The life of an estate agent! (Its not like selling sunset)

I have come back from my summer holiday and thought I would reflect and share with you.

Obviously, as an estate agent I love to meet people, so as usual within a few hours of arriving at the pool I had a few acquaintances. After an hour or so the question arises: what do you do?

Of course, I am extremely proud of my profession but I know what is coming when I say I am an estate agent….

//The holiday maker that is now an acquaintance that I am likely to chat to every time around the pool or by the bar whilst collecting a refreshment.//

Here it comes….

“I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO BE AN ESTATE AGENT AS I LOVE NOSING ROUND HOUSES”

As always, I smile and confess my passion for the job but equally inhale as that is only a fraction of what my job entails.

Well I really wish that was our job! The easy part is initially viewing the houses/properties.

So here is the real life of an estate agent (in my eyes)

You have a valuation request, exciting! You go around knowing you have XYZ who will be buy it. You imagine how you are going to show case this property and the plan you have for it. The next part is whether you get that amazing house, bungalow or flat to sell.

Scenario 1- Trust me it’s crushing as an agent to get a call to say to say you didn’t or worse still to see it come online when you felt you had a good connection but didn’t get that call to explain why despite your endless attempts of calls which led to voicemails. When you know you can do the BEST Job over most. It’s really quite hard.

Scenario 2- Next stage, the amazing stage you get the call from your new seller to say you have been the chosen one to sell their property. I must say this is my favourite part as you know the seller believes in you and wants you to sell their home. This is where the adrenaline sets in and the exciting part of listing their property sets in. I love to put the passion into our description/marketing and most importantly professional photography and social media, after all this is what sells a property.

Agents Note: I reference “I” but my lovely team are just as passionate as I am but as it’s my version of events I will stick with referencing me.

Once our sellers are happy we go live. This is most testing scary part of our process as we really don’t know if the buyers are going to respond or not. Within the first hour the lister waits with baited breath for that first response beit via a call out, email out, social media DM or Rightmove/Zoopla or OnTheMarket enquiry.

We then start our viewings and again we can never predict how our property will be viewed by our audience. I must say when you start viewings and get negative feedback, it feels like a kick in the teeth. But when the response is positive & we receive offers early on that’s the best feeling in the world. It may be a day, week or even months before this all important time comes but every step, trust me we are peddling fast in the background to not lose any opportunities. After all our ultimate goal is to sell your home.

Next stage, we’ve done it! We have an offer accepted and it’s time to progress our precious sale. When I say precious, that is exactly what our sales are. As your agent, once we pass your sale over to the solicitors & mortgage lenders/brokers, we need to ensure we are doing all we can to keep to communications flowing and moving forward. Now this part is probably the hardest part of being an agent as we have very little control over this process. As an agency we aim to update both our sellers & buyers weekly, once we have got updates from the solicitors but this is no easy task. We are not legal representatives so are now simply messengers.

All being well it is normally a fairly smooth process as everyone remains updated and both our sellers and buyers are happy. BUT, when there is an issue this is where are job is difficult and stressful because after all we are only the messenger yet the main port of call to our clients. We try to remain focused about the job in hand and use our expertise & professionalism but we can be used a “punch” bag and spoken to quite badly at times. We get it though as I we know how frustrating, stressful these times can be, so we always give our service with a smile. I am not going lie there are times when I too can’t sleep at night over a fractious sale (particularly if there is a chain) as we become emotionally involved and feel for our clients. This part of the process is usually the longest and thanks to our antiquated English legal sales systems takes far too long. In my experience, the longer it takes for a sale to go through the more chance it will fall through. This is why we take a lot of dedicated time each week to progress our sales, it is so important to keep pushing forward and not being left in a pile on a solicitors desk. That said we are extremely fortunate as most of our buyers/sellers will use one of our recommended solicitors which makes a huge difference. Our recommended solicitors usually update us and ask for our assistance which is worth its weight in gold.

Best day is exchange day! We did it. I love the day we can contact our sellers & buyers and tell them we’ve exchanged contracts. Even better is when we eventually hand over the keys on “Move Day”. Seeing happy & excited faces makes all the above totally worth while.

So when people say I would love to be an estate agent as I love nosing sound houses hopefully this details that it is not like “selling sunset” and there are tough parts to the process but in the end it’s very rewarding when you achieve completion day.

If you want an agent that honestly has your best interests, needs and goals at heart then I can genuinely say we want to help you and are on your side.

Thank you for taking the time to read my essay to this point, it means a lot 😊