How relevant is the location of an estate agent office?

googler

Hoof_Hearted wrote: »

Hmmm....£219 up front or £2,800 on completion. That's one hell of a tough decision.....

..and as you well know - different price for a different service. In short summary;

£219 - visit property (once the money is paid, of course; no free valuations from these folks), take photos, measure, describe; return to remote call centre, upload data to websites. Sit back. Probably will never return to the property at all. May never even visit the same town again. Call centre takes subsequent phone calls.

£2800 - All of the above, plus carrying out viewings, liaison with buyers face to face, negotiation, handover at completion, plus the benefit of local experience as I pointed out at #14 - the local agent's knowledge of what hasn't sold and why (which the online agents in their remote location just won't have), their knowledge of general buyer's attitudes and current sentiment, which they'll gain from meeting buyers/viewers of this and other houses, and again, which the online agent won't get, being at the end of a phone and not meeting any local viewers and buyers .... networking with other local agents and financial professionals, which the online agent won't do..... as well as the local promotion offered by a high-street location and exposure in local press ..... and, as I also mentioned earlier, the provision of free advice to the public, whether that's providing free valuations or spending time with buyers who don't buy, sellers who don't sell, etc.

As I also mentioned earlier - the £2800 factors in the risk for the local agent, a risk that the online agent isn't exposed to; the risk that they may put a good few months of work into a property, and that, through no fault of theirs, it may not complete and they won't get paid. The online agent already has their money. If the sale falls through, they still get paid.

5446

when i was looking to buy in a specific area recently i found the most local agent to be the best. their houses were marketed at realistic prices and seemed mostly to sell fairly quickly in relation to some of the others. they also dealt with a big proportion of houses in that area so i was more inclined to check in with them regularly.