When it’s time for homeowners to sell their home, what is it exactly that makes them choose one estate agent over another? With over 19,000 estate agent branches in the UK, and hundreds of online agencies promising low, flat fees, the competition between agencies is ferocious.
When You Move surveyed over 750 consumers to find out why vendors choose their estate agent. The results revealed that honesty and fairness are the most important factors to home owners when appointing an estate agency to sell their home. Here’s how agencies can appeal to home sellers and win more instructions:
Be honest with valuations, not high
The top reason sellers selected an agency to sell their home was because they were given a fair and honest valuation, with just under half (44%) of sellers stating this as a factor in their decision making.
This shows that many sellers have wised up to agents who deliberately give inflated valuations, which although may initially be appealing, could slow down the sale of the property.
The average seller sees three estate agents before making a choice on appointing one (or more) to sell their home, with nearly half (48%) of people receiving valuations from three estate agents, and a third (31%) getting two valuations. With multiple valuations, combined with information available online comparing similar houses in the area, sellers can easily calculate what a reasonable asking price is and won’t necessarily be impressed with an above-average valuation.
In fact, only 12% of people said that they went with the agency that promised the highest sale price for the property, proving that other factors are considered more important.
Show your sales expertise
Confidence in the agent’s ability to sell was the second most popular reason for selecting an agency to sell a property at 36%, followed by knowledge of the local area at 34%. If as an estate agent you can demonstrate good sales skills and present evidence of achieving or exceeded the asking price on previous sales, you put yourself in a strong position.
We all know that location, location, location can be just as important as the property itself, so showing strong knowledge of schools, amenities and transport in the local area can also be a real boon to winning instructions. This is a reassuring result for local high street agencies who may feel that they are being pushed out of the market by online agencies.
Continuous communication
It’s not all about how the agent presents themselves during the valuation visit though, as continually good customer service is also important to sellers. 26% think that the way the estate agent communicated before and after their visit to the home was an important factor in selecting an agency.
Lack of communication is a leading cause of stress and frustration for both buyers and sellers. In fact, our research found that £1.4trillion worth of property has been left off the housing market due to frustrating processes. Estate agents that can demonstrate that they are proactive and informative from the outset to reassure potential clients will immediately be at an advantage. One way to demonstrate good communication skills is to establish expectations and time frames early on, so that the client knows when to expect a call, email or text update.
Additionally, introducing technology into the mix can make communication smoother, and meet the expectations of the digitally-savvy customer. That’s why we created When You Move, the platform that makes communication for all parties easier and quicker and automates manual processes. Demonstrating to the seller how you will use this technology to keep them informed during the selling process could sway their decision when selecting an agency. Poor communication leads to poor trust, and without trust, a potential seller isn’t going to entrust the biggest sale of their life to you.
Get referrals
If you have done a good job of selling a property, the vendor will have no problem recommending your agency to people, so it pays to always deliver. According to our research, 44% of people get agents to value their property based on recommendations from friends, and 36% based on family recommendations. Most people will sell a property at some point in their lives, so if you make a good impression with one local seller, chances are you’ll get future business from their contacts.
This shows that no matter how many emails you send, tweets you publish or adverts you post, good old word of mouth still plays a vital role in attracting new business. And the only way to do that is to provide a good service. In this respect, local agencies again have a competitive advantage over the online agencies as the face-to-face time and effort put in personally getting to know sellers cements the likelihood of giving a recommendation.
Low fees are important, but won’t seal the deal
Agencies should be upfront about the percentage fee or overall cost they charge for their services of selling a house. Estate agents charge anywhere between 0.75% and 3% + VAT of the agreed selling price, but according to Which?, the UK national average was 1.8%.
While a low percentage fee may initially reel in sellers, it won’t necessarily clinch the deal, as when it comes to the final decision only 33% of sellers select the estate agent because they offered a low fee (fourth highest reason). This shows that while a low price for your service can help to get potential customers through the door, they won’t necessarily instruct you.
So, if your agency is providing a valuation for a potential client, remember to provide a fair and honest estimation for the asking price. Ultimately, customers are looking for good customer service with proactive communication from an agency that can sell their home. By demonstrating strong knowledge of the local area and a confident (but not pushy) sales ability, you are in with a chance of winning more instructions.