estate agents- which would you go with in this scenario?

[sappak]

We've made an offer on a house without having put ours on the market yet (I know- things just happened...) One agency has offered to sell for a flat fee, the other, which is also selling the house we made the offer on, will charge 1.25%, (which will amount to much more). What do you think? The second agency at 1.25 made a hard sell, telling me that they are bigger, have more clients, can drive traffic/viewings better, etc.,and time is key here, given the situation. But my feeling is that people go through rightmove and zoopla etc anyway- that's certainly what we did. Does it help to have the same agency for both selling and buying, or is it a problem? What would you do?

It's better, in general, to go with the same agent as they will have two sales riding on selling yours. More incentive to sell yours. Can you get their fee down?

Will they take the house off the market, or keep it in until you have a buyer?

The second will have more incentive to sell yours quickly, which can be a good or bad thing.

Have they both valued yours at a similar price?

I got them down from 1.5 to 1.25 but they won't budge further. They've both valued the house more or less the same - 50K higher from the second agency (the one asking 1.25). The main difference between them aside from price and size is that the flat fee agency wants to 'dress' the house, while the second feels we should just put it on the market right now, as is. It's not in bad shape by any means, but it is a family house, two small kids, and looks it...so I know I'd feel more confident with a bit of styling! But perhaps this isn't important?

Oh, and no, the vendors won't take their house off the market at this point.

Depends how long your vendors are willing to wait. Tbh I wouldn't even accept an offer from someone who doesn't yet have their house on the market though - have they accepted your offer or given an indication of how fast they want to move?

And this is west London, if that helps.

My limited experience was of going with the larger estate agent person who sold our flat to the first buyer for what we asked and at a much higher price than the other smaller agents we got quotes from.

Most people check through the websites, but in my experience, buyers are also given and sold recent listings by the agents that people might not necessarily have looked at through the websites. Local people also seem to window shop.

And they will be keen to sell it. It will always be your decision to go for the offers or not, anyway.