Marketing our 2 bed London flat- which valuation to go for?

[CocoKev]

We had four valuations for our flat today- 3 within £15,000 of each other, the 4th a good £70,000 above the mean of the others. The 4th agents also charge the highest commission - you may be able to guess their name from that information! Does this 'value high' strategy really work? Do they really sell for more to justify the higher commission?
If you've sold recently- did you go with the highest value or a low commission/ reasonable valuation option? All advice welcome, thank you.

In my experience, the high-value, high-commission agents will get you to sign up with them on the basis of their valuation, and when it doesn't sell at their inflated price will pressure you to take a lower offer closet to the other agents' valuations. And you'll pay the higher commission on it.

You could ask one of the other agents if they're willing to market nearer the higher price? Then, if it does sell at that price, you pay the lower commission anyway?

I have to say, my experience with the high-value, high-commission estate agent was not good. The only positive thing about them, really, was that they took excellent photos.

I'd do the following tests before hiring an agent:

1. Look at photos on line of some of their other properties. Are the photos professional looking and do they show the property in the most flattering light, while not looking fake?

2. Call them and ask about arranging a viewing of one of their other properties. Who do you speak to? Do they sound professional? Does the person who answers the phone give you information about the property straight-away and book you in for a viewing? (The high-valuation, high-commission agent doesn't do this - a receptionist answers the phone who will put you on hold to try to get you through to a sales agent and if no one is available, they take your number and say someone will call you back - all before you can make an appointment to view. Much less efficient than other agents. And the reason they do this is because they want to drag you to other properties at the same time.)

3. Make an appointment for a viewing with one of their agents (I'd go for an empty/BTL property so you don't inconvenience the owners). Does the agent insist on showing you other properties too, that you're not interested in? (The high-valuation, high-commission agent tends to do that)
   Do they show your selected property positively, professionally and knowledgeably?

Thank you, that's really helpful.

As well as those tests, I'd also suggest signing up with a couple of agents to look at properties. Do they proactively contact you? With things that meet your requirements and are within your stated budget? We've been house hunting recently and we're going with the company who always calls us to tell us when there's something new on the market - because if they're doing that for other people's houses, then they'll probably do it for ours too.

Great post, cunning.

No. The market's slowed down. You want a competitive price to drum up a bit of a bidding war. Go for the estate agent with the most ethical outlook of the three close together. Avoid high price high commission wankers like the proverbial.

If it's Foxtons, avoid like the plague

They're a bunch of lying, thieving cunts

Do the agents sound like Hoxton by any chance?

They over valued our 1 bed/zone 1 in January of last year. Despite being told there would be a bidding war it took 6months to sell! And this was just before the market cooled. Yes, we were totally sucked in and saw pound signs so we only had ourselves to blame. We were seriously considering paying two sets of fees at one point, such was our desperation. We instructed new agents who were very good but ultimately we sold with our original agents. (For 57k under their initial valuation).
Be warned.

Those guys valued our flat a clear £50k above everyone else. And they wanted 2.5%. We were selling in N4.

We negotiated with one of the other agents - I liked his approach, but to be fair, he played silly buggers as well, but ended up paying 1%.

If I were in the market now, I would go with the lower valuations to
encouage interest. It will find its price. Where I am now N8 - there are lots of ridiculous asking prices and houses kicking around for a while.

Don't go for the highest valuation if it's that much over.

Do check out how each agent presents online eg floorplans, description, photos and I agree with testing out the viewings team. Our selling agent was horrific when we viewed through them. It really was an eye opener.

We moved our flat to the agent who had the fantastic viewings person who took time to know the properties, and knew what her buyers wanted - and then showed them the property rather than opening the door and saying "well I'll leave you to it then, make sure you don't let the cat out".

Thank you all- yes it sounds as though you've twigged the people I mean! We will be avoiding them and going with the more ethical of the others.