Before You Read Another Estate Agency Review – Read This
If you’re looking for an estate agent to sell your home or rent out your property, you might be scrolling through their reviews. That’s a smart move. Here are some tips to help you.
Where to find reviews
Every good estate agent will be happy for you to read their online reviews.
You’ll very often find reviews alongside an agent’s listing on Google.
A new, fun feature of Google is that it might show you an AI overview of agents’ reviews in that area, too.
Other sites which host estate agent reviews include Trustpilot, Feefo, GetAgent, ESTAS, and AllAgents.
Can you really trust reviews?
You need to know that postings on most review sites aren’t verified.
Anybody can post a review – good or bad – whether they’ve ever used that agent or not.
Keep an eye out for fake reviews: vague, generic comments that don’t refer to a particular property sale, rental experience or named people at the agency might not be entirely genuine (this isn’t always the case, but you can often spot questionable patterns).
Getting the most from reviews
* Don’t just read the first two or three reviews. Keep on scrolling down for a clearer picture of what reviewers really think about the agency.
* Check whether the reviews are from buyers, sellers, tenants or landlords. Each expects different things from an agency. Tenants are most likely to leave a negative review if their experience was negative.
* Click on the reviewers’ profiles. Do they seem genuine, and do their other reviews sound sincere?
* Read any responses agents have posted. Good agents welcome constructive feedback. If there have been any shortcomings in their service, they should be more than happy to address them. We’re all humans after all, (well apart from the bots that generate fake comments and reviews).
While reviews can be useful, bear in mind their limitations. Don’t rely on them entirely.
An agent’s local reputation tells you as much as their online reviews.
So, ask friends, neighbours or colleagues for recommendations. Make use of social media too.
Better still, pick up the phone and talk to the estate agents you’re planning to work with.
How they handle your initial enquiry will tell you much more about them than any online review.
Buying and selling the ethical way
We are proud members of the Ethical Agent Network (EAN).
A national group of independent agents who have been independently
Tested to ensure we meet strict standards of honesty, service, professionalism and community care.
To find out more about what we do and why we passed the EAN and are the only local agency in the network, contact us today.
If you know someone who is thinking of moving, please share this article with them.
