Why You Should Always Use a Local Agent to Sell Your Flintshire Home
In this three-minute read, we look at reasons why you should get a local agent to sell your home.
When selling your home, you might notice that costs start building up. Paying out for repairs, buying storage to hide away clutter, legal costs, commission fees; there’s a fair bit to budget for, and you haven’t even moved yet.
So, how can you save money?
The answer is definitely NOT by cutting out estate agents and going it alone. Also while many people are tempted by online-only agencies and their promises of fixed fees, free listings, and guaranteed sales, sometimes it really is just too good to be true. Remember many charge regardless of whether they sell your home or not! Even at the peak of the market one of the leading online agents success rate of selling properties was just 66% (according to home owners alliance) meaning you had a 34% chance of losing your money that you'd paid them upfront to sell your property! This is dangerous territory especially with the market potentially turning in the coming months.
In this three-minute read, we look at reasons why you should get an agent to sell your home.
1) Expertise
Estate agents live and breathe their local property market. They know what sells and to whom. They know the area and how to make your property more attractive to buyers. They provide a valuation of your property based on current market demands and often years of knowledge.
A good agent won’t just list your property and wait; they’ll be proactively trying to find a buyer for your home. Often they'll have huge databases of local buyers - this is where a local agent has a huge advantage over an online agent. At Keystone on our face to face valuations we can even show you how many people will be automatically matched to your property and demonstrate how our sales negotiators can narrow down that list to around 20 people who are likely to be very interested in your property.....95% of the time the buyer ends up coming from this list! This is all BEFORE your house even goes on the market!
2) Marketing
Of course, you can list your home online and cross your fingers, but what if you don’t attract any potential buyers?
A huge advantage of working with local agents is that they have access to online portals plus their own facebook pages with thousands of local followers. They offer professional photography services to get your property looking its best and produce hard copies of sales details, so buyers can keep your home in mind after a viewing. My advice is always to look at the quality of an agents photos before making a decision on which agent to use. Presentation is huge when it comes to maximising the price you achieve on your property. Look to see if the agent does their own videos and virtual reality tours of your property - buyers love all this and it can often be the thing that makes them pick up the phone to ask for a viewing.
3) Viewings
Sure, you can show your property to potential buyers – after all, you live there and know it best. However, viewings are more than just opening the door and showing people round. They take a lot of organising and can be time-consuming. And if you work full time, or have other commitments, who can you trust to show potential buyers around?
Estate agents arrange individual viewings as well as open days. They manage potential buyers for you and provide information about your home without the emotional attachment you’ve formed to it. Here at Keystone we do ALL the viewings on behalf of our clients often arranging them in 2 hour blocks where we'll do 5 or 6 showings of your property. The last thing you want is having viewings staggered at lots of different times! That's just adding uneccessary hassle and stress to your life!
A little tip - before deciding which agent to choose put yourselves in the shoes of a viewer and ring each agent to see how long it takes them to answer the phone or if they answer at all! From experience there are some agents in the flintshire area that you will find hard to get through to. Our phones are always answered by a person within 30 seconds.
4) Negotiating
Unless you work in sales, you might not be an expert negotiator. Can you really risk losing out on the best purchase price for your property?
The best agents are driven to achieve the best sales price for their clients and deal with the back and forth between you and your buyers professionally and quickly.
5) Admin
If you’ve got a lot on your plate, some estate agents can also liaise with conveyancers on your behalf. This saves you time and hassle. Here at Keystone we will give you a weekly update via a shared portal that you will have access to along with your buyer and the two solicitors involved. It works incredibly well and keeps all parties informed.
At Keystone, we like to go the extra mile for our sellers and are always available to answer questions and provide advice. Give us a call on 01244 836636 to see how we can help. For our valuation options click here.
Looking for a property in the Flinsthire area? We are one of the biggest selling agents in the county of Flintshire and all of our new properties go out on our heads up property alert system at least 5 days BEFORE they hit Rightmove. Make sure you register today so you dont miss out!