Reeds Rains > Reviews (14)

Like the rest of you, I have a healthy mistrust of estate agents. So, just imagine my pleasant and gentle glow as I review my recent positive experiences of selling my house through Reeds Rains.

I've been a mystery shopper for about 15 years; giving organisations feedback on the customer experience by making appointments to discuss imaginary mortgage and loan applications, eating horrible burgers, and asking the counter staff at Sainsburys how I can cook black pudding. I used some of these mystery-shopping skills to select an estate agent as just before Christmas, we decided it was time to put our home on the market.

My first task was to consider which estate agents sold (and not just marketed) houses in my price bracket. This meant that we spent a couple of weeks scanning the newspapers and websites to notice the properties that sold. We also considered the effectiveness of the advertisements, and more importantly these days, how accessible their web pages were (as it goes, our buyers actually spotted our house on the web). From this, we produced a long list of suitable estate agents.

Reeds Rains actually seems to sell quite a price range of properties without specialising in any particular type of property. While our house was lower end, Victorian terrace, I would consider Reeds Rains for any type of property except perhaps, real top end.

Next, was a tour of these estate agents on a Saturday morning (one of the busiest days for house selling). We discounted a few estate agents for their sloppy shop presentation. When I see a board headed "Properties under £100,000", I do not expect to see properties on the market for £120,000 beneath it. It just gives an indication of a lack of attention to detail (Hello, Halifax Property Services). We also focussed on the estate agents we had heard of, or knew the location of the shop. Buyers may well not trouble to hunt down that obscure agent down a backstreet on the edge of town.

From the shops we liked, we then asked staff for a rough guide for selling fees. Again, we discounted one estate agent (Boulton's) who couldn't tell us because they "only have trainees working on the weekend" (why have only trainees working on the two busiest days of the housing market week?).

Even more frustrating was the response of those who almost made me feel ashamed for worrying my pretty little head for asking about such a gauche subject as money. The response that they don't give a guide cost as the valuer would discuss selling fees during their visit, just didn't wash with me. Why would I let someone waste my time in my home if they were going to be considerably more expensive than other agents were? William H Brown didn't get a look in for this reason.

You might be surprised that even after this intensive vetting, we still had 4-5 candidates! From these, we selected the three best known to us and arranged free valuations with each of them.

Valuation

In preparation, we had spent all day tidying our home, following a period of some weeks where we had decluttered, and upgraded and finished some rooms

I know that a professional valuer can look at the quality and location of a house within a couple of minutes and come up with an approximate value, but after all this work, I expect them to at least put on a "show" and spend a little longer lingering.

Thus, I was unimpressed with the valuer from Whitegates who didn't trouble to inspect the garden or the cellar, and who then suggested a price £15,000 over the odds with a "let's see what happens" approach.

I was also unimpressed with the valuer who tried scare tactics in order for us to put our house on the market at low cost ("I predict a market crash early in the New Year, so your best bet is to put it on the market cheap, and try and get it shifted before Christmas"). They also spent some time slating the professionalism of their rivals. Nice act Jackson Staniforth.

Reeds Rains, in fact, were the only agent to appear professional during their valuation and they were the only ones to take time out to ask us whether we wanted to move quickly, or whether we could try to get the best price. Reeds Rains also answered my queries well (our house is very brightly decorated, and we wanted advice about whether to cover the paintwork in various shades of beige. The answer was no, as there are plenty of people out there attracted to bright colours). They also gave us the closest quote to the price we had anticipated given our market research (in fact about £3,000 higher).

Reeds Rains selling fees, although not the cheapest, were OK, at 1.3%. I always get rather irritated when organisations quote prices without VAT (and all estate agents seem to do this). The vast majority of their customers pay VAT, so why make it sound like an optional extra.

Reeds Rains turned out to be 1.3% plus VAT. Of course, selling fees (however low) are only worth paying if they do a good job.

Selling

I contacted Reeds Rains on the Monday following the valuation, to advise them that they had been successful. They organised for photographs to be taken that afternoon. Reeds Rains then sent the information leaflet about our home to us for inspection on the Wednesday, and our house details were displayed in their window that same day. We agreed the description (without alteration), and our house was for sale on their web pages on the Friday, and made the local press advertisements for the following Wednesday's property edition.

I don't think Reeds Rains could have put our house on the market any quicker.

Viewing

Our first viewers arrived four days after we confirmed our agreement to sell with Reeds Rains. Over the following three weeks, in the period up to Christmas, we were amazed at the response as around 10 couples turned up for viewings. We received an acceptable offer on our house within 3 weeks, just the week before Christmas.

During the period our home was on view, Reeds Rains kept us informed about the process. They had confirmed that each of the viewers was serious buyers, and never did they send anyone round without us knowing about it. Likewise, we had very few occasions where people didn't show (which of course, probably had nothing to do with Reeds Rains).

The Selling Process

Our buyers offered £95,000 on our asking price of £97,500. We had decided that anything towards the mid 90's would be fine for us, and so we were willing to accept this offer.

Reeds Rains told us they could secure an increased offer, and rang an hour later with £96,000 for us. Although the fees for selling were 1.3%, in effect Reeds Rains managed to pay for most of their fees themselves.

Unfortunately, selling has been a bit of a protracted process for us, with some issues over the leasehold of our property. During the process, Reeds Rains have passed on numerous messages between our buyers and us, and liaised with the solicitors of both parties to keep things moving. As it's been 13 years since I have moved house, they have also provided some useful advice about the selling process. Certainly, we have had no complaints with the information we have received, and we have felt confident that the buyers likewise got the information we passed on. Each time I spoke with a different member of staff, the notes on my file were accurate, and the member of staff quickly got up to speed with the position.

As I haven't managed to fit it in anywhere else in my review, I found staff at Reeds Rains to be polite, friendly and knowledgeable. This is in direct comparison with some of the staff in estate agencies we have dealt with when looking for a new home.

"Helloooo, it's Donaa here, heeee heee". Grrrr.


Summing up

Given that it's not everyday, I spend £1500 on a product or service, I undertook a lot of research to get the best deal. By selecting reeds rains, I was not disappointed. The branch I used was in Huddersfield, and I hope that the others are just as professional.

Here's my bottom line

- professional and helpful staff
- attractive office in a good location
- easy to use website, where users don't have to register
- realistic valuations
- good value for the quality of service

Good luck with your selling: I hope it goes well!