How would you choose an estate agent?

[Movinghomes]

How would you go about selecting an estate agent? We are putting on sale a 3 bed link-detached family home in a leafy residential area in the south-east at a price point of about 550k. Our onward move is to upsize/up-area (!) in the same town.

How would you go about choosing an agent? We won't touch online agents with a barge pole. Have for 5 brick and mortar agents visiting over Monday and Tuesday and they are a combination of 1) national chain 2) local market leading independent with multiple offices 3) another local independent with multiple offices 4) small family run independent and 5) mid sized local independent. Of this Number 2 appears to have the most houses listed and sold in this town but I worry they may not have enough time for us..

We plan to ask them about -

1. Obviously non over inflated valuations
2. Marketing and photography
3. Contract length
4. Percentage commission
5. What else?

On what would you base your choice?

Do they if a large chain have a sales progressor? Get someone else to be a mystery shopper for you, you want your buyers to have a good experience

Have a look in your area at who has for sale and sold boards. If they’re getting plenty of instructions and moving houses on, I’d certainly prefer that.

Our best experience was with a small local company with about six branches. He really got to know our house and was excellent at viewings. The worst was a national chain where there was an abysmal lack of joined up thinking and utterly hopeless personnel. I complained and we were released from the contract because they were so poor. Insist on the person who does viewings knowing your house.

Have a look at sold prices for your area and type of property.

Many agents now insist on a 20 week contract, so be aware of that.

You have veto on photographs, so if you aren’t happy with them, get them to change them. One of ours did photos on a wet day and photoshopped blue sky. It looked ridiculous.

Obviously commission is important, but what you need is an agent whose photos are good, to draw people in, who is proactive in marketing your property and progressing through to sale and completion. They should be updating you regularly.

We had two bad experiences last year, but finally sold via the third agent, who sold STC within three days. The house was priced very realistically though and we accepted an offer just below asking.

I think that people on FB recommend friends, so aren’t unbiased.

Independent in your local area

Dont pay any more than 1% + VAT

1. Physical attractiveness
2. Knowledge of wild fowl
3. Arm wrestling
4. Quality and cleanliness of shoes
5. Smell

I try to chose the least smarmy.

Do not sign with any agent that ties you in for more than 4 weeks, if they have confidence in their valuation they should be confident of getting offers in that timescale.

Ask who does the viewings, if they have Saturday cover that often means just a body and they won't be able to answer any questions about your property.

Check out their reviews and ask for recommendations from friends & on local pages.

Negotiate on the fee, some of the corporates charge more & have little flexibility, an independent company is more likely to do you a deal. The price should include pictures, floorplan & preferably an EPC if required.

Ask who does the progressing, securing a buyer is only the first part of the job.

Really useful questions and will bear in mind when we speak to them on Monday and Tuesday !

im going through this. ive had 3 agents over today and yesterday.

what listing price do they recommend, but then, what offers would they expect to receive?

who is the likely buyer? eg mover, first time buyer, out of area buyer etc.

we've been told that our property is quite expensive for the area and might be out of the reach of some home movers.

im struggling with the valuation differences. i wish they'd all say the same thing and then I'd know we were roughly along the same track.

asking about sale progression is important. 1 of my agents stressed that all staff come and see the property so they can talk knowledgeably about it. benefit of a small team. i thought that was good.

professional photography.

The one who really likes your house.

I’ve sold ( and bought) a lot of houses and flats in three countries, so I’ve experienced a lot of agents both as a seller and a buyer. Of course the practical things PP have said are important, but in my experience the most successful sales were with agents who obviously liked the house they were selling. Enthusiasm is infectious.

Agree don't sign a contract for more than 4 to 8 weeks. If they want the instruction they'll change their contract terms for you.

Do NOT tell them your 550k price expectations. They try and get a price out of you and say yes we can definitely get that price and go with it whether it's high or not.

Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/live/KxsjSm1aXTw?si=2a1bJFA8fta3Xka6

I used a comparison website (it’s called Get Agent), then chose 2 or 3 to visit/value the property, then ultimately chose whichever one I had the best vibes (had that word 🤣) with.

Also I would want an estate agent who will actively oversee the whole process liaising with all parts of the chain eg solicitors and other estate agents. If anything goes wrong in the chain, they actively help to unblock it. Eg a family in our chain went AWOL - they'd been refused a mortgage and our EA chased it up every day til it was resolved and we could exchange and complete

Also ask who hosts the viewings - I had a lady over who I really liked, she saw all the great selling points of the house etc but when I asked she said they have a separate team that do viewings...so basically wouldn't be someone as passionate as her, or know us or our situation....it would basically be someone unlocking the door and showing them round.

We went with a small local independent who was fantastic, the same agent who valued dealt with the whole process from viewings, negotiating, progressing etc.

I picked the one who had recently sold another house in my road in under a fortnight. I knew they knew how to sell and had the right sort of people on their books.

Some agents will try to get you signed up by valuing your property at a much higher value than it's worth. It could sit on the market for months at that higher price.

My advice would be to be realistic about your selling price.

We had three agents round and, in fact, we went with the one who gave us the lowest valuation. Very enthusiastic about the house and lots of viewings followed.

We found a house we liked, approached the estate agent that was selling it and asked them for a 'if we don't get this house we like, then we don't pay any fees/ take our house off your books' clause in our selling contract, and they were happy to oblige. They pushed the sales of ours (and the one we were buying) through quickly because they were getting commission on both, and because the selling and buying was in one place it meant we cut out time wasted by agents needing to talk to another party.

Thanks everyone - one of the main issues to watch out for I think is this matter of overinflated house valuations. We will make sure to keep an eye on that and also to ask about their advised advertising price and their expected sale price.

There is a local small independent agent that says they work 7 days a week and can do viewings at evenings or Sundays even to denote their flexibility - however they are a 2 member husband and wife team and an office admin. When I rang them nobody answered the call and this was within office hours. I do see some houses listed with them but they are usually in disrepair. So that rules them out I think although I found the viewings any time thing tempting?

There's another small independent agent with a larger team than above who make a big deal of "we don't use fish eye lenses to make your property look artificially bigger" but when I look at their adverts online the rooms look really bizarre. The pictures are taken from the top of rooms almost like with a drone and it all looks weird. Rules that one out too I think?

Then there are 4 local independents each with about 4 or 5 local branches. Of these 1 is a market leader locally but with a 12 week contract. Others have 8 week contracts.

Is this south east of London or south east of the UK?

I would suggest going with an agent who markets in line with current buyer behaviour - most high street agents do not do this. They will charge 1% so will do the bare minimum to get your property sold.

If you want a valuation you can trust, I would recommend contacting an agency who works solely on a commission basis that way you know they will want to sell your property for its true maximum value and as quickly as possible.

Courtesy of @KievLoverTwo

Google the EA and area + Getagent
e.g. Knight Frank Chelsea Getagent

You can then select options (and fill in loads of data!) to compare all EA's in the town.

Phone them, see if they actually pick up the phone. Look on Rightmove at how many they have sold compared to how many they have listed. There is a site get agent where they give a sense of what proportion of asking price they are achieving. Ask friends locally. Check out listings and see what the photos look like.