What to ask estate agents when valuing?

vroombroom

Finally, the day has come we are putting our house on the market:beer:

We have 3 estate agents coming over the weekend to value, so what sort of things to do I need to ask them?

Fees, how long we are tied in for etc?

thank you x

G_M

1) What price do you recommend marketing for?
2) What price do you realistically expect to achieve?
3) What is your % sole agency fee?
4) Will you agree a lower fee if you fail to achive what you said in 2) above?
5) what is your contract minimum term? (whatever they answer, it's too long)
6) where & how will you market?
7) do you charge extra for eg colour photos? Floor plans? any other marketing options?

theartfullodger

What qualifications do you have for valuing?


Do you have current criminal record check? (Think it's now called a DBS).

eddddy

Ask each EA for a copy of their selling contract, and read it.

Consider lots of scenarios, and see what EA fees you would have to pay (and other consequences) etc.

For example...

1. If the EA sells your property
2. If you sell to a friend or personal contact
3. If the EA turns out to be useless, and you want to try another EA
4. If you change your mind about selling - before you've received/accepted any offers
5. If you change your mind about selling - after you've accepted an offer
6. If you accept an offer, but the buyer changes their mind

(I've seen EA contracts which would require you to pay a fee if any of 1 to 6 above happened.

I've also seen EA contracts which would only require you to pay a fee if 1 happened - and not for 2 to 6.)

And overall, you're hiring the EA to sell your house - so try to judge how good they are at selling. (Would you want to deal with them when buying?)

thelem

Get them to leave a copy of their contract. Check it to ensure that fees are due following exchange, *not* when they have found a "ready, willing and able" buyer (because ready, willing and able doesn't mean that you want to sell to that buyer at the price they've offered).


Get them to agree that in the event you terminate the contract, that they will provide a list of all buyers that they have introduced. Then if you switch agent you can give the new agent this list and tell them you won't pay commission for anyone on the list (because you'll be liable to pay commission to agent 1 instead)



Make sure they are not part of Countrywide group (I've not used them, but whenever their name comes up on here it is someone complaining)

MoveSelf

Yep, I reiterate what the previous posters have said (and probably overlap....). Also I'd get 3 quotes from different agencies.

- How do they charge? Commission (What is the rate? And is the rate negotiable?)? Flat fee? Pay upfront? Pay on completion?
- Will they do ALL the viewings on your property within a guaranteed period of time? (Some bad estate agents may ask you to do some of the viewings yourself if they're under-resourced or busy)
- Is there any exclusivity agreement that prevents you from advertising your property simultaneously elsewhere?
- Are you in a contract for a specified period of time?
- Is the Estate Agent a member of a redress scheme, such as The Property Ombusman?

mistertea

There's some good advice in the sticky thread at the top of this board, have a look in case my link doesn't work here

Surrey_EA

• What similar properties to yours have they sold recently?
• How many buyers do they have currently registered that are looking for a property like yours?
• Who will be carrying out the viewings?

vroombroom

excellent thank you everyone. The first one is due round in about 5 minutes so I am prepared with my list!

vroombroom

thanks again everyone - house went up on Friday, appeared on the relevant websites yesterday, so fingers crossed! x

hazyjo

If you like who came round, make sure it's them dealing with any sale. I picked carefully once, but they assigned some muppet to the sale (he was meant to be on the lettings side and was absolutely useless). Ended up leaving them after a sale collapsed - partly due to his incompetence.