Sellers are almost evenly split in their experiences of estate agents, with 48% having had no problems, but 47% having had at least one issue.
Which? has come up with the finding after surveying just over 2,000 home owners but has not yet detailed what the issues typically are.
It has, however, now issued new advice to sellers about choosing an estate agent.
As part of its survey, it asked how people had decided which agent to use.
They used six measures – with the property valuation easily the most persuasive factor with 65% having several valuations of their property.
Which? advises that agents may over-value to win the business.
This was followed by the fee, important to 51% of sellers. Again, Which? is not too impressed, advising sellers to choose the agent they want and then haggle over the commission.
Types of property the agent had experience in selling came third, and was considered by 31% of sellers. This was followed by reviews of the agent, including word of mouth recommendations, which were important to 28% of sellers
The agent’s record in achieved asking prices was a factor for just 26%, while previous selling times was the least important factor, considered by only 15%.
Which? now has a new, free comparison tool developed with GetAgent which uses three of the four least popular comparatives – so it will be interesting to see user uptake.
The GetAgent tool compares high street agents based on past performance on their average time to sell, the number of similar properties sold and the percentage of asking price achieved. The agents pay to be on GetAgent.
Users have to put in a certain amount of information, including their own valuation of the property, plus the actual address of the property, their name and contact details. In return, their ‘customer hero’ gets quotes through from local agents within 48 hours or so.
Last year Colby Short of GetAgent garnered headlines when he said that based on research of listings by Purplebricks, Tepilo, HouseSimple and Emoov, he would not recommend people use an online agent.
Proptech firm comes down firmly on side of traditional agent
Comments (22)
Looks like my posts today have upset at least one person.
I’ll claim that as a WIN for honest and decent Estate Agency vs, the hangers-on and parasites of our industry, then.
Thanks for the confirmation.
But the real winner is this comment of the day:
WHich? should stick to microwaves and kettles. (credit: Bless You)
The WHICH? disclaimer:
“Use of the service is governed by the terms and conditions of GetAgent, which will process your details in accordance with its privacy policy. Which? may receive a referral fee when a user requests an estate agent’s valuation through the GetAgent tool.”
So will they be sharing the costs with Get-a-Gent when hit with liability claims for homeowners’ actions if and when they get found out that the information they fed to people in order for them to make a so-called informed decision upon, from what was seen as a trustworthy source, was fatally flawed and misleading?
Hi Colby Get Agent
So can you can confirm that a consumer, out of a choice of 6 agents, will not be introduced to the best, but only to those paying your referral fee ? How do you introduce the best agent to a consumer if that agent doesn’t subscribe to your service ?
We obviously can’t but they are welcome to use the data and call them directly. We never introduce anyone to any agents unless they specifically ask us to. We don’t automatically introduce them to some agents that we decide on.
Erm… HANG ON!
This new WHICH? facility is fatally flawed!
It’s a basic copy of the Get-a-Gent system (that’s not the fatal flaw by the way. Well… for the purposes of this post it isn’t anyway.)
The three metrics featured on the GaG site are:
AVG. SELLING TIME
PROPERTIES LISTED
ASKING PRICE ACHIEVED
The three WHICH? metrics:
Avg. time to sell
Properties sold
% of asking price
The problem with this being that, in respect of the second of each, THE SAME NUMBERS ARE BEING QUOTED!
When you hover over the WHICH? “Porperties sold” header it states:
“The number of properties listed by the agent in the last 6 months within 2km of your property. This is a good indicator of how experienced the agent is.”
Not only is it fundamentally incorrect; moreover it is misleading to the public that WHICH? purports to be assisting in making an informed decision as to the disposal of, for the vast majority, their most valuable asset.
Lies… damn lies… WHICH? guides…
Surely not?
Cyberduck46 – a bit like using trustpilot reviews to make hay while the sun shines?
If these type of comparisons become popular you might find agents start to undervalue properties.
You may even find new agents starting up, being very choosy about which properties they accept, then once their stats make them top agent they then relax all their criteria and make hay while the sun shines. Moving on to start a new agency once their stats don’t look so good.
A clever agent would perhaps even start up a new agency as their other one moves into the “make hay” phase.
Sadly the Consumers Association, in the guise of Which? have chosen to abandon its principles as the consumer’s champion by selling its “service” to agents willing to pay £50 a pop to feature on GetAgent’s tool. So in any circumstance where the best 3 agents choose not to participate in this arrangement, the consumer presumably gets the next best 3 willing to pay to buy their way forward rather than by merit.
Such a shame to see a long cherished consumer’s champion fall into this trap. The winners are the second best estate agents, the losers are consumers. Thanks Which?, no TMO required to spot this own goal.
Hi Scruffy, no one can buy their way onto the list. We would never feature an agent on the list who is not one of the top 6 agents for the vendor.
So if i was an agent that specialised in higher end/quirky/not easy to sell property that took longer to sell with less of them, would that make me a worse choice for the vendor?
Well, for most of them, I imagine the answer would be yes.
Brilliant. Can I send you some money or am I better off listing a few ghost properties and marking them as sold after 24hrs?
The competence of any estate agency is half the story. Valuations, fees and data are open to manipulation. Add in that most vendors have little appreciation of the significance of any given metric, and the importance of character becomes more significant.
Perhaps agents should stop telling homeowners how well they do what they do and share more their personal brand.
“Our passion comes from who we are – not what we sell” Simon Sinek.
In my opinion, Which? has delivered the wrong half of the story. The easy option.
How does getagent get their data? Have they got a commerical agreement with rightmove?
‘Which? now has a new, free comparison tool developed with GetAgent which uses three of the four least popular comparatives – so it will be interesting to see user uptake.’
Here’s what this user found – when I thrice applied, using three separate postcodes:
“We don’t have your results but will get them to you within 48 hours”
Typical – nothing but an info trap. Why should we expect anything else from this lot?
Two hours after I posted the above and the facility seems to be working.
Funny, that.
I don’t see how Which can be promoting a firm that charges agents £50 per lead to belong. In other words the good agent who sells most property at the best price and in the quickest timeframe will not appear in the results unless they pay for the privilege. Paying £50 per lead when the instruction isn’t guaranteed seems crazy to me and the results offered to the vendor skewed to say the least.
Get agent should be made to make it clear on the first page of their website that their results only include those agents who have paid to be promoted.
Which should also amend their article to state that Get Agents site works on a ‘pay to appear basis’.
All of these type of ‘services’ purport to give quality leads to agents and give the ‘consumer’ choice and get the lowest fees etc. There are the farce companies like netanagent and others that send out the anonymous leads inviting agents to submit their best terms…blind. This agent is not prepared to do that as it is a race to the bottom, if someone is not prepared to have my many years of advice and expertise and let us both see the whites of each others eyes, it is not the basis for a healthy working relationship, especially for nearly everyone be their most valuable asset.
There are agents and clients who will be prepared to work under these circumstances and that is their choice. You have to decide what you stand for and stand by your guns…you can’t be everything to everyone…Countrywide have proved that!
The stat that really shocked me in the Which? article was that only 65% of people reckoned they had more than 1 agent around….I can’t remember the last time I was the only 1; it is always a minimum of 3 and I have had a high frequency of 5 agents in the last year!!
Hi there! All agents show up in the results actually. You can go through the Which? flow yourself to see. Thanks
i dont like the way they rank agents on get agent.. its done on % of asking price achieved,..
So the agent who values at £200, 000 on a house worth £190,000 and achieves £195,000 through expert negotiation ranks less then the lazy agent who needs price reductions and achieves £190,000i.e 100% of asking price. (=fake results)
Also, if you need the advice of which? on how to choose an agent you probably dont own a house . To own a house you normally have to own a brain to earn money and have a house.
WHich? should stick to microwaves and kettles.
So Colby GetAgent, are you actually saying that no agent has to pay you £50 for the name and address of the potential vendor who is responding to your site and that all vendors will see all the agents names and contact derails without the agents having to register with you? Come on, I have been in this profession for 50 years and if there is one thing I have learnt in all that time it is that ‘There is no such thing as a free lunch’.
The 6 best agents will be shown. The fees will only be shown for the agents registered with us and who have therefore provided their fees. The vendor will also only be able to request an introduction to agents registered with us but they can contact the others themselves if they decide to.