Should I sell my property with more than one estate agent?

When you are using an estate agent to sell your home there are three different ways you can do it.

A sole agency basis means that you just use one estate agent to sell your home and sign a contract with that estate agent for a set period of time, normally somewhere between 8 and 16 weeks.

Incidentally, if you get an estate agent, particularly in the Ipswich area, trying to sign you up for more than 16 weeks that means only one thing – they are not confident of selling your house.

Dual agency means that you instruct two estate agents simultaneously to try and sell your house.  Estate agents generally charge a higher commission for operating on a dual agency basis rather than a sole agency basis.

The third method is to use multiple agency which is three or more estate agents acting for you at the same time, all trying to sell your house.

Multiple agency is the most expensive and complicated way to sell your house and has the most potential for confusion, stress and complications.

You only really need to use dual or multiple agency basis to sell your home if one of two circumstances are present.  Either if, for some reason, you need to sell your house very quickly or you have a very difficult house to sell.

This could include properties with structural problems or difficult to sell for other reasons.

Selling your house on a sole agency basis is the one I would recommend.  By all means have more than one estate agent to come and visit your home for a valuation and pre-market appraisal but choose just one agent to start off with.

The reason I recommend this is that it gives you a number of benefits.

First and foremost is cost.  You get a sole agency discount selling a house with an estate agent.  They discount the fee to their lowest level if you sign a contract to confirm they are the only estate agent that you will be using for the agreed period of time.

Secondly you are only dealing with one company on the sale of your house.  Only one company will be ringing you to arrange the viewings or to organise them for you.  Having been involved in the sale of properties on a dual and particularly multiple agency basis, the confusion that can reign as to which estate agent the buyer is actually coming from can be highly stressful and add unnecessary complications to an already complicated process.

Thirdly, buyers are without doubt more attracted to a property that is sole agency only.  They only have one choice as to where to see it, and buyers are much happier on agreeing to purchase a property through an estate agents on a sole agency basis as they feel more commitment from both the seller and the estate agent.

Buyers of property will make two assumptions on seeing a property for sale that isn’t sole agency.  When a property is for sale, for instance, in Ipswich, is seen to be for sale with two agents or more they will make the natural assumption that you are desperate and be more inclined to make a lower offer than if you were sole agency.

They will make the assumption that the property has been on a long while, that you couldn’t sell it and have therefore had to go multiple agency to secure a sale.

It is also not unknown for buyers to play one estate agent off against another leading to disputes between the estate agents and the seller as to who has actually introduced these buyers to a property.

The worse case scenario of all, of course, is where a seller of a property is caught in a wrangle between estate agents all claiming a fee for the introduction of a buyer.  None of this will happen if you are on the market on a sole agency basis.

For more information on selling your Ipswich property, contact us today for a free market appraisal.

625 Foxhall Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP3 8ND
01473 721133
jonathan@waters-ips.co.uk

35 Buttermarket, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP1 1BH
01473 281188
jonathanwaters@jonathanwaters.co.uk

Bristol Court, Betts Avenue, Martlesham Heath Business Park, Martlesham IP5 3RY
01473 620222
jonathan@waters-ips.co.uk

or visit www.jonathanwaters.co.uk