Selling our flat - advice on how to choose an estate agent please?

I thought I'd draw on the collective wisdom of TLB

We've had our valuations done now from 3 local estate agents and one internet based estate agent.

With the internet based agent you pay your fee upfront, they take high quality pictures, do the floorplan, and list the property on all the online forums. They arrange all the viewings for you, but you actually show the buyers around. They then call the buyers and get feedback the next day.

The fee is fixed and relatively small.

With the traditional estate agents their fees vary widely and obviously they get paid on completion of sale.

The appraisals we have had are widely varied but are around where we need to sell for.

So - is the day of traditional estate agents passed? Would you go with an online estate agent? Would you be willing to be shown around the property by the owner or would you prefer to be shown around by an impartial estate agent?

Help!

Thanks...

 

They are all very different jen ,some work hard for their money others dont. I had thirtyfive look at my last house and i showed everyone round ??? it was a bit of a chore but i knew straight away when the buyer walked thru the door and it does help if you see and get a feel for them yourself imo.If you like them and they you it helps get through the long drawn out bit.They were from South London by the way ,Good luck you two Oh and if youve had one sell recently near you that is the same , see what it went for and maybe how long it was on the market and give that agent a go , they may have more who were interested in the last one??

 

Isn't it all about Rightmove these days? I'm sure there are fixed fee 'agents' who are basically a front to get you on there. A local sign place will do you a nice vinyl sticker to put on a board for not much cash too.

Pictures - 'high quality' is questionable, given what I've seen in the past. DIY the pictures - just move ALL of the crap out of each room in turn, take loads and pick the best.

Commission - If you go with a proper agent, 1% is what to pay. Most these days just seem to pass on contacts and let you supervise the viewings. That's a lot of money for taking some pictures and fielding the calls (enough to buy your own top end digital SLR to take the pics).

 

That is the sort of thing I need to hear - anyone else have definite opinions on being shown round by the agent vs us?

The online place is £450 all in

The others have a variety of fees from £2-3k or 1.25% (all plus VAT)

All will market online and provide photos, floorplan etc

 

Yeh dont forget the vat ,it bites, try them on a fixed fee if they want the work they will bend but of course that doesnt mean they are good. I think you /verses an agent would sell your flat very quickly jen,just letting any old tom dick or harry you wont have a clue on the fead back /interest etc.

 

We gave up on selling ours, Keep us updated on how it goes though Jen, When we were looking for houses to buy though our 1st stop was the net, Rightmove etc, so if you self sell and get it up on the big property sites it should reach lots of people, I did a website for ours but our poxy housing association made us take the for sale board down from outside.

I wouldn't mind being shown around by the owner, though i must admit i would prefer to be shown around by an agent, but if i really wanted somewhere based on what id seen on the net it wouldn't bother me. Also give you a little more room for price negotiation when you haven't got to give an agent a couple of grand.

This was what i knocked up: (along with being on with one of those internet places) however we only ever got viewings from agents but not many of them either so i'm just putting down to 'it was really bad time to try and sell,' It was a couple of years ago now though.


Good Luck

 

It`s open country here you can sell it with all the estate agents [best one wins],even whilst offer accepted other agents are still showing people round... ;D

horrible slimy sods

well put.. ;D

 

It's worth the extra money to have more than one estate agent - you usually get a "reduced" fee if you only have one estate agent - but don't do that - if there is competition they will work that bit harder and won't trap you in an increase scam (if prices are still increasing)

 

I think I'd go high street agent, but go round them all and see who looks best from a buyer 's point of view.
Like others have said, they will all give a poor service. At least with high street you get presence there and online so that maximises your chances.
I think I'd rather be shown around by an agent, also it doesn't tie you to be there in the day if someone wants a viewing.

 

I've bought 2 houses and sold one. Both the ones I bought, I was shown round by the seller. The one I sold I showed the buyer round - he was a walk in off the street having seen the board. All 3 deals were done person to person and then the agent informed of the deal. One agent even lied and came back to say the vendor rejected the deal, even though we had agreed the price - they were very *******ed off!

Now that solicitors have been mentioned, it seemed to me that they do almost nothing for the money they are paid - even less than the agent!

 

The property we currently are selling is with Indigo of Luton I chose them over harrts as the harrts bloke did come across as a slimey secondhand car sales type. We have it on a fixed costing and they have kept us in the loop (even during our 3weeks in France) with regular calls. Its now STC after 6 weeks.

This online deal do you have to submit your own photos, I'm sure you're good with a camera but do you know how to photograph a house to its best.

It all comes down to how you feel in the end to who you choose.

 

put your own for sale board up .... 8)
once some one has walked through the door then its off to the soliciters ,,
with no agents fee to pay,,

when i sold my house and the agents did feck all....

next time i will do it my self.. you can put your house on ebay too...

 

Thanks all for the opinions so far.

TW - the online estate agent would take the photos and prepare the floorplan so we wouldn't have to submit them ourselves.

We've been valued by four agents so far - do you think we should ring round the others to find out their fees?

 

I have a friend/customer who's a land agent/estate agent. He tells me 95% of inquiries for stuff they're selling come via Rightmove and all the estate agents fork out several £K a month to use it as if they didn't they'd be out of business.

If you do use an agent, be sure they use Rightmove. This is another reason they're all so keen to have sole agency now more than ever before - their "standing" as an estate agent now means diddly squat, so Rightmove, sole agency and haggle making sure their price includes the VAT. I'm about to sell and haggled a fixed fee that equates to approx 0.5% inc VAT, but they're going to want to be sure it's going to sell easily for that price and of course it depends on how much your house/flat is worth - 1% of a £million is quite a bit more than 1% of £50K.

Good luck with the sale.

 

Thanks Zed! Good to know - listening to the estate agents yesterday they were all saying that online enquiries have dried up which I find hard to believe.

The online estate agent lists on all of the online companies including Rightmove and will progress the sale through to completion for a fixed fee in advance.