Choosing an estate agent to sell your home is easy if you follow my top tips. In practice, the choice can go sour within days and that’s a shame. Entrusting the sale of your house to a professional is a big deal because of the money at stake, so it’s essential to give it a lot of considered thought.
I’ve got strong opinions on estate agents and how many of them are their own worst enemies. There are some committed and highly professional companies out there who do a consistently great job, but what exactly is it that they do? And more to the point, how do you choose an estate agent?
Putting a property on the market, doing viewings and introducing potential buyers is just part of it. If agents don’t keep on top of the sellers and the buyers, as well as both sets of solicitors, then sales falter or collapse. The process is much more complicated when there is a chain. I just don’t think most agents do enough to explain to sellers what they do behind the scenes.
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How to make a shortlist to choose an estate agent who’s right for you.
The first step is definitely not to invite two or three agents round to value your house. Instead you should do some mystery shopping first.
STEP 1 – Research homes like yours
Go onto Rightmove (I’ll tell you why in a moment) and search for properties like yours – same number of bedrooms, property type, in a 5-10 mile radius of where you live and roughly the same price bracket. Then look at which agents show up repeatedly. The best agent for you will be one that repeatedly sells properties similar to yours.
If you are in a city, then 5-10 miles would probably be too large a search area.
I recommend that you do this on a Chrome browser on a desktop and add the Property Log browser extension for Rightmove. This means that all the price reductions on a specific property are visible. When you then drill down to individual agents, you can often see specific agents with properties taking a long time to sell and have their asking prices cut repeatedly. This can mean two things: either the agent has a habit of over-valuing properties to get the business, or they are unlucky in handling hard-to-sell properties. See this really interesting post on this subject on LinkedIn.
You should not choose an estate agent like these for your shortlist.
STEP 2 – Online Listing Quality
You should then look at the quality of descriptions – which agents write well and give you all the information you would like to have?
Are they offering good quality floorplans and 3D tours?
What is the photography like? There is no need for any seller to accept grainy, poor quality photos on Rightmove & co. Are all the photos labelled to match the rooms on the floorplan? Are they taking photographs of what you need to see? There’s an agent where I live who always has a photo of a clock. A clock which no-one will be buying, so it’s just plain stupid. Marketing photos are not magazine shoots, so should not be full of distracting, ornamental things.
STEP 3 – Professionalism
Contact an agent (you are considering) out of office hours to arrange a viewing. Alternatively, ask a friend to view yours if you are already on the market.
You’d be amazed how often that call doesn’t get followed up. Or how many days it takes to get to an answer. Some agents can’t answer basic questions – like “what’s the broadband speed”? And so many still offer viewings only during normal office hours. This approach gives you an idea about how well (or badly) an agent might communicate with sellers (you). They should communicate well with both you and people wanting to view your house. It often takes only days for a seller to get really fed up with their agent if they aren’t returning calls.
Once you’ve completed these 3 steps, you should have a shortlist of perhaps 3 estate agents to ask to visit you.
A good agent will not give you a valuation there and then. They will go away and do their research and present you with a fully explained rationale for their valuation. Valuations will vary and it is part of your decision-making to understand how each came up with their figure. Of course, if you are looking at budget, purely online agents, this won’t apply. Their valuations are likely to be virtual and they won’t visit you at all.
It’s tempting to go for the highest valuation, but there has to be solid justification for this. You won’t be happy in a few months, when you’ve had zero offers because the price is too high. It’s also tempting to be swayed by the low fees charged by some purely online agents.
I personally like the “offers over” strategy – you pitch the asking price at a realistic level. Every property sells at the right price – it’s that simple. If your home has had hardly any viewings, then your price is wrong. It’s that simple.
All the research shows that the longer you are on the market, the lower the final sale price will be. It’s a great mistake to say or think “we aren’t in a hurry to sell”. Selling means you have a next chapter in mind, so do you really want to postpone that indefinitely? As I mentioned before, buyers can see how long your house has been on the market. If you have reduced the price, they can see that too and you have gifted them scope to negotiate down.
The Estate Agent’s Contract & Fees
Of course, you should fully understand what you are getting into. My advice is to ask each agent what happens if you aren’t happy with their performance after days or weeks. How do you get out of this contract to appoint another agent? They should explain this very clearly to you. This is a very important aspect in how to find the right estate agent.
I’d like to mention a website that has a tool to help you compare data on estate agents. It’s called GetAgent. Add that into your research, but remember it’s data, not a human analysis.
How to choose an Estate Agent : Online vs. Traditional
A few years ago, I was really pleased when some new disruptors started to appear in this market. When it came to my next sale, I was sure I’d consider one of the new kids on the block. In fact, I didn’t. Good local agents have tremendous knowledge about potential buyers too. They know who has arranged viewings with them before and who might be deemed a “time-waster”. Agents who have a sixth sense for detecting serious buyers are worth their weight in gold. An online agent that relies on you to do your own viewings simply cannot have that expertise.
The old adage applies … you get what you pay for.
Recently I had to choose an estate agent to act for me. I selected one who impressed me greatly with their communication and professionalism. They also offer viewings 7 days a week – that’s how to make it easy for buyers. I’m happy to share that company with you – EweMove Harrogate – part of a national franchise. I’ve never phoned for an update and I have an online portal to track how the sale is progressing. Their outsourced back office is so impressive.
For the record, I have no professional affiliation whatsoever with any of the companies I have mentioned in this article.
Marketing property well is one of my passions and I’ve been helping clients to do just that for 20 years. Get yourself a head start and download my Guide ‘9 Reasons WHY YOUR HOUSE WON’T SELL‘. Click below.
