Estate Agents - recommendations/avoid?

[hazysunshine]

Hi, selling my house in Peckham (East Dulwich boarders) for the first time after buying 20 years ago. Can anyone suggest a good agent or ones to avoid please. Many thanks

[KS23]

I recently sold through truepennys who were pretty helpful. 

[NewWave]

I rate Pedders...

Avoid Foxtons and KFH I speak from not personal experience but those of friends locally who were both buying and selling.

[the_hermit]

We used Gareth James and they were fine.  I don't have experience (as a seller) of other agents though.

[ArchieCarlos]

We used Wooster & Stock to sell in the same area last year (after another agent didn't work out). I liked that their folks have all worked there for 10+ years and they are very focused on this area.

[tiddles]

Recommend Mundays - very professional 

[Rokit2022]

Avoid Foxtons.  Horrendous experience with them last year.

[ED118Mike]

I recommend Dexters Peckham Rye.

Edited January 10 by ED118Mike

[Toldyouso]

I used No-Flies a couple of years ago. They were great. Loads of recommendations on here. 

[Sue]

  On 12/01/2025 at 11:58, Toldyouso said:

I used No-Flies a couple of years ago. They were great. Loads of recommendations on here. 

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I remember all those glowing recommendations, but I haven't seen any mention of them anywhere lately.

Are they still going?

[Toldyouso]

Hi Sue - yes they are, just checked their website and they've received recent recommendations on here 

 

[WomblingFree]

I spoke to four agents when I sold last year. 

• One came back to me with neither a valuation nor an indication of what their charges were
• Mundays agree were very helpful when they came round, but never came back to me
• Another was critical of my flat and came back with a valuation far below what I ended up getting
• I ended up going with Ludlow Thompson as they came back to me with a valuation and told me what their charges were. However, they no longer exist (merged into Foxtons)

I guess my point is if you speak to a few agents then the decision might make itself. And I should have looked on here for recommendations!

[johnsmoth]

Avoid Acorn at all cost. Appalling service in every regard. We were involved in a sale and they repeatedly made procedural errors that delayed, and almost tanked, the sale. As buyers, they knew literally nothing about the property and were unable to answer even the most basic questions. Instead they simply lied rather than saying they didn’t know any information which caused issue in the long run. I hear only positive things about Truepenny’s. 

[Mau]

Avoid KFH.

Agree with other comments that it is best to talk to lots of people.  Also, (not particularly related to the above agent), I wish I had read the reviews a lot more, rather than relying on numbers.  Depending on whether you are renting, letting, selling or buying the reviews often differ a lot depending on the relationship you have with the agent and it is worth checking whether the good/bad reviews match your situation.

 

[abp]

We sold our house last year through Dexters (Peckham rye branch) and they were great!

[No-flies]

  On 13/01/2025 at 16:30, Toldyouso said:

Hi Sue - yes they are, just checked their website and they've received recent recommendations on here 

 

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Hello Sue, yes we are still very much alive and kicking, though I can't deny the last couple of years have been tricky for the property market, particularly for small independent agents like us. Thank you Toldyouso for the comments. Nice to hear from you again. Hope the move delivered the desired results in terms of school catchment.

[Toldyouso]

  On 21/01/2025 at 13:19, No-flies said:

Hello Sue, yes we are still very much alive and kicking, though I can't deny the last couple of years have been tricky for the property market, particularly for small independent agents like us. Thank you Toldyouso for the comments. Nice to hear from you again. Hope the move delivered the desired results in terms of school catchment.

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You're welcome and yes, the move did the trick for the schools. Good of you to remember.

[mgdms]

As many others said before avoid KFH and Pedder. The latter appeared promising at first but just as useless, in our case was clearly working for the buyer and not for us (sellers) and we lost quite a bit of money in the process.

[Sue]

  On 19/02/2025 at 09:57, mgdms said:

As many others said before avoid KFH and Pedder. The latter appeared promising at first but just as useless, in our case was clearly working for the buyer and not for us (sellers) and we lost quite a bit of money in the process.

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That's a bit bonkers, have I misunderstood?

I thought estate agents made more money if the house sold for a higher price?

Is that not the case? How can they be working for the  buyer if they are supposed to be "employed" by the seller?

[alice]

Sometimes estate agents may recommend reducing the price to create a quicker sale,  sometimes sellers have an inflated view of the value of their own property, especially if they’ve personally done work on it. 
 

[beansprout]

Was impressed with sales manager/director at Winkworths… 

Why don’t you do it yourself? Plenty of people looking - most I hope not time wasters…

Guess you want the reassurance of agent checking buyers out or simply don’t have the time.

Wish  you all the best..

[Slebe]

Hi, having bought and sold several properties estate agents in the area are generally not great. They have little incentive to get the best sale price, and their incentive is to just get a sale done. Ultimately they don’t work for you, or the buyer, they work for themselves. I always suggest to folk to sell themselves using an online estate agent. You’ll save a ton a money and will do an equal job or more likely, a better. Good luck!

[2019EDF]

  On 19/02/2025 at 18:58, Sue said:

That's a bit bonkers, have I misunderstood?

I thought estate agents made more money if the house sold for a higher price?

Is that not the case? How can they be working for the  buyer if they are supposed to be "employed" by the seller?

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If you reduce the price of a property by a significant amount it has little impact on the estate agent's fees...

[Sue]

  On 21/02/2025 at 08:27, 2019EDF said:

If you reduce the price of a property by a significant amount it has little impact on the estate agent's fees...

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Really? I thought they worked on a percentage?

But it's a long time since I moved house!

[joeha]

  On 21/02/2025 at 09:02, Sue said:

Really? I thought they worked on a percentage?

But it's a long time since I moved house!

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Yes they work on a percentage.

But the home owner has MUCH more to lose out by dropping the sale price. 10% off the estate agent's fee is barely anything, while 10% off your property value is comparatively huge.

Most estate agents push for the the sale to be done ASAP so they can collect their fee.