Traditionally, when you decide to sell your home, you pick up a local paper or click onto Rightmove or Zoopla and choose several candidates. These tend to include adverts that appeal to you, recommendations from a friend, or simply agents that appear to sell a lot of properties in your area. You may then haggle with commissions a little and typically choose the agent that offers both the best price for your home and at the lowest commission. Well, let’s stop there. Please take another look at that paragraph and point out what we in the industry consider to be cardinal sins.

First up, never just rely on the look of adverts and the location of a local agents office as a guide that they are good. Also when choosing an agent, the charges they levy are important, and again the value they give your home is key, do not be flattered by high valuations to get you to place with an agent, many agents just want your property on their books to make them look busy, which leads to more issues. Just because they have a lot of adverts on their website does not mean they are good. At this point you are now very confused, so, how do you choose the right agent?

Qualifications & Legislations

Easy, and this is now helped by legislation and policed by professional bodies in the industry that any good estate agent should be part of. Also, there are now a series of qualifications in the industry that estate agents should have that mean the client can expect professional and informed advice from someone qualified in this field. If your agent does not adhere to the rules of these professional bodies there are large fines that can be levied on them, a typical body that they should be part of is either the Property Ombudsmen or the Property Redress Scheme. This latter body is useful as it allows for fair and reasonable resolution of issues arising from disputes around the property and the agent involved.

All agents are now also required to be far more transparent with the fees they charge, and as such are not able to hide costs, again this is not necessarily heavily policed by the industry, but if you are not happy with the charges, do not sign up.

Online Vs. Traditional

Lately, there has been an influx of new online estate agents that have begun to gain traction in the traditional residential market. Many feel that these agents aren’t as good as traditional ones that have showrooms and the like. Everyone feels that they have to do most of the work, show people around etc and act as an agent themselves. Well, this couldn’t be further from the truth. In our opinion, this kind of agent has come a long way in the last year or so, in fact so much so many feel that these new online agents are in fact better, and more proficient at selling your home than many of the traditional agents. The online agent does everything that traditional agents do, they come and value your home, take pictures, advertise and show people your property, but at a fraction of the cost. There are obviously variations on these packages, but for a fixed fee you can get the full service that will save you £1,000’s over and above standard estate agents fees. Remember, First Direct is a bank with no branches, yet they have still won Bank of the year as their advert says. Who would have said 15 years ago that a Bank with no High street presence could succeed? So who says that an online estate agent cannot be better than one on a high street? The one main advantage you get from these type of agents is the costings as already mentioned. Their fees are dramatically lower than classic estate agents, and it would seem that as their popularity increases normal estate agents are having to reduce their fees. This can only be good for you the client.

Valuations

Lastly, there is one major consideration. Valuation of your home. Remember that you are looking to sell your property in a timely manner, you do not want it mis-priced and then it sits on their books forever. You should look for a local agent who knows your market, is qualified, has a clear cost structure with no hidden surprises, who will provide you with a comprehensive service from the first call to completing the sale of your home. Do not be swayed by fancy offices or over-inflated valuations, in the long run, it will be you who will be paying for those with your inflated fees.

If you are looking to sell your home for just £834, with local agents you can count on, contact our SmartSell team here, or call 01245 206 225 for your free valuation.