any tips please

jackie_w

Hi There,

My house is going to be going on the market within the next few weeks. We are currently freshening up the paintwork, and the garden.

Last time I sold a house was 16 years ago, and I really forget what you should do.

I have been looking at Rightmoves website on a daily basis, checking out the estate agents, and im wondering what tips anyone could give me for choosing an estate agent. How many should I ask to come and see me, and what should I look for when deciding who to choose?
One estate agent I was quite interested in have a lovely office, really nice, bright and trendy, but, there are a couple of houses in the Rightmove website that the have advertised that have been on the market for quite a few months now.
There is another estate agent, that 2 people I know of have given me bad review about, and say they would never recommend them, but, the advertising they do is like "right in your face", and there have been a couple of houses in my estate which they have sold!

I really dont know what to look for so I would be grateful if anyone could kind of help me out here.

Also, we are looking to be spending about £250k on a new house, can anyone tell me what the stamp duty would be>

Thank you


Jackie

Doozergirl

Go and register with local agents as a buyer and see how you are treated. The ones to watch for are those contacting you with properties for sale.

Don't be swayed by the valuation manager's patter, you never see them again after they come to value the house, so it's the people on the shop floor you need to vet.

Get three valuations and see what commission they charge too. I find the high street names to be expensive for no better service (dare I say it's often worse as there's no one there really treating it as a career).

Stamp Duty is 1% of the purchase price at £250,000 and under
Stamp Duty is 3% of the purchase price at £250,001 and over

I'm really sorry if my typing is rubbish and I fail to make any sense today. I have no idea why I'm even awake. I'm off for a nap!

Rebob

Look at the quality of the brochures and their online ads as a starting point. Visit a few as the staff vary a lot and you dont get what you pay for. We used one of the more expensive agents that were supposed to be the best and they were so slow that they lost us buyers so asap we moved to aps which was half the price and it sold within a couple of weeks.

Beatrix_Kiddo

To add to the above very good advice, I would say to look round locally at who has got the most SOLD signs up, not who has got the for sale signs up.

Consider which firm seems to do the most business in your area - ie who most people use, as that will doubtless be one of the first places a buyer will go to to look.

Also note which firms do use Rightmove (some don't) as it is a good resource. Make sure your EA takes several photos of your house of different rooms - as someone who was looking recently, if there are no photos on the site, it made me think there must be something to hid and that the property wasn't worth a look.

I also recommend reading the house selling tips at the top of the page to help you negotiate with the EA as to what %age they are going to get - bear in mind they want your custom, so you have the bargainng power.

And final tip is one from my solicitor - make them work for their money - keep on top of them, and let them know you want to be kept up to date at all times.

Good Luck!

dnwilliams

Why not ask the Valuers when they visit your property if they can supply you with any customer testimonials.

space_rider

Ring around houses that say no chain and ask to view. If you have to wait ages to view an empty house I wouldn`t use that estate agent. Visit a few and see how keen they are to help you when you go in.

Nenen

space_rider wrote:

Ring around houses that say no chain and ask to view. If you have to wait ages to view an empty house I wouldn`t use that estate agent. Visit a few and see how keen they are to help you when you go in.

That's a brilliant ploy space rider! Wish I'd thought of that when deciding on my EA! :mad:

As a potential buyer I'm amazed by how unwilling/inflexible most EAs are when it comes to showing us round empty properties. Most of them won't do it after 4 o'clock weekdays or 12 o'clock on Saturdays... trying to get anyone to show you round on a Sunday makes blood and stones come to mind! There's no consideration for anyone who works (who might also be able to afford a mortgage)!! :rotfl:

I think you're right... if the OP can find an EA who is prepared to 'go the extra mile' to show him/her round an empty property that's the one thats more likely to be proactive for him/her. :beer:

shelly

Doozergirl wrote:

Go and register with local agents as a buyer and see how you are treated. The ones to watch for are those contacting you with properties for sale.

Totally agree with this advice. We registered with 4 or 5 local EA's and are going to instruct the one that has been the most helpful and active in getting us to see properties.
Also there are deals to be done when negotiating selling fees, don't immediately agree to the figure you are quoted.

courtjester

jackie_w wrote:

Last time I sold a house was 16 years ago, and I really forget what you should do.

Things have changed a lot in that time. Have you considered selling direct and avoiding agents altogether?

If you are prepared to put in a bit of research on your valuation /asking price, take your own photographs and prepare a concise description, and are happy to conduct negotiations yourself, it's a doddle now to advertise your home direct to buyers online - that way you avoid the problems associated with trusting agents to do the job they claim they will do and save quite a bit of money.

The key is researching your price, but there is a lot of information freely avaialble online to supplement your own enquiries locally and it's mostly common sense, not rocket science.

Agents will try and tell you you can't do without them, but they would say that of course ....:cool: