[pinkninny]

I need some advice on estate agents, after being let down by our last estate. i have spent the day having more estate agents round so we can go with some new ones. I'm so brained drained i just don't know wat to do. have had some low quotes (2500) for joint agents local agents and then i get a quote from a large nation wide estate agent for 3300 he told me as they are larger the will sell it quicker as they have more offices. and he rubbished the local ones while he was at it. but my thinking is if some one is looking to buy a house the look on the net and not go into estate agents. so what is everys one thoughts little or large estate agents we need to sell and i'm now at a loss to what we do and who we go with.
Any advice will do:confused:
thanks
ninny

[JandM]

This is so much your call, but a couple of thoughts.

I know huge numbers of people who absolutely never use the internet - don't know one end of a computer from the other - so the estate agents' shops do matter for them.

Can you ask anyone nearby who's selling what they think of the service they're getting from their agent?

[Helsandfamily]

Hi ninny,

I feel this with you soooo much.

We are on the market and have just gone through this, ( and still going through it) I have had to come to the conclusion that they are all the same. they rubbish each other (and then do exactly what they slated the other companies for) they also promise the earth, nag you to go with them, when you do you have to chase them to see what they are doing about selling the house.... :mad:

My opinion is if someone was buying a house, then they would :-

A) check the internet and local paper
B) go into the estate agents in the area that they were wishing to buy from.

therefore being part of a huge empire of estate agents is not that much of a good thing.
Something that we did think about though is whether the offices are open on a Sunday. If you were going to look around an area and are in work all week, it could be a good time to go, not all of them are.

I really really wish you luck with this. we have been on the market for 2 weeks and already I am sick of it.

All the best and good luck

Hels

[catt]

Just because they have national coverage means nothing

Ask for their commission price then ask if they will negotiate if they say yes tell them you want a sliding scale.......offer 1.5% if they sell in 4 weeks......1.25 if they sell in 5, 1% if they sell in 6, see what you can negotiate. He wasnt surprised and they are really trying for me, my problem is that i have 4 people who now want the house but they need to sell.

If they wont negotiate then let em go the market is slow and they know it..............they sense desperation so be blase about it, dont tell them your emmigrating to nz tell them that you are chain free and that you will be taking your money and moving out of the town your in looking to rent because of the current climate somewhere near relatives in another part of the country.

Main thing is dont let them work you you need to work them. Good luck

[pinkninny]

[QUOTE=catt;194466]Just because they have national coverage means nothing

Ask for their commission price then ask if they will negotiate if they say yes tell them you want a sliding scale.......offer 1.5% if they sell in 4 weeks......1.25 if they sell in 5, 1% if they sell in 6, see what you can negotiate. He wasnt surprised and they are really trying for me, my problem is that i have 4 people who now want the house but they need to sell.

If they wont negotiate then let em go the market is slow and they know it..............they sense desperation so be blase about it, dont tell them your emmigrating to nz tell them that you are chain free and that you will be taking your money and moving out of the town your in looking to rent because of the current climate somewhere near relatives in another part of the country.


I have told the state agents we are moving to rented as hubby's job is moving in the near future. I think it has worked i hid all our NZ books and anything else that would give them the hint.

i have got all three of them down by well over 800 pound but for some reson the estate agents here charge the earth. we need to sell as hubby has job offer and we now worried he may lose the job.

hope all u get the house sorted

ninny x

[Flo jo]

Lots of good advice there. I agree that they all rubbish each other but in the end we went with the one we felt wasn't lying to us(hard to spot in an estate agent I know). But we chose an agent who used old-fashioned agenting as a lot of them now are about 16 years old & only rely on the internet. We were advised to steer clear of "clever"internet marketing tools .i.e. where you can look into the rooms/floor plans as people will make their mind up before even walking up the drive.

Plus we decorated the house before leaving & the money we spent on it was valuable as we sold within 4 weeks.

good luck with it all & definitley haggle. We had all the agents round on one day with bookings close to each other so they saw other agents queuing up to come in which made them do the negotiating. In a slow climate you are in the driving seat & they need the houses on their books for their end of month figures to their bosses. Then when we hired one we pestered them like mad which made them work a bit harder. Ours wasn't open on a Sunday which put us off initially but if you look at estate agents on a sunday the only people looking are those bored who aren't seriously house hunting. Always ask what the estate agent is going to do for you to put your property ahead of the others & its always worth asking them if you need to do anything to your property to get the sale as they will never tell you until its too late. And finally just ask them to be honest with you!!! Good luck with it all.

[sizzlingbadger]

The other way to go about choosing an estate agent is to 'mystery shop' them. Phone them up say you want to see so and so property get them to show you through. See what their style is and if you like it or not :)

Don't always go for the cheapest option it's not always the best, choose the person you're most comfortable with. At the end of the day you've got to have a close relationship with them as they're selling your biggest asset :nice1

[Paul]

Just because they have national coverage means nothing

Ask for their commission price then ask if they will negotiate if they say yes tell them you want a sliding scale.......offer 1.5% if they sell in 4 weeks......1.25 if they sell in 5, 1% if they sell in 6, see what you can negotiate. He wasnt surprised and they are really trying for me, my problem is that i have 4 people who now want the house but they need to sell.

If they wont negotiate then let em go the market is slow and they know it..............they sense desperation so be blase about it, dont tell them your emmigrating to nz tell them that you are chain free and that you will be taking your money and moving out of the town your in looking to rent because of the current climate somewhere near relatives in another part of the country.

Main thing is dont let them work you you need to work them. Good luck

Definately negiotiate as stated and good advice re keeping the emigration part out of the equation but don't agree on a sliding scale. That could work against you in a slow market as after 4 weeks (most houses take longer than this to sell on average) the agent will become dis incentivised when compared to other houses he will have on his books at the full commission rate

Just keep in regular contact and if you don't see any progress renegotiate the deal and don't whatever you do tie in for a 8 week+ deal - lots in our area suggest 12 weeks for sole agency, just tell them you want either open ended (what we did last time) or 6-8 weeks max

[James 1077]

We sold our flat through a national estate agent with a large local coverage of our area. It was bought by a young couple who were looking for a place in a slightly different area from where we are so had gone into one of the other offices. They were shown our flat when they were there, liked it and bought it.

Neither of them used the internet at all.

To me that is the benefit of a chain of agents!

[3littlepikes]

Hi We are in the same dilemma . Just about to market the house - last moved 10 years ago and put us off moving until now . Definatley going to give them a grilling , not tell them our plans apart from chain free , might consider the sliding scale . had one guy in from a national chain very pompous and did not like him at all . He could not give us a price as we are doing up our house

Shame he lost the sale before it even happened .

[renew]

hi,
I am not sure about the sliding scale as the pressure to sell you drops as the price drops as they have so many houses on the books at the moment. What we have done is negotiated a dual agency. This seems to have been fairly positive so far as they are both working hard to sell as the agent that sells gets the money. We had more viewings in the first weekend than the previous 11 weeks with a sole agency that really could not be bothered.

We did find some of the agents, especially the large nationals as irrating. One tried to suggest they would be able to secure a riduclously high valuation. Then next time round went completely the other way round with a low valuation.

best wishes

Renew and PinkNinny