Choosing an agent! 1% and 1 week lock in going down like a lead balloon!

Bluemeanie_2

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

Neither would I.

Connells and William H Brown tried to sell me marketing packs and professionally photography etc for a fee. Generally is this worth doing? I have some friends with pretty fancy cameras. Will agents let you use their own? I've had other bad feedback about Connells but then I seem to about every agent in Leics so really don't know how you make the call?

googler

Bluemeanie wrote: »

I have some friends with pretty fancy cameras.

The quality of the camera makes little difference.

The key to good photos is in the presentation - how you tidy up your house - and to a lesser extent, in getting the right lighting, possibly aided by selecting the correct lighting mode on the camera. Even the most basic cameras can do this these days.

No amount of fancy camera equipment will make up for the owner leaving damp towels in the bathroom, dishes in the sink, cooking implements on the drainer, and (say) cat litter trays in the lounge.

Bluemeanie_2

googler wrote: »

The quality of the camera makes little difference.

The key to good photos is in the presentation - how you tidy up your house - and to a lesser extent, in getting the right lighting, possibly aided by selecting the correct lighting mode on the camera. Even the most basic cameras can do this these days.

No amount of fancy camera equipment will make up for the owner leaving damp towels in the bathroom, dishes in the sink, cooking implements on the drainer, and (say) cat litter trays in the lounge.

Wasn't planning on doing any of that watched to many house selling programs. So there's no point paying for their photo upgrades?

benjus

Personally I'd say that rather than trying to get your tie-in to ridiculously low lengths, try choosing the estate agent that is most likely to do a good job. Ask them lots of questions and trust your instincts.

I found the agent I'm using to market my old rental place from a site with sales statistics (can't remember which site it was I'm afraid, but I'm sure it won't be too hard to find) which ranked agents in each area by various statistics like average time from putting on market to completing a sale. I ended up choosing the agent that was top of this scale (a small local agent). I also had a valuation from a much larger local agent; I didn't bother with any of the national chains at all.

Of course, it wasn't simply based on that - the company director came out personally to value the property and sell their services to me. She was very convincing and made me feel that I would be well looked after... e.g. viewings would be only be done with an experienced member of staff familiar with the property, not whichever office junior was free at the time... that sort of thing.

So far I haven't regretted the decision - they found a buyer after about a week (and this is in the East Midlands, not London/the South East) and the sale is proceeding well so far (fingers crossed).

Principia_2

Bluemeanie wrote: »

Connells and William H Brown tried to sell me marketing packs and professionally photography etc for a fee. Generally is this worth doing? I have some friends with pretty fancy cameras. Will agents let you use their own? I've had other bad feedback about Connells but then I seem to about every agent in Leics so really don't know how you make the call?

Photos were included in my fee. So was the floorplan but I would have paid extra as I felt as the lack of a floorplan irritated me as a buyer.

I had a list of suggested tips on presentation before the photographer turned up and he did an amazing job. He had a wide angle lens which showed more of each room than perhaps a normal camera would. He also changed exposures on a few of the photos.

Our house looked like something from Ideal Homes partly because we spent three days deep cleaning everything, windows included of course, partly because of the tip sheet and partly because of the skill of the photographer. We had also been preparing to sell for 6 months - doing all those little diy jobs that should have been done but weren't:o

We had an offer from the second viewer at near asking price, a lower offer and a higher offer (the latter after it was marked SSTC) - all within 4 days of the house going live online. However we worked really hard to get that and houses have really started to move here in the last 4-5 months.

I think if you use an online estate agent then you have to take more responsibility for selling your house than if you use a traditional estate agent. Have a good read online about how to sell your house, how to stage it etc.

Some online EAs let you use your own photos but no one I know could have done the job that the professional did for us.

patricia..xx

Don't go with Connells. They promise they doing loads of extras which is actually just being an estate agent. Like your fancy pictures, financial verification etc. As a buyer I went to their financial verification - it considered of me saying we are porting our existing mortgage. No proof of deposit, AIP review, nothing. And they had the cheek to tell me that's why they charge higher fees.

6 weeks to market the property, then you give 7 days notice seems fair to me by the way. All 3 agents I saw last summer were happy to agree to this

girlycara

the original poster makes me laugh, give them a chance lol, I bet you are loads of fun on a night out

Principia_2

The other thing about researching Estate Agents - I was not interested in whether they had 100% or 10/10 in reviews, when people are involved, things can go wrong. However I expected a good majority of reviews to be positive and I ruled out one firm because their responses to poor reviews were negative and defensive. A professional response to complaints was important to me.

morlandbanks

Just browsing the threads and noticed this. I have used Emoov and really can't recommend them highly enough. Firstly, the process was so simple: They sent someone round to measure up just like any agent. Took photos etc. They had it online within a week after checking the ad with me and asking me to note my favourite features about the house.
The price was obviously a huge draw. With VAT is was £475 and it doesn't matter how much you sell the house for.
What really puts the cherry on the cake though is the customer service. Long after I initially sold the house, our sale/ purchase has been fraught with problems and Emoov have been amazing. They take your call and do whatever needs to be done, calling back with responses and resolutions right away. No "He's out on a viewing" or "He doesn't work weekends" as you get with a regular agent. I have really felt like they are all genuinely dedicated to selling my house and making it as painless as possible.
Now what makes that really exceptional is they that are doing that knowing full well they already have my money! Quite frankly they could be rubbish and still have earned their fee because you pay up front.
I know that's a long and glowing report. Honestly I have no affiliation with the company, other than being a happy customer. It's just that when you consider the last time I sold a property I went with a local agent who never did a single viewing and was a waste of space in terms of doing anything to help the entire process, for which he earned over £3000. Well... All I can say is, watch out local agents. The word is out and your days are numbered!

Matt_ftb

Just do your research, ask the right questions and get some recommendations and your unlikely to want out anyway.