Choosing the right estate agent: A three-part guide to help you sell your property

Part 1 - Shortlisting your choice of estate agent

Moving house is widely regarded as one of the most stressful situations you will experience in life. But selling your home doesn't have to be so stressful. Whether this is your first property sale or you're a seasoned veteran, the key to a stress-free experience is employing the services of a professional estate agent with the right local and industry knowledge to help you.

A good estate agent should be working on your behalf to help you achieve your goal:to sell your home at the right price, for a competitive fee and with the minimum of fuss. They will act on your behalf as your advisor, negotiator, planner, marketer, progresser and sometimes as a shoulder to cry on when if all feels too much. Quite simply, a good estate agent will smooth the process for you and take on the majority of the work, leaving you free to concentrate on more important matters.

But how do you choose the right estate agent? With the high street full of branches, which one is right for you? And what of internet only estate agents? With so much choice, understanding what to avoid and what to look out for in advance will help you to navigate your way through the process with ease.

With this in mind we have prepared something to help you.  We have put together a free three-part guide that will help you avoid rogue agents and select the very best from the rest. With our guidance, and some simple preparation, you can sell your home stress-free and quickly by choosing the right estate agent to help you.

In Shortlisting your choice of Estate Agent, the first part of our three-part guide, we look at the criteria you should consider in order to whittle down the choice of agents available in your local area to a manageable shortlist. In parts 2, What to Ask Your Estate Agent, and 3, Contracts, Charges and Choices, we will help you to understand how to decide on which estate agent from your short list you should choose.

Why shortlist?

Traditionally, choosing an estate agent meant scanning the newspaper or high-street, inviting a few agents to your home and the answer to two simple questions.

• How much will you charge to sell my home?
• How much do you value my home at?

If the answer to either, or both, of these questions was satisfactory, that agent got the instruction. But beware. Bitter experience has proven that this approach does not always prove satisfactory.We suggest you dig a little further to understand if these answers are purely sales techniques to gain your instruction or a true representation of the facts.  Inflated valuations will give you false hope and lead to disappointment if the market will not support the agents promise. Likewise low-charging agents work on volume of numbers, so will they give you the support and service you need?

So before you do anything, and certainly before you invite a procession of estate agents to your home, do your homework to give you a shortlist of potential agents by weeding out those who don't meet your needs. Think of it as an interview process. By shortlisting, you will only need to interview the most promising estate agents and not waste your time on the others.

So how do you compile your initial shortlist?

• Talk to friends, family and colleagues who have sold property in the past in your area.  Who would they recommend? Why would they recommend them? And perhaps more importantly, who would they not recommend? And again, why?
• Monitor your local For Sale boards.  Which agents are most active?  And of those agents, which agent appears to have a good ratio of Sold boards to For Sale boards?
• Are they members of professional bodies? National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), Ombudsman of Estate Agents (OEA) etc.
• How are their online credentials? A high proportion of home buyers now search online, so websites are important. Firstly, check the agents own website. Is it easy to navigate? Do they look professional? Secondly, will they list your property on the online property portals such as: Right Move, Globrix, Propery Live, Google Property
• How do they behave in-branch? Visit some of the most promising agents on your shortlist and visit a local branch to see how they behave in front of you as a potential buyer. Do they make you feel welcome when you enter? Are they knowledgeable about the area you are interested in such as schools, doctors, shops, transport links etc. Can they demonstrate knowledge of market pricing of property types you are interested in? Are they too pushy? Do they take your contact details? Do they follow-up after your visit?
• Check their pedigree. Local estate agents with many years experience will know the area well and, more importantly, know how the local property market behaves in both falling and rising markets.  How long have they been trading?  Do they have a branch network?  Is there somebody available for you to call or visit at any time to discuss your property sale?  Do they have flexible opening hours?  Is there a manager available for you to speak to if necessary?

By the end of this process you should have a maximum of three agents on your shortlist.

In part two of this guide, What to Ask your Estate Agent, we look at inviting your shortlisted estate agents to your home. From a comparison guide to offered services to a list of questions every estate agent should be able to answer, we give you everything you will need to interview your shortlisted agents when they visit your home.