what questions should I ask Estate Agents?

Mallowmarshmallow

Hello all,

I am contacting three estate agents today with a view to getting my house valued next week and get the selling process on the go.

Does anyone have any advice as to what questions I should be asking to decide which agent I will choose? At the moment, I have contacted two local agents and one nationwide. This house was my first, so this will be the first time I will sell (or try to!) a house.

Any advice gratefully received.

xyellowx

when i put mine up the director came out and blew us away with what he could do for us and how he would sell our house, unfortunetly everybody else who worked for him was bone idle and didnt return calls follow up viewings etc we ended up doing there work for them.

what i would do now is phone up 3 local e/a tell them your looking for a property quiz them about it ask questions the one who goes the extra mile emails you pushes for you to go and view would be the one i picked to sell for me
regardless of the % differance.
no good getting a low % deal with muppets (i learnt the hard way)

jamesperrett

It is very much down to the particular people working in your local office. Typically there will be a couple of good people and a couple who are not so good. If you are really lucky you'll find an office where everyone is good while if you're unlucky no-one will be particularly good - but you'll probably pick up on this if whoever comes out to see you seems less than inspiring. Make sure that you can change agents without penalty if you are unhappy (although most agents have a minimum contract period).

James.

Richard_Webster

If they reckon they can sell the house for £xxx,xxx then they don't need 20 weeks to do so.

Try to limit their agency to 4-6 weeks. If you have been happy with them then you will stay with them after that period. On the other hand if they have overpriced your property to get the business they won't be so keen.....

cattie

Ask how much commision they charge & if it seems high, ask them if it's negotiable.
Tell them you don't just want to know marketing price, you want to know likely achievable price-generally 2 completely different things.
See if they have sold any similar properties recently & how quickly they sold.

When you finally choose agent, don't go with the one that gives the highest value, best to go middle ground as this is often the most realistic. Low valuations are often given to achieve a very quick sale, so unless this is what you are looking for, don't chose this agent. You can always lower your price if the house is sitting on the market for a while, but if you start at bottom price & it sells quickly, you might start to wonder was it priced too low to begin with.

Hoof_Hearted

If you are not in a hurry and don't mind doing your own viewings, why not try an online agent to save money.

katejo

Do you know anyone who has sold a place in your area (or recently bought one to see things from a buyer's viewpoint)? Ask them about their agent. If anyone asked me, I would be perfectly happy to recommend 2 of them and firmly discourage them from one of the others who gave me a bad experience.
Ask about whether you will have to sign a contract for a fixed period.

ohblimey

Main things to consider

They must be on Rightmove...do not go with any agent not on Rightmove

The selling fee...you can haggle, we asked our preferred agent to match a lower fee that another agent was quoting, and they said yes so we got 1/4 percent off

They must have a local office in the nearest town...and open at weekends...some people still like to trawl the local agents

The ones that try to bamboozle you with fancy selling techniques such as "we can reach more people" or "we liaise with our national branches up and down the country" ...all rubbish, buyers shop around, there are no exclusive buyers who only look at one agent

Only use one agent at a time...two boards make you look desperate and gives impression your house can't sell...ie, no one wants it

Start off at a fair price...by starting too high (I know it's tempting) you will lose the "new on the market" impact and end up sitting it out for ages and reducing it later, but by this time everyones seen it, you've lost the impact and you will end up getting much less in the long run