent you like. If the agent is smart, friendly and well informed then it will reflect well on your house.

Which of them open on bank holidays? Do they do viewings at the weekend or evenings? Is the office open on a Sunday (at least to give out details or book viewings)? You'd be amazed how many don't do the above.

Who did you get on with? It will help if potential buyers aren't put off by a personality clash.

You can tell any of the agencies to market your house at whatever price you like, so take that out of the equation.

Have a look at the details they all have for other properties and see what details they show online.

Also, look at what price-range they tend to deal with. If you're right at one end of their clientel, you are limiting potential buyers (someone looking to spend

Absolutely agree with Barbeasty

One tip from me: go to Rightmove and look at some of the properties your prospective EAs are marketing which are similar to yours. Are they well presented, with good pictures, floorplans, relevant information? Would you visit those houses? Do they tend to market properties high or low?

There are also a fair few Estate Agent comparison websites around that show ratings and testimonials from actual clients.

We noticed a huge difference in the photos from different agencies, again Rightmove will show you. Some clearly prepped rooms (or got clients to), had wide angle lenses, good lighting etc. Others took photos of an old table or a bed. Made a lot of difference to us buying so we went with an agency with great photos for selling too. Sold in a month so maybe it worked!

Hilda - the chain is Foxtons isn't it?

Interestingly, they have just valued my house at £625,000 when I would be very happy to get £550,000 for it.

Put it on at £595,000 and see what happens.

yep it's foxtons and I know they tend to value high

but their sales patter was is good, I liked the manager who came around, I liked the approach he outlined, they are open late and at weekends and on bank holidays, their sales particulars look great blah blah blah

one local guy was supposed to come round tonight didn't even turn up...so I reckon it'll be the big F yet, but maybe a bit below their silly valuation figure !

This experience wouldn't stop me buying a house through Foxtons (let's face it - I wouldn't be paying them!) but it certainly meant I wouldn't use them to sell.
Wanted to view a house they had in SE London and said I could meet them at the property at lunchtime. They said great, drop your car at our place and we'll drive you there - save parking hassles. OK - went to office - looked like plush bar/internet cafe - free bottles of water and soft drinks (you know what that £12,000 is being spent on!) Chap says - got a new house just come on, no details yet would you like to see that too? Said fair enough, as long as it's nearby. After every house we saw, he pulled out the keys to another one - it's just around the corner, won't take a minute - it was like being held prisoner for a couple of hours. Not one of them matched our requirements - seemed like he'd just pulled all the keys of the "hard to sells" off the wall on the way out. He took us to one street where there two houses they were selling one of which I hadn't realised was theirs but was an exact match for what we wanted (He didn't have the keys for that!!!) - said he would set up a viewing for us another day - never heard back from him about that - still sends me random updates of properties which don't match the requirements we gave him.
He spoke about being aware of their "reputation" - I think he means as a bunch of wiseguys! They have ended up in court in the past.
I wouldn't use them on principle - your money though!

Edit - that's what the £15,000 is being spent on (not £12,000)

I'd be wary of using foxtons too.
As a recent buyer, it's true - Foxtons always have really attractive photos, which make their properties stand out on Rightmove - but the places I looked round with them looked quite shoddy and small compared to the wide angled pictures so I was always disapointed.
Before deciding to go with them, install 'property bee' on your computer (using firefox) and look on rightmove to see how long foxtons similar properties have been on the market and how much they have been reduced by in that time. THere is, IMO, no point spending 4 months on the market not selling only to then reduce your price to similar to what the local estate agents quoted. The info shown on property bee should help you see if this is the case.
Only 2 (out of 9) of the properties I saw with them (mainly in Dec) have gone under offer. Most of them had been on since summer and have, by now, had 50k knocked off the price. (these are 2 bed flats on originally at about £450k). They still seem over priced compared to similar properties and are still lingering on rightmove etc looking stale.
The last thing is that if you go with Foxtons, people will assume your house is way over priced from the start, even if you decide to put it on at a more realistic price lower than they advise. THis might effect the any offers you get.
I sound as if I hate Foxtons here don't I?! I don't think I'd use them as a seller ever, but I would buy off them. I'd just be extra careful about doing my homework first.
Good luck with the sale whatever you chose...