estate agents tips??
 

Hi, been thinking of moving house recently but bit nervous of the whole process. Any tips on which estate agent to use, or any tips in general would be much appreciated, including fees etc.

There must be a few agents on here.

Many thanks in advance......Rich:)

They are all robbing barstewards. Recently put our house up for sale and they want 1.75% - it works out to a lot!

Why a percentage?? Why can't they just say it cost £XX to sell? My house is advertised alongside houses costing half as much - they get the same deal for half the price!

Plus it was farsical - we invited the 2 local estate agents to quote (at seperate times!!) and they spent virtually the whole time slagging each other off. Very proffesional.

A necessary evil I'm afraid.

Now don't start me on Stamp Duty........lol

A clue as to where you live might help :wonder:

just remember fees are negotiable , get a number of them round and don't neccessarily pick the highest valuation they throw at you.

Rich.

Always get 3nr quotes, both for the %age fee + house valuation. Some Estate Agents (EA's) over value your house to try + get your business so 3nr quotes avoids that happening. Negotiate the lowest %age fee possible as the service rarely varies ie same service whatever fee is charged. Try to get the 3nr EA's competing with each other for your business (it's a highly competitive industry + they'll be fairly desperate for a fee). Remember that EA's do this every day so will be better at negotiating than you hence stick to your guns!

You might also try to throw in a few curve balls as well? Last time I moved house I got the EA to agree that if I bought + sold with them then I'd get a 0.5% discount on the fee ... also got them to agree that if the house sold for full value then I'd pay full fee, anything less and the fee went down in steps.

TX.

Oh yeah ... don't fcuking start me on stamp duty either!!

TX.

Were just selling our house at the moment,we had 6 estate agents in.Price varied on our house valuation by £30k..And selling fees from £700 to just over £3000.

In the end we didnt go for the highest valuation,but one that was near the top of the scale with a mid level selling fee.

What i didnt realise about estate agents was( i could be very wrong here,but this is my opinion)..that they want to value your house rather cheaply to start with and see your reaction.If they work off %,then a house thats cheap and a bargain,will sell very easily and get them there commision..If your house is priced a little more expensive.Then it may be on the market for a while...They dont want that..remember when there working on % an extra £10,000 is brilliant for you but very little for them in real terms of cash amount.

3 of the 6 that valued our house,actually had revised prices when all the paperwork came through,all upping the valuation by between £5000 and £10,000.

Be very wary..i think there a bunch of charlatans....

Dont tie yourself in to lenghty contracts. I found that these robbers ran out of viewers within a week or so and then nothing...
They will have a list of people looking for stuff (generally not like yours :rolleyes: ) and once that list is exhausted you might as well move on.

My dad has had one viewing on his house (last week) in about 18 months :( crap agents where he is (Lincoln) but then the market does seem very slow up there...

Sorry, currently chelmsford, essex, looking to move to stanway, colchester.

I expect you have done this but get all the local papers and have a good look through the property sections.

This will give you and idea of ballpark property values (well asking prices anyway) and you can see how different agents advertise and present themselves. Nice pictures, colour etc.