Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Original poster

Advice needed re estate agents

21 replies

MirandaGoshawk · 26/05/2014 16:20

So we've finally decided to move. Last summer our house was valued at £260,000. Now I estimate it to be worth around £290,000.

Estate agent 1 valued it at £275,00
Estate Agent 2 said £330,000 Shock
Estate agent 3 said £315 - 325,000

We've seen a house we like & need to get £300,000 in order to afford it. The sellers haven't found anywhere they like.

EA 1 is local, bog standard, specialises in the kind of people who would buy our house, (young family with dch at good local school) charges 1% but we won't get the £300k

EA 2 is local and a bullshit merchant who might get us a high price but equally might leave us dangling for a year. Charges 1% also.

EA 3 is a top-end agent who would take fab photos and market us in London but charges 1.6% (plus a package for photos & floorplan which we get back if they sell it) but is 6 miles away.

So we'd get the best deal with 2 but it's a bit of a gamble. Don't want to be greedy/price possible buyers out, also note that the house is a marmite house. I love it but it wouldn't suit everyone.

Which would you go for?

OP posts:
mrsnec · 26/05/2014 16:27

3 without a doubt but check they have local knowledge.

Pinkje · 26/05/2014 16:56

I'd go for 3 too. They'll work hard for their commission I bet.

orangepudding · 26/05/2014 17:00

I would go with one of the local agents. It doesn't matter if 3 will market your house in London, anyone from London can see your house on roghtmove etc with the other agents.

You can ask one to put it on the market for a higher price.

kazzawazzawoo · 26/05/2014 17:01

Will EA 3 come down in price if you tell them other EAs have quoted lower fees?

Onesleeptillwembley · 26/05/2014 17:05

Is marketing your house in London relevant? Surely if you're there then that's where it will be marketed. If not then why pay for something you don't need? I can't see any reason for it.

Original poster
MirandaGoshawk · 26/05/2014 17:06

Orange I did think about that but I don't know if they'd say 'It's not worth this price' to clients. We bought through 1. They are popular locally & have good local knowledge but one of them said our house is ordinaryShock when it's unique - and is listed because of its historical interest.

OP posts:
Original poster
MirandaGoshawk · 26/05/2014 17:09

Kazza I don't think so - it's already discounted, apparently.

OnesleepGood point. It's probably not London relevant tbh. We're in Devon. People relocating to the country from London will be able to afford better down here. I suppose our market is mostly local families.

OP posts:
kazzawazzawoo · 26/05/2014 17:12

Worth a try to get them to discount.

However I would go with a local one and you can pick your price, you don't have to go with what they say. Tell them you would like to try it at 310k tostart with with a view to reducing it if there' s no interest.

Onesleeptillwembley · 26/05/2014 17:15

Which boards to you see most often locally? May be a starting point.

kmdesign · 26/05/2014 17:43

I sold recently and opted for a flashy agent who wanted more but appeared to offer more. They were sharply suited etc but in reality they didnt deliver and I dumped them.

Agents work on the basis of being successful in getting books on their property and then getting a 12-16 week lock in. Once they have a house on their books, they lock out the competition and then wait and watch. My sheer numbers they get sales and the ones that sell, sell. We signed up, they did the brochures etc but they depended on just their website to get people in. In 10 weeks, they got us 1 viewing only. They were useless at returning calls, reporting etc. Basically just uninterested.

I then dumped them while I was still in the lock in period and they let it go. I went multi agency with 2 prominent national agencies. The agents were every stereotype of agents one might imagine but within 3 weeks of going on the market with the 2 agencies, we have about 10 viewings and an offer close to asking. The market hadnt changed. It was down to the agents worrking the phones, creating interest in the property etc.

If there is a minimum price you need to achieve, speak to the agents and let them know. Put together a deal where you incentivize them to get you a good price. Say you want 300k, tell them that and offer than 10% of the excess they achieve. Imagine this. If they get 1% for 300k ie £3k commission but 10% on anything over, they could make £4k for achieving £310k. Its a sure win win and you will be amazed how much harder they would work for you.

Original poster
MirandaGoshawk · 27/05/2014 12:40

Oooh thanks km for that last para! Would never occur to me to do that.

Funnily enough, the agent who appears to be working the hardest is no 2. He has phoned a couple of times with 'I've got a house here you might like'. We went to see one of these last week and got chatting to his assistant (who showed us round), and she told us about another one, which we love! Although her boss is as described Hmm I did like her - honest, knowledgeable and full of ideas about extending, improving etc - possibilities which people might not see for themselves.

So thank you all for your advice. Lots of good points there. I'm going to sort this out this afternoon. Thinking of going with 2 because they will presumably work hard to get the chain going if we're buying and selling through them. Yes they quote high prices, but we would aim for a bit less & try km's suggestion and as per Onesleep, lots of boards round here.

I like Agent 1 but they're just not that interested, and Agent 3, also like but will work out expensive and I think not our target market for this house.

OP posts:
RelocatorRelocator · 27/05/2014 12:51

Have you met the people who will actually be dealing with the buyers day to day? Often you only meet the front man/woman, who you then don't see for dust once the ink's dry on the paperwork.

Original poster
MirandaGoshawk · 27/05/2014 15:43

I've met two of them. As I said, his assistant impressed me, also met an elderly man, retired agent now Saturdays only who is great. I also met an older woman whose attitude I found distinctly Hmm. She wasn't very friendly. This was on a sleepy Saturday afternoon so I'm hoping she was just tired/bored. But Agent 1 has a wide boy so... none of them is perfect!

OP posts:
dannydyerismydad · 27/05/2014 15:48

I'd go with 2.

Which ever agent you go with, ask what they do for the money. I'm amazed how many of my friends have properties on the market with agents who expect them to do the viewings.

wigglylines · 27/05/2014 16:30

I wouldn't touch agent 3 with a bathrooms tbh.

We had 4 agents view our property. We thought it was worth about £240k.

The local agent giving a more traditional service quoted £250k.
Two slightly smarter agents quoted £275k and spent a lot of time talking about breaking the stamp duty barrier.
One very flash agent quoted £290k and wanted us to agree a 16 week tie-in. He was very convincing and we almost went for them. (It was the tie in that put them off).

We decided to go with an online agent (housenetwork - much, much cheaper) and we priced it at £279.950, because we saw similar flats at the same price.

We got lots of viewings the first 2 weeks and an offer of £250k, which we refused.

Then ... Nothing.

One quick reality check from mumsnet later, and we decided to accept the £250k after all, and luckily they were still up for it!

So, we sold in 3 weeks for what the local agent said it would go for. Also we'd paid £600 rather than £2750 to the agent.

A few months later, the flats we'd seen on at £275k were still on the market. No idea what they sold for eventually.

Have you considered an online agent?

wigglylines · 27/05/2014 16:31

Ha ha funny autocorrect given the context!

I wouldn't touch agent 3 with a bargepole, or a bathroom!

The slick agent we met was just trying to use our greed to manipulate us IMO. All this stuff about the London Market may well be guff IMO.

wigglylines · 27/05/2014 16:33

^^and the tie-in put us off, not them!

One day I will learn to write posts that actually make sense, I hope :)

SpringyReframed · 27/05/2014 17:24

I wish I'd asked this question OP before I choose my agents. These are great bits of advice. I think I with your agent 3 Hmm.

SpringyReframed · 27/05/2014 17:25

I "am" with, sorry.

MrsCosmopilite · 27/05/2014 17:38

EA 3 sounds best to me. When we sold (recently) we got three quotations - EA2 gave us the lowest quote BUT we noted on their site that they sold more than EA1 & EA3, and their pictures/sales blurb was far better.

We told them the price we wanted to put the property up for, and they marketed it at that price. We ended up selling for £5k less than we'd put it up for, but £15k more than their original valuation.

wigglylines · 27/05/2014 19:04

I would also be suspicious of agent 3 asking for more money for their marketing. Why can't they take that out of the - literally - thousands of pounds they plan to make from their clients?

Unless they're worried they won't make any commission off you, which doesn't say much for their confidence that they'll sell it.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page