Can you recommend an Estate Agent?

[letmefixthat]

!

[jeanmb]

I have to second the comment on Foxtons. I asked for a valuation of my property and the rep spent half an hour talking before giving me a price, which is all I was after. I also enquired about their letting conditions and they were charging 2% above the market, hardly willing to negotiate. They kept spamming us with marketing and correspondence despite repeated requests to have our details removed from their database. Not recommended.

[tibby]

Don't use acorn

[melanieF]

I am aware this post is for estate agent recomendations but I would like to recomend Plumlettings in southfeild I have used them numerous times on my rental properties and have never had a problem, lovely people aswell!!

[tarafitness]

Truepenny's :-)

We bought our house through them and they managed to rescue the sale when the dodgy vendor pulled out without warning.

They sold our friends' property which had been on the market for almost a year within a very short time - despite it being in Herne Hill.

They also manage my partner's house in Herne Hill and have found very reliable tenants very quickly and at a good price.

Very highly recommended :-)

[faffy]

I can say a big NO to using KFH found them awful....very charming until you sign on the dotted line to use them- thereafter I found their service poor- which is amazing given that they receive a fairly substantial fee. This is purely based on my personal experience so they may have done a sterling job for others- but I for one would never use them again.

[niknak]

I highly recommend Keatings (just opposite ED station). They were very professional and spot on in how they marketed our house - we had two offers within the first couple of weeks. We had originally tried to sell our house using one of the bigger estate agent chains and they were terrible - so unprofessional and it just felt like they could not be bothered to make much of an effort to sell our house...

[adsyb99]

A big no from me for Truepenny's Tara, even though we ended up purchasing our house through them.

We dealt with pretty much the whole office and found virtually all of them dishonest and unprofessional. We were keen to buy, seller was keen to sell, yet the deal almost fell through on multiple occassions due to them being so inept and pushy. As first time buyers it was an extremely stressful process and all they did was create more unnecessary stress.

Towards the end we dealt with the vendor's solicitor directly, and I honestly believe that's the only reason the deal got done.

To top it all off, when we actually settled, they gave my wife the wrong keys!

Obviously this was just my experience, but there is no way known I would reccomend them to someone trying to sell their house.

tarafitness Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Truepenny's :-)

>

> We bought our house through them and they managed

> to rescue the sale when the dodgy vendor pulled

> out without warning.

>

> They sold our friends' property which had been on

> the market for almost a year within a very short

> time - despite it being in Herne Hill.

>

> They also manage my partner's house in Herne Hill

> and have found very reliable tenants very quickly

> and at a good price.

>

> Very highly recommended :-)

[Lowlander]

letmefixthat Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Sell the property yourself as i have done its easy

> and only costs ?350 for the kit and that includes

> 3 months online etc I am a developer and to be

> honest all estate agents are just glorified door

> openers, most have no idea about property at all

> and have no building experience, just they look

> nice and can string a sentence together (just

> about). Its a shame there is no regulation in this

> country as anyone can set up an estate agency no

> licience required no checks which i think is

> crazy!! But you go with your gut feeling, not

> Foxtons or KFH as they will get you to sign a 3

> month contract and tell you your property is worth

> 15/25% over what it is really worth and you will

> then just be stuck with it sitting there with no

> viewings just so as they can get an instruction,

> so be careful and good luck. Try halfapercent.com

> they are good and you do your own viewings and its

> easy as they call you to arrange the viewings so

> you can pick and choose when it suits you, and its

> just half a percent as opposed to 2% or more!!

This...is how to do it. A few stories on the web of people employing estate agents and selling themselves faster.

Every single one on here I've had dealings with and they know next to nothing about freeholds, leaseholds, planning permission...the only advantage seems to be that you give them the keys and they market it for you. Handy if you lead a busy life or aren't in the county. Even then it seems some of them will let you down.

[MariusMaritz]

We have never come across a better agency than Daisylets on Lordship Lane. Incredibly professional, caring and dynamic agency. Will never use another agency again. Best of luck!

[meredithdavis78]

Winkworth are horrible. They sell multiple properties at the same time and just don't have the time for you as a seller. Pickwick agents were lovely. Bushells as well- positive. We bought with KFH in Peckham and I loved Mark- bc he was always upfront and honest with me.

[sidmeister]

I don't know if Daisy Lets do sales, but I've been renting through them for 2 years (I'm on my second rented property now), and I will not hesitate to recommend them. They're professional, polite, responsive. Most importantly, they're normal people, and nothing like the typical annoying sod who ends up becoming a letting agent or recruitment consultant (no offence to any good recruitment consultants or letting agents).

[missse22]

Wooster & Stock are great, not in ED but near by on Grove Lane SE5

[Toldyouso]

What impressed you about Wooster & Stock missse22?

[amydown]

Just resurrecting this thread to see if anyone has recent updates. We are thinking of selling our house and finding it hard to choose between Winkworth, Haart and Spencer Kennedy. There appears to be quite a bit of positive feedback on Winkworth and Haart but not much on Spencer Kennedy. I think Spencer Kennedy had not really been in the ED circuit until recently.

Feedback as a buyer and a seller gratefully received.

[tarafitness]

Still very impressed with Truepenny's :-)

[Toldyouso]

I had No-Flies around to value mine - they were impressive and seem to have recommendations on here - they were also, at the time, offering 0% - decided in the end to let it out rather than sell as I wanted to keep a foothold in the market.

[jarnac]

I would like to second the vote for No Flies. They are offering 0% at the moment - think of the holiday/car/home improvements that you can do with the saving! Homes these days are sold through the internet not through shop windows and No Flies are on all the leading property websites.

[happyfeet]

Peddar, KFH, Winkworth certainly seem to play the game, over priced, competitive viewings or just arrogant and rude.

Sure I'd say the same of Foxtons but they really do seem low on stock, however very aggressive sales, pushing properties on to us, which we'd already said no to.

[cd123]

Worth posting my recent experience. Living in SE22. I invited Winkworth, KFH and Haart to value my house.

Winkworth were impressive but the valuation was circa 20% lower than the other two. It was revised upwards a week later but that was too late and didn't inspire confidence.

I selected KFH on the strength of meeting the sales manager, Alistair. But thank god I negotiated a 4 week contract. Do not touch them, they were awful. To get me to sign they referenced an open day the previous weekend where they took 24 viewings and ended up with 10 offers. For our open day they managed to arrange 5 viewings and when I challenged them for using the previous example the assistant manager Dominic said ''no no that's a different area''. They consistently passed the buck, failed to provide updates, rarely offered feedback and not once was there evidence of the proactive interbranch sourcing of buyers that was promised. Final straw was Dominic explaining away a meagre 1 viewer on the 3rd Saturday with ''yes, we've taken another property on and the guys are focussing on that''.

Viewings with KFH over 4 weeks: 11

Throughout William from Haart had been monitoring progress. I served notice and signed with Haart on the Wednesday. Photos / measurements later that day. By the Saturday they had arranged 12 viewings and an offer was made and accepted.

William / James / Tim were a professional, responsive, honest, slick, highly impressive team. I cannot recommend them highly enough.

[amydown]

Thank you for all the feedback. Interesting to read your post cd123. We have appointed Spencer Kennedy from a shortlist of Haart, SK and Winkworth. So far, they have been extremely efficient and pleasant to deal with. Fingers crossed!

My second choice was also Haart - William was really professional and proactive.

[vicksg]

@Gidget. I bought my house through Foxtons and much to my amazement found the guy I dealt with to be absolutely fantastic. Reliable, helpful, patient....everything you could want. But of course that's buying - selling may be different!

[house01]

I would like to firstly congratulate you on the sale of your house.

It saddens me to read these comments about your recent experience with me and my sales team at Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, East Dulwich, and I am sorry that you felt the need to address your concerns in such a public and humiliating way.

I know your property very well Mr Denny, and I feel it is important to put things into context so that all who read this are in possession of the facts. We were advertising your property on Landells Road for ?725,000. When you changed agents, you made the decision to immediately reduce your advertised asking price by over ?35,000. I am not surprised you got a buyer within a few days of your re-launch, any property with a reduced asking price of that amount should receive immediate activity, no matter what agent you choose to sell through.

It's just a pity you never gave us the opportunity to offer your property at such a reduced price. I am sure we could have found you a buyer very quickly at that level too.

Happy to discuss further with anyone who would like further clarity on the situation or would like to know more about how we have achieved over asking price offers on numerous properties in the past few weeks from highly motivated buyers making the move into the area as a reult of our interbranch sourcing.

Alistair Harper

Sales Manager

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

East Dulwich

[trevone64]

seb roche really nice and respectfull

[SUMMERSMILE]

I can second PropertyIn.com (lordship lane) they are very professional and friendly I have also sold via Acorn lordship lane-Jonathan is excellent very professional and also friendly everytime we see him he always remembers ours names:)