Buying a home, whilst an exciting time, can also be one full of stress and dread, no matter if your dream home is waiting at the other side. But, announcements this weekend could make the process of buying a house far less stressful. Morris Armitage are here to tell you the top 5 reasons why!
If you are looking to achieve the best price for your property, you need to pick the perfect estate agent. So what makes the perfect estate agent? Is that even a thing?
Any estate agent can display a photograph of your property on Rightmove and in their window and wait for the phone to ring. However, a professional estate agent will have already considered possible purchasers as soon as they visit your property. Therefor it is important to select an agent that has sold similar properties to yours. They will already have contact details of buyers likely to be interested.
Time Management
A good agent is able to balance their time efficiently. If an agent has lots of properties available this may mean they cannot concentrate their time effectively on selling your property. On the other hand, if they have very little on the market this means they probably do not sell many either! Find the right balance.
Does the agent have a dedicated negotiator, valuer and sales progressor? The last thing you want is nobody giving you regular updates through the sales process because they are too busy doing other things.
Marketing, Marketing, Marketing!!!
You are relying on your agent to advertise your house so you need to be sure they can do this to the best of their ability. Ensuring their marketing is top-notch is extremely important as this will have a huge effect on the interest levels your property receives. Are their photographs bright and bold? Check through their current properties for sale. Would you want your property marketed like this? Do they offer virtual tours? Professional floorplans Make sure they check all the boxes!
Research their performance
What percentage of the properties that the estate agent list actually sell?
Are they proactive when it comes to updating the advertising?
How quickly do the properties that they list sell?
How many properties have they actually sold recently?
Reviews/Testimonials
What better way is there to get a good idea of how an agent performs than to check their reviews? Google is a great place for this. Search the estate agent and see what their reviews are like. Be aware that some agents offer both sales and lettings so check the reviews carefully. You don’t want to go with an agent who’s reviews look good and then find out the majority are referring to lettings. Obviously the higher the rating the better and the more reviews the better!
Once you have gone through all of the above you are well on your way to picking the right agent for you. After this it is just the tricky part of seeing the sale through, but we will cover that another day!
