Sally's Case Study: The Real Cost of the Wrong Estate Agent

1. Why Sally needed to sell

People need to sell their house for many different reasons. In Sally’s case, it was because: 

• Commuting distance.
  The family needed to move after her son got into grammar school. Living in a small village, there were no buses to her son’s school. So the school run was taking far too long.
• Maintenance was expensive & time-consuming.
  ‍Secondly, the family home was a unique picturesque 17th century cottage. Beautiful, but it needed more time and money to maintain than she was willing to invest.

So the decision was made to put the house on the market and find somewhere else to live.

Sally naturally did what most do when they decide to sell their home...

She signed up with a local estate agent to put it on the market for her.

2. Listing the property with a local estate agent

Despite Sally being frustrated with the listing's poor pictures and many spelling mistakes, initially things went well and they had lots of viewings.

Sally had to host the viewings without any help from the agent...

But soon, there were 3 offers on the table...

2.1 Three offers — and three letdowns

Because Sally wanted a more certain sale, she expected her agent to guide her on which offer to accept... for example:

• Who had the strongest finances? 
• Or the shortest chain?

But the only advice the agent gave was to take the highest offer. The associated risks with each offer weren't considered.

So, as instructed, Sally just went with the highest offer.

But here's what happened next: 

• Buyer #1: 
  For three weeks Sally heard nothing, and she assumed everything was going through.
  
  That was until the agent called to give the frustrating news that the buyers had pulled out. Even more frustratingly, no reason was given...‍
• Buyer #2: 
  ‍The agent went to the buyers who had made the second-highest offer. Thankfully, they were still interested and the sale was underway again. But they pulled out shortly afterwards too.
• Buyer #3: 
  By the time the agent went back to third person who had offered, too much time had passed and they'd moved on and bought somewhere else.   

So Sally was back to square one...

2.2 A failing strategy: Price cuts and poor marketing

After that, the estate agents didn't seem to generate much new interest.

So they advised Sally to keep reducing the price until they could get more interest. The only advice they’d give was about price reduction. Meanwhile, very little proactive marketing was being done.

This became particularly obvious when the Estate Agents tried to put on an open house for prospective buyers...

• But all they did was put an ad in the local paper!
• Outside of that, they didn’t get involved at all...
• ‍And they weren't even present at the open house.

In the end, only two people turned up.

2.3 Frustrations building

Sally was unhappy with the service she was getting.

Her summary of their performance was summed up when she said this “They were just pretty crap. Awful, just awful. We didn’t know what we were going to do”.  

“The estate agent was awful, just awful. We didn’t know what we were going to do”.  

So the results had been bad. But the agent's service was even worse...

• They were difficult to get hold of. 
• Sally never saw the original agent again (who had come out to meet them at the start of the sale).
• It was a family run business and the estate agent blamed other members of the family for things not being done!

It all just seemed so unprofessional to her.

And by now, the urgency for a sale had increased too...

3. Mounting pressure: a sudden deadline

After the first time Sally agreed her sale, she had bid on a house at auction. She'd won the auction, and signed an agreement to complete before 1st November.

That agreement committed her to paying the auction company’s £8,000 fees even if she didn't complete the purchase by the deadline!

With the financial penalty hanging over her head (and the added risk of losing her future family home), Sally looked for ways to sell her house fast. That’s when she turned to google.

3.1 Searching for faster options

Sally started searching for companies who would buy properties for cash. That’s how she stumbled across our site.

Sally later told me that she'd been wary of getting on the call with me. She expected there might be a sales pitch or a hard sell.

But in the end, she was very surprised by our conversation...

3.2 Our consultation: Exploring Sally’s options

I went through the numbers with Sally to understand the mortgage situation and the equity in the property.

Unfortunately for Sally, options were going to be limited.

I advised her that a home buying company was very unlikely to offer enough to pay off the mortgage off, let alone leave her enough of a deposit to buy her next home.

I put her in touch with the home-buying company I recommended, in case she wanted to get in touch and the numbers for herself...

But I suggested there was another route open to her. And that was to let us manage the sale of her property for her. 

There was no pressure. That’s not how I work. I just recommended what I felt was the best option for Sally and her family given her situation.

She told one of my team afterwards “The consultation felt like a free service, and that I wasn’t being sold to”.

The consultation felt like a free service, and that I wasn’t being sold to.

We had a second call on the same day so I could explain our 12-step process in more detail to her. Her initial reaction was positive. But she wanted to her husband to be happy with everything too. So we had a third call later that day.

3.3. Getting the family on board

Sally's husband put me through the wringer!

He wanted to see the numbers for himself, and examine the statistics to back up my claims. I answered all his questions and gave him the evidence he needed to be certain about their decision.

One thing I made clear to Sally and her husband was that we're specialists in selling homes quickly—and for a good price. And we would handle everything for them too.

I laid out many of the tactics we'd use, and laid out every step of the support we would give them.

This would take away all the hassle and stress from Sally. And give them the best chance of selling their home before the auction deadline.

I also told them if we didn’t sell their property, they wouldn’t have to pay us anything. Their reaction was one I’ve become used to getting:  “This sounds too good to be true.”  

In the end, Sally and her husband decided they wanted to come onboard and let us begin the process.

4. A fresh start: Letting us take over the sale

We kept Sally informed throughout the entire process to keep her feeling calm and in control.

She disinstructed her previous estate agent, and we followed our 12-step "Accelerate Sale" process. We made sure every step of the sale was completed when it was supposed to be.

Once a sale was agreed and we got further into the process, this meant chasing solicitors for paperwork too...

Here’s just one example of how we go above and beyond to make sure our sales go through as quickly and efficiently as possible:

• A sudden absence.
  The day before the sale was due to go through, the solicitor of the people buying Sally's home went into hospital for an operation...
• Lost paperwork.
  ‍Crucial paperwork were lost, and the consequences of a further delay for Sally were going to be severe (because of her auction purchase).
• Tracking it down.
  So Kirsty from my team got on the case and tracked down the paperwork on Sally’s behalf.
• Getting it signed.
  Kirsty even got a copy of the contract printed off and taken to the hospital by someone nearby so it could be signed in time for Sally's deadline.

New problems crop up in house sales all the time. (Even for us). But we have a core belief that problems exist to be solved. Not succumbed to.

And that's why the results we get for our clients are so good.

I’m delighted to share that we sold Sally's home for her, and she successfully completed on her auction purchase.

So Sally and her family did indeed move into their new home on 1st November. And we were able to get Sally a price she was happy with too.

5. Sally’s Verdict — Why Our Service Made the Difference

Sally’s journey was filled with challenges:

• Slow agents,
• Broken promises,
• Mounting pressure.

But once she signed up with us, the process turned around. As Sally put it:

“I don’t know what would have happened if we hadn’t signed up with Matt. It was definitely worth the price we paid.

‍“They broke things down so it all felt easy. And as I hadn’t moved in 10 years, it gave me confidence that the right things were being done.

"Throughout the process, they gave me the reassurance that we were going to get our new property."

Her initial experience of using the estate agents is common.

Here are the problems she encountered:

• Problem #1: Overvaluations.
  Estate Agents will inflate the valuation of your property to win your business. (I say this having worked through 1,000+ estate agent valuations!)
  
  But starting with an honest, accurate valuation is key to selling your house fast while also getting a good price.
• Problem #2: Spread thin.
  Estate Agents typically have 50-100 properties or more on their books at any time.
  
  But at the time of writing, we only work with 20 clients at a time. This means we can keep our service levels high, and delivery outstanding results consistently.
• Problem #3: Low success rate.
  Estate Agents only sell around half the properties they take on. So if your property starts looking like it won't sell quickly, they lose interest and begin focusing on their newer properties.
  
  But we follow a consistent marketing cycle to maintain momentum, and keep making progress.
• Problem #4: Agents are very passive.
  When Sally's sale was agreed, the agent sat back and waited/hoped for it to complete. So when it fell through, they didn't even know why!
  
  But pro-active sales progression is one of the pillars of our service. This is why our sales are around 3x less likely to fall through than normal estate agent sales).

Once Sally came on board with us, we took care of every detail.

And not only did Sally and her husband get the results they needed, but they didn’t have to worry about whether or not things were being done properly either.

In Sally’s words:

“If you’re facing a complicated sale, or if your Estate Agent is messing you around, or if you just want less stress, I’d recommend using Matthew and his team.”

Next Steps...

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