I'm all for competition........

March 2, 2015 by Rob Kahl

I am all for competition. I believe it is essential in an open property market to have competitors vying for business, therefore offering the best possible service for the most reasonable fee.

So, should you always shop around for the cheapest fee regardless though?

Estate agents fees in England seem high when you consider that fees can run into thousands of pounds. However, try and work out what you get for the fee and how much assistance a good agent will offer in what will be one of the most important transactions of your life.

In America, estate agents, or realtors as they are known, will charge anything from 5 – 10% of the sales price to sell your home. However, they will do most of the process for you, everything from drawing up the contracts to arranging your furniture to be packed up.

In mainland Europe, selling fees can range from at the very lowest 4%, to in excess of 10% depending on where you are and the services provided can vary widely from country to country.

In Leigh on Sea it is common now for the majority of agents to offer fees for less than 1% plus VAT, but, it is still important to make sure that you are able to get value for that money.

It is very easy to quantify where most of the fees go. Most agents have prominent Broadway offices with bold window displays and all of them have to advertise in the local printed press, as well as the multitude of online portals. None of which comes cheap.

A good agent will offer so much more than just taking decent photos and putting your property online, but, it is these services that are often difficult to put across to a potential vendor or quantify.

It is not essential, but experience, not necessarily in years, but in the local market, is an important tool for an agent. Areas can differ widely from town to town, even street to street and different types of buyers are interested in different areas and a good agent will know who will be interested in your home and give you an expert opinion when it comes to the valuation.

Sales progression is another area that is often overlooked and not deemed important when a vendor is choosing an agent. It is all very well securing a buyer in a buoyant market such as ours but, what happens then. Are you going to be left to your own devices? Again a good agent will probably employ a sales progress specifically for this role. Someone who has a good working relation with all of the other agents and solicitors and is able to overcome hurdles as and when they arise such as surveyors down valuing properties, re-negotiating or issues in the chain.

Is your agent qualified? If the worst were to happen and you had to complain about your agent where would you go and would you have any rights. There are various bodies which all reputable agents will subscribe to to make sure their practice is open to scrutiny and all will have systems in place if you wanted to call them to task. The main ones are The National Association of Estate Agents and The Estate Agents Ombudsman Scheme.

Another consideration is, will you get on with your agent? This may sound silly and not important. After all, they are there to offer you a service and are supposed to be working for you but, you will need to have a good working relationship based on trust.

All offers have to by law, be declared and followed up in writing, feedback from viewings should be given immediately, details of how a property is being advertised and where should be regularly passed on and levels of interest shown in your property should be given at least weekly.

If you are struggling to sell your property once it has gone on to the market then you will have to have a frank and open conversation with your agent to see if you can work together to get it sold. It may be that you need to drop the asking price or it may even be the way the property is presented and if the agent has given you open and honest feedback from previous viewings, then it should not be too much of a surprise when they have to break the news.

These can be difficult conversations for agents because nobody likes to give bad news and understandably everybody thinks their house is the best, but, remember the agent should be working with you to achieve the same aim and are probably not going to get anything unless your property actually sells. They will be trying to sell your house for the best possible price with the minimum amount of fuss and upheaval.

You should be able to approach them as well. As the vendor you should be able to approach your agent with ideas of how best you think to market your home and any little details of the property that you think may be useful. An agent will take these on board and use them in their marketing to further enhance your home.

So in summary, if you know you are going to get all of these things and more from the cheapest agent around then good luck and go for it, but, if you think that it may be worth paying a little bit higher for a much better service then maybe think again.

Ths article is by Rob at Scott & Stapleton Estate Agents
Tel: 01702 47 11 55