How important is the estate agent?

asteroids over berlin

As somebody who may sell in the coming years, i contemplate this question. How important is the estate agent?

I know when we bought our house, whilst we listened and asked questions when viewing, i didn't think the estate agent was overly knowledgable, the house itself sold itself to us.

Obviously now the shoe is on the other foot - what role does a good estate agent play - both getting people in the door and then negotiating the sale itself.

What are peoples thoughts, what would you look for?

grogi

asteroids over berlin wrote: »

As somebody who may sell in the coming years, i contemplate this question. How important is the estate agent?

I know when we bought our house, whilst we listened and asked questions when viewing, i didn't think the estate agent was overly knowledgable, the house itself sold itself to us.

Obviously now the shoe is on the other foot - what role does a good estate agent play - both getting people in the door and then negotiating the sale itself.

What are peoples thoughts, what would you look for?

Good agent knows how to play on the emotions. Successful agent will prepare the house to be viewed. Will have music and smells then viewings happen. Will have a professional brochure etc. Everything designed for you to "like it".

Knowledge of the agent does not matter at all, you'll have your engineer inspect it for technical aspects.

On conscious level all those do not matter. You might be talking to yourself that you are buying a house, not the candlestick.
But on unconscious level you might simply like it more - because of the interactions that happen in the old brain - and be keen to pay just a few grands more.

dori_dormer

There are agents in my town that people hate. Arrogant greedy lazy feckers. I never went to view a single house they had on the books. They sold to people they ' knew' in the boom. Lied etc. Scan artists. They still have a bad rep to this day.when we sold we went specifically to an agent who had a history of selling our type of property. He even had a list of interested people who viewed our place immediately without need of brochure yet etc.

If you are considering a few agents id ring the office pretending to be a buyer and see how long they take to call you back, respond to emails etc. Those things are very important to a buyer

intheclouds

I havent met one that has inspired confidence.

Theyre all lying snakes in my experience, some dress up the lies with a pleasant demeanor, some are argumentative, but ultimately they are salesmen, they will say mass to make a sale.

If you are selling, use this to your advantage, find one with at least an amiable demeanor who leaves people with slightly less of a bad taste while he is lying to them.

Grawns

intheclouds wrote: »

I havent met one that has inspired confidence.

Theyre all lying snakes in my experience, some dress up the lies with a pleasant demeanor, some are argumentative, but ultimately they are salesmen, they will say mass to make a sale.

If you are selling, use this to your advantage, find one with at least an amiable demeanor who leaves people with slightly less of a bad taste while he is lying to them.

I'm looking for the snakiest sharkiest agent I can find 😁. Was quoted €3650 plus vat for marketing and they didn't convince me they could sell a bag of tayto. The search continues!

L1011

Only important not to get one that's so bad they repulse buyers.

intheclouds

L1011 wrote: »

Only important not to get one that's so bad they repulse buyers.

Exactly. Get a snake but a charming snake!

Grawns

L1011 wrote: »

Only important not to get one that's so bad they repulse buyers.

Two of them have repulsed me so far:eek:
I mean what a con! I'd love to sell directly but it's not suitable for the family market. The area has changed and after 70 plus years in the same family it's time to move onwards and hopefully upwards.

Grawns

intheclouds wrote: »

Exactly. Get a snake but a charming snake!

Here's hoping!

intheclouds

Grawns wrote: »

Here's hoping!

We just went sale agreed (buyers) with a charming one. I'm pretty sure he phantom bidded us but he reigned it in at a palatable point. PM me if you want his details. South/west Dublin.

rsynnott

Go to a few open viewings in the area you're in with different agents, to get an idea of them. In my experience (looking in central Dublin) most are fine, a couple are pretty bad, and one was so bad I started subconsciously avoiding anything they were selling.

intheclouds

rsynnott wrote: »

Go to a few open viewings in the area you're in with different agents, to get an idea of them. In my experience (looking in central Dublin) most are fine, a couple are pretty bad, and one was so bad I started subconsciously avoiding anything they were selling.

This happened me too but it was a conscious decision that I would not deal with this individual about a big financial decision.

riclad

Since most info on the house is on a website,
daft.ie ,myhome etc an agent is there to show you the house
and take the bids from interested buyers .
There,s not much to ask the agent except make a bid or not.
You can look on the house price register website, re is the price on this house fair , in line with houses sold in the area .
Rule 1 is for example if the house is priced at 150, offer 120-130k.
Never start your bid the advertised price .
if i want to live in area x,the price is reasonable ,i,ll put in a bid ,
even i think the agent is an idiot.

grogi

riclad wrote: »

Since most info on the house is on a website,
daft.ie ,myhome etc an agent is there to show you the house
and take the bids from interested buyers .
There,s not much to ask the agent except make a bid or not.
You can look on the house price register website, re is the price on this house fair in line with houses sold in the area .
Rule 1 is say house is priced at 150, offer 120-130k.
Never start your bid the advertised price .

Well - it all depends how well you play Poker... We started bidding 20k over the asking price...

intheclouds

riclad wrote: »

Rule 1 is for example if the house is priced at 150, offer 120-130k.
Never start your bid the advertised price .

Rule 1?

We tried this and bids were not accepted by any estate agent we tried it with.

PrzemoF

I'm from the other side (potential buyer). It's quite common that agent ignores my emails or phone calls ("he'll call you back later"). Another good one was: "you cannot view the property, for now we're just compiling list of interested buyers". No date, just give us your contact details and maybe we'll call you back.

Taxburden carrier

PrzemoF wrote: »

I'm from the other side (potential buyer). It's quite common that agent ignores my emails or phone calls ("he'll call you back later"). Another good one was: "you cannot view the property, for now we're just compiling list of interested buyers". No date, just give us your contact details and maybe we'll call you back.

Not all advertised properties are really for sale.