Owning your own home

Pick the one you find least revolting

I had good experience with Nested. I think they still do a referal where you'd get a discount on the fee

https://nested.com?refcode=Uaihdu_X2ig

I am in SE6 and sold and bought using Reeds Rains, it was unreal how good they were, worth chatting to them; ideally Eugene (he cycles).

Robinson Jackson were awful.

You can tell the EA to list it for any value, so you can go with Acorn, but ask them to list for £450k.
Rates are usually negotiable, to an extent, they will probably have a minimum level (around 1.2% in other people I knows experience)

Avoid Robinson Jackson like the plague. Valued us 60k under what we sold for, refused to entertain the notion of the house being worth any more despite every other agent being spot on (besides the jokers at KFH going 'get the custom' high). Completely ignorant of the area despite being an historically local agency, talked a lot of shit peppered with covid denialism and a bit of casual misogyny. Couldn't wait to get him out of the house. We sold through JDM blackheath (who approached us!), and we found them excellent. Lowest fees, genuinely nice agent, good office staff. Reeds Rains were our second choice, but the fees swung us – they were .2/3 % higher IIRC. Stanfords seems alright, bit pushy.

i'd go for Acorn 100%. KFH were fucking awful to us last year (SE21) and acorn we got a quote from when we wanted to relist, ended up going with someone else but had neighbours/friends that had had good experiences with them and we wished we had gone with them.

I wouldn't worry about the valuations, they'll put it on for whatever you want (within reason).

Which of those valuations looks realistic (have a look at sold prices in the area and completed rightmove/Zoopla ads)? Tempting you in with a high valuation, it not selling quickly and the estate agent going "you need to drop the price" is pretty common.

If you know anyone who has bought or is buying in the area then ask them about their experiences. We went with our estate agent as they were more proactive than others at phoning round and getting people in to viewings (we'd started looking to buy slightly earlier so we'd experienced all the local ones firsthand).

That Acorn fee looks a bit high as well, nearer 1% should be achievable.

The SE6 buyer experience with Reeds Rains was ok. They also did a valuation for me a few years ago and seemed good.

There seem to be quite a few small independents locally - I used John Alan on Bromley Rd for a valuation, they seemed fine, have no extensive experience with them though.

Defo not highest valuation.
Their valuation is irrelevant, the market decides.