Whether you are selling or letting out your property, you will most likely need to choose an estate agent to represent your property. How to go about choosing one is not as easy as one would hope. If you want to make sure you get the best deal, then you need to do quite a bit of homework. Here are some tips to help you make your selection a simple one.
1. Review as many agents as you can
Depending on where you stay, there may easily be over 50 estate agents covering your postcode. It is almost impossible to find the time to review all of them. What we all tend to do is a quick search on either Google, Yahoo or Bing (or any other search engines) for an idea of agents in our postcode. Whilst this type of search will give you quite a good response of mostly used estate agents in your area, it will not give you any indication of the services the estate agents offer and the fees they are potentially likely to charge. Moreover, this type of search tends to leave out the more bespoke, independent and smaller estate agents who may not feature on the first response page of your chosen search engine. This is where Kayabee comes in. We provide you with a selection of estate agents covering your postcode, mainly focused on the small to medium estate agents. If the selection we provide is not extensive enough, don't worry, we will take the hassle off you and contact as many agents as possible on your behalf and subsequently present you with a list of agents, the services they offer, their fees options and any other key information upfront.
2. Decide what is important to you
The decision of who to go with is a very personal one. Depending on whether your property is one where you have lived in for the last 20 years with countless memories or one that you have just bought to rent out, the information you need to make your decision will vary. However, one thing remains in common is that we want to make sure that whichever agency we go with, that they treat us and our property with utmost respect. After all, we are bringing the business to them and not the other way around. What we tend to find, is that the small to medium estate agents give property owners a more personable service. Most of the time, these agencies may be independent, franchises, and/or family run. This essentially means a more manageable number of agents working for the company and most like together with the owner of the business. This type of working environment ensures that the company's ethos and standards are always maintained, hence the services provided to you in return.
3. Get a handful of agents to visit to your property
Having completed the initial work of sifting through many prospective agents, the next task at hand is to select a handful of estate agents to walk through your property and give you a more accurate estimate. It is generally wise to have between 3-5 estate agents to view your property, but the more agents you get through your door the better. The most important thing is to make sure that the agent who your want to represent your property gains your trust. Read up on the agent and the agency as much as you can. If they are the owner of the business, that is an even better sign that they will do everything to make sure they get the best price, tenants or buyers in the shortest time period.
4. Find out where and how your property will be advertised
Prospective tenants and buyers first stop is generally the property search engines, like Zoopla, RightMove, OnTheMarket, PrimeLocations amongst others. Unless the estate agents already have a list of prospective tenants or buyers at hand, you need to make sure that your property has been listed on at least one of the property search engines. Find out from the estate agent if they are likely to be advertising to prospective buyers or tenants on their books first before listing your property online. This is quite important to ensure that your property listing reach the relevant audience as early as possible.
5. Go with your gut feel
Remember, it is your property and it is the estate agent's duty to make you feel valued. Whilst a high valuation and the lowest fee may be very tempting, it may end up costing you more in the long run if your property remains on the market for longer than expected. Look at all the pros and cons and base your final decision on the one that makes you feel you can trust the most.
