When it comes to selling your house, there are a lot of things to take in. And during Covid, the whole process hasn’t exactly been made any easier. If you’ve never sold a house before, it’s all too easy to feel a little lost in the whole thing. But you don’t need to! Your estate agent is there to help guide you through the process and take a lot of the burden away from you. But to make sure you always know what’s going on, here are 6 questions you can ask your estate agent about selling your home.
How Much do You Charge?
Before you work with anyone, you should understand how much you’ll be paying for their services. Most estate agents will charge a percentage fee for helping to sell your home, which can be anywhere between 0.75% and 3.5% (plus VAT) of the agreed selling price for your home. This will depend on the agency and the type of contract you choose, but you should make sure you know what the rate is, and have it in writing, before you go too far into the process. Some agents will agree a fixed fee and if you prefer that, ask if they’ll do it.
Are There Any Other Fees?
Following on from finding out how much the estate agent fees are – it’s important to find out if there are any other fees or costs involved on top of it. For example- do the estate agents fees include a For Sale board? Professional photos of the property? Having floorplans drawn up? Aerial or 3-D walk throughs. All of these costs should be included in the percentage fee but may be charged extra. This is also where they should flag up any extra things you might need to do in the house before sale – mainly an up to date EPC, which may cost extra.
How Will You Market my Property?
This is where a good, experienced estate agent will shine. They should be able to demonstrate their years of experience and local knowledge to create a detailed plan for successfully marketing your home. You would expect them to say they will advertise it on all of the standard portals – like Rightmove and Zoopla – as well as in their windows. But ask if they will be advertising in OnTheMarket (which gets around 23.5 million visitors a month, compared to Rightmove’s 140 million or Zoopla’s 58 million), or advertising your property in any other way, such as sending details to interested buyers in the area or via social media.
What Will Communication be Like?
Understanding how you will be communicating with your estate agent in advance is key to ensuring there are no misunderstandings later down the line. After all, selling your home might be quick and effortless – but it might also take months. So knowing what’s going on will be very helpful in putting your mind at ease. Ask how often the estate agent will be in touch with updates, and how they plan to interact with you during the selling process. Will you have a single point of contact, or will you be talking with a team? Will they be giving you updates by email, or will they be calling instead? Finding this out early on will help you stay updated throughout the process.
How Long Will it Take to Sell My Property?
This is a bit of a difficult question for anyone to answer – since there are a lot of factors that affect how easily your house will sell. However, a good estate agent will be able to give you an idea of how popular properties like yours are, and how long they have taken to sell in the past, as well as roughly how much they are selling for. And while you shouldn’t take this as a guarantee, it should give you a good place to start.
How Will You Do Viewings?
Admittedly, this question is more important now, during Covid-19, than it may have been before. But even so, you need to have an idea of how your property will be shown. Some estate agents will prefer to do open houses, while others will avoid them completely. Some will do ‘viewing days’, where prospective buyers view in slots back-to-back throughout the day, and others will arrange viewings as and when interested buyers appear. And during Covid, there are also questions of safety and sanitisation, which any good estate agent will have procedures in place for. Finding out which method your estate agent prefers can help you plan your life during this time period, and make things a little less stressful for you.
At Northwood, we are always happy to answer any and all questions you have about selling your home – no matter how long the list is! And as far as Covid goes, we have a range of processes in place to protect both you and your buyers. We’ve also published a blog about how viewings will be conducted (along with moving) during lockdown, so if you want to know more about that, you can read here. Otherwise, please get in touch with any questions, and we would be happy to help.
