The role of an estate agent

The role of an estate agent in selling your home

Selling your property will probably be one of the most significant decisions you’ll make in your life. Even if you’re only looking to rent out the property, you must make the correct decision and pick an estate agent that works best for you.

Most people will only have the opportunity to sell their homes a few times in their life. If you’re familiar with the process, you’ll know it can be pretty stressful! So we’re aiming to help you make it as stress-free and straightforward as possible.

One of the critical factors of selling or renting out a house is your estate agent. Nearly everyone doing this will be using an estate agent.

Unfortunately, they aren’t always cheap, and estate agent fees can rack up quite quickly.

To ensure you’re getting the best value for your hard-earned money, you need to know exactly what an estate agent does and how they can help you. Picking a great estate agent could be the difference between selling your home or not.

To help you out, here you’ll find a brief explanation of an estate agent’s job and some tips to help you pick the perfect one.

What does an estate agent do?

When you sell your house, you might wonder if you actually need an estate agent and what benefits they provide. 

Estate agents will do three main tasks to help you sell your house. They will help you market and advertise the home, help you achieve a sale and help you complete the negotiation.

Under these tasks, many different processes will need to be done to sell your home.

Valuing the house

The first thing an estate agent will assist you with is finding the actual value of the house. 

Setting the price of your house can be very challenging to do by yourself because there are so many different factors that go into it. Furthermore, the price is crucial to draw potential buyers. 

If you set it too high, you won’t receive any attention, and you’re potentially losing out on thousands of pounds if you set it too low.

An estate agent will give you expert advice and use the knowledge of the property market in your area to give you a precise and expert valuation.

Advertising your home

To sell your house, you’re going to need to find buyers first! 

Your estate agent should have professional photographs of the house taken, a detailed description of the house written and a floor plan drawn up.

All of these are essential to finding buyers. The floor plan, photographs and description should be visible on the estate agents website or the big property search websites such as Zoopla or Rightmove.

The estate agent will also conduct viewings for any buyers interested in buying the property. You’ll need to make sure your house is nice and tidy to prepare for the viewings!

Negotiating Deals

The estate agent will act as a middle man between the seller and any potential buyers.

The buyers will submit their offer to the estate agent, and then the estate agent will relay this information to the seller.

Under the law, estate agents will also have to check if the buyer is serious and can buy the property. The agent will have to find out how the buyer intends on buying the property and where they will source the funds. This information will be passed on to you.

Once you have accepted an offer, good estate agents will ensure the deal is running smoothly and resolve any issues.

How much do estate agent fees cost?

Estate agent fees will change depending on the agent you choose. The average estate agent fee is 1.42% of the final selling price. So if you sell your house at the UK average of £265,668, you’ll be paying £3772 as the final fee (including VAT).

You can get agents that will charge less than this but be careful. A poor estate agent has a higher chance of not selling your house for the asking price.

So you may save money on estate agent costs, but overall you’ll lose out because you’ve received less money for the sale of the house.

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