A new tool has been launched to help homeowners find the right estate agent based on their performance, such as sales time and price achieved.
The HomeOwners Alliance, the UK’s leading property advice website, launched the new service on Tuesday (14th June) to help its 3m visitors make an informed decision about which estate agent to instruct, based on hard data, rather than relying on chance and sales patter.
The organisation reports that problems with estate agents often lead to excessive costs, delays and stress, and is one of the main reasons that people contact and join the HomeOwners Alliance.
The free tool, estateagent4me.co.uk, allows vendors to find local estate agents and ranks them according to:
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New Tool Helps Homeowners Find the Right Estate Agent
How likely they are to sell the property – based on the percentage of properties that the agent has sold compared to the total number of properties listed with the agent.
- The speed at which they are likely to sell it – based on the average time it takes for a property to go from estate agent instruction to Sold Subject to Contract.
- How close they get to the asking price – based on the percentage of the asking price achieved on average.
- How much they charge
The HomeOwners Alliance believes that homeowners typically start their search for an estate agent by looking out for For Sale boards in their local area, speaking to friends or popping into their local high street branch.
In making the final decision, sellers tend to fall into two camps – they will either take the view that all agents are the same, so opt for the cheapest one, or pay over the odds, wooed by the offer of a high sale price.
The group hopes to help people find the right agent for them based on the things that matter, rather than For Sale boards and sales patter.
estateagent4me.co.uk is free to use and allows homeowners to view all of this impartial information on estate agents’ performance instantly. The data is updated on a daily basis from over 18,000 estate agents across thousands of different websites to provide accurate comparison information.
Homeowners also have the option of contacting the agents directly from the platform. Using estateagent4me.co.uk, they can ask their preferred agents to get in touch, taking the hassle out of phoning around.
The CEO of HomeOwners Alliance, Paula Higgins, explains: “We want to take the chance and risk out of choosing an estate agent, and help homeowners choose one that is best suited for them based on hard data about the agent’s local performance. For the first time, homesellers can take an informed decision, whether it’s based on getting the highest asking price, selling quickest or how much they pay in fees. They will be able to tell which agents try and win business by promising unrealistic asking prices, which ones have high fees, and which ones take ages to sell.
“We hope this will lead to a homeselling revolution, getting estate agents to move away from the hard sell, and instead compete on how well they serve homeowners.
“Sadly, one of the main reasons homeowners get in touch with us is because they get into problems with their estate agent. We hope this tool will get homeowners asking the right questions from the start. Our free guide, exclusive for users, advises how to then appoint and work with an estate agent for a stress-free sale.”
Higgins adds: “We know that estate agents are a critical part of the homeselling process, so we’re pleased to be able to showcase the best ones, and in a way that allows people to properly research agents outside of office hours and from the comfort of their own sofa.”