Whos used online estate agents? Good/bad news?

Soldato
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How so? It’s totally down the the value of your property.

Local agents wanted 1.2-1.5% plus VAT, the most you could ever pay most online agents is £1550 (outside London) regardless of the value of your property. Sure if property is lower value a local agent may be more competitive but I expect you’ll be paying more than 1.5%. With an average property (£200k) you’ll be saving over £1000.

I also don’t understand the limited time comment, it’s a flat fee.
 
Soldato
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Well it was two years ago. But the local agent wanted 1%. The online one was a flat fee for listing for a limited amount of time. If the house had not sold when that time elapsed, then the money was gone and nothing had been achieved.

The online place (I think Purple Bricks from memory) also offered the same service as a local estate agent - i.e. listing it, and the listing stays up until the house is sold. For that service they charged an amount which equated to about 1%. This was on a house selling for £240k.

I've had a quick look now, and can see that they've either removed the latter option from their business model, or don't describe it any more until you get further into arranging it. But it also doesn't seem to say any more what the length of time the listing stays up for is. Is that because it is now unlimited? Or because they know it scares off the customers so they only mention it when you apply?
 

JRJ

JRJ

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Sold our last property via Purple bricks, local agent was brilliant but as previously said this is the luck of the drawer, we were undervalued by PB but got further valuations from other agents to get a better idea of value. You control the value entered in the ad once PB have created it so you don't have to go with their valuation, we set ours 20k higher than the PB valuation and nearer the other agents and sold for 2.5k less than asking.
 
Soldato
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There was no time limit when we used them last year. Are you sure it was PB you were looking at, there are loads of online agents with different models and you don’t seem so sure. Way back machine suggests there business model hasn’t changed at all, just the price has crept up over time.
 
Soldato
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Not 100% sure I have to admit. And for that matter, it might have been longer than two years if it was the first time we tried to sell.

Apologies for taking the discussion off track.
 
Soldato
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Thanks for all your responses. One EA wanted 1.2%+ VAT and another £5k :eek:. 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)
 
Soldato
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These online agents make you jump through hoops just to make a viewing, like making you register an account online and everything has to be done online. Where as a highstreet agent, even though they are scum, you just make one quick phone call to book a viewing.
 
Soldato
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A lot of buyers (myself included) actively avoid buying through online agents. The lack of accountability, communication and experience is too much a gamble for me.

perhaps I’m lucky that most of the agents in my area offer a fair fee and have been working the area for decades.

it’s not the same everywhere of course. You get good and bad.
 
Soldato
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These online agents make you jump through hoops just to make a viewing, like making you register an account online and everything has to be done online. Where as a highstreet agent, even though they are scum, you just make one quick phone call to book a viewing.

Rubbish, around here it was a nightmare trying to view houses we were looking to buy. Ring up estate agent, some don't answer, when they do they never have anyone available to do viewings. On one occasion we showed up and the estate agent hadn't actually booked it in.

I know this is just in my area.
 
Soldato
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Rubbish, around here it was a nightmare trying to view houses we were looking to buy. Ring up estate agent, some don't answer, when they do they never have anyone available to do viewings. On one occasion we showed up and the estate agent hadn't actually booked it in.

I know this is just in my area.

Depends on the area and if the agent is an old family business that has been going for generations or a new fly by night run by wannabe hipsters. Also depending on the type of property e.g. still occupied, then the vendor will show you around without an agent present. This is in my area anyway. Also how quick/easy you get a viewing booked depends on how serious the vendor is in selling.

The online agents, when you call them via their number on Rightmove, always tell you to get lost and register via their website. I assume the number is just there to full fill Rightmove's terms.
 
Soldato
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Depends on the area and if the agent is an old family business that has been going for generations or a new fly by night run by wannabe hipsters. Also depending on the type of property e.g. still occupied, then the vendor will show you around without an agent present. This is in my area anyway. Also how quick/easy you get a viewing booked depends on how serious the vendor is in selling.

The online agents, when you call them via their number on Rightmove, always tell you to get lost and register via their website. I assume the number is just there to full fill Rightmove's terms.

Definitely area dependent. We tried to view a number of houses through different local agents some new some who had been established for years and if always seemed a hassle. Saying that the house we purchased was through an independent agent and he was great throughout.
 
Soldato
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I used a more local online company to sell a flat and they were fine and much cheeper than the highstreet. I would have used PB to buy my current home but we got tied into a house we liked and part of retaining it was selling ours through them, although I did knock the agents fees down but the house we wanted was rare in the area and it would have been a gamble.
Down the line the local agaent was good when our buyer started to lag and he found another buyer who was willing to get in a contract race with the origonal.. then the house we were buying fell through and he'd just been contacted to put another in the same road on the market so we changed to that one and second buyer of our home. Whole thing was a mess and I feel he did earn his fees in the end.
I'd say for a house in a market position where you know they move and the price is pretty easy to pin then online everytime, if you've got a more unusual home or one in a slower market then an agent can pay off just by getting you a better price for your home and helping get buyers into your home who perhaps didn't consider it initially.
 
Man of Honour
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I'm guessing by reading this thread that it's entirely down to the local agent? My house should go for ~£300k so even 1% is quite high compared to the Purplebricks fee.
 
Caporegime
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I used eMoov (although a long time ago now), and they were great and hugely cheaper than the highstreet rip-off merchants. Fortunately since then the fees charged by even the highstreet guys have been forced down by the competition so there's not as much margin as there was. If you're able to show people round yourself (which is, by the way, almost always better anyway) then I can't see a good reason not to save the money and use one; it's not like highstreet agents cover themselves in glory with their service quality.

I'm sure there's a handful of buyers out there who aren't using Rightmove, etc. but these sites are the number 1 way that people use these days, and any estate agent listing there is as good.
 
Soldato
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Our aborted first attempt at buying was a house for sale through purple bricks and it was a nightmare. Dealing direct with awkward vendors who tried every trick in the book to wring more money out of us wasn't fun. The guy was constantly on the phone to me near the end, making threats to put it back on the market. Just had enough of their shenanigans.

I'd avoid any house on the market with purple bricks in the future.

The one we actually bought was through Firmin and they were fine to deal with. We sold through Newton Fallowell and they were fine too.

Our buyer and solicitors involved, another story unfortunately....
 
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