Which estate agent to choose

C

cremeegg

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I am putting a house up for sale shortly. A 3 bed semi, not a great area, fairly central.

Estate agent 1 says ask €325k hope torun it up from there. A one man band agency, with some solid recent sales.

Estate Agent 2 says ask €350, it may go a bit higher. The largest local agency.

EA2 was also showing me bidding software they use caller OFFR. Potential purchasers register with the EA, details including Mortgage approved or cash buyer etc. and they then can make a bid on the property, each potential purchaser can see the other bids. A fascinating idea. Has anyone any experience of this?

Any comments or suggestions welcome. Thanks
 
EA 2 seems more "honest"

This lark of pricing under what you will accept annoys the hell out of me. If it's worth 350k, it should be priced at 350k, not 325k.

I'd go with EA2.

The online bidding system is very transparent and you will find more and more agents will use similar.
 
OFFR is very good - it's becoming well established, both here and (more recently) abroad.

I think it's an advantage to have it - speeds up the process.
 
cremeegg said:
EA2 was also showing me bidding software they use caller OFFR. Potential purchasers register with the EA, details including Mortgage approved or cash buyer etc. and they then can make a bid on the property, each potential purchaser can see the other bids. A fascinating idea. Has anyone any experience of this?
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Good luck with the sale! I viewed a house today which I'm interested in. EA uses the same OFFR system so registered this evening waiting for to be approved. Downside is the buyer has to upload proof of identify and funding. As has been talked about as a buyer you end up giving away your cards financially. Equally I don't mind as I know what my upper limit is.

Equally interested in others experience here on both sides of the equation.
 
Who is selling the most houses in your area?. is there any houses in the immediate area gone sale agreed?. I previously sold a house in a matter of days by going to the EA who had sold a house across the road (in better condition I might add) and he sent the underbidders over to us and then myself and the neighbour did an overall deal with the EA
 
thedaddyman said:
Who is selling the most houses in your area?. is there any houses in the immediate area gone sale agreed?. I previously sold a house in a matter of days by going to the EA who had sold a house across the road (in better condition I might add) and he sent the underbidders over to us and then myself and the neighbour did an overall deal with the EA
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I agree with this. Use the local agent who is actually selling houses in your area. Looks like both EA1 and EA2 are doing that? Although it is very annoying for buyers when houses are valued lower to create more interest, I think it benefits the seller. Some buyers may be put off by 350,000 in the area you describe so I would go with EA1. Or go with EA2 but ask them to price it to draw in more potential buyers.
 
cremeegg said:
Any comments or suggestions welcome. Thanks
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I've used or have knowledge of using many estate agents in the last 2 years. For sales, potential sales, valuations, purchases and potential purchases

Ireland - a sample
Used well known auctioneers. In the areas.

Property 1 bid was 10% below auctioneer
Property 2 bid was 12% above auctioneer
Property 3 bid was 20% below auctioneer
Property 4 bid was 13% below auctioneer

Not Ireland

For home decided against the slick big auctioneer in favour of the small one man band as liked them when I met them on a potential purchase, which was why I went with them. Also were cheaper, but that wasn't the main reason, I wanted the personal service for this particular case. One valuation was 100K more with the other being a range of 100K. Sold at the 120K, so lower than the slick auctioneer by 80K. Unlike Ireland, the sale process was to take time to take proper pictures and really get it right, to get all documents (legal requirements) in order and done by the auctioneer. Then viewings were strictly at certain time slots subject to my approval, and we vacated the property for viewings as I hate viewing anywhere with people in situ. I also know potential purchasers do not want to meet owners in the house as they cannot have the freedom to think or comment.

I've phoned Ireland in relation to potential purchases and viewings etc. Could not care less who the auctioneer is. Irrelevant to me as a purchaser.

Took a lower price for a purchaser not needing a large mortgage and with a steady job against a purchaser with multiple properties needing to sell one to sell. Like you Cream Egg (I assume) I'm in the happy position of not desperately needing to sell. So that really takes a lot of pressure off.

The auctioneer's asking price, well it's' just an asking price and can be way wrong. One of the auctioneers tried to get me to settle on one bid but I held out and got 20K more. Being aware that at x price an auctioneer is not going to care about his % on another 20K, but it's a chunk of change. You've experience so you know what I mean.

Also managed to offload a rental that needs major work and bypassed the auctioneer to deal directly as the purchaser was looking to buy a relative's property who in the end declined to sell.

Had a builder for another property who was giving a quote for renovations and the builder offered to buy it even though it wasn't for sale, after I withdrew it from sale as I decided to keep it.

No idea what OFFR is, just a slick marketing tool I suspect. For potential purchases I've mentioned I'm a cash buyer, they never mentioned OFFR to me. Based on the current market I think it's a good time to sell as anything I'm interested in is going way over asking and get snapped up very quickly. As you know this can change in the morning with the whim of the market. So I think the asking prices are nonsense.

Talked to a 'very relaxed' auctioneer 2 days ago by the name of Liam, so disinterested and with screaming children in the back ground. Told me viewings would commence in 2 to 3 weeks despite the ad being up in daft. I thought that was pretty bad service. Would be annoyed if I'd hired him. But at the end of the day I'm only about the property.

Personally I'd never use the like of Lisney as they are a different type of market and you pay dearly for that type of slickness. You could go with EA 1 and tell him to price it at more than €325. Certainly if the OFFR is the only difference. Or go with EA2 if you want to have the fun of a type of auction. Which is what you're hinting is intriguing you.
 
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Id try to go somewhere in the middle. Big operations with big marketing budgets cost money and you're paying for it. Shiny suits, pointy shoes and bad aftershave are expensive... One man band operations, if they are busy (and at this stage most are) could make it more difficult for prospective buyers to get accompanied viewings, the agent may be slow in getting back to bidders etc. because of volume of work and not having support staff.

Agree with the point above regarding the price- this start low and bid up wastes a lot of time.
As an aside, the online platforms are definitely useful, but as a buyer, do be careful. Just because the bidding has ended on the platform doesnt mean that someone cant call the estate agent and make a further bid over the phone. I know someone who lost out on a house this way. Unscrupulous but completely legal. Doesnt matter to you if you're selling though
 
Hope this is not off topic. Some EAs do open viewings at set times. Others vet the purchasers and do more private viewings. Which is more beneficial to the seller? I assume the open viewings mainly attract tyre kickers.
 
Tadaima said:
Others vet the purchasers and do more private viewings. Which is more beneficial to the seller? I assume the open viewings mainly attract tyre kickers.
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Private viewings are often reserved for the higher end of the market, vetting purchasers takes more time and you are much less likely to get multiple bidders driving the price up. There just isn't the incentive for the agent to do lots of private viewings at the usual commission rates. Open viewings are more prevalent because they work, while you will get tyre kickers, you will also get the motivated buyers who are ready to go.
 
I never understand why estate agents / sellers come to a deal.

It's for example 1 % if the house goes for price. For every additional 5k then estate agent gets a higher %.

Now the key is setting the 1% price and the seller not getting screwed over.

Or maybe some other sliding scale to get best price for seller. Estate agents getting 1% of additional 5k is nothing to them but could be important for seller.
 
mugsymugsy said:
I never understand why estate agents / sellers come to a deal.
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They choose how they want to operate, in most cases unless you're offering a significant incentive, you either take it or leave it. They make money through volume of transactions,
 
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