Of course, the most obvious trick is to ask everyone you know who they would recommend. You want to know which friends have moved recently and who they used. Make sure you find out if there were any issues. The other thing you can do is have a look around the area or online and see which estate agents are getting a lot of business. Online reviews from real customers can be a big help in swaying your decision. To check out our google and facebook verified reviews click here.

All estate agents are required to be members of the Property Ombudsman so make sure that yours is. Many will also be members of various trade bodies. Memberships of these will mean that the estate agent has to follow a code of conduct. This likely implies that they will have higher standard of professionalism and diligence and therefore are going to be better for you.

One trick you can use is to go into an estate agency and pretend to be looking to buy a property like yours. You can then evaluate how they treat you. Are they showing the property in the best light? Would you buy your property from them? This will give you a realistic idea of whether they are going to be able to sell your house easily.

You want to make sure that you ask the estate agents certain questions- things like, if you go for a sole-agency contract what is the tie in period and how much do they charge? How will they advertise your property? What is their strategy to help you achieve the best price for your home? Who will handle the viewings? What makes them different from any other Estate Agent? Do they have a large local database of potential buyers - how is this database kept up to date? How long has the estate agent been established and what is their level of experience?

This is your homes shop window. Look at each of the online properties each of the local Estate Agents have on the market. Look closely at the photos - Has the photographer made sure each room is clear of clutter or oddly coloured items?. Do the photos look amazing? Has the agent got a 3D virtual reality viewing option of each property? Do they have a floorplan - this is a must for potential buyers so they can see the layout of the property. Is there anything that makes that agent standout? Do they have a video of the property? Look at their facebook page - do they have a big following and are they posting regularly.

People crave information these days - they want to view properties from the comfort of their sofa. It's vital you choose an agent that doesn't just rely on a handful of badly taken photographs.

Go onto Rightmove and click sold/under offer. Count up which agent is selling more properties than anyone else in your area. There may be an agent in a town close to you that's taking that area by storm so maybe put in the county and look to see if there is a particular agent selling more than anyone else. A good website to help you research is the home owners alliance https://hoa.org.uk/ - little tip don't put your real phone number as you'll get hounded by online agents! This is a useful site that will give you key stats like percentage of asking price achieved by each agent and what percentage of houses they bring to market they sell. DO NOT use get agent. If you make an enquiry through them it is likely the agent will have to charge you 25% more than they usually do as get agent charge 25% of the fee you pay the agent! Quite often I found clients were already registered with us and would have used us anyway but i was having to pay getagent 25% of our fee! Hence all my details have been removed from getagent's site!

So hopefully all of the above will help you choose an Estate Agent.

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Thank you for taking the time to read my article.

Ben Roberts

Managing Director