selling a house for the first time

sloth

Hi,

Just a quick question

My wife and I are looking to sell our house soon (this will be the first time we have bought and sold) and have five estate agents coming round over the next 2 days to give us a valuation and idea of their charges etc. I have had a quick look through the sticky at the top started by Marcus which has been very useful to read but I was hoping you may be able to give me a list of any questions we should be asking the agents. All we have so far is:

What are your charges? (Am looking to pay no more than 1% with a up to 2 week tie -in, buthopefully none. does that sound about right?)

How do you intend to market the property?

When would you realistically expect to sell the property?

How may houses do you sell a week?

That is all we really have so far. Thanks for any help

Mr_Frugal

Ask whether it is a Sole Agent contract (as opposed to a Sole Seller contract - which u want to avoid like the plague).
Most are Sole Agent as opposed to Sole Seller (the former means that if you find buyers privately which have not been introduced via the estate agent you can sell privately with no obligation to the estate agent, the latter would still require you to pay the estate agents fees if your brother contacted you and wanted to buy it privately !)
Also be careful about the term "ready, willing and able" in the contract as this means if they find a buyer that makes an acceptable offer and you for any reason need to withdraw you will still be liable to pay the estate agents fee (I know you dont plan to withdraw but with 33% of house sales falling through nationally it's something not worth over looking).

I unfortunately hadn't read the sticky here prior to recently (last week) putting my house on the market. I would advocate pushing for the lowest percentage and flexible t's&c's as per above. I had a prepared matrix that told me at each anticipated house value price v's each estate agent fee what the fee would be in pounds shillings and pence (including VAT). I found this VERY useful when negotiating the fee and tried to steer the estate agent away from the % to the actual cost (after all why should we pay a % on house as a fee and they get to share in the martket boom - after all when you buy a loaf of bread at Tesco they don't put it up each year in line with your house price !!!!!)
I did my homework and showed that 7 years ago when I bought this house the fee in pounds shillings and pence (even factored in the actual inflation rate) was £1500 but due to house price increases the same job 7 years down the line (in real terms - ie already allowed for inflation) was going to cost twice as much as £3000. I asked the agent to justify what extra I was getting for my extra £1500 that my predecessor didn't get (100% increase) !!!
I also pointed out that over the same period of time that petrol had increased by 26%, cigerettes by 37% and his fees by 100% !!!!!

What I found in most cases of Estate Agents when they visited is that they try to control the meeting and the agenda (dont let them, tell them the order of events). They give you all the reasons why they are better than their competitor and leave the cost bit till last.
As per the sticky, tackle them on cost as quickly as possible (as i found that if you leave it to the end they wouldn't negotiate much).
On house visits (ie where they came out) I only managed to negotiate them down from 2% to 1.5% (which I clearly wasn't happy with). I then picked up the phone and cold called most of the estate agents in town and started with "I have already know the value of my house as I have had several of your competitors round. I have been offered 1.5% and am not happy to pay that, the estate agent that gets my business is going to be the one that is keen on price, can you sell my house for less than 1.5% ?"
You will get one of 2 responses, either yes we can, lets talk or a sales pitch about how cheapest is not always best and why they are better than everyone else. Ignore the latters and call the formers around for a chat letting each one know they are competing against each other for the cheapest.

Other questions I asked....

Are you members of the NAEA (National Association of Estate Agents)
Is it no sale, no fee (with fee being deducted at moment of sale)
Who do you advertise with and how often (Rightmove is a must !)
Opening hours of office
What comms/feedback do you give and how quickly
Do you offer accompanied viewings for EACH viewing


Sorry about my ramblings.....hope it helps.

(All a con anyway....I put mine on last Tuesday and had an offer at asking price today, 1 week later and ONLY viewing. Haven't had time to get me on Right move yet and not even got a board up - not bad for £2k !!! Mind shouldn't complain they have done what I asked of them !)

Right time to sort out my solicitor.............


Good luck.

Phirefly

My first question would be

"What additional benefits can you offer me over and above an online service like Housenetwork?"

sloth

thanks for the comments and suggestions mr_frugal, they have been very helpful

has anyone else got anything else we should be asking?

thanks again