Buy-to-let
A new website that enables house sellers in England and Wales to compare the performance of all types of estate agencies, has launched.
The new venture, estateagent4me.com, is the first of its kind and aims to help sellers make an informed choice about which estate agent to sell their property through. Currently available in England and Wales the site will be launching in the rest of the UK shortly.
Sellers can use estateagent4me to compare estate agents, using a number of different performance criteria, including ‘success rate’ i.e. the percentage of properties that have sold, compared to the total houses listed with that agent.
Other performance criteria that sellers will be able to compare are the average time taken to sell a property, how often agents are able to achieve a sale at, or more than, the asking price. Also, the number of properties each agent has listed in the location of the seller’s property, plus the services available and an indication of the fees charged by each agent.
Once a seller has chosen their preferred estate agent, based on the performance criteria important to them, they can instruct their agent (or agencies) through the estateagent4me website to get their property listed.
Ben Thompson, managing director at ULS Group/estateagent4me, said: “At present sellers base estate agent performance on instinct, word of mouth and how many boards they see in their local area – this just isn’t enough in today’s marketplace.
“Selling your home is a major thing to do, and can be stressful. It is certainly an expensive process, so estateagent4me makes the whole process easier, more transparent and based on real data rather than gut feel. By selecting the right agent to suit individual needs and requirements, the seller can have an improved experience, and that’s because there are huge differences across estate agents in terms of performance and success rates.”
“Our research shows that the average UK house seller would have received an additional £27,456 had their estate agent performed as well as the best. estateagent4me aims to give sellers the hard facts so they can find the best estate agent.
“Comparison-based technology and algorithms have revolutionised the way we choose our holidays, buy our insurance and choose our tradesmen, among many other things. We think the estate agency market is ripe for the same kind of innovative thinking, especially given the sums of money involved per transaction.”
Thompson concluded: “estateagent4me provides impartial information about estate agents, regardless of whether it’s a high street brand or an online agent, national firm or independent. Our function in the market is to provide agency performance data in an easy-to-access way and let sellers decide who they wish to instruct to sell their property.
“Our aim is to help sellers match their needs to the best performing estate agents, for the benefit of all.”
