When you need to sell your home the first (and often the only) approach people think of is using an estate agent. However, using an estate agent needs some careful consideration, and probably should be weighed up against other options which include the following:
- selling the house yourself (common in US and Austrailia) as “For Sale By Owner”
- selling the house using a private selling website such as thelittlehousecompany
- selling your house at auction – either a traditional one or via an online property auction site
- selling to a professional local house buyer (Such as webuyessexhouses.co.uk)
- letting your property out instead of selling it
Using Estate Agents
If however, you are keen to use the traditional method of using an estate agent to sell your home, then ask friends, colleagues and/or family for any recommendations they might have. Ask them which estate agents they have used and why and what the feedback was. Also consider how recent this information is and get a name of a particular person if possible (it’s common to have a very good individual in a generally average estate agency).
Get a number of agents to value your home and get them to back up their opinions with real evidence of recent comparable sales. Ask them what price your property would need to be on the market at to achieve a firm sale in 4 weeks. This will give you a good idea of true value and may help by-pass the usual tactic of over valuing your property to win your business and then request you drop the price a few weeks later. Ask them what improvements could be made to add appeal to potential buyers, ask them about their experience of properties in your area and on your road – and get them to prove it!
Be challenging. Test their claims that they have “the ideal buyers waiting” by asking them how many viewings they can achieve within 2 weeks and that you can cancel the contract if they fail to achieve that number.
Get to understand who you will be dealing with in the office on a day to day basis. Often the person who comes to value your house won’t be looking after your sale, so check out who will be and meet them. You could even pose as a buyer for the estate agent you are thinking about using and see what you think of the service from a buyers point of view.
Contracts, Terms and Pricing
Agents will like to tie you in to a contract, more often than not requesting that you only list with them (sole agency). Contracts can vary and will be legally binding, with agents able to sue if you breach any of the terms. It may be worth getting the advice of a solicitor or asking at your local citizens advice bureau if you are unsure about what you are signing up to. Beware also that agents will tend to price their fee as a percentage of the sales price. This is because 1.5% sounds a lot less than £3,000 which is what 1.5% is of £200,000. So do the maths and check you are comfortable with the fee. And don’t forget, VAT will be added, and this example that will add a further £450 to your bill.
One approach may be to offer the agent a higher fee for a sale in the first 4 weeks to incentivise them, and then have a reducing fee scale for sales that occur towards the end of the contract.
Regulation, Complaints and Disputes
A useful website page to visit on these matters is provided by the department of Business Innovation and Skills click here
In essence Estate Agents are bound by the Estate Agents Act, though some are also registered with and bound by the terms of various trade organisations, the main ones of which are;
- National Association of Estate Agents – NAEA
- Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors – RICS
- Guild of Professional Estate Agents - GPEA
If you don’thave any luck selling through an Estate Agent, then why not try a professional local property buyer like us here at We Buy Essex Houses?
Useful Links
- Making A Compliant about an Estate Agent from direct.gov.uk
- All about Home Information Packs (HIPs) see HIPs – A Seller’s Guide