5 Tips For Choosing The Best Estate Agent

This is because the estate agent you pick significantly influences how fast you sell your property and at what value. But how do you choose the best agent from the list of agents available in the market?

1. Ask for recommendations

One of the easiest ways to get started with finding the best estate agent is by asking for recommendations from people who you know and trust. For example, friends and relatives who have recently sold their houses can recommend previous agents they used. The good thing about asking for recommendations is that you can get contacts for both local and national estate agents, exposing you to a diversity of experienced professionals.

You might also want to look out for ‘Sold’ or ‘For sale’ signs around your locality. This makes it easy for you to identify the most popular and the best-performing agent in the area. Additionally, you can use estate agent review sites such as Trustpilot and AllAgents to evaluate reviews on the efficiency, rates, and performance of estate agents in your area.

2. Shortlist At Least Three Estate Agents

Once you have done your research extensively, you will need to invite your selected estate agents to your property for valuation. Ensure that you have at least three estate agents in your shortlist. This way, you will get to interview them on their experience and get to know how they arrived at the value price for your property.

Also, enquire about the number of properties they have recently sold; the more the better, and make sure you cross-reference what they tell you with the actual figures from Yopa or Zoopla.

3. Online or Traditional?

The popular traditional estate agents will have a physical office where you can walk in, make enquiries, and initiate the process of selling or buying a property. Typically, these estate agents will look into every phase of the selling process at a fee upon a successful sale. The good thing with these agents is that they operate based on a no-sale, no-commission basis. You, therefore, do not need to part with any fee if the agent has not closed any deal.

On the other hand, online estate agents tend to be much cheaper than their traditional bricks-and-mortar counterparts as they do not have the overheads of operating from a physical premise. However, most online agencies now have local agents who conduct viewings and valuations.

4. Look Out for Estate Agent Fees

In most cases, an estate agent will charge fees based on a percentage of the property’s ultimate selling price. Depending on the agent you choose, the charges can range from 0.75% to 2.5% (inclusive of the Value Added Tax) of the selling price.  For online estate agents, fees usually start from a flat rate of around £800 to £1,200.

The cost of hiring an estate agent can also vary depending on the number of estate agents you choose to use at any one time. For example, hiring a sole estate agency comes at a relatively lower cost compared to multiple or joint agents.

5. Do Not Forget to Check the Agent’s Credentials

It should go without saying, but it’s important to check the credentials of all your shortlisted estate agents before instruction. Look to see whether your shortlisted agents are members of specific trade body, such as the National Association of Estate Agents. This means that your selected estate agent is obliged to comply with certain codes of conduct when doing business with you. You might also want to verify whether an estate agent is a registered member of such redress schemes as the Property Ombudsman Service. With such registration credentials, it becomes easy to follow up a complaint against an estate agent in case of misconduct or breach of contract.

You should be able to find these credentials from the agent’s website. If otherwise, you can contact them to verify the details you are interested in. You can also rely on online platforms, such as https://www.getagent.co.uk/ for an impartial recommendation of an agent, based on their past performance.