Can anybody recommend an estate agent?
Re: Can anybody recommend an estate agent?
Another shout for Property World. Great family firm who really care about the area and doing the right thing. I have always sold via them. I have bought via others; Uniplan, Acorn, Mann... All much of a muchness.
Re: Can anybody recommend an estate agent?
One way and another, I've had a LOT of experience with estate agents in the last few years, although more in the way of attempting to buy than attempting to sell. Quite a lot of it has been less than stellar, I have to say, although most of those agents have been more in the direction of Beckenham, so may not be directly relevant in your case. I've also got the impression from several of them that we don't necessarily see eye-to-eye as regards, shall we say, ethical issues, so if that's important to you it's something to bear in mind.
Someone's mentioned photo quality, and I must admit that I have been shocked to see how poor the camerawork is on a few pages on Rightmove. Most are reasonable, and some are very good, although whether you actually *need* professional-level photos to sell a flat in Syd at the moment is debatable, I should think! There seem to be so few around that I suspect it would be snapped up regardless, as long as the pricing isn't really silly (and maybe even if it is
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If I thought about this for a long time I could no doubt come up with a long list of things that I'd tell you, but here are just a few considerations which have really put me off certain estate agents:
- pushiness (guaranteed to push me in the opposite direction from the one they want!). I have had, repeatedly in some cases, because they won't take no for an answer, the sales departments of various agents I'm signed up with ringing me up, wanting to sell my flat even when I'm only looking casually. Several of them have taken the tack that "we have branches all over London so we can get you in buyers from much higher-priced areas", but I'm dubious as to whether that really helps given that most people seem to search online these days anyway, so presumably if they're looking to live in Syd they'll be keeping an eye out anyway.
- I'm naturally rather suspicious of those agents who have everything set up in-house: finance, legal, surveys, that sort of thing. I'm sure they'd say it was more efficient that way, but I'd prefer independent services rather than "tied" ones, I guess. Plus I know a few people who feel they've been disadvantaged by wanting to use their own professionals rather than the in-house ones, and I suppose that's thrown up doubts in my own mind.
- if you've lived in Sydenham for some time, I guess you'll be aware that it's been attracting new estate agents like bees round the proverbial honeypot. I'd prefer to see a commitment to the local area from my agent. I tend to be suspicious of the recent arrivals and their motivations, because I also suspect that they may be contributing to inflating house prices locally as they "creep" Sydenham into other, higher-priced areas - I was shocked when I looked at estate agents in East Dulwich recently. (I've spent a lot of time in the last year looking at places in the West Wickham/Shirley area: WW is a high-priced area, but Shirley and Coney Hall traditionally are cheaper, yet at the moment I can clearly see a pattern that certain agents are trying to price both the latter at WW prices. To judge by the number of reductions, people aren't tending to bite, but there will probably be the odd person who gets taken in and pays over the odds). You may, for all I know, simply be out to get as much money as you can from your sale, in which case fair enough, but alternatively you may be appalled at how high prices are right now, and not want to contribute to inflating them further.
Agents around here who *have* impressed me thus far: Property World, certainly. I've also liked doing business with Proctors, although this area is covered by their Anerley office since they closed their own office here some years ago. Hunters made quite a positive impression on me as well, but I've really not had enough to do with them to be able to say more.
Someone's mentioned photo quality, and I must admit that I have been shocked to see how poor the camerawork is on a few pages on Rightmove. Most are reasonable, and some are very good, although whether you actually *need* professional-level photos to sell a flat in Syd at the moment is debatable, I should think! There seem to be so few around that I suspect it would be snapped up regardless, as long as the pricing isn't really silly (and maybe even if it is
)If I thought about this for a long time I could no doubt come up with a long list of things that I'd tell you, but here are just a few considerations which have really put me off certain estate agents:
- pushiness (guaranteed to push me in the opposite direction from the one they want!). I have had, repeatedly in some cases, because they won't take no for an answer, the sales departments of various agents I'm signed up with ringing me up, wanting to sell my flat even when I'm only looking casually. Several of them have taken the tack that "we have branches all over London so we can get you in buyers from much higher-priced areas", but I'm dubious as to whether that really helps given that most people seem to search online these days anyway, so presumably if they're looking to live in Syd they'll be keeping an eye out anyway.
- I'm naturally rather suspicious of those agents who have everything set up in-house: finance, legal, surveys, that sort of thing. I'm sure they'd say it was more efficient that way, but I'd prefer independent services rather than "tied" ones, I guess. Plus I know a few people who feel they've been disadvantaged by wanting to use their own professionals rather than the in-house ones, and I suppose that's thrown up doubts in my own mind.
- if you've lived in Sydenham for some time, I guess you'll be aware that it's been attracting new estate agents like bees round the proverbial honeypot. I'd prefer to see a commitment to the local area from my agent. I tend to be suspicious of the recent arrivals and their motivations, because I also suspect that they may be contributing to inflating house prices locally as they "creep" Sydenham into other, higher-priced areas - I was shocked when I looked at estate agents in East Dulwich recently. (I've spent a lot of time in the last year looking at places in the West Wickham/Shirley area: WW is a high-priced area, but Shirley and Coney Hall traditionally are cheaper, yet at the moment I can clearly see a pattern that certain agents are trying to price both the latter at WW prices. To judge by the number of reductions, people aren't tending to bite, but there will probably be the odd person who gets taken in and pays over the odds). You may, for all I know, simply be out to get as much money as you can from your sale, in which case fair enough, but alternatively you may be appalled at how high prices are right now, and not want to contribute to inflating them further.
Agents around here who *have* impressed me thus far: Property World, certainly. I've also liked doing business with Proctors, although this area is covered by their Anerley office since they closed their own office here some years ago. Hunters made quite a positive impression on me as well, but I've really not had enough to do with them to be able to say more.
Re: Can anybody recommend an estate agent?
How refreshingOlivia wrote:Stanford Estates in Forest Hill were excellent when we bought recently. They're very straight forward to deal with and friendly. They're a small company so it feels like a personal service where they actually care about buyer and seller.
I wish this board allowed you to multi-quote - I'd love to comment on a few other people's comments as well, but don't want to bother starting a new post for each one.
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monkeyarms
- Posts: 301
- Joined: 28 Jul 2015 14:54
- Location: Tredown
Re: Can anybody recommend an estate agent?
This surprises me, because the main reason we ended up first investigating Sydenham is that there were a lot of places available! (We very recently bought a house here). We'd initially been looking at Brockley, Crofton Park, Honor Oak area but there just wasn't anything there.="alywin although whether you actually *need* professional-level photos to sell a flat in Syd at the moment is debatable, I should think! There seem to be so few around that I suspect it would be snapped up regardless, as long as the pricing isn't really silly (and maybe even if it is
A quick look on Rightmove reveals 73 flats currently for sale in Sydenham. Obviously not all of those will be where you want to be, and some will be above & some below your price bracket, but that's still a lot more flats for sale than many other parts of south london we looked at...
Oh, and you're very right to be sceptical about this claim – "we have branches all over London so we can get you in buyers from much higher-priced areas". Our flat in Brixton was for sale with KFH for ages before we got fed up with them, and one reason was that they kept bringing round people who had contacted them via their Clapham branch, because they wanted a flat in Clapham. KFH would scrupulously send us feedback after every viewing, with quotes like "It's a nice flat, but we want a flat in Clapham, not Brixton". What a farcical waste of everyone's time!
The second we went on the market with a Brixton-based local chain (Keatings), we sold our flat more or less immediately.
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Search East
- Posts: 119
- Joined: 6 Oct 2009 20:40
- Location: Sydenham
Re: Can anybody recommend an estate agent?
We've just had a day of estate agents! Many thanks to those who gave feedback. We've actually been quite (pleasantly) surprised by the valuations - anybody who recommended Property World, Mann and Stanford Estates - they all seemed very knowledgeable, friendly etc but do you think they over priced your property?