Your Guide to Choosing An Estate Agent to Work With.
One of the most important decisions to make when deciding to move home - choosing your estate agent. Choosing the wrong one can be a costly mistake. In this blog we look at what to look out for when making your decision.
Over the last two years, we've seen a rather exaggerated market, with excessive demand and following the stamp duty help coming to an end, a slow down of properties coming to market when compared to 2021.
This mis-match of supply and demand has led to prices rising very quickly, whilst properties were also selling very fast.
Fast forward to today and what we are now experiencing is a slow down in demand, caused by mortgage rates and cost of living increasing, this, accompanied by hesitation in the market now means that properties are taking a little longer to sell and supply and demand is more in line with the pre-pandemic market of 2019 - basically a normal market!
With this in mind, choosing the right estate agent is vital to your successes of selling and still achieving the highest possible price.
When seeking the right estate agent to employ (and bear in mind that not all estate agents are the same, nor do they offer the same all round service) there is one key fundamental to consider on top of everything else - spoiler alert - It's not who offers the lowest fee!
It's all about marketing! Who will market your property so well, that it will propel your property to the top of any prospective buyers wish list! Bearing in mind, simply sticking a property on Rightmove and hoping for the best, simply won't cut it in a more difficult market place.
Let me elaborate a bit further...
- Professional photography - This generates 5x more click throughs on your advert according to Rightmove, when compared to non professional standard photography.
- Floor plans - Having a floor plan increases the click through rate a massive 52%.
- Professional video tours - Adverts with a professional video tour generate 31% more enquiries.
The above is only scratching the surface when it comes to marketing, but imagine not having professional photos a floor plan or a professional video tour and losing all those enquiries on your property. In a toughened market, you want, let me correct myself, YOU NEED as much exposure as possible and you also want as many people through your front door as you can. Failure to do so, will lead to less enquiries, less viewings, less offers and ultimately less money in your back pocket.
Quick Tip: Before you call in your estate agents to interview (2 or 3 agents should be enough, any more can often lead to confusion) look at how they market properties on Rightmove, this is a good place to start to give you an idea on the type of marketing you can expect to receive. Visit the agents website too, for further information.
Red Flags to Look Out For:
- Inflated valuations - prices that sound inflated with no evidence to support their 'guesstimate' along with a sole agency contract for 10 weeks plus. A long sole agency contract show a lack of confidence in the ability of the agent as it offers them a contingency, should they get it wrong or purposely misguide you to win your business. An agent should always be able to justify their valuation with direct comparable evidence.
- Dropping fees to win your business - generally, agents that drop their fees to 'blow the competition out of the water' tend to spend less on marketing your home & also show a lack of negotiation, skill or effort, which ultimately leads to you as the seller suffering an elongated process, lower offers & an agent that will put their own need to sell your property and receive their fee ahead of giving you the correct advice. Remember - the cheapest agent is not the one that offers the lowest fee, it is the agent who sells your home for the most money.
- No clear strategy - A list it and see approach is a definite no no. Your agent should have a clear strategy to marketing your home.
Once you have finally decided on who to call in, we have created a small questionnaire you can use to help you make a fully informed decision, which you can print. See below.
If you have any questions about any of the above or would like to know a little more about how we will market your property, please get in touch on:
020 8935 5256
