Estate Agent - choice for selling

[houseQ]

Does the estate agent you choose make any real difference when you are selling? As in - if they advertise in all the same places - other than the fees they charge - why would you go with someone more expensive?

First time seller...and go between feeling this is too simple and a little overwhelmed so any advice on what questions I should ask of an estate agent before picking who to go with?

I think so. Not sure what questions to ask but when I was trying to sell my property recently (Tooting) I found that mine were rubbish at communicating and I had to chase them all the time.

They also hooked me in on sale price then kept advising me to drop and drop. I ended up with a derisory offer (75k under original asking) which I rejected and they told me I couldn’t just reject, I had to go back with a counter offer.

I put them straight on that and said I didn’t because a) I was not going to start bidding against myself and b) I was not prepared to get into undignified horse trading at such a low starting point. They were pushing me to go back with a counter but I said no and took it off market.

When i do eventually put it back on I’m not going anywhere near them. There was loads of other stuff but it’s too identifying to put on here. They were just an absolute bloody shambles

I'm not sure of what questions to ask but would go with someone I feel comfortable with. Some are just very pushy and can be patronising to a woman on her own as I was last time.
Look up reviews for your local agents and check on GetAgent where you will see reviews and see what percentage of asking price each agent gets and how long they have properties on the market.
The agent I used had a sales progressor who liaised with everyone in the long chain and the solicitors working really hard to sort out problems and speed things up. The agent was also good at chasing all the viewers for feedback and keeping me informed. He used a proper professional photographer and took care over the blurb for the description on Rightmove etc.

A good estate agent can make a big difference to holding a chain together, liaising between buyer and seller.

As PP has said, a good agent will hold you chain together and keep communicating well when an ‘online agent’ will likely do f all