Any recommendations for websites that charge to sell your house?

Daniel_B

Hi chaps,
after any personal experiences of having sold your propertly on one of these online services.

They all look very glossy, but it doesn't cost much to create a pretty front end, but if it gets no hits, it's money down the drain.

I've found a glut of places via google, but some first hand experience would be priceless.

Thanks in advance

Dan

PJD

bumping for Dan

courtjester

Do some research - see how many times you come across the company's property listings on other sites. You will soon see which services have the best profile or are best connected and tend to have presence in lots of places. There are only literally a handful or less worth considering, with most property sites simply being copycats with no real business (or effectiveness) behind them.

When searching on Google, bear in mind that it is the main search results that count - sponsored listings (adverts) can be placed by anybody, so if you ONLY see details of companies in the sponsored listings, they probably have little or no marketing profile.

If you go on to a main portal site like Propertyfinder or FISH4, you can look up the 'agents profile' (NB. they are all labelled agents even the property sites that aren't agents) and generally get a list of how many properties each service has listed there as a quick comparison.

Bear in mind that if you intend to run private advertising alongside an agent, you need to carefully choose the property site and ensure that they are offering no agency services - this narrows the choice down even further and you should be considering only the long-standing professional services who know what they are doing,

This is a major difference between the cheap or free sites (trying to break into the market) and those that charge more for their service, with good reason, so don't choose on price.

The better sites charge £100-£150 and this is a pretty small outlay to risk compared with the level of savings achievable against agents fees. If you are intending to sell privately, remember also that you have to play your part in preparing the property for sale, researching your price so that it is competitive and creating a good concise set of details (avoid agents jargon and keep it relevant and factual) and using the best photographs you can. Property sites are not responsible for *selling* a property, they are responsible for *advertising* the details you give them.

If you over-price the property, it is not the fault of an internet site that it doesn't sell.....You also need to monitor and drive the marketing. Despite the hype and claims you often see in the media, few properties sell themselves within days, most take a concerted campaign over a period of time, so be prepared to manage and if necessary adjust your marketing in response to interest (or lack of) generated.

Used as a marketing tool, internet property sites (the good ones anyway) definitely do work, but there is no guarantee of success, that depends on the property and the choices you make over pricing and preparation and negotiations.