Online only Estate Agents

A good local agent with a decent amount of marketing might and the ability to achieve the highest price possible for you is worth their fee any day of the week.

The challenge is finding one. They are out there but don't be to quick to assume you know best just because some agents make the rest look bad. Zoopla estimates are very much out of date the moment they are published and in so valuing your own property you run a very real and financially significant risk of handing your home over to someone for perhaps tens of thousands less than its worth all because you thought the fee for an agent wasn't worth it

I would rather pay a good agent 3k and get 20k more for it than I could achieve myself than pay some random company to basically put an advert on a website (that costs pennies) do nothing and then walk away with the cash.
 
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Adam said:
Lazy people might, but who is better to sell it than the owner of the house who lives in it every day, knows what has been done, knows how to spin the negative aspects, describe the neighbors/neighborhood in the best light etc.

I have been on so many viewings where an agent just stands there playing with their phone completely disinterested because they know nothing about the house. You ask a question and they reply "I don't know". You ask them to get back to you and they don't. What's the point in them being there?
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That is true when you are selling your perfectly up to date family home. I'm on about probate sales - empty houses that haven't been modernised since the sixties with flowery wallpaper and swirly carpets galore.
 
It would be a good day when Rightmove and Zoopla open their doors to the general public to place their own advert on their sites. Obviously they won't do this as they will get a revolt from all the agents who are currently paying to use them.

It could still be a good thing though as it will get rid of all the rubbish agents out of business, but the good ones will continue as people will pay to use a good agent.

Other than that there is nothing stopping you putting your house up on Gumtree as long as you have an EPC to comply with law. A lot more people already have an EPC that don't even realise. If you have ever had anything done on one of the ECO/CSCO/Green Deal or similar schemes like free insulation then you will already have an EPC even if you didn't know. Just search your address on epcregister.com
 
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So far so good.

The person that visited to conduct floor plan and take photographs was punctual, polite and thorough. They uploaded the floor plan and photos the same evening.

We re-did the outside photos ourselves whilst the sun was shining over the weekend.

The advert went live yesterday evening so we'll see what happens next...
 
fastwunz said:
A good local agent with a decent amount of marketing might and the ability to achieve the highest price possible for you is worth their fee any day of the week.

The challenge is finding one. They are out there but don't be to quick to assume you know best just because some agents make the rest look bad. Zoopla estimates are very much out of date the moment they are published and in so valuing your own property you run a very real and financially significant risk of handing your home over to someone for perhaps tens of thousands less than its worth all because you thought the fee for an agent wasn't worth it

I would rather pay a good agent 3k and get 20k more for it than I could achieve myself than pay some random company to basically put an advert on a website (that costs pennies) do nothing and then walk away with the cash.
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Are you an estate agent by any chance? :p

Especially with that username, you know, the kind of the things EAs tend to pull...
 
One agent told me if costs them 20k per year per office to list on rightmove, even tho they lie through their teeth that seems a bit steep
 
Kimi said:
One agent told me if costs them 20k per year per office to list on rightmove, even tho they lie through their teeth that seems a bit steep
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A friend of the family had an online estate agent that didn't work out, he had to clear £900 per month purely for rightmove listing fees. It's feasible that it scales based on how many properties so I wouldn't be surprised if they were actually telling the truth :p

An estate agent would find it hard to compete without rightmove.
 
ive actually have been trying to sell my home through hatched since march 2014.

thier good and everything but im now thinking of using a brick and mortar agent. only reason being that it takes ages for me to get through to them on the phone and if i was a buyer i would just say stuff it and not view the house.

my rightmove and zoopla reports show a lot of people looking at the listings but not many are arranging a viewing and im wondering if this is due to the long phone waits.

plus after speaking with hatched they dont activley follow up any viewing after the buyers have left feed back.:rolleyes: where as a normal estate agents normally give a follow up call a week or two later if the buyers had other properties to view.


mind you i havent found anything to spend my cash on in the last year that i have been looking on rightmove.

thanks for the zoopla link says my house is worth 10k more than i have it up for lol at least if people see it they might not knock me down too much fingers crossed

I did go to one local estate agents and he valued my house by taking my property details and searching our town by those details then valued my house £50 cheaper than the cheapest house in town as they like to sale houses quick. im pretty sure he could see steam coming out of my ears
 
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Adam said:
An estate agent would find it hard to compete without rightmove.
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Depends how well known they are in an area. There is a well known family run EA in my area that has been going 50+ years and they have only just gone on Rightmove this year for the first time with just a selection of properties.
 
Tesla said:
Hi,

Looking to sell my house and move on to something better. The house is immaculate throughout having been completely redecorated over the past 18 months including new bathroom and kitchen. The finish is to a high standard.

My house is a 2 up 2 down, off street parking, enclosed rear garden of good size. A first time buyers dream?

So, thoughts with regards to selling.

- It'll sell easily as the housing market is a bit mad here in Bristol. A similar house on our road sold within 3 days of being on the market last month.

- I want to achieve top money for my house as yet to find anything so not in a huge rush, can be a little patient.

Because I am certain it'll go easily I am considering using an online estate agent, has anybody any experience with these types of agent? Can you recommend any agents? I'm not concerned with conducting viewings and can be flexible with times so could conduct day time or evening viewings.

My concern is that a local agent could achieve a higher value for me? Do you think this to be true?

I am going to sound out a few of the local agents next week, get them to value it and listen to their spiel.

Cheers.
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I'm in an almost identical position. I just phoned up my local estate agent who struggled to explain what they do for their 1-1.6% rate so I think I'll be calling HouseNetwork next.
 
LeeUK said:
Depends how well known they are in an area. There is a well known family run EA in my area that has been going 50+ years and they have only just gone on Rightmove this year for the first time with just a selection of properties.
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Agreed, in small areas with high demand people will go the extra mile to secure a property and canvas both local agents and local online forums / fb groups etc to steal a march on those who just look on rightmove etc.

Obviously in a stagnant market they will need to spread the net as far as possible but round here they wouldn't have any trouble finding buyers even without rightmove.

In fact you could argue that if you are reliant soley on rightmove to drum up interest then you are already fighting a losing battle against the online agencies who will have much lower overheads. The whole point of a bricks and mortar EA in the modern age is (aside from facilitating viewings) to be able to offer more of a personal touch and pro-actively market the property to prospective clients.
 
Hi,

So after being on the market for a week we've had 3 viewings and 3 offers. 2 of them scrapped it out and we've ended up accepting slightly over asking. Delighted.

We had one viewer not turn up with no contact and another cancel 2 hours before the viewing. These were a little annoying but nothing more. Two viewers said how much better a viewing experience with the owners was compared to an EA who knows very little about the specific property. I've no reservations with conducting the viewing and had prepared answers to questions I'd thought would likely come up.

If you're a shy person or phone call-adverse then conducting and sometimes arranging the viewings yourself (viewers choose wether to disclose their details to the vendor when they call to book the viewing) probably isn't ideal, so maybe an online agent isn't best.

Myhouseadvert have been very good so far, very prompt to reply to email, always answer the phone straight away and willing to help and offer good advice. Seem genuinely keen to get the house sold.

Will update again with my experiences in the near future.
 
Sale completed last Friday.

The entire process went without a hitch. myhouseadvert pulled the advert immediately upon exchange of contracts issuing their final statement, total cost £168.95 plus the one-off £45 fee for floor plan. I'd estimate a traditional agent would have charged in excess of £2k inc VAT.

Would recommend http://www.myhouseadvert.co.uk to anybody considering an online agent.
 
Kimi said:
One agent told me if costs them 20k per year per office to list on rightmove, even tho they lie through their teeth that seems a bit steep
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Small agents can pay more than 1k per month depending on their size and what other RM services they have so that's not too far from the truth.
 
Tesla said:
Sale completed last Friday.

The entire process went without a hitch. myhouseadvert pulled the advert immediately upon exchange of contracts issuing their final statement, total cost £168.95 plus the one-off £45 fee for floor plan. I'd estimate a traditional agent would have charged in excess of £2k inc VAT.

Would recommend http://www.myhouseadvert.co.uk to anybody considering an online agent.
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Wow, that is excellent, very interesting and thanks for the review :)
 
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