Working With Your Estate Agent
How do I maintain the best relationship with the agent selling my house?
If you want to maintain a good relationship with your estate agent, I think you need to some extent, leave the estate agent to get on with their job. I think calling them everyday to find out what's going on, is not realistic. I think you would expect to speak with the estate agent at least once a week to find out what's going on. In essence, I think you want to leave them to do their job.
What can I do to get the best out of my estate agent?
To do the best job with your estate agent, I think you want to provide them, preferably, with keys, so they can get in whenever they need to. All you need to be able to do is to tell your estate agent when you're likely to be there so they can call you before they come in. Access is always the biggest issue.
How do I make sure my estate agent is on my side?
If you want to make sure that your estate agent is working for you, there are quite a few things you can do. Ask your estate agent lots of searching questions. Don't take fluffy answers. Ask penetrating and searching questions. You can ask other estate agents locally whether they know the individual whose bidding on your property. You can ask local solicitors. Find out whether they're well known locally and that should give you a very good pointer as to whether they're on your side or not.
How do I make sure they have my interests at heart, and not the buyer's?
By law estate agents are meant to represent sellers, and are supposed to have the seller's best interests at heart. I'm afraid that's not always the case with some estate agents. If you're a bit suspicious about what's going on you should be prepared to ask local estate agents, local solicitors about the relationship that this particular buyer you've got might have with an estate agent. I think you need to ask a lot of searching and penetrating questions of your estate agent, and they may well crack if there's something funny going on.
Will my estate agent work better if I ring them all the time?
Estate agents tend to like a relatively easy life, don't we all. So the fact of the matter is if you badger your estate agent quite a lot, they are going to want to get rid of you more quickly. So the chances are, you may find yourself being dealt with in front of the queue rather than in the back.
How can I make my estate agent prioritise my property?
If you want to get your estate agent to prioritise your property, you've probably got to badger them quite regularly. You've got to be on the phone, you've got to be asking them what they're doing with your property and you should be asking them for feedback. Most estate agents will expect to speak to you perhaps once a week. Anymore than that, and they're going to start thinking you're demanding more attention, and will probably give it to you.
What will make an estate agent favour my property over others?
Estate agents tend to work on a volume principle; they want to keep turning properties over, so therefore, if you can put your property at a price level which is slightly under that of your position, that's going to put it at the front of the queue in the estate agents' minds. They're going to think it's easier to sell. At the end of the day, conversely, the strange thing about this is that you may find that just because your price is a bit lower, you end up with several different buyers going for it, and the price may well only end up higher, so it's always a good strategy.
How can I make sure my estate agent is doing a good job?
If you want to check whether your estate agent is doing a good job, you want to check the particulars they've done. You want to check that the estate agents are advertising where they say they're going to advertise it. Is it on the web sites that they say it's on? And indeed, have the viewings been done that the estate agents say have been done? At the end of the day, their job is to get people around the place. If they're doing that, they're doing a good job.
What can I do if I don't like the way my estate agent is advertising my property?
If you're not happy with the way your property is being advertised you can tell your estate agent. But at the end of the day, the estate agents know what they're doing. They know what the public likes. Just because you don't like it doesn't necessarily mean it's wrong. I think in that stage you have to trust your estate agent.
How will the agent use the internet to help sell my home?
The majority of buyers for properties these days are "armchair" shoppers, and 80 percent of most searches, certainly in number and probably about 60 percent of the country start online. So therefore it's a very important medium to get people in the first place.
Will the agent put my property details on more than one internet site?
There are several property portals, and the majority of estate agents will now advertise on one of them. So the fact is being on the internet means you're simply everywhere.
