The Modern Estate Agent - What do you want?

Kendall85

Hi there, I'm not in any way trying to promote people to use my services on this forum, chances are most people aren't local to me anyway!

However, yes I am asking for ways to improve is this a bad thing?
If this isnt acceptable to the forum users and rules then I am happy to remove the thread and forget it happened.

Thanks

J.

PJD

It seems to me that James is doing market research, I dont think that's a bad thing - I wouldn't have a clue who he is if someone didnt bother posting the link to his site!

DVardysShadow

Kendall85 wrote: »

Hi there, I see the detectives have been at work!

Answer me this, where is the self promotion in my post?
I am going to remove my location and website from my profile.
It seems strangely ironic that people are quick to jump on the backs of estate agents for doing such a bad job, but when someone asks for opinions and ways to improve they are jumped on!

Can we turn this into positivity now?

Thanks

You are being jumped on for being a borderline spammer, not for being an estate agent.

Anyone who appears on this site with a hint of a selling agenda for anything gets jumped on. regardless of their product.

There are a number of professionals on various parts of the site - the Housing Forum has probably more than most other Forums on the site. Generally, they join in discussion on a peer basis and give advice where they can. They also give more than they take, although I am sure they all feel that it is worth the effort for having an ear to the ground on issues which arise in their area of expertise.

evoke

Jeez.

Cut the guy some slack. He is an EA after all... lol.

Anyway, I think a fair fee would be 1% to 1.5% of the final purchase price and it shouldn't go up for multiple agency listings.

Internet EAs are a load of guff - nothing beats a friendly, proactive, local EA who always answers the phone, replies to your emails quickly and gives you regular status updates. The personal touch from someone displaying a bit of niceness can't be beaten.

I was satisfied with the EA who sold my property. The scumbag EA who wasted weeks of my time is another story though.

And EAs shouldn't use the trick of charging £100 for an EPC and the EPC guy turns out to be a photographer. This is effectively paying the photographer a fee as the work involved in getting the data for an EPC is minimal.

Forget advice on YouTube - as an EA you should provide advice based on the seller's situation and their property. There is no one size fits all advice. And please get people to remove personal effects before photos are taken.

Most important things for me (with hindsight) were integrity (or the impressions of integrity), regular updates via phone call, meetings and email. The feeling that the EA was on my side and clarity about everything - in other words, direct answers to direct questions, even when the answer wasn't what I wanted to hear.

PJD

Fair fee:
Is there really a massive difference to the amount of work involved in selling a 200k property than an 800k one? I've never understood why agents will charge so much more to sell a more expensive house. Both my adverts for my £200k Lamborghini, and my £4k Ford Fiesta on Autotrader, cost me exactly the same amount of money to advertise.

I have dealt with a fair few estate agents, and I hated dealing with all of them bar one. I know one EA who has only been in the business for a relatively short period of time, and I have always found him to be very honest, very knowledgable, and always offered a balanced view, - not one sway by whatever edgender he had at the time.

Free advice vids - yes, good idea.

Most important aspect when selecting will be a balance of fees and service. No point paying nex

poppysarah

What most people (buyers) want from an EA is honesty.


What sellers want is the EA to get the best price for them as soon as possible.

taxiphil

evoke wrote: »

Internet EAs are a load of guff - nothing beats a friendly, proactive, local EA who always answers the phone, replies to your emails quickly and gives you regular status updates. The personal touch from someone displaying a bit of niceness can't be beaten

I'm currently using an internet EA who is friendly, proactive, always answers the phone, replies to my emails quickly and gives me regular status updates.

My previous experience with a local EA, on the other hand, was terrible, which is why I eventually sacked them. They took nearly 2 weeks to get it on Rightmove after I instructed them, their photographs were abysmal, their office girls were shirty on the phone, they missed out vital selling points on the description (and even omitted to mention one room altogether!), sometimes didn't return my calls, failed to chase up viewers for feedback, and didn't give me any status updates.

The local EA were charging quadruple the commission of the internet EA.

paulsad

I swapped from an internet based ea to a local shop based (franchise) recently. Main reason - lack of communication from the internet based one - unfortunately I'd paid a rather hefty deposit of £250 + vat. I had a few viewings but some no-shows. I had to approach them re a poss. price drop and it took them some time to respond - just didn't seem personal enough for me.
The local ea has (so far) been much better with feedback calls back after each viewing and the feeling that they are really trying their best in the tough market round here. The ea also has a key so can do viewings if we're not around and the house isn't too untidy!
We have a concentration of EA's in our village and I think people do like to come along and "window shop" (I know my bh and I did) so a shop is still effective here.
We are on a 1.5% deal which I think is fair.
Anything helps these days in a nutshell.

googler

PJD wrote: »

Fair fee:
Is there really a massive difference to the amount of work involved in selling a 200k property than an 800k one? I've never understood why agents will charge so much more to sell a more expensive house.

What would you suggest as a pricing model?

Charging per hour/day/month?
A flat fee for everyone?

Do you expect to pay the EA only for the work they've done on your property, and your property alone?

googler

Kendall85 wrote: »

Answer me this, where is the self promotion in my post?
I am going to remove my location and website from my profile.

Well, as you can see from #2, I thought posting under your real name with your location was enough self-promotion - but I hadn't looked at your profile, and you had your web address there.... why was it there, if not to promote your business?