Help me decide which agent.

[Burntopan]

Trying to decide between two agents, the one I really like (A) is much smaller, lower fee but not on rightmove, they’re on zoopla and on the market.
They offer full service, professional photos, floor plan etc… however they have been in business for 1 year only, I really like them and feel we’d work well together.
The agent my husband prefers (B) a bit of a larger agent who is charging over £1000 more, but they do list on rightmove as well as the others. The agent is quite charismatic and lives very local, so knows area etc. Photos are done by agent (other property photos seem ok) and no floor plan (I would insist on this).
Who would you pick A or B?

not on rightmove?!

Huge no

Neither sound good. Not on Rightmove is pointless. Professional photos and a floor plan are both essential. Do you have any other local agents?

Bizarrely a number of agents in the town don’t list on Rightmove, it seems to just be the ‘big’ agents that do. We sold via one of them last time and really felt passed around so was looking to list with a smaller agent this time round.
We’ve had four out so far and two didn’t do floor plans, which I personally can’t get my head around.

You definitely need to get on right move. I never look at other property websites

Lots of agents do not use RightMove. They are soooooooo much more expensive than Zoopla, and I am not surprised that many agents are no longer listing with them. Most buyers (apart from the people on this post) look at both Zoopla and RightMove. Otherwise, in my view, they are clearly not that interested in buying a house! Why would you ignore the second largest advertising portal? You WILL get a better service with the smaller agency, as well as saving money. Agency A all the way. (btw - I have a small, independent agency in Portugal and everyone who works with us is so happy as they deal with me or my colleague through every part of the process) Experience is worth a huge amount over a large agency with less experienced agents using RightMove - even taking into account the higher commission charged by the bigger agency.

(just to add) surely you will also have a For Sale board outside the house - so people will see it is for sale and call.

Not keen on the sound of either of them TBH. If a sale was crucial to me, I wouldn't want to be employing a business that's one year old. That said, how much experience do the negotiators there have? If they have 20+ years experience and have already been through 2007-2013 and negotiated those waters well, perhaps they're the better choice. But, I'd want to know how they aim to sell your house without a RM presence.

For example, do they have a list of people who are looking for houses just like yours? Do they know investors who are looking to buy?

PP mentioned people not looking on Zoopla. I'm afraid I'm one of those people. I just can't bear the crossover, probably 80% of properties, if not more, are already on RM.

Not having floorplans is a PITA but I can usually cope with measurements; if they do this, make sure they list both meters and feet for old school people like myself. Tbh, really good quality photos from several angles is more useful to me than floorplans, although I do gripe like a mofo when listings don't have them, it's probably a 50/50 split of those who do and those who don't, so I have to push past that!

I buy a fair few properties and NEVER look on zoopla. I didn’t even realise it was a selling platform tbh. I’m obsessed with Rightmove and go on it every day. I would never, ever list with someone that didn’t use it.

I also wouldn’t list with an agent that doesn’t do a floor plan.

We were trying to sell a flat a couple of years ago - it was bad timing as around covid - but tried two small, independent agents separately and they were both terrible despite having brilliant reputations locally. So I think in future we would just use larger agents but try to find the least bad if that makes sense. Sometimes if they have a few branches that can help as they can pass prospective buyers details for other areas too.

i would say keep shopping around.

TBH we only ever looked on RM, I can't get on with Zoopla and never even looked at any other site. Yes we may be restricting our selection but everyone I spoke to at the time (family, work colleagues etc) were exactly the same.

When it came to EA we went with a local one as they seemed much better (and personal) then the big boys but they actually gave a very poor service so when we sold a probate property a few months later we went with a big EA and the service was infinitely better.

We've moved a few times in the last ten years and I wouldn't use anyone not on right move

Being on Rightmove gives you a big advantage. I would go with option B but insist on a floor plan.

The Rightmove agent and neg the fee down. Plus absolutely the floor plan. I’m not sure of the latest figures but it was over 85% buyers search on Rightmove the other portals were not even close.

Thanks everyone, going to see agent B and negotiate price and insist on floor plan.

Last time we moved, the agent said they get 95% of enquiries via rightmove. Lots of agents have dropped Zoopla where we are.