How To Find The Best Estate Agent For You
How to find the best estate agent
Researching estate agents
Choosing an estate agent to sell your house quickly and for the best price can be complicated. Some will offer you low fees or give an impressively high property valuation, but these can be red flags.
While two thirds of recent home movers told us they were satisfied with the service they received from their estate agent in a property survey, one in six were dissatisfied - so it's important that you do your research before choosing an agent.
Search for an agent that is experienced in selling property like yours - they will have a good pool of potential buyers and know what people are looking for in a property.
Look in the local newspaper and online, but also drive or walk around your area to see which agents are marketing other flats and houses in your neighbourhood.
Also, speak to friends, family members and neighbours to see if they can recommend an estate agent.
Once you've identified a few recommended companies that are selling properties similar to yours, visit their offices. For a true idea of how hard they'd work to sell your property if you were to market with them, you could pretend to be a buyer interested in properties like your own and see how helpful the staff are.
You may also be interested in online estate agents, which tend to offer lower fees for a slightly different service.
Choosing the best estate agent
Shortlist three potential estate agents and invite each to give you a property valuation. Although of course getting a good selling price will be top of your list, don't automatically go with the agent that offers you the highest valuation - they may be overvaluing your property in order to win your business.
Make sure you check exactly what services each estate agent offers. For example:
- Will they conduct viewings, or will you have to?
- What marketing materials will they prepare (eg floorplans, photographs, online tours)?
- How many relevant buyers do they have on their books, and will they tell them about your property?
- Will they provide a 'for sale' board?
It's important that you check which property portals they will advertise your property on - Rightmove and Zoopla are by far the most popular property listings websites.
Online portals
A consortium of big-name estate agents launched a rival portal called OnTheMarket.com in early 2015 with the aim of disrupting the market dominance of Rightmove and Zoopla.
Originally, OnTheMarket only allowed agents to list properties with one other portal, but following its flotation on the stock market in February 2018, this rule was scrapped. Agents who were already contracted to OnTheMarket will still have to adhere to the rule, but those who have formed new contracts since February 2018 are able to list properties across multiple sites. It's worth checking what your agent's relationship is with OnTheMarket before you commit.
Beware of overvaluations
It’s an estate agent's job to find the best price for your house. However there is a huge discrepancies between which agents get the ‘right price’ for their sellers.
Researchers compared hundreds of thousands of listing and sales records to see which properties had to be reduced by more than 5% in order to sell, which were classified as ‘heavily reduced’ in price. On average, the properties that were heavily reduced went on the market for £5,000 more than all other properties – but ended up being sold for £20,000 less on average.
What’s more, properties that were heavily reduced ended up taking an extra 64 days to sell compared to other properties.
Property price drops can happen for a number of reasons, and affect some areas more than others.
What do estate agents say about overvaluations?
Of course, properties aren’t just reduced in price because of overvaluation. Chestertons and Marsh & Parsons said that the referendum to leave the EU and changes to stamp duty affected the London market, while James Pendleton added: ‘The agent is doing the customer a service by reducing [the property price]’ to achieve a sale when markets are falling.
Fine & Country said it 'often deals with cash-rich sellers happy to start at a higher value'. Countrywide, which owns Watson Bull & Porter and Faron Sutaria (which has since merged with John D Wood & Co.), said its properties sold for 97.8% of the listing price in 2016, adding that Watson Bull & Porter only sells on the Isle of Wight.
EasyProperty claims that it sells hundreds of new-build properties, the prices of which are set by the developer, rather than themselves. Of the properties that were actually sold on behalf of private individuals, they claim to have reduced far fewer than listed here.
Proctors asked for more details of our investigation, which we provided. We haven't heard back at the time of writing.
To make sure you know what your house should be selling for, we recommend looking at what similar houses are being sold for in your area on sites that use Land Registry data.
What to ask each estate agent
How much do you think my property is worth and what asking price would you suggest?
Have you sold properties similar to mine recently – and if so, how quickly and how much for?
How many buyers have you got looking in my price range?
Do you vet buyers to check their situations and affordability?
Where will you advertise my property?
Will you pay for featured listings on property portals?
Is there anything I should do/change about the property before listing it?
What would you emphasise to buyers when showing them around?
Will you accompany buyers on all the viewings?
Do you do weekend and evening viewings?
Will it be you selling my property, or a different member of the team?
How will you follow up with prospective buyers after they’ve viewed the property?
Can I track viewings and feedback on your website?
What is your fee, and is it negotiable?
What are the tie-in and notice periods?
How much would you charge for an energy performance certificate?
What estate agency qualifications have you/your staff got?
Which redress scheme do you belong to?
Can I see a copy of your terms and conditions?
