Manchester Real Estate

The main reasons for the sale of houses or flats is change of the current workplace, the desire to live in a place with a higher standard, the need for additional space (number of rooms), and sometimes the opposite - the need to find something cheaper, and therefore a smaller size of the property.  Selling a home involves moving from one place to another and make that both Manchester removals companies and Manchester real estate agents have their hands full.

Things to Consider When Hiring an Estate Agent

In an ideal world, an estate agent wouldn’t be needed to help you sell your home. If we could do it ourselves, we’d all be that much richer. However, we would also be that much busier and stressed out about the whole process of selling or leasing a home. For most of us, we are far too busy with work, with tasks connected with finding moving company or raising a family to take on the task of selling our own home with no outside help. Inevitably, anyone looking to sell their home will, most likely, require the help of an estate agent. Estate agents certainly have their benefits – it is their job to lease your home, meaning you shouldn’t have to worry about it. However, estate agents may be acting on their interests, not yours

Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt illustrate this point in their book Freakonomics. If, as Dubner and Levitt say, you put your home on the market for £300,000 and on that very same day, you receive an offer of £290,000. So what do you do? Do you wait to maybe receive an offer for £200,000, or do you take the offer that is £10,000 under? An estate agent will, most likely, tell you to tell to take the offer of £290,000. Why? Because although they will get more commission if you do eventually receive an offer of £300,000, that increase in commission will be negligible. Whereas the home owner get a nice £10,000 extra, the estate agent will not receive that much more commission from selling the home for only £10,000 extra. So it makes more sense for them to sell your home, receive their commission, and then move on to sell another home

With this in mind, when choosing your estate agent, try and do your best to judge their character. Some estate agents will genuinely be interested in helping you secure whatever you want. Others will be pursuing their own interests, motivated by making more money.  If you know someone who has just moved homes, ask them if they would recommend their estate agent.

Also keep in mind that you, not them, are in control. If you feel they are not doing right by you – asking you to take offers you feel are not adequate, for example - then you can take your house off the market and find different estate agents. No matter where you are, the estate agent market will be diverse; there will always be other agencies ready and willing to take on your home.

Before you agree to trust the selling of your home with an estate agent, be sure to, in no uncertain terms, set out how much you would be willing to let this house go for and how much you would desirably want to receive for it. Shop around. Tell estate agent your requirements and see if they believe your house will go for at least the minimum you require. If one thinks you can get more than what you are desiring, then ask them why. If you are persuaded by their reasoning and receive assurances that it will go for more than what you originally desired, then go with them. If you trust them, of course.

The biggest thing to be aware when hiring an estate agent is to always be on your toes. If you question something they are telling you in your head, then make sure you air your doubts with them. Their response will be a big indicator.