Estate Agents

marksoton

HENRY78 wrote: »

I struggle to see the value of approx a £5000 fee to have someone show a perspective buyer around. Most people would do that themselves.

But that's hardly indicative when it's based on a £500,000 home.

I'm no fan of EA's and maybe the poorer ones will falter but there are decent one's out there. And i don't think they'll disappear any time soon.

dc197

Have a look at the quality of the Rightmove listings offered by online or DIY agents compared to the good bricks-and-mortar agents. Not the crap ones, the good ones.
The difference in quality is vast. If this difference extends to the services that agents offer beyond just creating a listing, and if people in the future will still desire a high-quality service, then I think people will still use highstreet agents.

A lot of the DIY or online agents will leave you to do a lot of the legwork. They'll often just do little more than prepare your rightmove advert, since you can't directly.

Some of the services that EAs offer will be regarding negotiations, advising which offers to consider, arranging an EPC, advising how to price your house, drawing a professional floorplan, producing glossy brochures, hosting viewings (and answering the buyer's questions honestly but not saying too much), how to present your house, dealing with hiccups, etc. Yes you can do all those things yourself, but some people prefer to pay professional to do it.

I hope to see a decline in the bad agents, the online-only ones and the highstreet ones. I hope that will come through tighter regulation but moreover by vendors choosing their agent more wisely. It's so frustrating to see a nice house sold by nice people being handled via a crappy agent.