Secret of an estate agent

Having been an estate agent for a few years, it has given me the opportunity to network and understand what can happen inside the living room during a valuation. Estate agents have many tips and tricks that can help or hinder their clients. I want to share with you some of the experiences of estate agency and what it means to you as their customer.

3 is the minimum, not the maximum.

The recommended amount for the number of estate agents you have out to value your property is 3. This is because there may be a difference of opinion in the price: A high, a medium and a low.

There are also many different levels of service you can expect from agents and how they interact with their customers.

DIY agents (online) who sell you a Rightmove listing.

Call centre (hybrid) which you’ll find speaking to someone in a call centre in London or Birmingham, who won’t have a clue what’s happening down the local bandstand at the weekend.

high street agent (traditional) that will try and charge a percentage based on your house price not reflective of their costs to sell your home.

And all the others in between.

The point is you are the consumer and you need choice to make an informed decision. I have been out to more properties than I can remember that have been overvalued and when asked how many valuations they had to begin the answer was simply one.

Don’t buy into the board!

Our business is competitively cut-throat. Listers win and lose opportunities to bring a property to market from rival competitors all the time. If an estate agent says they never lose a listing – most definitely lying. Unfortunately, I have been in this situation many a time and I always ask why? Ascertaining feedback from lost customers is a MUST. One of the most frequent answers I have received is:

“The other estate agent has more boards around town”

This is one of the oldest ways of creating the impression of success for an estate agent. “Boards breed Boards” I recall an old manager telling me. Boards give the valuer the ability to advertise their business on the corner of every street for as little as £12 every time one is erected.

The boards may not even be marked as sold.

You may have considered in your mind at some point during the process “Do I want a board?” and the answer could be no. This is the same for many other sellers too. The real property guru shifting the most brick on your street might not have boards as it is all down to customer preference. Although I strongly recommend a board don’t feel pressured into having one. The highest performing estate agents will be able to show you their average selling time directly from Rightmove and this will give you a key indication of their ability to do the job.

No Research – No Listing!

I have noticed many estate agents in my career and even been partial to making the mistake of not bringing comparable evidence to a valuation.

Comparables or ‘comps’ as we like to refer to them, is a group of documents stating the sold prices of similar properties to the one being valued. They are crucial in showing the average price and changes in prices. They are a way of stating factual evidence to a valuation which can be based upon opinion. As I’m sure the British public are aware, we as estate agents like to think we know it all, particularly about our local market. Unfortunately, that can lead to delivering a valuation to a potential customer in their home solely based on experience and not on fact and figures that reflects the market.

Now if you’ve ever had a valuer come and give a valuation on your property and the figure seems massively inflated or has sank way beyond reasonable expectation, this may explain why. I like to call them ‘bad days’. A little piece of you dies inside when the calm leaves the room and the client reacts in disgust at the price you’ve put on their beloved investment. This is purely down to a lack of research so if your chosen estate agent doesn’t come armed to the teeth with market research (printed off so you can see it) I would say be careful and ask them to explain in depth their decision.

You don’t need to value your own home!

I am about to disclose a trick to you that has been passed down through the ages. Very few people outside of the property industry know the information I am willing to disclose.

One of the main problems that occur on valuations is property owner disagreeing with the value. This can be a pivotal decider in bring their property to market and certainly everything relies on agreeing a mutually best price to list their home at.

Valuers being a somewhat sly and clever solution to avoid this situation presenting itself when the client has already bought into the idea of their agency.

The 3 Tier Valuation.

In a normal – more traditional, valuation the agent will talk you through the market research. What he or she feels is most like your property, how much prices have gone up or down since then, and what levels of demand there are for your property. Then BOOM… “I believe Mr & Mrs Smith your property to be worth £125,000”

Which can sometimes lead to: “No mate! Next door sold 3 months ago for £130,000”

The other way A lot of estate agents get around this is by preparing three comparables that have three different prices. Now of course there could be an element of manipulating the data so you can’t see the full potential of the market but I’m not going to throw any accusations out there.

Above listed is three properties like each other and on the same street. Notice the pricing: there is a high, medium and a lowThis is where things get a bit strange. The estate agent will then ask you “which do you think is most like your property?” Giving you the opportunity to value your own home. This shifts all responsibility of getting the valuation wrong to the home owner, NOT the estate agent.

Now let me be clear, there is no wrong way of valuing a property if it’s guided by the market research but this method takes out the expert element of having your home valued by a professional.

I have spoken to many customers about how they want their home to be valued and the truth is they want to feel they have the best agent giving them the best advice and demonstrating their expertise.

Clutter kills buying conversations

Clutter is not a particularly new or inspirational piece of advice to be giving you if you’re thinking of selling your home. These objects that don’t seem to have found a home, link the buyer with the previous owner and place a barrier between their vision of home and some one else’s house. I am almost certain you would have heard this advice before or maybe given someone the heads up. However, do you know what clutter is? And how to kill it before it kills any conversation with a buyer.

This is when you visit places like John lewis or Ikea, their kitchens have virtually nothing on display apart from a bit of staging. It gives you the opportunity visualise what it could become with your own stamp on it. Find below a few tips and tricks on how to stage your home.

1. Remove all the toiletries from the bathroom, they don’t look great in photo’s
2. Keep kitchen worktops to bare and minimilalistic, a buyer doesn’t want to see the bread maker you got one christmas and haven’t had the heart to throw it out.
3. You don’t need to be Mary Berry to sell a house with the smell of baked food through the home, just simply offer your viewers a cup of tea and build a connection.
4. No Confidence? No worries ask your agent to show the viewers round
5. Don’t let cleaning ruin the excitement of trying to sell. One deep clean at the start and the a hover and dust one a week will help keep on top of it.
6. Let there be light! Show it off, let everyone see it. Turn all the main lights and lamps on. It will show your buyers every aspect and will create the bright and breathable environment they are looking for.
7. Yankee candles are amazing! Enough said.
8. Wave good bye to the dog. Sadly there is a large proportion of the population that don’t like pets or are allergic. Find doggy day care or a loved one to look after your pets while any viewing is going on.
9. The garden should be treated as an additional room. It is vital that the garden reflects the effort you’ve put on the inside

Always reject the first offer

99.9% buyers never put down their full affordability in the first offer. Due to the rise of my arch nemisis Kirsty and Phil, most buyers try their luck all the time – despite Kirsty and Phil never seemingly source a property in which they’ve advised an agreeable offer and the lovely couple they’ve been helping move in and are happy ever after.

Back to the point, We now have a culture of cheeky buyers, which means you might not always secure the best price possible with your first received offer. If you refuse their first offer and they don’t respond with an increased offer, that’s ok! Speak to the estate agent and they can encourage the potential buyer to keep their original offer.

Provided they are not serial killers, build a relationship with your buyer!

Most estate agents will try and keep you separated from the buyer. This is because it means they can filter all the bad and good news through their office meaning they feel more in control and justify their fee. In my experience, you don’t always have to be hidden from the person who is buying your home. 80% of the time, buying or selling a home is an exciting adventure. The person who is prepared to buy from you can give you the updates the agents and solicitors are too busy to give. Becoming friendly with your buyer reduces the risk of a fall through because it is a feel-good process. If and when something does go wrong you will have already opened lines of communication to sort out any predicament.

I hope you have enjoyed and gained something from the information and experiences I have had. I would also like to add that there are thousand of genuinely great estate agents out there but it doesn’t help to understand how they think before you call one out to your home. I have many more stories to tell and much more advice to give but if there is a subject you would particularly like me to cover please fill out our contact form and I shall be in touch with you.Sec