Which agent to use - worried first time seller

[Krainy]

Help please!
I have had 5 market appraisals which vary massively
The most professional firm with good brochures etc gave me the lowest quote
Do you think they will still do a good job if I ask them to put it on higher in view of all the other valuations?
Another concern is that the old owners used them and put the house on much higher and when didn't sell they switched agents.
There is another agent I like but I their online stuff is not quite as good
Any ideas please?

You need to research the agents as a buyer. See how well they try to sell you a house you ask about, do they offer you the details of all similar proerties on their books, are they quick to get back to you, keen to set up viewings etc.

All indications that they will work hard to sell your house.

If the agent you think best based on this has a higer fee try to negotiate. I have always got them to price match their competition. You can also ask about a fee variation based on how fast they sell. So perhaps if they sell your house within 6 weeks then they get 0.5% more.

As for putting it on at a higher price than they have advised, well you can, they will put it on at what you want (within reason). But, I would advise you to get on zoopla and rightmove and look at the sold prices for similar houses on your street and in the area. That is the best indication of its value, and if you over price your house you will not get people through the door.

Equally, when you are looking at the house you want to buy, check the sold prices as best indicator of what you should be aiming to pay. If your house has dropped in value so have the others.

If you are in no rush you can try a higher price, but most likely it will just sit there and after a month or so you will be advised to drop the price to get people interested.

Before we put our house on the market, we started looking and as well as doing viewings, we considered prospective agents for our sale to see how they treated the buyers to get a feel of how our house would be marketed.

We soon got a clear instinctive view of who we liked and trusted to sell our house - the one who offered to show us a house already under offer as she was sure we could gazump if we wanted the house and the one who turned up to a viewing saying 'i know nothing about this house so dont ask me any questions, ring so and so in the office later' got the boot quickly!

Also consider stuff like will the agent do all the viewings or expect you to do some and how you feel about that (we didn't want to do any viewings) and how much notice you'll get before viewings as well (the agent we went with had a 24 hour notice policy so we knew we could always get the house ready).

Exclusive tie in period is important too - when I sold my first house, not knowing any better, I went with a 12 week tie in period. They did some work for first 2 weeks then nothing at all except keep telling me to drop the price.

Our current agent was willing to negotiate on tie in period and we got a 2 week rolling contract so if we weren't happy with them in the 1st weeks we had a get out.

As Oreo says consider the right price for your house, you wont get people through the door if it's overpriced.

I agree with everyone else, can I also add that photos are really important. We recently changed agents to one that uses a professional photographer and our viewings trebled,although they were the most expensive agent - they worked really hard and have managed to sell our house.