Find The Right Agents To Sell Your Home With Our Helpful Guide
Selling your home can be an exciting time, with the prospect of moving into a new home on the horizon, upgrading your lifestyle and finding a new place to make your mark. Before that though, there’s often plenty of stress involved, especially if you’re working with the wrong estate agent! But how do you find the right estate agent for you?
Don’t worry, there are some steps you can take to make sure you get the perfect estate agent for you, to sell your home, stress free, quickly and for the best value. Here’s some simple things you can do, to find the right agent and keep the whole process smooth and worry free.
Check Their Credentials
Any estate agent worth their salt should be part of the Property Ombudsman which gives you, the seller, peace of mind when selling your home. The ombudsman can help with impartial advice and dispute resolution, should the need arise. Whilst it’s not the first thing on everyone’s priority list, it should be! Agents that subscribe to the Property Ombudsman code of practice are showing they work fairly and put the customer first.
Ask Friends & Family
Friends and family can always be relied upon to give you clear, no hold barred advice that’s personal to you. When it comes to choosing the right estate agent, who better to turn to than people you know and trust? Ask your friends or family for recommendations, particularly if they’ve moved house recently.
TIP: Although it may be tempting, avoid agents with family ties! A house move, whilst very exciting and emotional, also needs to be handled professionally, any mishaps that should be dealt with on a professional basis may cause issues if you know the agents too informally.
Check Out Google Reviews
Online reviews can sometimes be divisive as people generally only leave reviews if they’re really happy, or really unhappy with a service. That said, it’s still worth checking out Google reviews on any potential estate agents your thinking of working with, to give you some idea of the service they offer.
As well as getting a broad understanding of the estate agents customer satisfaction levels, you’ll also find out how active they are in the market, with busier agents generally having Google reviews over a long term, consistently.
Check Locally
Don’t just limit your research to Google; you can also use social media to find out who’s delivering good service and selling houses effectively. Use local groups and buying & selling pages to find out more about agents in your area.
If you’re less technically minded, get out and about! For sale signs around your area are a good indicator of how busy agents are, which, in most cases, means they’ve earned new clients through hard work and service.
Search Local Forums
Local forums are a great place to find opinions on anything and everything local to you, including local businesses and estate agents.
You can post in local chat forums for recommendations on estate agents, or search exiting threads for reviews and feedback from previous customers. If nothing else, forums can help you curate a shortlist of potential companies you want to deal with.
TIP: Think about post sale too, you could also find handy information on solicitors, removals companies and surveyors too.
Search Rightmove, Zoopla and Prime Location
It may seem a little odd, looking at properties for sale when you’re searching for someone to sell yours, but checking out property listing sites like Rightmove, Zoopla and Prime Location can give you a good idea of which estate agents are moving properties the best, not to mention for the right price.
Another good thing about looking at existing listings is you can figure out which agents you like the look of, in terms of how they display and describe your property. Do the photographs look good? Are there any floor plans included? What sets a listing apart that would make someone contact the agent for a viewing? All these things are important when selling your property too.
Speak To Them!
There’s no better way to find out if an estate agent is right for you than by speaking to them! Once you have a shortlist of agents, give them a call, you’ll soon know if they’re right for you. Selling your home is an extremely personal thing, so you need a good rapport with your agent, as well as a professional relationship; talking on the phone to potential agents will give you a clear idea of how your ongoing relationship will work.
Need Some Help? Speak To Us
If you’re thinking of selling your home, why not speak to us? We provide 24/7 support, listings across all major online listing sites, great service prices and a dedication to first class service. Speak to Pete and the team today.
Find out more about Selling Your Property.
