How to choose an estate agent

Most people choose an estate agent the same way: three valuations, three numbers, and a decision made somewhere between the highest figure and the lowest fee. It is an understandable way to do it and it is a poor one, because the two things you are comparing are the two things easiest for an agent to change and hardest for you to check.

The highest valuation is not an offer

A valuation is an opinion about what somebody else might pay. It is not a price, it is not a promise, and nobody is bound by it. An agent who wants your instruction knows that the easiest way to get it is to be the one who said the biggest number, and there is no cost to them in saying it. The cost lands on you later, in the weeks the property sits there, and in the reduction that follows.

So when you get three numbers, the useful question is not which is highest. It is: what is this one based on? Ask to see what has actually sold nearby, not what is currently for sale. Anybody can list at any price. Sold prices are the only ones where somebody agreed.

The fee matters less than you think, and more than they say

A percentage point of difference on a fee is real money, and it is worth asking about properly. Get it in writing, and get it as a total including VAT, because a fee quoted without VAT and a fee quoted with it are not comparable and it is easy to compare them by accident.

Then ask the questions underneath the number. Is it sole agency, and for how long? What happens if you want to leave? Is there anything to pay if the property does not sell? Are photographs, floorplans and the portal listing included, or are they extra? None of these are unreasonable questions and a good agent will have clear answers to all of them.

What actually separates one agent from another

Once you get past the number and the fee, the differences that matter are unglamorous.

• Who you will actually deal with. The person who values your home is often not the person who will handle the sale. Ask who that will be and whether you can meet them.
• What happens after an offer. Most sales that fail, fail after the offer, not before it. Ask what they do in the months between agreeing a sale and completing it, and how often you will hear from them.
• How they handle bad news. Ask directly: what happens if we get no viewings in the first fortnight? An agent with a real answer has thought about it. An agent who tells you that will not happen has not.
• Their reviews, read properly. Not the star rating. The three star ones, and what the agent said back. How a business answers a complaint tells you more than how it answers a compliment.

The question most people forget

Ask what they will do if a buyer offers you a price you should not accept.

It sounds like a strange question and it is the most revealing one on the list, because it is the moment where the agent’s interest and yours come apart. Their fee arrives when a sale completes. A sale at a lower price still completes. An agent who will tell you plainly that an offer is too low, and why, is an agent who has decided to be useful rather than merely agreeable.

If you are buying rather than selling

The same reading applies from the other side. The agent works for the seller and is paid by the seller, and a straight one will tell you so rather than pretend to be neutral. What you want from them is accuracy: honest answers about the chain, about what is included, about how long it has been on the market and whether the price has moved. An agent who will give you those answers is not being disloyal to their client. They are avoiding a sale that falls through in eight weeks, which serves everybody.

What we would say

Pick the agent you believe will tell you something you do not want to hear. Everything else on the list is easier to fake.