Most towns in the UK have a proliferation of estate agent’s “For Sale” and “Sold” boards. Not a pretty sight usually, but until such time as they are outlawed, any estate agency which is not highly visible by their boards might as well give up!
Prospective vendors understandably place a huge emphasis on the market share of agents’ boards in their area when deciding whom they should appoint to sell their property. After all, there is great comfort in the thought that “if everyone else is using that agency, then it’s probably OK for me to do the same!”
The trouble is that some agents trade on the subliminal effect of boards, irrespective of whether they read as “Sold” or “For Sale”. Indeed, we have heard of agents who are more motivated to get a “For Sale” board up than they are actually to sell their clients’ property!
We believe that selling your home is too important to “go with the flow”. Surely an agent who has more “For Sale” boards than “Sold” boards is in fact demonstrating an inability to sell property, whereas agents who have more “Sold” than “For Sale” boards are actually doing the job for their clients and helping people move! All too often we find that it is not the agent with the greatest volume of available stock who is actually doing the sales!
So next time you happen to notice the various agents’ boards in your area, it might be worth noting the relationship between the number “For Sale” and the number “Sold”. It can tell you a lot about the agents involved!
