SO WHICH ESTATE AGENTS SHOULD YOU CALL IN?

So, you have decided that you want or need to sell your current property, but how do you decide which estate agent or estate agents to call in to give you a valuation?

You may be fortunate and already know exactly who you will call.

Maybe a friend has recommended an agent to you, or maybe you have dealt with a very good estate agent in the past and will only go to him or her.

But if not, where do you start? Do you just look online and pick 3 at random? Do you do a google search? or do you just call the agent who seems to have the most boards up in the local area?

Well, NO, not in my opinion. I think you need to start doing your research waaaaaaaay before you actually want them to come round. And by research I mean stalking.

Ask around. Ask your friends/colleagues if they can recommend an estate agent, or maybe tell you about a bad experience they have had to narrow it down slightly.

Make a few property enquiries to agents who have similar properties to yours for sale. Test them. Call them. Call them at different times of day. Call them at 7pm (are they open?). When you call them, how quickly do the answer? Does your call go to an answer machine? (which is not acceptable by the way).

Are they friendly? Do you get a good feeling about them, are they energetic and motivated to help you.

Send an email enquiry or two, maybe via one of the property portals, how quickly do they respond? Within an hour, the same day, the next day or maybe never?

How do they present the properties they are currently selling? Are the photographs high quality? Ideally they should have been taken by a professional (more on that later).

Do they have have floorplans?

How are they promoting the properties they are selling?

How many properties on their books are for sale vs under offer (if 90% of houses on their books are for sale and only 10% under offer, there is clearly something wrong).

Are they on facebook or twitter? Look at their profiles to get a feel for them

Are they members of any 3rd party review websites, like checkaprofessional?

The list of things you could do is endless.

The point is that I believe there should be A LOT more thought about which estate agents to even call in to value your property, let alone who to instruct. Get this part right and call in 3 agents who are ‘worthy’ of your business and your decision on who to instruct will be a lot easier.

All the best,

p.s. Would you like more impartial advice? Head on over to my FREE eGuides page by clicking here.