What customers REALLY think of estate agents
A new survey of people who have sold their homes in the past six months has given a strong backing to the performance of their estate agents, as revealed by Estate Agent Today.
Some 1,159 owners who moved in the past six months were questioned for the survey, commissioned by online agency Nested, in early January, and asked to rate their agent from 1 (top) to 10 (bottom).
Over 50 per cent of respondents were within the top five scores, 15 per cent rated their estate agent’s performance during their last sale as a five - the most prominent individual score.
Exactly 30 per cent gave their agent one of the top three scores.
At the other end of the scale, just eight per cent stated that they thought their agent’s performance was 'terrible.'
When it came to the asking price achieved, buyers roughly reflected the split seen in wider market snapshots - 47 per cent said their agent didn’t achieve the asking price agreed, but 39 per cent did get the asking price and 14 per cent said they got above asking - meaning 53% achieved the money or higher.
When requesting feedback on areas of improvement, the respondents listed:
• More proactive during the transaction to speed up the process.
• Better or more frequent communication.
• Better customer service in general.
• More information on how their sale was progressing.
• A higher percentage of asking price achieved.
• Better quality of property listing and/or photos of their home.
• More help on what was needed from the agent to progress the sale.
Russell Griffin, Co-director at Samuel Wood said: “Surveys like this are always really interesting for us because they go a long way to dispelling the myths that estate agents aren't genuine, to be trusted or liked.
"It's clear from these results that sellers view the added value an estate agent brings to their sale actually above the price they achieve.
"They also value constant, clear communication and a proactive approach to selling as some of the most valuable skills offered by an agent.
"UK-wide - the average time it takes to sell a home is actually 320 days. The vast majority of this time is spent progressing the sale to completion once an offer is accepted, during which time it’s still susceptible to falling through and this is where the skill of a reputable and recommended agent like Samuel Wood really comes into its own.
“Thank goodness, most Shropshire sales are well under the average time. At Samuel wood we dedicate hundreds of man-hours on sales progression and contract management.
"The “sold” process is one of the most important tasks of modern agency, often, labour-intensive work which is conducted behind the scenes working with many stressful variables that we try and control for our clients. Ultimately no one wants a cancelled sale.”