Agency comparison site launches

A new agency comparison website that enables sellers in England and Wales to compare the performance of all types of estate agents has been launched.

estateagent4me.co.uk, which is owned by UHS, a subsidiary of ULS Technology plc, claims to be the first of its kind to help sellers make an informed choice about which estate agent to sell their property through. Currently available in England and Wales the site will be launching in the rest of the UK shortly.

“At present sellers base estate agent performance on instinct, word of mouth and how many boards they see in their local area – this just isn’t enough in today’s marketplace,” said Ben Thompson (right), Managing Director, estateagent4me.

Sellers can use estateagent4me to compare estate agents, using a number of different performance criteria, including what the website terms ‘success rate’ based on things like the percentage of properties that the agent has sold, compared to the total houses listed with that agent.

Other performance criteria that people will be able to compare are the average time taken to sell a property, how often agents are able to achieve a sale at, or more than, the asking price. Also, the number of properties each agent has listed in the location of the seller’s property, plus the services available and an indication of the fees charged by each agent.

The idea is that once a seller has selected their preferred estate agent, based on the performance criteria important to them, they can instruct their agent, or agencies, through the estateagent4me website to get their property listed.

Thompson continued, “Selling your home is a major thing to do, and can be stressful. It is certainly an expensive process, so estateagent4me makes the whole process easier, more transparent and based on real data rather than gut feel.”

The new price comparison site claims that the average property seller could have received up to £27,456 extra on the sale price of their property if their agent had performed as well as the best performing agents. Based on this assertion, if every agent had performed this well then homeowners in England and Wales would have made an additional £30 billion.

“By selecting the right agent to suit individual needs and requirements, the seller can have an improved experience, and that’s because there are huge differences across estate agents in terms of performance and success rates,” Thompson added.