| Product: |
Estate Agents in general |
| Date: |
04/11/05 (403 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Difficult to sell without one
Disadvantages: Charge maxi fees for mini service
Estate agents! Well, they go from bad, to very bad. I've yet to meet one who is good, efficient and does his job as YOUR agent.
I've moved umpteen times and used estate agents on most occasions. What you need to remember is that the estate agent is acting for YOU. Sit quiet, and he will try to push you to sell for the lowest possible price, so that he gets a quick commission. Let's face it; you want to move and buy a more expensive house. You work out your expenses and the difference between the house you are selling and the one you are buying, and you come up with a figure. It is upon that figure that you need to base your sale price, NOT upon the figure the estate agent wants you to accept! As long as you are still asking what you consider to be reasonable (nobody could ask a three million for a bedsit without a loo), then there is no point in asking for less money than you need. How are you going to get the rest? Remember, YOU are paying the agent. Insist on your price and stick to your guns.
Another point; your house is not selling. The estate agent is being paid a hefty fee by you to sell it. Make him EARN his money; badger him, get him to advertis it more, ring him every day; pester him. Estate agents are typically lazy; they rely on Joe Public wandering in, picking up details, viewing and buying. If they have to make an effort to sell a house, that house gets stuck to the bottom of the pile and there it stays, unless YOU give the agent a kick up the backside.
Having said all this, it's difficult to sell without one these days. You just appoint your agent and hope for the best that he sells it.
Summary: A necessary evil.
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Last comment:
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- 15/12/06 Hello,
I have just read your review regarding Estate Agents. As a sales manager for a proactive Estate Agents in Manchester I get a little annoyed about the brush we all get tarnished with. Yes, there are many unsavoury characters who like to call themselves estate agents but times are changing. I myself and my team each work in excess of a 50 hour week, we have mobile contacts so can be reached 7 days a week generally upto 9pm at night. We are not cheap but quite frankly I earn my money. My job is to get the best price for the vendor - not by lying but by selling the property. We provide a high level of service where we advise our vendors of the market and price. For our prospective buyers we keep them informed and try to accomodate them anytime for viewings. If the vendors price and our price do not tally then this normally results in us not marketing the house so we cannot be accused of overvaluing. My job is a hard one, one in which deals with the general public day in day out and is often frustrating. Comments like these are sometimes fair and I'm sorry you have not had a pleasant experience with buying and selling properties that you should have. The advise given in this blog to pester the agent often results in them not having your best interests at heart. My advice to you is if you don't trust your agent i.e. the negotiators and not the valuer who comes to your property then don't instruct them. The negotiators are the ones who try to get you the best price, the valuer usually gets paid on number of houses they list (knowing this should show you motivation of the individual and not the agent of the whole). I will offer you some advise for free:
1. Try to look past agents commission.
2. Register yourself as a buyer in person with all the agents and note the level of contact.
3. Enquire about a property on their website and see if they call you back.
4. Find out have the staff get paid, are they incentivised to get YOU the best price.
5. Staff experience - once your sale gets agreed will they have the level of experience to sort out problems with leases etc..
6. is the manager based in the office - a good manager will make sure the office is making outbound calls.
7. Remember a good agent will get you a good £3,000 - 5,000 more depending on their ability to reason and negotiate and this will far outweigh the difference in fee.
I hope you do not find me conceited in my approach,
Kind regards, Jemma |
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