Choosing an estate agent
Discussion
So in the modern world of online portals for house hunting, is the choice of estate agent actually that crucial in terms of getting viewings?
I get that an agent might be better/worse than others in terms of the admin and progressing the sale, managing it, qualifying buyers - that sort of thing - but in terms of getting interest and people through the door, how much impact do you think it has?
There are some who talk a lot about their proactive marketing; mail shots and various other things, but does that really work?
Curious to hear from people who are selling/buying or have done so recently... thanks all
I get that an agent might be better/worse than others in terms of the admin and progressing the sale, managing it, qualifying buyers - that sort of thing - but in terms of getting interest and people through the door, how much impact do you think it has?
There are some who talk a lot about their proactive marketing; mail shots and various other things, but does that really work?
Curious to hear from people who are selling/buying or have done so recently... thanks all
Agent A vs Agent B...
So Agent A = let's do a proactive campaign, marketing mail shots, etc. etc.
Agent B = usual listings on their website, the online portals, maybe inclusion in their magazine thing - more standard type of thing.
Last time I bought a house was nearly 15 years ago so not sure what works these days. I know that in the search for a new one, we've just used the usual portals.
(Edit - the reply I was replying to disappeared, but I'll leave this here for clarity anyway!)
So Agent A = let's do a proactive campaign, marketing mail shots, etc. etc.
Agent B = usual listings on their website, the online portals, maybe inclusion in their magazine thing - more standard type of thing.
Last time I bought a house was nearly 15 years ago so not sure what works these days. I know that in the search for a new one, we've just used the usual portals.
(Edit - the reply I was replying to disappeared, but I'll leave this here for clarity anyway!)
When we where looking for a house 8 years ago, if we found one we liked that was with purple bricks we groanex, because setting up the viewings was often a pita. Might have changed, but it can definitely effect things.
Buying my first house, at the bottom end of the market, it became very clear one of the the agents specialising in repros. Etc.
Buying my first house, at the bottom end of the market, it became very clear one of the the agents specialising in repros. Etc.
Selling my Mum's house (probate, 4bed det. mixed estate) I used Rightmove to see who was selling in the area. It could readily be seen a couple of agents who had completely different stock - mansions or flats say. Then I totted up who had most for sale in the area. Got the top three to value. The one who had the most also seemed most competent and had the best "bedside manner" - personable, responding to queries. Both the local sister who did the viewings and me had the same conclusion. Which was nice.
Further anecdotage - one of the agent's staff lived on the estate and knew Mum through a shared love of dogs.
Perhaps the best service (as a seller) I've had.
TLDR - a mix of analysis and feelz.
Further anecdotage - one of the agent's staff lived on the estate and knew Mum through a shared love of dogs.
Perhaps the best service (as a seller) I've had.
TLDR - a mix of analysis and feelz.
We had 3 agents out to give us an estimate and pitch their business.
Local indie agent - Didn't ask for any prior info. Valued it £495k - Fee 1%. Came armed with "the print off" from Rightmove agents site that shows recents in the area etc. We asked them about work that we should do and they said nothing as it's "turn key". They pitched that they have a specilist photographer and it wouldnt need staging.
National premium for countryside - Didn't ask for any prior info. Valued it £550k. Fee 2%. Came armed with their extensive glossy brochures. Talked to us about strategy, staging, and what level of listing we should pay for; with their average seller pack being £1.5k. We asked them what we should do and they said "paint ceiling in the kitchen and living room (as they are not white) and the garage door". Also "get rid of tat and we will bring staging items.....if you chose that level of package".
City agent (friend, had to ask them really) - Had to fill in a questionnaire beforehand and state what value we expected. Valued at EXACTLY our expected £450k. Fee 1%. Came armed with the same Rightmove document. Didn't discuss staging, strategy and said he took the photos and never had an issue before.
We were shocked at the different values (20% swing) but the decision was easy, chose the local indie. They were professional but personal and not, outwardly, after our money or lazy and looking for the quick sale. Some don't list of Rightmove striaghtaway and prefer their own mailing lists for a couple of days.
yes i still think they are important
Local indie agent - Didn't ask for any prior info. Valued it £495k - Fee 1%. Came armed with "the print off" from Rightmove agents site that shows recents in the area etc. We asked them about work that we should do and they said nothing as it's "turn key". They pitched that they have a specilist photographer and it wouldnt need staging.
National premium for countryside - Didn't ask for any prior info. Valued it £550k. Fee 2%. Came armed with their extensive glossy brochures. Talked to us about strategy, staging, and what level of listing we should pay for; with their average seller pack being £1.5k. We asked them what we should do and they said "paint ceiling in the kitchen and living room (as they are not white) and the garage door". Also "get rid of tat and we will bring staging items.....if you chose that level of package".
City agent (friend, had to ask them really) - Had to fill in a questionnaire beforehand and state what value we expected. Valued at EXACTLY our expected £450k. Fee 1%. Came armed with the same Rightmove document. Didn't discuss staging, strategy and said he took the photos and never had an issue before.
We were shocked at the different values (20% swing) but the decision was easy, chose the local indie. They were professional but personal and not, outwardly, after our money or lazy and looking for the quick sale. Some don't list of Rightmove striaghtaway and prefer their own mailing lists for a couple of days.
yes i still think they are important
Loads of independent female estate agents around here.
Usual large estate agent wanted a %age which was £5k. Frankly ridiculous, especially looking at how useless they were on the houses we looked at. They do almost nothing for their money.
Went for one of the independent women, £1000 fixed fee, did a cracking job and really helped chase the other solicitors to get things pushed along.
Usual large estate agent wanted a %age which was £5k. Frankly ridiculous, especially looking at how useless they were on the houses we looked at. They do almost nothing for their money.
Went for one of the independent women, £1000 fixed fee, did a cracking job and really helped chase the other solicitors to get things pushed along.
Selling a probate property. Had talks with 2 agents and chose agent A. Agent B rang us and said he had an interested buyer and could he show them round (he knew we had gone tto agent A !) We refused of course, and it couldn't be sold until probate was granted, so a non-hope anyway. Agent A introduced many people before probate was granted. When probate was eventually granted agent A waited a couple of weeks, called and said they had rung around all the previous viewers, had no interest and we'd be best to try and auction it! So after waiting until probate was granted (and it could be sold), they dropped it..... very strange.
We put it for sale through agent B, and after a few days agent A rang and said they'd like to show someone around who'd seen it previously. We said it was with agent B (we had already informed them ), so they said they would sue us if we sold through agent B. That 'buyer' wasn't interested.
We have now exchanged contracts (Agent B) , but crikey it's been a 16 month process, not helped by the local probate & conveyancing solicitor retiring 6 months into the probate process and selling the 'work' onto 2 separate companies, leaving us with big bills and a load of hassle.
We put it for sale through agent B, and after a few days agent A rang and said they'd like to show someone around who'd seen it previously. We said it was with agent B (we had already informed them ), so they said they would sue us if we sold through agent B. That 'buyer' wasn't interested.
We have now exchanged contracts (Agent B) , but crikey it's been a 16 month process, not helped by the local probate & conveyancing solicitor retiring 6 months into the probate process and selling the 'work' onto 2 separate companies, leaving us with big bills and a load of hassle.
Currently in the middle of our sale.
We had three agents in - all gave the same price ranges - £425 for a quick sale, £450 if we don't mind waiting a little, £475 if we're prepared to wait until the right buyer came along.
The agent we chose offered a fixed fee of £4k inc VAT for the full package - drone photos, virtual tours etc. They were pretty good at first - proactive marketing and all that. Then they started making mistakes - accepting a second viewing from some chancers who we'd said we didn't want here again (they came and offered even lower than before!)
Once we had a buyer that's where they really started losing interest. Little to no communications, deflecting requests - telling us we should be contacting people despite their assurance that their "sales progression team" would handle everything. Turns out this "team" was one person who buggered off on holiday with no one covering her workload - right at the point things started going sideways. Emailed the director who sold us the package twice - no response. When I complained about to the sales progression woman about the lack of anything remotely like good service she just made excuses and tried to say it wasn't her job to do her job. Since then we've had one email from her in three weeks to give us the state of the chain - it was completely useless. Our seller's agent does a better job of keeping us up to date.
tl;dr Unless you get lucky, they're all f
king useless and don't warrant the stupid fees they charge.
We had three agents in - all gave the same price ranges - £425 for a quick sale, £450 if we don't mind waiting a little, £475 if we're prepared to wait until the right buyer came along.
The agent we chose offered a fixed fee of £4k inc VAT for the full package - drone photos, virtual tours etc. They were pretty good at first - proactive marketing and all that. Then they started making mistakes - accepting a second viewing from some chancers who we'd said we didn't want here again (they came and offered even lower than before!)
Once we had a buyer that's where they really started losing interest. Little to no communications, deflecting requests - telling us we should be contacting people despite their assurance that their "sales progression team" would handle everything. Turns out this "team" was one person who buggered off on holiday with no one covering her workload - right at the point things started going sideways. Emailed the director who sold us the package twice - no response. When I complained about to the sales progression woman about the lack of anything remotely like good service she just made excuses and tried to say it wasn't her job to do her job. Since then we've had one email from her in three weeks to give us the state of the chain - it was completely useless. Our seller's agent does a better job of keeping us up to date.
tl;dr Unless you get lucky, they're all f
king useless and don't warrant the stupid fees they charge.I can only go off my own experiences and we've bought and sold quite a few properties, both to live in and BTL's.
There are some shocking agents out there. There are some shocking buyers and sellers out there. My experience of online agencies is that their use massively increases the likelihood of both. After several bad experiences, if we see a house we like that is with a cheap online EA, it would have to be something very special to make us want to deal with them and is an immediate red flag. My PH analogy is seeing ditchfinders on a performance car.
We have a local agent who is fantastic - runs 2 bricks and mortar shops locally and is incredibly pro-active. The last house we sold was sold to someone on their internal list. Rightmove advert went live on a Thursday night, we had a day of viewings on the Saturday of just the people on their list, with the plan to do the Rightmove viewings the week after. It sold to the 2nd viewer at asking. Nobody who relied on Rightmove to view the house got to see it. Asking price was also above what any of the 4 EA's who pitched to sell the house thought it was worth (we were flying a kite), but the EA we used created a bit of a buzz and got us more than we thought we'd get.
Roll on 3 months and we'd still not found a house we liked and our buyer was getting twitchy and our EA was working really hard to try and find us somewhere to buy, so they did not lose the sale. He gave us a call one evening and said he'd been asked to pitch for a house he thought would be perfect and asked to do a drive-by, we did, and agreed with his assessment. 2 days later he did his pitch and told the seller he already had a buyer lined up, they gave him the job and we viewed that evening. I agreed a deal direct with the seller that night on a handshake. No marketing particulars were drafted, the property never went on Rightmove and the EA moved heaven and earth to get the sale through as quickly as possible. I couldn't be happier and am writing this post from my home office in that house.
My view is - speak to lots of people in your area and get recommendations, there will be good agents and bad agents, just make sure you don't get a bad one. Same goes for solicitors - there are some shockers out there, get personal recommendations.
Also when buying don't just rely on the portals - get a good relationship with all the local selling agents. If you're in regular positive contact with them and give them honest feedback you will get to see houses earlier than those just relying on Rightmove etc, we certainly did over several purchases. I suspect EA's will be prefer to promote offers from reliable, sensible people that they know and have interacted with them, than a random offer coming from someone from Rightmove, but I could be wrong.
As for agents doing nothing, you generally only get to find out when something goes wrong. We've had a couple of purchases where the chain has been close to collapse and it's taken a good agent to keep it all together. It's not just about the initial sale, it's making sure it gets to completion.
There are some shocking agents out there. There are some shocking buyers and sellers out there. My experience of online agencies is that their use massively increases the likelihood of both. After several bad experiences, if we see a house we like that is with a cheap online EA, it would have to be something very special to make us want to deal with them and is an immediate red flag. My PH analogy is seeing ditchfinders on a performance car.
We have a local agent who is fantastic - runs 2 bricks and mortar shops locally and is incredibly pro-active. The last house we sold was sold to someone on their internal list. Rightmove advert went live on a Thursday night, we had a day of viewings on the Saturday of just the people on their list, with the plan to do the Rightmove viewings the week after. It sold to the 2nd viewer at asking. Nobody who relied on Rightmove to view the house got to see it. Asking price was also above what any of the 4 EA's who pitched to sell the house thought it was worth (we were flying a kite), but the EA we used created a bit of a buzz and got us more than we thought we'd get.
Roll on 3 months and we'd still not found a house we liked and our buyer was getting twitchy and our EA was working really hard to try and find us somewhere to buy, so they did not lose the sale. He gave us a call one evening and said he'd been asked to pitch for a house he thought would be perfect and asked to do a drive-by, we did, and agreed with his assessment. 2 days later he did his pitch and told the seller he already had a buyer lined up, they gave him the job and we viewed that evening. I agreed a deal direct with the seller that night on a handshake. No marketing particulars were drafted, the property never went on Rightmove and the EA moved heaven and earth to get the sale through as quickly as possible. I couldn't be happier and am writing this post from my home office in that house.
My view is - speak to lots of people in your area and get recommendations, there will be good agents and bad agents, just make sure you don't get a bad one. Same goes for solicitors - there are some shockers out there, get personal recommendations.
Also when buying don't just rely on the portals - get a good relationship with all the local selling agents. If you're in regular positive contact with them and give them honest feedback you will get to see houses earlier than those just relying on Rightmove etc, we certainly did over several purchases. I suspect EA's will be prefer to promote offers from reliable, sensible people that they know and have interacted with them, than a random offer coming from someone from Rightmove, but I could be wrong.
As for agents doing nothing, you generally only get to find out when something goes wrong. We've had a couple of purchases where the chain has been close to collapse and it's taken a good agent to keep it all together. It's not just about the initial sale, it's making sure it gets to completion.
Is there anything special about your property or the type of buyer you think would be interested?
Some agents will not be BSing when they say that they have prospective purchasers but in my experience they only really become relevant if you're looking at quiet/off-market transactions, renovations, or the likes of tenanted properties.
Some agents will not be BSing when they say that they have prospective purchasers but in my experience they only really become relevant if you're looking at quiet/off-market transactions, renovations, or the likes of tenanted properties.
For agents and solicitors I will always go with local. Someone with a physical office. If you have a problem, get in the car drive down there and talk to them. Its funny how you can get stuff sorted face to face that would be email ping pong for a week and get nowhere. I dont mean giving them attitude or anything I just mean turning up and talking the problem out - people seem to be more willing to help when you are stood there in the moment rather than "computer says no".
As a buyer, I personally avoid anything listed with purple bricks etc. Its just not worth the hassle and delays etc. Property transactions drag on long enough before you have to deal with 14 different people for 1 issue in an office 200 miles away.
As a buyer, I personally avoid anything listed with purple bricks etc. Its just not worth the hassle and delays etc. Property transactions drag on long enough before you have to deal with 14 different people for 1 issue in an office 200 miles away.
I think it depends what you are selling.
In the upper market a local agent will genuinely know the likely buyers.
Locally to me this is Savills.
Each agent ( 2 offices ) have been there for a log long time.
Likewise if it is but to let territory they also know likely buyers.
In the general market I would be sceptical that if makes much difference either way. Rightmove will get them in and maybe they will help progress it maybe they won't.
In the upper market a local agent will genuinely know the likely buyers.
Locally to me this is Savills.
Each agent ( 2 offices ) have been there for a log long time.
Likewise if it is but to let territory they also know likely buyers.
In the general market I would be sceptical that if makes much difference either way. Rightmove will get them in and maybe they will help progress it maybe they won't.
Thanks everybody
The house is lovely, and has a couple of unusual/nice features (especially for petrol heads!), but it's not a multi million mansion or anything like that. Mostly it's just that we want to get an offer on and for the right money, as it looks like where we're planning on moving to will stretch our budget to get what we want.
What you're all saying pretty much confirms what I was thinking; what you need is an agent who's good at buyer qualification, closing the sale and execution once there's a buyer. I had a nightmare 14 years ago buying this house because of chain shenanigans. But you don't know if they'll be any good at that until you're committed...
There are lots of high street agents here - I can think of 6-7 without trying too hard - who seem to be active on the portals. I have noticed though that even the high street ones are starting to offer a sort of "plus" service with the drone footage and various other bits and pieces, presumably for a higher %. Which irritates me; if you're motivated to sell the house and you think these things make it sell better, why wouldn't you just do them anyway. But hey ho.
The fancy marketing etc. - I think probably does help with certain parts of the market, but I'm not sure we're there. Maybe we're at the bottom end; we're slightly hurt by the house next door selling below value after being empty for a year due to being in a really poor state of repair after 20+ years of being rented to different people.
Good advice re PB - they weren't on the radar (they have a couple of houses on Rightmove in this area) but will avoid.
Doing some viewings this weekend in our target area, and hoping to finalise agent choice after that, when we have a far better idea of the ££ we need.
The house is lovely, and has a couple of unusual/nice features (especially for petrol heads!), but it's not a multi million mansion or anything like that. Mostly it's just that we want to get an offer on and for the right money, as it looks like where we're planning on moving to will stretch our budget to get what we want.
What you're all saying pretty much confirms what I was thinking; what you need is an agent who's good at buyer qualification, closing the sale and execution once there's a buyer. I had a nightmare 14 years ago buying this house because of chain shenanigans. But you don't know if they'll be any good at that until you're committed...
There are lots of high street agents here - I can think of 6-7 without trying too hard - who seem to be active on the portals. I have noticed though that even the high street ones are starting to offer a sort of "plus" service with the drone footage and various other bits and pieces, presumably for a higher %. Which irritates me; if you're motivated to sell the house and you think these things make it sell better, why wouldn't you just do them anyway. But hey ho.
The fancy marketing etc. - I think probably does help with certain parts of the market, but I'm not sure we're there. Maybe we're at the bottom end; we're slightly hurt by the house next door selling below value after being empty for a year due to being in a really poor state of repair after 20+ years of being rented to different people.
Good advice re PB - they weren't on the radar (they have a couple of houses on Rightmove in this area) but will avoid.
Doing some viewings this weekend in our target area, and hoping to finalise agent choice after that, when we have a far better idea of the ££ we need.
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