In fact we’d go as far as saying if you live in a popular road in a popular town and you have the sort of property that people want to buy and you put up a home made ‘for sale’ board, you’d have people knocking on your door.
Our own service recognises this by giving you the option to conduct your own viewings. Because as much as we like to think we’re pretty brilliant at showing off properties, we can’t claim to know your home like you do.
And most agents are pretty poor at this part of the process too. In fact recently we arranged to view a property for a landlord client of ours who lives a distance from London. We won’t name the agent, but their employee simply opened the door, told us to look around and that’s the last we saw of her. Not a single question asked or any attempt to find out anything about us. Absolutely shocking selling skills.
So while we’re happy to do the viewings if you want us to, we’re equally happy to leave you to show it off yourself – and because that’s less work for us, we’ll charge a lower fee in return.
What does doing your own viewings involve? Really, nothing more than having a chat with a stranger and showing off what you love about your home. And because you’ll be talking about how you love having breakfast by the window when the early morning sun filters through the trees outside, it will have so much more impact than an agent just saying “This is a good size kitchen with south-facing windows.”
Not only that, but your local knowledge will be superior to that of even the best estate agent – if the buyer is new to the area you can recommend your favourite restaurant, the hidden-away parks and the undiscovered gems of cafes.
So hang on a minute: if you’re the most effective salesperson for your property, and the internet allows you to put it in front of plenty of people on your own…what do you need an agent for?
Well, the main job of an estate agent happens before and after the viewings take place – something most people don’t realise.
Before the viewings, there’s the business of getting people through the door in the first place. Whatever an agent will try to tell you, it’s got very little to do with local connections or the size of their database: it’s all about the quality of the marketing (stunning photos and exceptional descriptions), and setting the right asking price.
As an expert who sees hundreds of transactions a year, an agent should be able to guide you to set a price that whips up the most interest but doesn’t risk undervaluing it.
Then after the viewings, there’s the specialist business of negotiating the best offer price possible. If the marketing and the price-setting have been done correctly, there should be interest from multiple people – and there’s a real skill in turning that interest into offers, and pushing the offers until the very best possible price is agreed.
Even after that, there’s a lot more to be done. After an offer is accepted, one in three deals fall apart – sometimes unavoidably, but often because nobody is pushing the process along and mediating the small sticking points that always come up.
Without a skilled person keeping an eye on things, a small issue can often lead to both sides’ solicitors writing tetchy letters to each other for weeks on end, until a related transaction falls through and the whole thing comes crashing down.
What we’re trying to say is that agents really do have a value – just not in the places you might expect.
That’s why we’ve developed a model that allows us to strip out the bits that aren’t necessary, focus on being the best at the bits that are, and charge you a lower fee because we’re not wasting time and money on things you didn’t need in the first place.
We won’t waste money on inefficient advertising, and we’ll let you do your own viewings if you want to. And by providing expert guidance at the beginning and the end, the end result is getting you a higher selling price than you originally expected, and charging you a lower commission for our work.
Does it work? Well yes, on both counts: our negotiation skills mean that we beat the asking price 90% of the time, and if you are selling a £500,000 house you could save thousands in fees with us compared to a typical high street agent. Give us a call on the number at the top of the page.
Not convinced yet? That’s fine – we’ve got a lot of history to overcome here! Next time you hear from us, we’ll go right back to the start and talk about something that can totally scupper the chances of the rest of the process going well: setting the right asking price. Almost everyone gets it wrong!
See you soon!
We're always willing to offer our knowledge, expertise and even a few secrets about selling property. So if there's anything at all you need to know, please get in touch for a chat as we're nice people, and we love being helpful.
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You can compare us for customer experience against other estate agents or lettings agents, at allagents.co.uk.
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