Estate Agents are now considered ‘the traditional way’ to sell a property. In recent years the property world has seen an increase in routes to market like online estate agents, fast property buyers, private sales and more. With more routes to market, homeowners might be asking the question: ‘what does an estate agent do?’ Homeowners want to know exactly what estate agents do to warrant their percentage of the sale.
Helps value the home
An estate agent, particularly a local estate agent, can give you an expert view of the value of the house. A local estate agent will know the area, the local property market and what previous, similar houses have sold for. For this reason, even if you want an online estate agent you should consider contacting local estate agents first. Their local knowledge will be useful.
Valuing the home correctly is really important, an under-priced house might put potential viewers off and an over-priced house will sit for sale for longer than it needs to, or it might not sell at all!
You can find house prices yourself on the Land Registry website, but an estate agent provides that extra level of expertise when it comes to valuing your specific home. They can rationalise from experience the reasons why your house might need to be a little more, or less, than the house next door.
Even when you choose to work with an estate agent it’s advisable to do some research yourself. Consider calling a few agents, and get a few estimates before making a choice.
Markets the home
Your estate agent becomes the house marketing expert. Traditionally, once you’ve found your estate agent you should not need to do any of the legwork when it comes to marketing. However, do check the roles and responsibilities of your estate agent before you sign up. This is particularly important for online estate agents who are often cheaper to work with. One of the reasons for the reduced cost is that online estate agents might ask you to do some of the marketing like taking photographs of the home.
A traditional estate agent will organise professional photography, they’ll have a floor plan drawn up and provide a detailed description based on their years of experience. The marketing of the house is incredibly important and a well-marketed home is much more likely to sell.
Generally, the cost of the marketing is included in the estate agency fees.
Conducts viewings
Your estate agent is a salesperson who specialises in selling houses! They know what people want to see and hear and how to answer frequently asked questions.
Estate agents organise everything surrounding viewings – they’ll book the viewing, let you know when it’s happening and conduct the viewing without you.
An estate agent viewing can be more appealing to property buyers, because they’re not biased. Property buyers can feel safer dealing with an estate agents as they can ask all of the questions without worrying about causing offence or getting a biased response.
An Estate Agent Negotiates Price
Estate agents negotiate prices with property buyers and price negotiation isn’t always easy!
It’s a key part of the process and it can be lengthy. Estate agents will act as a third party between homeowners and property buyers until a price has been agreed.
How much do estate agents charge to sell a house?
The cost of the estate agent fees depends on the price that the house sells at. According to Homeowners Alliance, generally, an estate agent will charge 0.75% and 3.0% +VAT of the agreed selling price.
The exact price will be detailed in your contract, so explore your options!
Selling a house fast without an estate agent?
Working with an estate agent usually means that a house will sell within 4 months. There are times when the house sale via a traditional estate agent feels lengthy, and there are some faster solutions. For example, we’ll buy any home without the fees and hassle of estate agents.
We have an expert team and we like to deal face-to-face too! So pick up the phone and give our experts a call. They will tell you all about how we work, book a viewing at the property with you and there they can give a cash offer in principle. If you’re happy we can move fast and get cash in your hands within 7 days!
