Tips for engaging an estate agent

[MrsMontyD]

I'm in the final stages of doing some decorating and decluttering with the aim of having my house on the market by the end of August at the latest.

I bought this house as a FTB directly from the owner, so I've never dealt with estate agents either as a buyer or seller and neither has DP (Also selling his house to buy together, as his is ex council).

Your top tips would be appreciated, also some frame of reference in terms of what fees are normal. I'll be asking a few estate agents to value and provide their fees, is three enough? What about companies like purple bricks?

DP will be putting his house on the market hopefully before mine or at the same time, with the intention for his to sell first and him to move in with me temporarily, any tips on how to manage estate agents and buyers to help achieve that also appreciated.

We got three EA in to value it. We didn't bother with Purple Bricks as knew we'd need an EA who could do viewings for us. We allowed plenty of time to talk to them about sales strategies, anything we needed to change etc. We went with the one who had the most confident sales plan, a good recommendation from a couple of friends and what seemed like a realistic price. One EA took ages to get back to us which didn't impress us (turns out he'd had a tooth abscess but someone from his office could have let us know!). The third changed his valuation 3 times whilst talking to us and seemed less knowledgeable about the area.

TBH you can't really plan what will sell when. My now DH and I sold a flat and a house so we could move in together - his flat took several months to sell, then the conveyancer was slow. My house sold in 5 days and conveyancing was v fast.

It's probably worth getting the EA in now and getting them to comment on your decorating/decluttering plans. You might not need to do as much as you thought!

As for fees, we were quoted between 0.85 and 1.5% and ended up with 1%.

The decorating is in progress, I had some essential building work done recently and those rooms had bare plaster that needed painting, the rest is just a fresh coat of paint, which I felt it needed before I'm comfortable having pictures on line and showing people around.

I'm taking the opportunity to deep clean while furniture is moved out, decluttering is minimal and will be needed before we try to get two homes into one. I appreciate it'll make little difference to the sale.

I think both should sell fairly quickly, we'll be able to complete on DPs wherever as it's effective not in a chain at our end, but not on mine until we have somewhere to go, but I agree it's difficult to know how fast things will move.

I think we'll need to rent some storage to help with the process.

I’d want to know what they do in terms of actively marketing the house (not just sticking it on Right move). Can they do open days for viewing? Who will be doing the viewings (we had a completely useless agent once- was impressed by the person who did the valuation then discovered all the people who dealt with viewings were hopeless, even to the point of giving potential buyers completely wrong info). Find out everything you can about their terms and remember it’s all up for negotiation- if they won’t move on price they may move on minimum period. Also important they they understand your priorities in terms of maximising price v speed, what you’re up for in terms of viewings etc.

Thank you, I work from home so viewings will have to be planned and ideally done on the weekend with plenty of notice to get the dog, cat and dc out of the house.

When we last sold we found all the agents charged the same in terms of fees with some having a minimum fee amount. None had tie ins - you want to avoid that if at all possible. If they're not working for you, you don't want to have to wait 3 months before you can instruct someone else.

The two key things they can do is 1. conduct viewings for you and you want them to be clued up about the house; and 2. be tenacious in progressing your sales. We rejected one agent because they used a call centre of people who'd never seen the houses themselves or met the sellers to do sales progression. We went with the agent we felt would relate best to our prospective market (likely to be young families, could be first time buyers or older downsizers for you) and who was the best sales person in terms of listening and giving concise, knowledgeable answers.

If you don't like someone, it doesn't matter how good their sales pitch or figures, they're probably not the right agent.

Make sure you check the marketing details and photos before they go live. Ours had a terrible first photo and a load of irrelevant blurb we changed.

Thank you. I've definitely already got on my list checking the listing before it goes live, I don't want lots of photos of every corner of my home online. There are lots of positive things about the location to mention they might miss as well.

We picked the most realistic and sensible, it was a company we know have been in the area for 20+ years but also they do refresh their business premises/ways of working so not old-fashioned.

I would not do an online agent, as a purchaser they are rubbish.

I don't want lots of photos of every corner of my home online We removed almost all personal items for the photos, they were still nice and furnished but had nothing that was identifiably 'ours'.

Just go with the lowest commission - houses sell themselves these days

I really disagree - a good agent takes a lot of the work away from you as they manage various bits of the sale. I was able to delegate quite a bit to my agent as they were so good at liaising with solicitors and the purchaser.

@carefullycourageous All agents do this.

They really don't. It's worth drilling down and finding out exactly what they do and as some are very good at it, others are next to useless.

Disagree. If you're paying for nothing, you're the chump.

You do you eh?

Engaging a good one does make a huge difference. It's a lot more than sticking an ad on Rightmove.

There are threads on here where EA takes on a house at an inflated price, fails to sell it, doesn't offer practical advice. Or fails to answer the phone. Or fails to pass on information in a timely way. Or doesn't follow up on feedback from viewings so you have no idea how your house is perceived by potential buyers.

A good one will contact buyers already on their books who are looking for a property like this. Will organise good quality pictures, clear floorplan, write a good description. If they're doing the viewings will take the time to get to know the house and write down answers to questions sellers are likely to ask. I remember one viewing where the EA couldn't tell me when the house was built, how old the boiler was and what the parking restrictions were for the street outside!

yes, this is why it is best to pick a good agent in the first place.

I have always looked for an agent who has had success selling similar properties locally. I also check their current listings online to be sure that they have good photos and descriptions. There are a couple of agents locally whose online listings are always appalling and they rarely include floor plans, so would avoid them like the plague.

I completely agree @WeAreTheHeroes. We’ve just sold DM’s house and bought elsewhere. We struggled to sell DM’s house and went through three different estate agents.

The last one was a small local firm that I’d been urging DM to use from the start. One of the Co-owners really impressed me with his attitude and knowledge at a house we viewed.

This small local firm were bloody brilliant. Buyers turned out to be liars and giant twats but he kept us in the loop about what was going on and used to text regularly.

By contrast, our seller had a nightmare with his estate agent (big national chain). They never told him what was going on, didn’t do what they promised and we’re just generally silent and shit. I believe he’s putting in a complaint - they made the process so much harder for him.

Its not just about how well they sell the house, it’s all the follow-up stuff afterwards. Our estate agent was worth his weight in gold. And he only charged 1% so wasn’t even the most expensive!