Making the choice

In an industry that exists without qualifications, experience goes a long way, as does local knowledge. Ask how long the agent has been in the business, how long in the area and how long with the firm. Experience often goes hand-in-hand with pragmatism – and fairness. Thrusting young agents may like to play the shark. Older, wiser agents know that it tends not to pay off in the long run. That’s why the older, wiser agents are still in business.

In a highly competitive market, most agents offer much the same service, at least on paper. So the choice as to who you instruct (that’s the jargon for appointing an agent) becomes about the intangibles – the skill and care with which they deliver what they offer. One way of quantifying this is to look at what an agent has sold in recent months; a good agent will be happy to show you brochures, with asking prices and sale prices achieved. (If the examples they show you are not similar to your home, it could be a warning sign. Look carefully at the differences between those asking and achieved sale prices, too.)

And be careful: the agent who visits you when you are first choosing an agent will not necessarily be the one who handles your property. Many use ‘sales progressors’ or bounce clients around the team according to how busy they are. So you are considering the business as a whole, not just reviewing the person you meet.

Ts & Cs

It is not necessarily a good idea to pick the agent who offers you the lowest commission – or the one who recommends the highest asking price, however tempting. Inflating the asking price is a classic sign of an unrealistic or aggressive agent.

Choose the agent you trust, and then negotiate the best commission you can. If you’ve been offered a lower commission rate elsewhere, say so. They may well match it – unless they are not keen to market your property for some reason. In which case you do not want them.

It’s not all about the headline commission rate, either. Don’t forget to negotiate the other terms and conditions. The length of the tie-in period for sole agency may not matter to you now, but when your property is not selling, and you are desperate to go elsewhere, or go multi-agency, any delays will be deeply frustrating.

The agent relationship

Once you have found your agent, remember that they are your agent. That’s the whole point: they represent you. So the best thing you can do, to get the most from your agent, is to tell them what you want, in as much and as clear detail as possible. Let them see who you are. And that, of course, means knowing what kind of vendor you are and what you want from the process.

If there are two of you selling the property, designate one of you – the best communicator and relationship-builder, probably – to be the agent’s point of contact. Agents are good at managing couples! They quickly work out who will make the final call on a decision – who holds the money and who the information. Present a professional front to your agent, and they will respond in kind. Agree on the best way to make contact, whether by phone or by email.

Be especially clear on price and timing. What will you accept? How quickly do you want to move? How much relative importance do you place on the headline price versus your confidence in the buyer’s ability to complete in a timely way? Just as a good agent is not the one who offers the highest valuation, a good buyer is not necessarily the one who makes the highest offer.

Offer time

The longer your property remains for sale, the more important communication becomes. Keep in regular contact. Ask for feedback and new suggestions to attract viewings and offers. A good agent won’t just sit back and wait – and if they do it is a warning sign. Perhaps you should start considering going multi-agent or changing agents?

When offers come in it is the moment where the relationship you have built with your agent will be tested. You need to trust each other, which in this context means understanding each other’s motivations. You’ll never lean on your agent’s experience harder than when you need to decide to accept an offer or not.

There is sometimes the suspicion that the agent might prefer a quick, sure commission than the chance of a slightly higher one, even if the vendor might prefer to wait. (Agents sometimes refer to them, fairly or not, as “stubborn vendors”.) This is where trust is critical. If your agent tells you that you are not likely to get a better offer, you need to know they are not just wanting a quick commission. If you can’t trust your agent’s advice on this, you are not with the right agent. Even more important, in this situation, is to trust your own judgement. If you want to wait, wait. (Unless you’re a wild optimist and everyone you know is telling you to accept the offer, that is.)

Problems

Sometimes things go wrong – not least because roughly one in three house sales in the UK fall through (more in England, less in Scotland, where the law is different). Various trade bodies have their own codes of conduct, but there is as yet nothing statutory. (The Property Ombudsman published a draft Code of Practice in June 2019 but of the time of writing the government had not responded; it is worth reading though if you want to get a sense of how a good agent should behave.)

If you do encounter problems the first step is to complain to the agent and give them an opportunity to put things right. If that does not work, the agent must belong to one of two schemes. Find out which, then contact either the Property Ombudsman Ltd (www.tpos.co.uk) or the Property Redress Scheme (www.theprs.co.uk). Both have formal procedures for resolving disputes.