Choosing an estate agent in Cambridge

seraphina

sefw1982 wrote: »

Thank you
You've all given me some things to consider. I did have a preference for TG but now am not sure with what people have said. We have Haart coming today so we will see how it goes. I found Bradshaws very nice but their estimate was the lowest by far and Russells were nice but quite young. Hmmmm... lots to consider

Stuff on with Bradshaws that we have seen has tended go to sold reasonably quickly (I'm not keep track as to whether or not they complete or not). I suspect they are more correct with their estimations than other agents.

firstaspect

seraphina wrote: »

Stuff on with Bradshaws that we have seen has tended go to sold reasonably quickly (I'm not keep track as to whether or not they complete or not). I suspect they are more correct with their estimations than other agents.

Yeah I agree with that. Bradshaws stuff seems to go quick, I've only heard good things about their customer service and I imagine they do price correctly.

Proxi

I'm selling in Cambridge too (village a little way north of the city) and have several valuations arranged for this coming weekend, so will report back findings here soon.
I don't actually live in Cambridge any more, so have a question about solicitors and conveyancing - as I don't live locally, is there still an advantage to having a local solicitor? It is better to have one that is local to me rather than where the actual house for sale is i.e. somewhere I could actually visit and chat to in person?

Doozergirl

Proxi wrote: »

I'm selling in Cambridge too (village a little way north of the city) and have several valuations arranged for this coming weekend, so will report back findings here soon.
I don't actually live in Cambridge any more, so have a question about solicitors and conveyancing - as I don't live locally, is there still an advantage to having a local solicitor? It is better to have one that is local to me rather than where the actual house for sale is i.e. somewhere I could actually visit and chat to in person?

When you are selling, it doesn't really matter where your solicitor is. It can be helpful when you buy because you would expect a local solicitor to know any local idiosyncracies and so they will tailor their service appropriately.

Local to you now might be better if it means you can drop your ID in quickly and pop in to sign etc.

Ultimately, you just need a solicitor who will pass questions on to you promptly, reply to the other party's solicitor promptly and be quite direct in batting back anything that is perhaps misunderstood(!) so you get the place sold quickly.

hazyjo

If you've not chosen yet, I find it helpful to view houses with each agent and see who's on the ball. As important as it is that they do a good job for you as a seller, it's almost more important that buyers want to use them.

We viewed with some agents in our local area and some of them were shockingly bad. We turned up to view one house as arranged and the vendors didn't know we were coming. We had our details taken down wrong by another (twice actually - 2 different agents), we spoke with different about 3 different people in another agents regarding a viewing, and they didn't come back to us and still cocked it up when they did finally get it sorted, we tried offering on one only to be ignored by the agents a few times, some were pushy to the point of rude and drove me insane with the constant calls asking if I was still looking, etc etc... the list went on and on. Moving out of the area now, but if we were staying put there are some agents we wouldn't want to touch with a bargepole. For a perfect house, someone might be flexible and deal with them, but a useless agent can put buyers off. We found one who was efficient, contactable and who seemed to value their buyers as much as their sellers.

So, my advice, go view a few and see which agents are nice, which are approachable, which are capable... and avoid the pushy as hell ones as you can guarantee it'll put buyers off and even if yours was at the top of their list, it'll be shoved down a few notches below others. You don't want one who'll put off buyers! And make sure they're not gonna try and rope the buyers in to having a financial appraisal or whatever with their broker or whoever before they'll allow them to view anything!

Sorry for being waffly. It's been a long day and my brain's not working properly!

Jx

myhouse_2

sefw1982 wrote: »

Hi all
I didn't think there would be much difference in the valuations but we have had between £180,000 and £215,000 - a huge difference, and all local agents!

I don't think you should be surprised that there is a difference in quotes - pricing houses is an art rather than a science. It depends on so many things, not least the subjective opinion of the valuer.

Proxi

This past weekend I had valuations from a bunch of estate agents local to the north Cambridge village & towns. These were Peter & Lane, Malcolms, Tylers and Thomas Morris.
They all turned up on time, presented themselves well, gave the same valuation and general comments. There really wasn't much between them at all: some had slightly better marketing materials, some a slightly better website, some with floor plans, some not, etc. Some brought more materials and had more prior research, but again not much difference in local knowledge or sales performance that I could tell. All seemed pretty good with very little to choose between them. Commission offered was roughly the same (1.25-1.5%) although sole agency duration varied a fair bit (0-20 weeks).

I'm going to phone them soon with an additional range of questions to help make up my mind.

If anyone has experience with any of the above I'd love to know, or general advice on what differences or qualities to give more weight of consideration.

firstaspect

Proxi wrote: »

This past weekend I had valuations from a bunch of estate agents local to the north Cambridge village & towns. These were Peter & Lane, Malcolms, Tylers and Thomas Morris.
They all turned up on time, presented themselves well, gave the same valuation and general comments. There really wasn't much between them at all: some had slightly better marketing materials, some a slightly better website, some with floor plans, some not, etc. Some brought more materials and had more prior research, but again not much difference in local knowledge or sales performance that I could tell. All seemed pretty good with very little to choose between them. Commission offered was roughly the same (1.25-1.5%) although sole agency duration varied a fair bit (0-20 weeks).

I'm going to phone them soon with an additional range of questions to help make up my mind.

If anyone has experience with any of the above I'd love to know, or general advice on what differences or qualities to give more weight of consideration.

I recently completed a purchase through Tylers and found them very polite and efficient at every step.

seraphina

Proxi wrote: »

This past weekend I had valuations from a bunch of estate agents local to the north Cambridge village & towns. These were Peter & Lane, Malcolms, Tylers and Thomas Morris.
They all turned up on time, presented themselves well, gave the same valuation and general comments. There really wasn't much between them at all: some had slightly better marketing materials, some a slightly better website, some with floor plans, some not, etc. Some brought more materials and had more prior research, but again not much difference in local knowledge or sales performance that I could tell. All seemed pretty good with very little to choose between them. Commission offered was roughly the same (1.25-1.5%) although sole agency duration varied a fair bit (0-20 weeks).

I'm going to phone them soon with an additional range of questions to help make up my mind.

If anyone has experience with any of the above I'd love to know, or general advice on what differences or qualities to give more weight of consideration.

As a buyer, Thomas Morris in Royston have been excellent - phoning us with new properties, checking in with us weekly to see if we're still looking.