Selling - How did you pick your estate agent?

dander

Looking for people's experiences rather than advice. Just wondering what made you pick the estate agent you did to sell your house. Assuming you'll be going on the market at the same price whoever you go with, is it a carefully quantified choice, or gut feel?

arthurdick

For me, when I sold my house in 2022, it was, low commission, no tie-in period, good reviews, reputation and being local to where I lived at that time.

eddddy

At the outset, when deciding which estate agents to invite to do a market appraisal, I often start by seeing which agents have recently sold, or are currently selling, similar properties in the same area.

(They might have disappointed buyers who missed out on a similar property, and/or a list of people who have viewed and showed interest in similar properties.)


Once they've done their market appraisal, I read all their contracts in detail - that immediately writes-off some estate agents for me, and can make some others less desirable.

Flugelhorn

In the past I have chosen the WRONG agent and had to change later. Finally I learnt that what was needed was:

1) efficient
2) medium sized - a one man band / v small  can't do the job, arranging viewings to suit and handle the admin - too big and they may not be interested
3) good office back up - preferably ladies who can run the whole show and make lunch for 40 while they are at it
4)  don't necessarily need to really like them - have previously got people who friendly and jolly  but they were waffy and couldn't do the job

I sold a house about 5 years ago - saw 4 agents on same day, 3 came in at same valuation  and one way over (discounted him) - all same commission bar one who included the VAT - two were from v small businesses - v friendly and chatty  but not sure that they would be able to manage all the viewings

I went with the VAT included, medium sized business, efficient chap - they sold to to the first person who viewed and then when that poor chap suddenly died, they carried on and coped when at one stage we had 14 viewings in a week and had everyone doing them even a retired director 

kingstreet

No corporates. That's it for me.

mark_cycling00

If you treat the agent as an annoying cost then you'll just end up with a useless but cheap one or worse still go with a "low cost" web based one who forces you to use their appalling conveyancing company etc. that stresses you out and loses the sale 

You should treat your choice as picking valuable expertise that obtains £1000s of additional sale price and takes away all the stress of selling. Ideally you want a functioning psychopath who can pretty much mind-read potential buyers.

I've mentioned on a previous thread how I took a risk and selected the most expensive agent. A few extra £1000s in cost but gained £70,000 in sales price and help negotiating the price I paid for the new house.

My neighbour from the property I sold has gone through purple bricks and got £100,000 less sales price. 

I had two people competing and the agent advised against the higher bidder as they reckoned he would be a difficult buyer and try to negotiate down during the sale process.

All this expertise is worth much more than the price you pay 

missimaxo

I've literally just chosen and having photos done Friday. I went with someone who was knowledgeable about the local market, willing to negotiate the contract on tie in period, easy to get on with and is local, medium sized and I liked their other listings on rm.
What put me off others is the previous 15yr old sales info are on zoopla  one printed them off and then thought she was valuing a 3 bed when it's clearly a 4 bed. All her 'research' she brought with her was for 3 beds and she hurriedly tried searching for equivalents when here. One wouldn't negotiate on tie in periods. One I just never got a good feeling about. I did go mostly with gut reaction in the end, first time I've ever sold so have to see how it goes.

dander

I've got two lined up - tried a third but they didn't answer the phone, so took that as a bad sign and dropped them. The first one told me pretty much exactly what I expected re price etc and I'll see what the other one says tomorrow. I think they'll be very hard to separate though. Only notable difference I've seen so far is one is open 7 days a week, while the other closes on Sunday - any thoughts on whether the Sunday opening is beneficial?

AlexMac

All the above; plus luck?

We're lucky in that we have lots of local Agents, and know one well (sold and bought from him several times over the past 30-40 years (he was the raw apprentice when I 1st bought from him in 1985!)

So last time we did the usual; invited three local Agents in to value and quote- then our jaws hit the floor when the regular guy valued our (very attractive) 2 bed flat (in a posh manor) at £650k; £50k-65k more than the opposition (and this was way back in 2011)...  and a no messing about 1% fee!

We  were even more flabbered when he flogged it that weekend for £10k under asking!

Pity you don't live round here?

But it proved that the highest valuation isn't always sill as suggested above 

Skiddaw1

As I mentioned on another thread recently, when we last sold we went with a combo of the issues already raised above and gut feeling. The EA we chose fell in love with my potting shed, which absolutely did it for me!

Jonboy_1984

We had a very marmite flat so went with the one who proved they understood all the ins and outs (and not the one who used to work in my own industry, and promptly spent 20 minutes of the 30 minute appointment discussing that rather than our property).