Advice on Choosing an Estate Agent

H

helan72

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Hi,

I am putting my house up for sale and have had two EA's look at it. One is a nationwide agency and the other is a more county based agency. Both are offering the same deal & I get a good feel from both. I had decided and told both of them my decision. Now both agencies are dropping their rates (each matching the other) and I am even more confused then ever - both have houses in my estate / general area seem to sell very quickly and for good money. I am only short of flipping a coin at this stage.
 
Helen - do you really need to use an agent? See Wally's discussion on selling your house without one. We had a similar situation to you -houses in area sold quickly and for good money. So we put an ad in the paper and sold it ourselves. In reality ... the house sold itself. Why would you need to pay someone a wad of cash to move it for you?
 
m2lf

much as I would love to do this unfortunatly the logistics of it wont work for me. i travel a great deal for work so am rarely there (hence selling it). it is 40 miles away from my parents. I did think of asking my friends to look after the selling of it and give them a payment for doing so but they are now selling their house!!!! at this stage the agents are down to .5%.
 
How long are each of the agents established? The county based agent may have better knowledge of the local area, while the nationwide agent may also have this knowledge (find out if they were established before joining the franchise) with the back up of their franchise.

Also check out their adverts in local papers and talk to people who have dealt with them in the past.
 
thank Hel_n

spoke with the people selling in my estate - unfortunatly / fortunately they are very happy with the individual agents, so no help making a decision there! - both are long term established. think at this stage i really will just have to flip a coin.
 
helan72 said:
thank Hel_n

spoke with the people selling in my estate - unfortunatly / fortunately they are very happy with the individual agents, so no help making a decision there! - both are long term established. think at this stage i really will just have to flip a coin.
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what rate/s are each of them charging you?
 
they were are 1% each but have now gone to .5% including all advertising (identical in each case) plus VAT.
 
Tell them both you will pay them €500. The amount of work they do is minimal so €500 is more than enough. They can wait for another year to upgrade the Beemer 3 series to a 5 series.

If you can't get one of them to accept this then put an ad in the paper stating evening and weekend viewings only. As your house is an area where they sell quickly then this will not be an issue.This way you will be at home to carry out the viewings yourself and you will save yourself thousands. You will get the market value of your house, no more, no less, regardless of who sells it.

Would you pay someone 0.5% to sell your car?? No, you wouldn't. You'd put an ad in the paper and allow people to view it whenever suited you. Do the same for your house.

Agents and brokers of every kind only exist because this country is full of lazy and stupid people.
 
Ballyman -

I am neither stupid or lazy, nor are any of the people I know who have used agents to sell their houses. As I mentioned in my first post I travel A LOT. I am only home one day a week, going on that basis it would take too long to sell. If I had the time I would sell the house myself unfortunately I do not. I have agreed a deal whereby if the house is sold for over X amount then they receive .5% anything under that is .4% - considering we were originally talking 1% i dont feel i have done too badly.
 
Well, if thats the case, I'll sell it for you for €500 if you want :)

No VAT, commission or any of that nonsense and I WILL have it sold for you in a fortnight. For exactly what any fool in a suit can get for it.

Or you can pay him 3K. Your call.
 
Thanks foxylady

However my house is not in Dublin - if it was i would get a family member to sell it for me.
 
What area is it in Helan72 out of interest? Would love to know how/why they sell so quickly.
 
foxylady said:
Try this crowd http://www.movehome.ie/
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I wouldn't bother. I wasted four months with them when I was trying to sell my house. Won't go into too much detail but unless you accept an offer within the first 2 weeks when there is the initial flurry of interest, forget it, they won't put any more effort in for you. They're probably all like that though...
 
its in what is commonly known as the sunny south east!! - i was lucky enough to buy a derilict house and renovate it just before the market went mad. few properties come onto the market thats why they go quickly.
 
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