House buying & selling

Doozergirl

Completely pointless post which Martin edited out of another thread. Ignore me! :rolleyes:

eglons

Disclaimer: I was involved in writing the site for https://www.housenetwork.co.uk so am a bit biased!

Fact: Online home sales are the way the market is going, 60% of sales in the US are conducted this way (many without the services of a realtor (estate agent) at all) and it's a growing industry in the UK, and I'd, therefore recommend that anyone selling a house, at least, considers the online route.

There are essentially 3 ways to sell your home these days:

- Traditional Agent, they give you the personal touch and should be able to offer local knowledge and a waiting client list. They will also handle all of the viewings and buyer negotiations for you. They will normally have some relationship with the major portals (Rightmove, Look4AProperty, PropertyFinder, Fish4 etc) but tend to be quite bland in their use of the internet. No upfront fees but sale fees of 1-2% which can be a killer on a 6 figure sale.
- Online Agent, essentially a Tradional Agent but with no local office (House Network fits into this category), again you get the personal touch, an agent visits your home and takes the particulars, which are then whisked to the web creating your own online Property site (with full services like Virtual Tours and digital floorplans). These agents have property upload networks which tend to be all encompassing and the quality of the listing and comprehensive imagery and digital add ons really give them the edge. They also cover the handiling of booking viewings, chasing feedback and handling the sales chain (although you will need to be available for the viewings). You miss out on local knowledge, have to set your own price, and pay an upfront fee (£199 in the case of House Network) but the benefit is a professional web based marketing campaign (Housenetwork had well over a million viewers last year) and a very small sales fee when they sell your property (£199 max again for HN).
- Private Sales, this breaks into 2 areas, using a private sales web service or DIY (which really means that you do the whole thing yourself). The Private Sales web services are springing up all over the web, and whilst the pricing mirrors the online agent there tends to be a lot lower upfront fee and usually no fee on completion. Usually there is no visit by the private sales company, instead they give you a web interface to list your own property and tools to help get it listed on the major portals (although Rightmove specifically exclude private sellers as they are not members of the National Association of Estate Agents - NAEA - and hence are not bound by it's professional code of conduct and things like the property misdescriptions act). Usually there is no fee on completion so these services really are rock bottom pricing, but conversely they act only as a people broker, so you have to manage your own viewings and sales process.

Which have just done a report on selling your home online and Housenetwork were recommended in section 2 along with https://www.halfapercent.com (I've no links with this one!).

I wonder whether Martin might be tempted to delve into this world and give a less biased (although I've tried my best!) view on how you can get best bang for your buck in an increasingly complex marketplace.