Richard James Estate Agents
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Great service - saved our bacon!
We initially listed our house with another agent who were the cheapest local bricks-and-mortar company. We had such a poor experience with them and only had two viewings in 3-4 weeks during the continued sales boom of 2022. There were definitely loads of potential purchasers around! They also had the audacity to charge us £500 early termination fee (I wish I had negotiated this out of the contract up front!) So we then instructed Richard James, North Swindon branch and they were even good enough to waive the termination fees and did us a good deal. One week later, we had nine viewings on a Saturday which resulted in three offers early the next week. Our house was very well presented though and the RJ team were great - always friendly and helpful and responded super quickly to any queries. The only thing that was an issue was that our first-time buyer decided to use an online solicitor up North. This was a terrible mistake that cost us an awful lot of stress and delayed our move by about 6 weeks. It was impossible to contact them most of the time and we only exchanged the evening before we moved. That most certainly wouldn't have happened if they had used a traditional, responsive solicitor. We used Bower & Bailey in Swindon who were excellent. We did receive advice from RJ that it would be OK but we both learnt from the experience! If you're reading this and considering using a cheap online solicitor, please think REALLY hard. You may save a couple of hundred quid but it most definitely isn't worth it. Extra stress and the risk your sale/purchase may fall through. Izzy, our sales negotiator was excellent and really helped sell the house. We then had Claire, the progressor who did a truly outstanding job in progressing our sale. She went way above and beyond, particularly with the stressful choice of the online solicitor. She chased the buyers, solicitors x3 and kept everyone in the loop. I believe some agents don't have this function. If we didn't have Claire, I truly believe our sale may have fallen through as my solicitor just wasn't getting anything at all from the buyers' solicitor. So well done Richard James North Swindon team - outstanding work!