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?

 

[Buffman]

Thanks for all your responses. One EA wanted 1.2%+ VAT and another £5k . The latter one hadnt really done any research before hand and definitely didnt seem to warrant /add much value. Both had a similar valuation.

I've Got purplebricks coming round tomorrow for valuation.

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+

Im tempted by doorsteps, it seems to be circa £400 rather than the £1000 purplebricks want. Any downsides to doorsteps/other super cheap EAs?

My only thought is purplebricks website is less likely to go bust/down.

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.

Thanks! Do you know if purplebricks do the negotiations or is if always the seller? (im fine with doing it)

 

[Buffman]

Gone with purplebricks... Time will tell but the rep seems good and very prompt to follow up. Paid Sunday and should be on rightmove etc friday!

 

[Buffman]

Best of luck. We had PB and the rep did literally nothing. It's an incredibly shady company that I certainly wouldn't want anything to do with again.

Get a good LPE, though and you should be ok.

Ours has been quite good but hes obviously got a lot of jobs on/not paid enough to dedicate time to individual properties. One negative is that i had to write all the descriptions for the property for rightmove etc (although i dedicated an hour or so to this and think i wrote it quite well)

What is an LPE? Conveyancer?

Well a week after our reps taken photos, 10 viewings 4 offers (maybe 5 if one today comes in) and an offer 25k over asking (beyond the value of the area but thats just luck that they needed to buy).

Overall i think the purplebricks system works, the only thing i would say is that the UI isn't the easiest to deal with and having to book viewings online *may* put some people off. I would presume those who are interested though would endeavour regardless. My property is a bungalow and there's been plenty older/retired folks come to look.

 

[Buffman]

Although I’ll bet very few online agents know the difference between leasehold and share of freehold or escalating ground rents, build over agreements, covenants, CML disclosure, Licences to alter, marriage value etc etc etc.

Why do they need to? Thats what you pay a solicitor for.

To be fair I think most would have a laymans understanding of most of those.

 

[Buffman]

Part of the package I have with Yopa (which is the most popular) is included viewings. And it's only ever the same guy that will do them, not the usual Saturday staff local agents use at weekends who have never been most of the houses (had it so many times when viewing others).

I did my own viewings via purplebricks and went fine (well it sold for an incredible price at least within 5 days!).

I dont know if sometimes having the seller doing the viewings puts others off but i wouldnt care. I was able to answer questions like "where does the sun rise/set" "When was the boiler done" /similar which other EA's have been unable to do when I've aske and im voewing 500k houses, so they must be making a lot of money off the sale

 

[Buffman]

I think it's down to the agent, regardless of who s/he works for. We've just gone on the market with a local agent, having been valued by both PB and a local outfit. The PB chap seemed good, and he said all the right things but the local guy just knew so much more about other properties on the area. They're vetting people beforehand to reduce time wasters, they try to stack the viewings into one day (although won't turn people away if they can't do it) and make sure everyone is masked up and sanitised. For me it just felt more comfortable, but obviously I don't know how it would have gone with the PB guy, he did seem nice.

To be fair purplebricks you can set your own availability (e.g. Only Tuesday evening and Saturday morning thus having the "block booking" effect. Can make it to suit you

 

[Buffman]

Things with Yopa deteriorated

Seems pretty poor that!

Ive finally sold with purplebricks (& exchanged) but unsure if I'd use them again. The sales process etc they're fine, but the post sales (if you need to contact a long chain) are absolutely terrible. Fortunately my 3rd buyer was chain free

 

[Buffman]

Don't most sellers conduct the viewings themselves? I thought this way then at least the buyers can ask questions about the property and get answers straight away while viewing.

Yeah I did the viewings myself and it was fine.

Problem is, after the agreed sale if you have an uncommunicative buyer and need to get a hold them or someone in the chain.

 

[Buffman]

Selling my mother-in-laws flat via Purple Bricks and their conveyancing is managed by some call centre type firm.

They’re a bit rubbish and I’m having to chase them every couple of days to push things along. No sense of urgency at all and we wouldn’t use them again.

The viewings my MIL and myself managed between us without a problem. It’s not a big deal and I guess that’s where we saved the money.

Saying that though, all the solicitors are snowed under at the moment so perhaps I should give them a little slack.

Why did you use their conveyancing? Even my local purplebricks rep had the kindness to tell me not to use advanced conveyancing (I used PB then a local conveyancer). I think advanced conveyancing are meant to be pretty bad, but the agents get 50quid or so referal fee for them.