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Great Hunt: Have you sold your home using an online estate agent?

Online estate agents promise to get your property listed on all the major web services such as Rightmove, while charging a fraction of the cost of traditional high street agents. We want to tap MoneySavers' collective knowledge on selling your home online. Have you done it? Which did you use? What were the pros and cons? How much did you save?

If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply!

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  • We tried to sell through Hatched 4 years ago as all we really wanted was to get our flat on Rightmove. We thought they did a great job with the listing. In the end someone responded to our homemade For Sale board and we sold it for the full asking price saving thousands in estate agents fees.:j
  • nonnatus
    nonnatus Posts: 1,458 Forumite
    edited 5 November 2014 at 7:25AM
    We used ewemove.com. An online agency with local branches!?

    Pro's: The price!! We were lucky enough to find this lot just as they were starting out and were charged 0%....(a promotion)
    We had one named contact who did the viewings, photo's, floor plans etc and then passed us over to a sales progression team when it got to the technical bits because we were nervous about managing all of that.

    Con's: We didn't like the lurid pink and green sheep shaped For Sale boards. Because they work 24/7 we were often asked to do viewings at 8pm which is when I'm normally cuddled up for bed!!

    But we sold the house with minimum of fuss at a great price and we saved THOUSANDS on Fees.

    It's all very well to advertise it yourself but it's the access to the mysterious Rightmove Portals etc that you need the help with...
  • littlejames
    littlejames Posts: 1 Newbie
    edited 5 November 2014 at 7:27AM
    We sold our flat using house network.co.uk
    We were sceptical at first as they were so cheap compared to bricks & mortar estate agents (we were also put off by the arrogance of our local agents).

    Their agent visited within a few days of appointment, prepared a floor plan, took some photos and agreed a price with us. They went away and prepared the online advert which we had to approve.
    We took a few extra photos which we were able to add, and amended some of the wording. It was great that we were in full control of what would eventually appear online. They posted our ad on their own website, aswell as all the online portals including rightmove.

    We were contacted by HN when there were potential buyers and we arranged a mutually convenient time via HN.
    We had to show potential buyers round ourselves. But for us, this was no problem. Negotiation took place via HN.
    All contact with HN was via email and telephone.

    I have two gripes with the whole experience.
    1. I had to buy a For Sale board. I had expected this to be included.
    2. Our buyers were persuaded to use HN conveyancing arm. They were awful, I found myself chasing them on a daily basis for the most ridiculous things. (Thy tried to tell me you can't have a freehold flat and that I needed to sell my buyers a lease and keep the freehold)

    I would defiantly use them again, but I would stay well away from their conveyancing.

    I think we paid £495 upfront and £495 upon completion. This saved us about £3k in estate agent fees.
  • My brother originally used Hatched back in 2011 to sell his place, and I used them a year later to to sell mine; both of us were very impressed. The particulars were put together quickly and both properties sold in a couple of weeks. That said, they were both 'easy-sell' houses on estates in good areas, so the demand was present. Hatched were easy to reach on the phone, appointments were a breeze to organise, and the whole system worked well. As an online agent, I'd recommend them.

    We also both used their conveyancing arm, who were just a cover for Premier Property Lawyers. I liked the online portal system of sharing documents between each other, but actually speaking to someone was often met with frustration. Although you're assigned a dedicated contact I found it difficult to reach them and it often just felt like a call centre environment, which didn't instil confidence at a time when you really quite need it. Price wise I found there isn't a huge difference in this to a high street solicitor anyway - although the fees for the work were lower with PPL, they made up for it in charges for other searches which were lower on the high street.

    When we move next I'm not sure I'd use an online agent again; yes you can save thousands such as I did back in 2012 (think I paid £500 all in compared to £3360 for a high street agent), but on reflection I do wonder if a high street agent with more local knowledge and a likely list of waiting customers couldn't push the purchase price up higher than what an online agent could. When I accepted the offer on my last place the extra guidance from a high street agent may have made me hold out for a higher offer, thus minimising the saving of an online agent.
  • nonnatus
    nonnatus Posts: 1,458 Forumite
    I agree - The high street Agents seem to have "lists" of people, contacts etc who are looking for something specific and that local knowledge can be really helpful. ALL of them should be on the big property portals and not relying on their shop window displays, but there is a big level of comfort in knowing that your Agent understands the local area....
  • tina4273
    tina4273 Posts: 16 Forumite
    I have just moved using House Network. Very professional all the way through the process. Did have a few issues with the time it was taking to exchange but that wasn't the Agents fault.




    I took the option for having a dedicated person dealing with my house which really helped. The photos and write up were very good. Every week I would get a report showing me the stats on how my house was doing, it compared my viewings, price etc to the other houses in the same price category which was useful as it gives you an idea if you need to do something to improve viewings online.
    It was a bit of a pain having to show people around all the time but when my partner sold his house through a local estate agent the year before, he ended up doing the same and had to pay a hefty bill at the end to them for the privilege.
    I would definitely recommend them and did to a couple of people, I also got commission on this and they got a discount on their contract.
    It was really great when we did finally move to get all the money minus the legal stuff.
    Treat everyday as your last one on earth! and one day you will be right.
  • Cyberman60
    Cyberman60 Posts: 2,472
    Hung up my suit!
    Forumite
    I've had a fair bit of interest and viewings via Houseweb. Worth a go for 47 quid... ;)
  • suecoo66
    suecoo66 Posts: 109
    First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    We've used Housenetwork too and I'd certainly use them or another online agent again! Its a no brainer really
    I sold my house in less than 48hrs for full asking price.
    In fact it sold so quick we hadn't had the board delivered which was a bit annoying as it was too late to cancel it and we'd had to pay on top for it. HN did try to cancel it but it comes from another company.
    You can ocassionally buy them on ebay so might be worth considering?
    From the time the man came to do photos and floor plans etc my house was on Rightmove in 24hrs.
    I like the freedom of being able to change the wording, amend the price and edit/delete photos quickly which changes the ad recently.
    As for pricing its very easy now to use online sites that will tell you what local property is selling for and also use valuation sites like propertypriceadvice.
    I don't like the arrogance of high street agents either and think its about time they evolved. A lot of agents will over value to get people on board which isn't helping the vendor because they will end up having to reduce the asking price which can make buyers wonder why and also result in the house being on the market longer.
    When my house had just gone on rightmove I had a call from Spicer saying they had someone in their office looking for property and for an 'introduction fee' they'd send him round. When I asking how much the fee was they told me £3k! This was just for sending someone round !!! No adverts on rightmove or anything, you can imagine my reply.
    95% of buyers will look on websites like Rightmove and Zoopla anyway so I don't think you're losing out by using an online agent.
    As for conducting viewings, I've viewed many houses via high street agents and can count on one hand how many times an agent has shown me round. Most people prefer to do their own viewings at a time convenient to them not the agent.
  • I sold 2 houses in 2013 using eMoov. I don't know why anyone would use a traditional high street agency again unless they do not have internet access. On both occassions, the experience was faultless. I signed up for the 'pay up front' option i.e. pay a fee regardless if the property sells or not and also chose their on-line conveyancing option. Within a week they sent an agent to measure up for a floor plan and to take photos. They wrote the description and I told them the selling price I wanted to advertise for. I had the opportunity to edit the listing as I wished (even adding extra photos) before it went live on Rightmove, Zoopla etc.. I had to do all of the viewings of course - (another reason some people may want to use an high street agency?) - but the agents were very happy to arrange them at my convenience. It was very easy to contact eMoov at anytime during normal working hours if necessary. Using an on-line conveyancer is a no-brainer, it was a brilliant experience. You could login to their database, access your files and keep track of exactly what stage your sale was at. Now for the really big difference. House 1 - sold at asking price. Total outlay by me (including conveyancing) £750. Local agents quoted a minimum of £2500, not including conveyancing. House 2 - sold at asking. Total outlay by me £900 (including conveyancing). Local agent quoted £4500 without conveyancing. That means I saved a total of over £5000+ by using eMoov and on-line conveyancers. What more is there to say???
  • Put house on sale in March 2012. Decided to try an online agent and opted for housenetwork.co.uk. Paid just over £500 up front and a guy visited to gather details and take photographs. The big plus after that was that I was able to validate the property details online and directly correct any misleading or inaccurate info before giving the go-ahead for the property details to be made live.

    The property appeared on all the major property websites and response was instant. The agent agreed dates/times with me for prospective purchasers to visit and I had to accompany them myself around the house but as I am retired, this was straightforward.

    You suffer the usual time-wasters but finally achieved a sale after 3 months with no extra costs incurred so a great success as far as my experience goes. Property sold for £221,000 so a high street estate agent would have probably charged between £2,200 - £4,400 for a similar or poorer service.
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