Home seller secretly films 11 estate agent valuation appointments
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Published 2022-03-09
Filmed from November 2021 to February 2022, this documentary uncovers:
- Agent dirty tricks
- Most valuations are actually too low
- 3 month lock-in contracts are dead
Also, it:
- Shows all agents are not equal (but most will lose you money)
- Shows what to look out for in the agents who come round
- Shows what can happen when you get it right
linktr.ee/movinghomewithcharlie
This documentary by Charlie Lamdin (film maker, YouTuber, home-schooling parent, seaplane pilot and founder of bestagent.co.uk/ ) was filmed when his colleague, Samantha, was thinking of selling her home, a 3 bedroom semi-detached house near Taunton in Somerset.
Charlie jumped at the chance to perform an experiment to prove that although most estate agents will lose you money when selling your home (just look at the valuations provided, compared with the price that was achieved) there are always a few who are better than the rest.
The problem is there is no reliable way to identify them, without meeting them all in person, (at least all the ones who accept the condition that no lock in contract will be signed).
In this film, Samantha telephones all 18 of her local agents, 11 of whom accept her invitation to attend the property to meet her, give their opinion of what the property is worth (they’re almost all wrong, one agent even says that she’ll never get the price she did get) and pitch their services.
She whittles the shortlist down from 11 to 3 based on the 2 days of meetings, and finally picks one.
The film goes on to show the whole story of the sale, and eventually reveals the successful agent, who was from an estate agency brand that Sam said she would “never have called”.
“We made this film to demonstrate that picking 3 agents at random is always a bad idea, and is the main reason why most people have such a terrible experience selling their home” explains Charlie Lamdin.
He continued “The end result of this experiment is that Sam now has life-changing opportunities. It also shows that most agents, even the nice ones, don’t fully understand that their job is not just to sell a home, but to achieve the highest possible price for it, in a short period of time. Only 3 of the 11 agents who attended actually demonstrated an understanding of their job and had a credible proposal on how to achieve the highest price. The other 8, while (almost) all very nice people, had nothing to differentiate their approach. Unfortunately this is the reason why agents have a reputation for ‘just chucking it on the internet and waiting for enquiries’. Many agents do nothing more than exactly that, and somehow scrape a living doing it, while underselling their client’s properties, if they sell them at all.
Sam, the owner of the property, said: “It just goes to show that the whole debate on what kind of agent to use, corporate v independent, online v high street, one-man band v team, is irrelevant and a red-herring. None of these are considerations, it just boils down to finding the individual person, the human being, who knows how to deliver.”
She continued “It also shows that taking local For Sale boards and online reviews into account is a distraction. You just need to find that person you click with, who demonstrates a real understanding of what you want, why you want it, and knows how to get it for you.”
“I found all the brochures, presentations and marketing materials deadly dull and unhelpful. Charlie told me to only focus on the person, are they listening to me, do they understand what I want and do I trust them to get it. He said just disregard everything else.”
For the full video on how to choose the best estate or letting agent:
• How To Find the Best Estate Agent to ...
Find an agent to sell or let your home:
findyouragent.bestagent.property/
Want to find your next home?
bestagent.co.uk/
Follow BestAgent:
www.facebook.com/bestagentproperty
twitter.com/bestagentprop
twitter.com/bestagentfinder
www.instagram.com/bestagentpropertyuk/
www.linkedin.com/company/bestagentproperty/
Follow Charlie:
twitter.com/moving_charlie
twitter.com/bestagentboss
www.facebook.com/MovingHomeWithCharlie
www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-lamdin-4231054/
www.instagram.com/movinghomewithcharlie/
To find out everything you need to know about moving home go to:
mhwc.co.uk/
How estate and lettings agents move people
bestagent.co.uk/diagram-how-lettings-and-estate-ag…
If you need a mortgage in principle click here:
mojomortgages.com/app?journey=eligibilityPurchase&…
#property #sellmyhouse
All Comments (21)
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SELLERS! Please watch this 2024 follow up to this video: youtube.com/live/W-KyDxorAL8
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As an ex agent of 20+ years, any agent can sell a property in a strong rising market where new stock is in high demand, this experiment should be conducted in the current downturn as it will be the true reflection of good agency, as having worked in the 2008 housing crash, It was tough just to try and survive without having to shut up shop unlike quite a few agencies did at that time, mostly the larger corporates who only win biz on over valuing, then bombard the vendor for price reductions. The most interesting point of the video was not one mention of any of the agents fees, which often is at the forefront of most sellers decision making process, after all we’ve all been there and had the call of I really like your valuation, but not your fee!!!
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I cant see this industry surviving for much longer. Id love to see the breakdown involved in what the agent is actually doing (without any BS) vs the commission they are making.
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A house is worth what someone person is emotionally prepared to pay, and what another is prepared to hold out for.
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This is the perfect video of what a 'BIG F*ing JOKE' UK housing market is. She bought it for 198k inJul 2018 and sold it for 300k in Feb 2022. +51% in 4 years. I think its time to short the UK housing market.
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They get paid when it sells. Its easier to sell it at a lower price. On a 1% commission every 10k theybsell ur house less for (easier to sell) They lose 100. Try 300k and get 3k commission or easily sell at 280k at 2.8k commission. Its easier to sell 8 houses out of 10 at 10 or 20k less, than to try to sell for 10 to 20k more but only sell 4. They don't work for ur best interests. They work for their best interests.
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I’ve bought 2 properties in the last 15 years and on both occasions as soon as I made an offer the estate agent said…you won’t believe this but someone else has just offered us exactly the same amount so could you up your offer. Thing is they knew that I knew they were lying.
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Having bought, sold and renovated in the UK and here in Australia, this was all very predictable. Always remember they are working for themselves, not you!
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Estate agents are corrupt . My daughter and my wife and i have sold several homes over the last 40 years . Every time we got a valuation they said the last home that sold in your road sold for x amount . So we will put 5000 on that price . So over the last 30 years house prices have gone astronomical . My first home was £10500 in 1985 . Now worth about £160000 . Earnings haven't gone up 15 times . my endowment mortgage then was £75 per month and £15 endowment . With earning of £400 per month . Which equated to about 24% of my earnings . A damn site higher percentage today . The kids today are screwed .
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Estate agent describing 1900s house as having Georgian features, in their defence they could have been referring to George our local friendly builder.
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Watching this after the recent interview and I'm so glad the algorithm pointed me this way!
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Every agent sticks the property on right move. And that’s where buyers go to search.
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Thats a great vlog. Well done. Honest and extremely helpful.
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Why does everybody involved in property come across as so smug? One buyer got over-excited and massively overpaid and suddenly everybody involved is a genius and celebrating while knowing the unfortunate person buying the house will almost certainly be in negative equity day one after exchanging.
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This was fascinating. Thank you!
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If there is one thing I've learned since being a property developer, it's that 1/10 agents actually know what they are doing when valuing property and land.
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I've always felt that the commission structure is wrong. For example 1% (just to make the maths easy) on this property. If it sold at £250k then the commission would have been £2.5k, £275k...£2.75k and £300k... £3k commission. The problem is that a donkey could sell the property at £250k, but selling at £300k requires a lot more work yet only gets an extra £500 commission. If the commission was 10% of the sale price in excess of £250k, then if the agent sells for £300k they get £5k commission (instead of £3k),they will much more motivated to strive for the best possible price, maybe even £305k. Twice now I have managed to convince the selling agent that I was poor and they hinted that my offer was too high (pretty blatant hint at that) . Both times I purchased at a reduced offer. They don't care about the sale price, they just want to shift the home. The 1. 5% + vat does little to incentivise them to push for the best price.
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Why no mention of fees in a 30 minute video??
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The most interesting thing I've watched for quite a while! Thank you.
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Hope this was not scripted because it was absolutely brilliant to watch ❤
