How to incentise Estate Agents Work Harder

linda_brew

I was having a chat tonight with my sister over a brew. My sister will put her house up for sale in April as she is emigrating to Australia later this year with her OH.

We were discussing ways to of making the selling estate agent to work harder to achieve the market value of your property. Let's assume the property is well presented, with a motivated seller.

Some ideas we came up with in no particular order included and these are not necessarily mutually exclusive. I was curious to hear your views as to which ones would work best or any you have tried.

Paying a higher commission than asked for to sell within a specified period say within 4 weeks then revert to the normal commission after


Paying the actual agent responsible for the sale a bonus or gift


Insisting the selling agent use the closest 3 or 4 offices to work on the sale in order to generate more selling competition


Keep reminding them that they only have a limited time for sole agency before she tries a different agent


My sister to keep chasing the agents up for regular feedback on the viewings undertake


Insist that her property is freshly advertised weekly


Use two different agents to sell the property simultaneously

warwicktiger

Really incentivise them!

Eg, if they want 2% to sell your £200k house they stand to make £4k, but if they recommend you accept an offer of £190K they still make £3800, costing them £200, costing you £9800. So, do a deal, offer them 20% of the sale price over £180K. If thy sell the house for £200K they still get £4K, but if it sells for £190K they only get £2,000. This has worked for me before, suddenly they are losing 20p in the pound for sales under their valuation instead of 2p!

When they tell you what they can sell your house for, in my example £200K, look them in the eye and ask, so you can really get £200 K for my house? If so, what have they got to lose?

jjlandlord

I don't see exactly what you mean by "working harder".

Imo, these days agents put properties on Rightmove then depending on the level of interest they can play interested parties against each other, but that's about it.

Thrugelmir

Price the property to sell. Make the EA's job easier.

Running_Horse

You can't magic buyers out of thin air with incentives to the agent. They will want their commission no matter what level it is, so present the house well and price aggressively.

Davesnave

The agents can work their goolies off, but if you price it wrongly, it won't matter.

In 2008, our agents were totally frustrated over the state of the market and the fact that most of their clients, being behind the curve, weren't willing to adjust prices to suit. Eventually, head office pulled the plug and closed the branch, so that case of extreme motivation tells its own story.

I would suggest that your sister looks at the sold prices for comparables in her area, gets to understand the market for her type of property there and pitches the price right.

If she incentivises her agent by the first method listed, well & good, but there's a difference between being on the case and being a complete pain in the arris. Some of the suggestions above border on the latter. "Paying the actual agent responsible for the sale a bonus or gift," for example; how would that work in agencies where the people who do the legwork/phoning aren't the same as those who actually close the sale?

rochja

If someone is at home all the time you are probably better off looking at ways to cut the agent out of the equation completely. S[he brings no unique skills to the table anyway] You can get a for sale board and internet presence without one. You can go direct to local newspapers to advertise if you wish and be more inventive with advertising when you are in control of it. You can get a real chartered surveyor's report if you wish. You can prepare a website with photos and videos - and quote the link on your sale board and advertising. Then when time runs short you still have the option to brief an auction house. Many emigrees find life is not what they expected and return to Blighty so it is always worth considering putting tenants in until a buyer is found [in which case an agent will be required once she has left the UK] or a decision to return is taken.

Yorkie1

rochja wrote: »

If someone is at home all the time you are probably better off looking at ways to cut the agent out of the equation completely. S[he brings no unique skills to the table anyway] You can get a for sale board and internet presence without one. You can go direct to local newspapers to advertise if you wish and be more inventive with advertising when you are in control of it. You can get a real chartered surveyor's report if you wish. You can prepare a website with photos and videos - and quote the link on your sale board and advertising. Then when time runs short you still have the option to brief an auction house. Many emigrees find life is not what they expected and return to Blighty so it is always worth considering putting tenants in until a buyer is found [in which case an agent will be required once she has left the UK] or a decision to return is taken.

The trouble with this is that it is unlikely to match buyer behaviour, particularly in England/Wales where virtually all buyers will search for properties on Rightmove or similar national websites first. If you're not on there then you don't attract the viewers.

Davesnave

Yorkie1 wrote: »

The trouble with this is that it is unlikely to match buyer behaviour, particularly in England/Wales where virtually all buyers will search for properties on Rightmove or similar national websites first. If you're not on there then you don't attract the viewers.

.......Also, many people regard self-sellers with suspicion, expecting them to be inflexible on price and clueless about other matters.

paulsad

Estate Agents "working their goolies off" I like that one!!

linda_brew

4 valuations received. £245k, £250k, £250k and £250k. Sis thinks it should realistically fetch £240k, so she is not wildly optimistic about the price. Was thinking of putting it on for either £250k or a little over.

its widely known agents have between 50 and 100 properties on their books. you want them to think of yours first and not play it off to sell something off while you wait months and thats the key.