Choosing an estate agent

avenida

Im thinking about putting our house back on the market, just wondering is the dearest the best? There is a big difference in selling fees between the dearest and the cheapest.

Or is it just pot luck and doesnt matter who you market a house with especially in the current market conditions?

I am going to put my house on at a very competitive price as I think price is the key issue!

Yorkie1

If one is particularly cheaper than the others I would criticically scrutinise what they're not doing - i.e. where the corners are being cut, how they compare with the others. Do they have a rightmove presence (I think this is essential).

I would also consider what you want to do yourself - do you want to conduct viewings, or them to do it? Will you be paying for stuff you don't need?

Ask friends if they have any recommendations one way or another.

Ask the EA what their policy is regarding financial scrutiny of potential buyers - there are a lot of posts on here where buyers report EAs 'refusing' to pass offers on unless the buyer sees their in-house mortgage advisor. Do you want an EA which does this? (I'm putting it neutrally but general opinions of this practice tend to be more negative than positive on here).

I'd also consider what they value your house at. It is not unheard of for EAs to value your house really quite high for the market, in order to get your hopes up and your business, but then to advise you to drop the price once it doesn't sell.

I'd also look at the different EAs' house photos on rightmove - how do they present others' houses? Selling price is of course vital to get people looking at the house in the first place, but if the photos are absolutely useless, make the place look dark and poky, then you may get people put off your house without viewing it.

RedfordML

We are looking to do the same and we will be sending emails to the 6 or 7 EA with most coverage on RM, asking for individual EA agency fee's and and special offers they may have at the moment.

We aim to have selected an EA by end of Jan and then the games begin (had 3 offers in 2010 and all fell through) :mad:

Hopefully 2011 can be a fresh start and we CAN achieve a buyer :beer:

puddings_2

I agree with what yorkie said

timmyt

there are numerous tactics that some agents use and which get reorted back to me - conveyancing solicitor - from angry clients who wish they had gone elsewhere:

1. if they really sell conveancing services to you, often to Countywide, Shoosmiths, Accesslegal, Enact, Premier Property Lawyers, none have a good reputation on this Forum or Google.
2. they charge you a fee based on the initial asking price - so they set it very high to get a set fixed fee....Nasty. Always go for a %, and 1.5 or less is now the norm.
3. they set their valuation higher than the rest and trick you into thinking they will get that....they tend not to and your property stays on the market too long and then you get a very low offer meaning you get less than any of the initial valuations
4. dont do internet/online estate agents, as you do your own viewings which is never wise, and they often take payment up front so have no reason to work hard for you.
5. national estate agents try and sugest you will have your house marketed in all their offices. Pure nonsense.
6. Use an indepedent estate agent NEVER a coporate/national one with chains of offices, as local ones count on their reputation in the community and have no head office to support them.

good luck OP

RedfordML

timmyt,

Any idea of how I can get a list of Independant EA in my local area, is there a website/directory which I can access IEA details?

Yorkie1

Yellow pages and Thompson for starters.

RedfordML

All the National EA (Taylors, Haart etc) actually list themselves as 'Independant', so what am I acutally looking for? (make sense??!)

G_M

RedfordML wrote: »

All the National EA (Taylors, Haart etc) actually list themselves as 'Independant', so what am I acutally looking for? (make sense??!)

Brilliant! A whole debate on the definition of 'independant'!

A nationalised industry (do we have any left? Oh yes, the NHS) is independant in that it owes it's duty soley to the UK government - it is totally independant of the French, Chinese or Egyptian governments.

Don't get hung up on this. What matters is the deal you strike and the service you get. Not generalisations about the 'category' of company.

Is there a code of practice? Membership of a professional body? Recommendations from past users/customers? That's what matters.

rilou81

We went through this a few months ago and got a lot of them round. The bigger companies seemed uninterested and we felt like there was no personal service and they did not care, very corprate with their speach they were like robots.

Another smaller company came round and were fab, personal service and on rightmove. We chose the smaller company. We were very lucky to get a great % too at 0.37% with no VAT. Def barter though as the % are high IMO x

hazyjo

I think the key's often how they treat your viewers (as well as you as a seller). This point seems to get missed so much. Go view stuff with them, see if they make stoopid claims like you have to see their financial adviser before you can view anything, see if they get your phone number and name right, see if they're completely annoying, ringing you every 5 mins asking if you're still looking or if you want to go view something that has 2 beds less than you want and is in a different area, or don't get back to you at all... you get the picture. We've found some EAs actually unbearable to deal with and would have been extremely reluctant to buy through them. You want one that won't put viewers/buyers off - especially in this market! We actually viewed one house where the woman wasn't expecting us at all and the EA had completely messed up the viewing. And another where it was a double-viewing with another couple - we'd not been told. And the one we completely wrote off messed up about 3 viewings on one house and we had 2 or 3 people ring and ask us the same question, plus they never remembered us (we tried to offer on a house up with them but are so glad it never happened - would've hated to have had to deal with them. Useless).

Also, remember fees are often negotiable. I've paid full whack once, and they did the job. Others have always come down. Ask around and definitely get recommendations. That counts for loads.

Jx