Advice on estate agents needed please!

[Coriandersucks]

I’ve never sold a house before so need a bit of guidance about what to look for in estate agents etc

I’ve spoken to a broker as we are hoping to get somewhere bigger so working out exactly what we can afford, so he has asked me to get some agents in to get a valuation done.

How many agents would you recommend? 2-3? And I understand they will want a percentage of the value of the property is that right? What would be considered reasonable?

We wouldn’t be buying through them as relocating to a different county.

Is there anything else I need to be thinking of?

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Get at least three quotes of cost. Have a look at which houses have sold recently and see whose most popular. Don't just go on cost - having a forward and pushy agent is very important in getting a sale done. They are also more likely to "match make" you with a buyer.

You can usually negotiate down the price with them as well if you like them but costs are too high (average is about 1-1.5% of sale price)

We're going through this at the moment. We spoke to three local agents, two of them quoted 1% commission and the third quoted 1.25%

We asked them things like:

• What is included in the fee? (one didn't include the EPC and floorplan and two did)
• What similar properties have you sold recently?
• How quickly would you expect it to sell?
• How would you market it?
• Do you have a list of potentially interested buyers?
• How quickly could it be up for sale?
• Is there anything we can do to help it sell?
• How long would we be tied in for?

We found the "how to" guides on moneysavingexpert quite useful as well

Also look up 'The Advisory' as well, lots of info on there.

I had no idea but asked on my local mum’s fb page and 13 of the 15 replies were for one particular company I hadn’t even thought of.

They’ve been amazing so far, and we had an over asking price offer half an hour after first viewing.

I’d ask for recommendations.

Some great tips thank you! Would never have thought of checking what they included I assumed they all would be the same.