Dominic Marcel, Founder of Lion Estates & Lion Prestige talks us through his blag-proof guide to picking an estate agent who you can trust to look after both you and your biggest asset.
In my last article we established two things:
- The ‘average’ estate agent isn’t very good
- Estate agents are a crucial part of the home moving process
But with there being so many estate agents covering Milton Keynes, how do you separate the superstars from the sales spiel?
Ask for recommendations - this sounds obvious, but there’s a caveat. With more and more people using Facebook Groups for recommendations, it can quickly turn into a popularity contest where people are recommending friends or old school mates, but don’t actually know if they’re good at what they do. Now there’s absolutely nothing wrong with supporting a friend’s business, but it’s not overly helpful for you who asked for the advice in the first place. We’re very much in a ‘best known beats best’ world. So to start with, ask your own friends/family who you trust if they’ve had any personal experience with any local estate agents. This may be actually selling with them, or any interaction such as telephone calls or viewings. If not, then by all means ask your local community, but specify that you’d appreciate it if people only recommended companies that they have personal experience of using recently.
Look at their property adverts - this is essentially their CV and an insight into how much care they put into their marketing. After all, it’s your advert which is going to attract potential buyers so the quality and distribution of your home’s marketing should be paramount. Is the house tidy? Can you see clutter everywhere? Has the garden photo been taken at a time when it’s in shade? Are there cars on the drive? Does it look like the photos have been taken on an iPhone? Is the agent prioritising the home looking its absolute best, or does it look like they wanted to get the house on the market quickly and move on to the next?
Ask about how they’re structured - is the agent you meet on the valuation the same person who will be bringing viewers round and negotiating any offers? If not, why? You’ll be surprised how many estate agents leave the crucial task of ‘selling’ your home to the least experienced and lowest paid in the team (which, again, makes no sense considering the agent isn’t paid unless they actually sell your home..). The only logical conclusion as to why an estate agent would send their best staff member out to value your home, and someone else to bring round buyers, would be if they’re prioritising how many homes they sell rather than how much they sell homes for.
Compare the key metrics - numbers don’t lie, no matter how sharp the estate agent’s double-breasted suit is. How many homes that they market do they actually sell? What percentage of asking price do they typically achieve? What percentage of homes do they reduce in price? What’s their fall-through rate? Any agent worth their salt should know these numbers about their performance - if they don’t I’d argue they don’t think they’re important and just focus on the number of homes they list for vanity's sake.
Book a viewing - this is my absolute favourite. Nothing gives an insight into how good an agent is than actually enquiring about a property for sale and doing a viewing. It’s a full-blown, behind the scenes look at what your potential sale will look like - there is nowhere to hide. How well did they respond to your enquiry? What type of questions did they ask you? Did they seem more interested in booking you in for a valuation or mortgage appointment than arranging the viewing? Were they on time (or early) to the viewing? Did they actually add value on the viewing or simply proudly introduce each room as you entered them? Could they answer your pre-prepared tough questions on both the house and the area? Did you ever hear from them again?
Let them show you who they are - judge them like you’re on a first date. When they came to value your home, did they take any interest in you and your reason for moving or did they only talk about themselves? Did they offer to help with your onward move by advising on areas, or offering to introduce you to an agent in the town you’re relocating to? Did they offer advice on the best time of year to hit your goals, or is now conveniently the best time ever to sell a home, and they have a list of buyers who will view straight away? Beware of commission breath…
Negotiate their fee - and hope you fail…. As satisfying as it may be when we get things cheaper in life, think about whether this may be a false economy. Remember, this is the company who is tasked with selling your home for the best price. Do you really want to reduce their financial incentive to do so? Not only that, how is an agent going to negotiate the best price for your home if they can’t even hold their own fee? An agent who is willing to reduce their fee to win your business should be the biggest red flag, and you should run (not walk) away.
Now, I get it, this may feel like overkill. But let’s not forget that for most of us our homes are our biggest asset, and we are talking about possible life-changing sums of money. Imagine you’re on trial - would you employ the cheapest solicitor or want the best Barrister representing you? Remember - a great estate agent is an investment, not a cost.
Thinking of moving soon? Next time around I’ll be talking about the biggest turn-offs for buyers and the steps you should be taking now to get your house market ready.
Dominic Marcel is the Founding Partner at Lion Estates and Lion Prestige of Woburn. A team of self-employed, personal estate agents, their focus is on quality marketing and dedicating one agent to each of their clients to ensure high quality of service. They’ve been given a ‘Gold Award’ in both 2024 and 2025 in The Best Estate Agent Guide, which ranks them within the top 3% of estate agents in the UK. They are looking to be the first agency in Milton Keynes to win this accolade for 3 years in a row at the EA Masters in November. You can contact Lion Estates by calling 01908 465700 or emailing contact@lionestates.co.uk. Dominic Marcel can be contacted by emailing dominic@lionestates.co.uk.
