Which estate agent?

oscar.d

New to boards here, So first of all: Hi everybody!!

I have a question: we are half-thinking of putting our 2-bedroom mid-terrace house on the market as my wife is at early stages of pregnancy and we'll have a baby a few months down the line, and we will need more room if all goes well. Have spoken to a couple of estate agents, rates and fees vary greatly between them. Has anyone any good/bad experience with the estate agents in the area to share with us? Any recommendations?

Thanks
O.D.

Eoin

Welcome to the forum. We went with Dooley's and found them pretty good. We were extremely lucky to go sale agreed within 3 days of going to market, and it was only shortly after that the market got quite flooded with similar properties.

cotton

Whilst I've never sold a house, I used to do the brochures for all the main estate agents in the country & got to know them & their dealings very well.
Gunnes would be absolute tops imo, Dooleys are very, very good too.
Colliers Jackson Stops are great but I think they concentrate more on the big houses now. Lennox (who used to be Colliers Jackson Stops in Bray) are a good lot too.
If you like, I can pm you who to stay clear of, I'd prefer not to put it on a public board.

Pablo Sanchez

Have dealt with Sherries a few times in both renting and sales, imo they cant be beat, sometimes with other agents you end up asking yourself if they are being straight with you, but Sherries seem to have the highest professional standards of any estate agents in North Wicklow.

Moobui

We sold our house with SherryFitzGerald and found them fantastic to deal with (Bray office as we lived in Bray). We had valuations done by others and found that they tended to overvalue, I think to flatter in the hope of securing us as clients, Gunne hugely over valued our house and we probably would not have sold it as quickly as we did if we went with them. If I was selling agian I would go with SherryFitzG.

oscar.d

Sherry seemed good alright, but I had two concerns about them:
1. Their fees (considerably higher than others, 1.5% instead of 1.0% and 600 EUR instead of 400)
2. The fact that they don't advertise in Daft. I for one think DAFT is alot better than myhome.ie ...

But if you say they do well despite that then.... don't know. One can always put it up with another agent but lower the value to what Sherryfitz suggest, eh?

DTinthegrove

On average it's taking 211 Days to sell a property at the momment........you will problably get time to try them all.

oscar.d

DTinthegrove wrote: »

On average it's taking 211 Days to sell a property at the momment........you will problably get time to try them all.

Thanks for your extremely helpful and informative advice... a true gentleman...

Pablo Sanchez

In Charlesland as you will be competing against any number of very similar houses (age, decorative order, aspect etc) it really all boils down to price- unfortunatly if you need to sell now then it really is a 'race to the bottom' price wise.

True Sherries prices might be more than some others but you need to feel like your dealing with professionals who will give you honest advice (not just what you want to hear!) when you are selling your biggest asset.

I doubt you shop around for the cheapest Doctor!:D

Moobui

We went with SherryFG as they have a very good reputation nationwide, they may be a bit more expensive but in our case they got us a price for our house well above our expectations. I believe this was due to their expertise in the market and their excellent attention to detail. They are completely honest with you and update you daily. They also had the person responsible for selling your house at the viewings, I know that there are agents that send other part time or trainee staff members to oversee viewings, particularly weekend viewings, and these staff are not familiar with the property and in a position to sell it to the viewers.

DTinthegrove

oscar.d wrote: »

Thanks for your extremely helpful and informative advice... a true gentleman...

???? I don't understand why you are up set about this. I think it is good to know that things are taking so long to sell so you can plan a course of action.

Alternatively you can go in to the sales process thinking its going to be a easy ride. Having said that there is demand at the right price, get the price right and you could sell in weeks.

oscar.d

I didn't get upset, I just wanted to point out that my SPECIFIC question was about which estate agents people have dealt with and recommend. Your reply did not contain any useful information in that direction, and there was was neither informative nor helpful.

I am not going to discuss the time it takes to sell or pricing here, that's a different subject and there's already a lengthy thread on the forum on that, you may want to contribute there instead of turning this one to a "house-price" thread too.

DTinthegrove

Fair point, i will reframe from comment on this thread.
Good luck.

Eoin

For Christ's sake, stop being so bloody precious, people.

The Guide

Doesnt really matter who you go to really - chances of selling are almost zero so theres really no need to worry too much about who to pick.

Pablo Sanchez

Those who say we are talking ourselves in a recession might be onto something!

The Guide

I agree - spend a day in the big smoke and there is no evidence of a recession. with all the spending - maybe things just have become more normal - 2 holidays instead of 4. & things like that

oscar.d

The Guide wrote: »

Doesnt really matter who you go to really - chances of selling are almost zero so theres really no need to worry too much about who to pick.

Well that's factually wrong, based on my direct observation:

* A house 4 doors down from me was sold last month (2-bed mid-terrace). They moved out today.
* Another friend of ours bought a house last week.

That doesn't sound like zero chance to me, but thanks for your opinion.
Anyone with "real" information now, please?

Eoin

oscar.d - relax, will you?