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 Which Estate
Agent?
not
all agents are the same!
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Choosing the right
agent for you and your property:
Compare their services to you - which
should include thoughts on their staff, their qualifications and their
professional standards. Agents should automatically offer to accompany viewings if you
are out during the day. If you need all viewings accompanied say so at this early
stage. Ask what viewing service they provide at weekends and after
office hours?
Local
reputation counts highly, if you know people who have recently
used an agent - ask them what they thought.
Market segmentation - agents often
promote themselves in certain sectors of the market so choose which
agencies seems to have the most experience and best understanding of marketing your type of
 Compare their marketing - you will
probably have noticed the most common forms of their advertising,
ask what else they can do for you and what is included within their normal commission
charges. Compare the standard of their property brochures - nearly all are in
colour these days.
Compare their costs - commission rates
will vary from agency to agency, if you get better service it may well be
worth paying more. You can negotiate the rate of agents' commission
in relation to the service you require - there is no fixed rate and it is
worth asking.
Compare the location of their offices
- generally the most prominent, smart and local agencies should be on your
short list. Specialist local knowledge is vital and the offices will
attract potential purchasers in the same way as they have attracted you.
Decide on sole, joint or multiple agency
agreement - this subject is looked at more closely later in
this section.
 Watch
Out
for ulterior motives! It is unusual now for agents to make
any misleading comments about the properties they are trying to sell as
recent legislation has mostly guarded against this. However, there
may be other forms of malpractice which is less easy to spot and on rare
occasions some agents are still accused of bias and 'self interest'.
For example agencies owned by big financial
institutions have been suspected of unfairly treating potential purchasers
who do not borrow from the 'in-house' source of finance. Any bias towards
purchasers on these grounds threatens the agents' best advice to their
vendors and brings undue pressure to bear on purchasers over their freedom
of choice. Another example is the common
occurrence of
agents acting for more than one client in the same chain.
It is understandable for them to encourage you to sell to a buyer
who is also selling their home through the same agency, but selling to
that buyer on such grounds alone may not be in your 'best' interest. Conflicts of interests can and still do occur, so be
careful if you suspect you are not receiving best
advice, there may be reasons not immediately
obvious nor readily admitted
to you.
The second group of buttons in the margin show this
subject's linked pages - so click, read on and enjoy!
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