Whos used online estate agents? Good/bad news?

[Buffman]

Hi all,

Looking to sell my house and get a bigger place.

Has anyone used online estate agents and any particular recommendations?

I figure as long as its on rightmove itll be alright it is a fairly desirable/fully renovated single floor bungalow in a good area. Hopefully looking to sell at ~£300 to £330k so even at 1% an agent would be 3k!

Ive got a few agents coming round for a valuation but ill need to see what they charge.

Ive seen it is approx £1k ish from ginger/ doorsteps / purple bricks. Im ok paying it upfront and dont expect any issues with the house not selling. Do i have much to lose? Would a "local estate agent/local agent" be better?

Whats the best value for money estate agent?

 

[SeatIbiza]

Purple Bricks were utterly terrible with lies, 1 (yes ONE) viewing - all the time they had it on I'm hearing adverts in the car how they're the best and sell more than anyone else...certainly not my experience of them! I don't really get how as it's all on Rightmove (which is what they all do) - currently with a "proper" agent and whilst still annoying (find me an estate agent that isn't a total wrister) they have put bodies through the door and I've got a tentative offer...

Cheap for a reason IME...

If you think it will shift no hassle, then why not, but I wouldn't use one again to save a few ££

 

[wesimmo]

They're all effectively franchises aren't they? So you'll probably get a wide variety of service.

You might be best posting in local FB groups to get a feel for the people in your area.

 

[Moley]

We bought our house from someone who sold with Purple Bricks. It was undervalued by at least 10k to start with and we knocked them down more in negotiations. Thanks Purple Bricks!

Oh and their solicitors are shockingly bad.

 

[Skillmister]

Purple Bricks were utterly terrible with lies, 1 (yes ONE) viewing - all the time they had it on I'm hearing adverts in the car how they're the best and sell more than anyone else...certainly not my experience of them! I don't really get how as it's all on Rightmove (which is what they all do) - currently with a "proper" agent and whilst still annoying (find me an estate agent that isn't a total wrister) they have put bodies through the door and I've got a tentative offer...

Cheap for a reason IME...

If you think it will shift no hassle, then why not, but I wouldn't use one again to save a few ££

No different to High Street Estate Agents then. As with all of these services it's luck of the draw whether you get a good one or bad one and whether your house sells quick or slow. My dad's house sale should be measured in hours rather than days through doorsteps at a sale price the same as local agents valued it at. Yet he paid £200 rather than £3000+

Same goes for their recommended solicitors. All conveyancing companies or solicitors firms have good people and bad people. Of course a national company with 500 conveyancers is going to get a bad rep at times, they have a significant number of idiots working for them. It might well be the same percentage (or admittedly higher) but that doesn't mean they are all terrible.

I used to get all my conveyancing work from an online agent now it's a high street one. These high street ones are the most deceitful agents I have ever come across in my career and all they do is cause trouble and stress by spreading lies.

If anything in my area I find PB actually market properties at the right price to sell whereas the local agents put them on 5-10% too high and they end up dropping the price after a month when they've obviously had no interest

 

[Vanquish-Storm]

We used Purple Bricks to sell our house, the Chao was fantastic, came late evening to talk to us as we both work late. He came the next day to take photos. Listed on all the usual places Thursday night. Bunch of viewings weekend sold over asking by Monday.

The house we were originally going to buy was listed with a larger local estate agents, they were crap. Originally never had any time for viewings and then the whole thing fell through without them even knowing.

The house we ended up buying was listed with a local self employed estate agent and he was fantastic throughout.

So from my experience either Purple Bricks or a smaller local agent. Steer clear of the bigger outfits.

 

[kitkat9933]

The house we are current selling is via HouseSimple (£850 fixed fee) with an offer excepted and going through the legal rubbish now.

I am sure that there are some good estate agents out there that provide value for their fee. However, I’ve always had bad experiences with them.

I decided to use HouseSimple for the cheap fee and knowing that I would have to do more work, but being in the high end market 1-1.5% adds up fast. As long as you understand that you will have to make time in your life to do the viewings and doing more let work, it will be fine.
The only one issue I had is housesimple have been a pain to get in contact with. Most likely they oversubscribed with their cheap fees and so t have the staff to support. It takes ages to get through on the phone and lack of call backs.

Fortunately, they now communicate over email so removes the issues over the phone.

When I sold my house before this, I had moved area by 120 miles for a new job and had bought a second home. I wasn’t around to be able to do viewings, so a local agent proved valuable in providing that service.

TLDR; cheaper service provides less.

 

[Jez]

Re house simple above, you mention that they are non communicative on the phone, what is the experience like for a potential viewer calling via the Rightmove number against your advert? I assume that you tested that?

This is what puts me off services like this over using a traditional “higher end” agent such as Savills or Knight Frank who not only answer very quickly, but also add all of the fluff on the call.

I have bad experiences too with agents, total liars the lot of them, or being kind I guess I’d tone that down to them all just being predictable bad salespeople who you can read like a book. Not paying them 5 figures in fees is very attractive but I do worry that you lose this in a lack of fluff from the better agents to drive up the price anyway.

 

[kitkat9933]

Re house simple above, you mention that they are non communicative on the phone, what is the experience like for a potential viewer calling via the Rightmove number against your advert? I assume that you tested that?

This is what puts me off services like this over using a traditional “higher end” agent such as Savills or Knight Frank who not only answer very quickly, but also add all of the fluff on the call.

I have bad experiences too with agents, total liars the lot of them, or being kind I guess I’d tone that down to them all just being predictable bad salespeople who you can read like a book. Not paying them 5 figures in fees is very attractive but I do worry that you lose this in a lack of fluff from the better agents to drive up the price anyway.

Viewings are booked via the online portal as first choice, so most people don’t book via phone.

someone makes a request online with the times that work for them, then you accept one of the times of suggest alternate.

 

[Jez]

In theory it’s great but how does that cater to older people who won’t use an online portal, etc? I think you’d lose valuable potential custom through that?

 

[Merlin5]

it is a fairly desirable/fully renovated single floor bungalow in a good area.

...dont expect any issues with the house not selling.

If you're confident it'll sell easily, have you considered selling privately and just incurring minimal advertising costs, perhaps in local newspapers and supermarket boards?

https://www.yopa.co.uk/homeowners-hub/guide-selling-house-privately/

 

[Foghorn Leghorn]

The company you use is largely irrelevant, it all comes down to the individual you are dealing with.

 

[Regy53]

We bought from one in 2018, house simple I think it was £600k house and I assume the sellers paid a grand. They were pretty decent to deal with but the house was down valued hugely on the mortgage and my issue was house simple didn’t really understand the local market to explain to the sellers who were being hard work.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Used PB to sell our last one, it was ‘fine’ nothing special but was obviously far cheaper than a local agent. What was impressive was that they offered a service outside of office hours, had our house measured up on a Sunday and the agent negotiated with our buyer well into the evening. A normal agent wouldn’t bother doing anything till the next day.

At the end of the day getting the property on Right Move et al in the cheapest possible way at the right price is the main priority for a normal house. That’s where everyone looks.

Local agents add nothing to ‘normal bread and butter’ sales. To determine price all they do is look on right move, and price it around similar properties on the market or sold recently. Right move has pretty much replaced the basic functions an agent used to do, the best part is it’s all open online for anyone to use. Yet they still want the same cut they got in the 80s when they actually had to do some legwork.

Got something specific or unique? Sure an agent can add value not not your typical family home, it’s money for nothing these days.

Spend your money on a decent conveyancer, a good one makes night and day difference.

 

[Rroff]

The people who bought the house we sold in 2019 used an online estate agent and there weren't any problems. The biggest issues all around were solicitor/conveyance related for all the stick estate agents get the ones we had any dealing with were actually brilliant (though the first one the previous owner of the house we are living in now used were apparently bad) while the solicitors, etc. really were lazy and concerningly inept given their profession (I'm sure there are good ones out there but I'm yet to encounter them ).

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Ours were great last time round, competent, communicative and fast. They were reasonably priced too, couldn’t ask for anything else. Not the same could be said for others in the chain though.

 

[jimjamuk]

Basically if your place is something in high demand then they are good as the punters go to them. If it's not they are fairly useless. Get a decent agency. They will do their most to get the sale and also manage the chain for you so you know what is going on. Mine did anyway for 1%

 

[PAz]

I liked PurpleBricks when selling my last house. It was easy and I was completely in control. I handled all the viewings and negotiations directly with the potential buyers.

Sold it via PurpleBricks within around 5 months. As b0rn2sk8 said above, it was ideal from a getting this onto RightMove as cheaply and quickly as possible.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

Whoever you go for make sure you get a decent solicitor and don't just go with the one the agents suggest the one I had was appalling couldn't even complete on time so had overrun penalties running into hundreds every day (not me who had to pay for it thank goodness) turned out it wasn't even the solicitor handling the conveyancing they'd farmed it out to someone who wasn't even qualified presumably to cut costs and increase profits, solicitor had to step in in the end to sort out the fiasco. Years later I got a letter from the land registry I think it was saying the transaction wasn't registered with them and could you please supply the details to update their records... shocking. If I could remember the name of the firm I'd mention them just to avoid them but it was somewhere in eastbourne.

 

[bazzabear]

I didn't use them, but I looked into them.

They were only significantly cheaper if you used them for a limited time, no guarantee of sale, listing.

If you hired them under the same terms as a local estate agent, they were almost exactly the same price.

On that basis, we went local.