Im abit confused how it works, is there any extra charge for when you sell your house? My house has been up for Sale for 2 months now with an estate agent and ive hardly had any viewings through them. Apparantly the market is really quiet now, but i want to maximise my chances of selling it the best i can. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
You’ll only pay commissions to the selling agent mate but you’ll have 2 lots of listing fees etc. There are lots of low or comms agents now do your research, Purple Bricks etc, flat fee sellers. They are the future, but likely don’t have the reach of traditional agents.
5 years since we last moved and the estate agent set up seems to have changed but it used to be that an agent woud give a lower %age fee for sole agency. Most now use online advertising so everyone can see all houses with any agent. Ones I prefered were ones which gave a full internal as well as external photo series and floorplan. If charges are still higher for multi agency there is nothing stopping you taking it from one agent and moving it to another. Used to be a site which compared performance of agents giving numbers of houses sold over a given period. Good Luck it's always a sod of a time trying to sell and buy houses.
Basically he fees for photography and advertising mate, just the basics. Usually linked to value of the property but always, always negotiable. It’s the final sale fees that usually you need to look out for a % of sale in a house, even a small one, is gonna be 4 figures so do a good scout.
Folk mainly scour sites like Rightmove when searching for a new property, rather than look through every individual selling agent. I don't think there's much reason to use dual agents in this day and age. I would definitely have a pop at Purple bricks, they're gaining a very good reputation and seem quite apt at moving property on. Make sure the photos being used are top quality, people will decide whether they're buying your house or not when they're looking through your pictures.
Yeah i agree about the photos mate. Thats part of the reason why im thinking of using dual agencies. The pics that they have took look like ive just walked round my house and took a few pics with my phone.
So tell them you don’t think they are suitable and that they don’t show it in it's best light. Remember mate, they work for you, not vice-Versa. **** photos can kill a listing, they can make rooms look small, wrong shape. Move your furniture to edges of rooms for them, oldest trick in book but works.
Yes i will do mate. Everything has been pretty amateurish with them really hence the fact im looking at using somebody else.
In theory you could end up paying two agents fees if you list with two agents but only if the contract you have with them says they get a fee regardless. It used to be standard as people would list with estate agents for a free estimate (which you can generally get without listing anyway) and then if they sold it to a friend or family member they'd still have to pay the fee. Nowadays I think it's less standard to have to pay a fee if they don't introduce you to the buyer. As for the photos, certainly make sure you have tidy rooms, furniture pushed back, pictures taken from corner to corner (generally much better) and not just of rooms but any features. You can take more yourself (especially if you have a good camera) and tell the agents you want them to be put on as well though Nads is correct, they should be sorting it.
One thing I've noticed in my search for a house is most estate agents don't give a flying ****, they come unprepared, they don't clean up in unoccupied properties. Most of the time they don't even know their own protocol. They seem to have no interest in nailing down a commission what so ever. I'd scrap who you're with now as they don't seem to give a **** either and choose your next agent carefully. I wouldn't be afraid to pay a bit more if your research shows they'll be really proactive in selling it as most don't seem to care. Sorry I don't have any names though fella.
Agreed. Some of them seem to employ young kids or people with no sales nous whatsoever. Moving over the weekend and we looked at double figures in terms of houses and most different agencies. Some of the estate agents we shocking, turned up late, unprepared and generally uninterested. Put us off immediately.
Viewing houses similar to the one you're selling and see which agents are putting the effort in could be good research. It's shameful though the way they go about selling houses. In America they scrub on their hands and knees to make house more saleable to get that commission. They graft like ****
Tees, Are you still on Teesside? My daughter moved in January in Norton and she had Carvers as agents who were awful. We moved last year over here in Cumbria, and we tried Purple Bricks. They wanted their money up front, £800 if I remember right, and we didn't use them, but they did sell two other bungalows in the same road as us, taking several months longer than we did selling ours. If you've not had any viewings so far get rid of your agent. Ours was sticking over here and we threatened to pull out and amazingly within a couple of weeks they found us a buyer. Keep on their backs whoever you go with, as has been said - they are working for you so make them earn their commission. Good luck - it's a horrible time, but if it all works it's worth the aggro.
