If you’re about to put your property on the market and aren’t sure which Estate Agent to use then here’s a little help:
Invite at least three agents to your property and get them to give you valuation figures. Whilst they are there take the opportunity to give them a real grilling. Don’t let them set the format of the meeting – it’s your house and you have invited them in. Therefore you should decide on the format and structure of the meeting.
There are three essential questions that you should ask each agent:
1. In the current climate, exactly what percentage of properties that you put on the market do you eventually agree sales on? What percentage do you fail to agree sales for and why do you fail?
2. How long does it take you to find a buyer on average?
3. On average, what percentage of the initial asking price do you achieve for the properties that you sell?
Any agent that cannot answer these questions is either hiding some poor results or knows very little about their own business. You should dismiss any agent that cannot provide details of their results – if they cannot demonstrate a good track record then they don’t have a product to sell, period!
Many agents will put up smoke screens, bragging about number of “For Sale” boards, big shop premises, number of branches, etc. These are all meaningless and irrelevant statistics and have no impact on an agents ability to sell your property. The proof of the pudding lies in their recent results and if they can’t be bothered to provide you with evidence of those results then you should give them the sack straight away.
And always remember: the agent that has the most For Sale boards in your area can only brag one thing; they have the largest number of Unsold properties in your area!
