How to Find the Best Estate Agent When Selling Your Home

How to Find the Best Estate Agent When Selling Your Home

What’s one of the most stressful things you can experience in life? You guessed it – selling your home. But finding the best estate agent to help you sell your home doesn’t have to be complicated. With proper research and advice, you can easily find an estate agent that’s right for your needs and will make your home sale smooth.

Let’s look at how to find the best estate agent when selling or renting your home so that the process goes more smoothly from beginning to end.

Step 1 - Do your research

It's essential to do your research before hiring an estate agent because you will be working with them for a long time. The first thing that you want to do is look for estate agents in your area and make a list of potential candidates.

You can get a listing from websites like Rightmove, or you can simply Google “Estate Agents Near Me” and see who has been doing well in your area. It's also important to find out what commission they charge, as this will impact how much they earn from selling your house.

Once you've made a list, it's time to interview those candidates. It's a good idea to bring someone else along with you so they can ask questions too.

Step 2 - Can you trust them?

Buying a property is, without a doubt, the single most significant personal investment you’ll ever make. Therefore, when it comes to selling it further down the line, it’s going to be just as big an event in your life. So it makes sense that you’re not going to leave this important aspect of your financial future in the hands of someone else, you will need to trust them.

But how can you make sure that you can trust your estate agents?

Reviews

Anyone can say they’re good, but the real measure of whether you can trust your estate agents is to see what other people are saying about them. Reviews and testimonials are a great way to do that.

Good Track Record

If you want to know whether you can trust your estate agents, you will want to have something to go off. That means they need to have some proven background behind them and their business to showcase what they’ve done for clients already.

Personal Recommendations

Whilst reviews are a fantastic way to find out more about an estate agent, it’s arguable that nothing will beat a personal recommendation. If you know someone who has recently sold their property with an agent, ask them to tell you more about their experience. What agents did they invite to provide a valuation, and what made them go with the one they chose?

Trust Your Instincts

We often have gut feelings about people and places, and it’s very rare for these to be wrong. After meeting with a potential agent and speaking to them for an hour or so, you should know whether they’re the type of people you can work with.

Step 3 - Compare fees

There are a lot of factors that go into deciding which agent is right for you. An excellent place to start is by looking at their fee structures. In most cases, there will be a flat rate for listing your property and a percentage of the final sale price that goes towards the commission fees.

The only way to know what you're getting yourself into is if you ask your prospective agents how they charge. It's also important to find out if there are any other hidden costs, such as charges for credit checks or staging consultations. Asking these questions will help you narrow down your choices and decide which agent might work best for you.

Step 4 - Check the performance of your estate agent

To determine whether your agent is meeting your expectations, you should do some research and make sure they're a good match for you. You can check their reviews online and read testimonials from previous clients. Be sure to visit their website and social media pages, where they will likely post recent sales and listings. Finally, ask if they have a portfolio of similar listings to your home.

Step 5 - How their knowledge of the local property market

Your estate agents should be an expert in the local property market. They should know what homes sell for, what property types are currently trending, what they need to be priced at, and how long it will take to sell a house in their area.

Plus, they should also be professional and be able to present your home in its best light – just as you would want them to.

Ask them about the local property market, about your property and ask to see some marketing for previous listings they have managed.