Move 2 You

• First of all do your research. Speak to people you know and find out what people are saying about the agents around where you live / or are moving to. Research them on the web and try and find out some facts about each of them; for example how many properties they have on their books, how many they are selling, how long on average houses remain on their books before being sold.
• Go and see all the agents you have decided upon and talk to them. Ask them about their experience and get a feel for what they know about the market and what it is happening in it. Ask them about their professional qualifications. It won’t necessarily make them a better agent but the fact they have taken the time to get qualified might give you some reassurance that they will do their best for you and in the right way.
• Go with your instincts. If you don’t feel comfortable with an agent then they are not right for you. Make sure you find out which agent will be running with your property and spend some time with that person. Do they want your business? Will they put the time and energy into selling your property into that you want them to. This is mostly gut feel and you need to go with your instincts.
• Don’t necessarily go with the cheapest agent. The fees that an agent charges are of course important but the professionalism of the agents and their desire to work on your behalf are also important. Go for the agent that gives you the best across all these areas. Ultimately you need to select an agent that you trust and one that you are sure is working on your behalf. There are estate agents who charge as low as 0.5% who can provide a better service than those 4x more expensive ie 2%. National chains will often be harder to negotiate with on fee levels.
• Spend time investigating exactly what activity the agents carryout in marketing your property. Take a look at the brochures they produce, ask them about their database of buyers, see if they can name buyers that are looking for properties like yours. Ask what other activities they carry out. Listing with online property portals is a given now, but see if they have any more imaginative ideas in terms of generating interest in your property. If you have ideas that are a little different make sure your agent is able to act on them and to put them into practice.
• Do some mystery shopping. Phone up or get a friend to call saying your interested in a particular property. Get a feel for how well the agent deals with your enquiry, how helpful they are and their level of professionalism. Agents that respect your time and don’t make you feel like a number will probably be better at doing the real work; selling your property.
• Discuss the market with each agent you are considering. Through your discussion make sure that your estate agent understands what you want from the sale of your property. You will need to choose an agent whose view of what your property is worth matches your own. Of course if you are provided with a lower valuation you may getting an honest valuation and not a figure that the agent thinks you want to hear.
• Choose an agent that has first rate negotiation skills. This could translate into a higher sale price.
• Look for an agent who is continuing to perform well and expanding due to success. An agent that is performing well is selling lots of properties.
• Examine the contract closely and fully understand what you are committing to. You must be happy with the contract so make sure you discuss and clauses in it that you are not comfortable with it or do not understand. You should not sign contracts you are not happy with. Overly restrictive contracts are not to be entered into lightly. Flexible contracts can indicate that the estate agent is confident about providing satisfaction to the client. Find out if the contract is a ’sole agency’ or ‘multiple agency’ contract? Multiple agency contracts are where you get several agents to sell your property, the one who sells the property gets the commission. Multiple agency contracts will most likely involve higher fees.

I hope this helps those of you that are about to embark on the sale of your home. Don’t forget that the move2you website is a tool that can be used in conjunction with an agent.

One of the key benefits of the site is the ability to use it to find people that are looking for properties just like yours. The site works like a dating site for property and as soon as you have a match with a prospective buyer you can use the site to make contact with them safely and annonymously. You can at any stage choose to get an agent involved or deal with it the sale yourself (maybe in a future post we could look at the pro’s and con’s of private selling versus using an estate agent).

Take care.