Local estate agent or online agent like housenetwork.co.uk?

iandv

Hi

I would be interested in fellow forum users opinions on whether they would choose a local/traditional estate agent with a high street presence or one of the online estate agents like housenetwork.co.uk to sell your property?

We have just ended a contract with a traditional estate agent after no viewings or interest in our property for the past 12 weeks. It seems that the majority of estate agents these days just upload your home onto their website and rightmove and hope a customer stumbles across your home.

So I've been thinking exactly what does a traditional estate agent offer over the likes of housenetwork?

The majority of estate agents say that they do very little newspaper advertising (every 4-6 weeks) as nobody looks in the paper anymore (however I strongly believe people still do and then look on the internet) and the only other place they advertise it is in their shop.

So my question is why use a local estate agent and pay thousands in commission when for example Housenetwork target the same online portals (rightmove, propertyfinder) and perhaps more than a traditional estate agent but only costs £400.

Any thoughts/advice as I'm looking to put my property back on the market as soon as possible with a new agent.

googler

iandv wrote: »

It seems that the majority of estate agents these days just upload your home onto their website and rightmove ...

So I've been thinking exactly what does a traditional estate agent offer over the likes of housenetwork?

The majority of estate agents say that they do very little newspaper advertising (every 4-6 weeks) as nobody looks in the paper anymore (however I strongly believe people still do and then look on the internet) and the only other place they advertise it is in their shop.

So my question is why use a local estate agent and pay thousands in commission when for example Housenetwork target the same online portals (rightmove, propertyfinder) and perhaps more than a traditional estate agent but only costs £400.

You've said it yourself. The local agent offers print advertising and a high-street presence. However infrequent the adverts might be, that's still more than housenetwork. Even if they only have one high-street display in your town, that's still more than housenetwork has.

I'd suggest the local agent will be more likely to have a buyer base, who've left their details with them already. They may have viewers from previous houses they've listed or sold similar to yours, and could offer your house to them. Their agents might live locally to you, and might hear socially of people who want to move, and might be interested in your house.

What else does housenetwork do apart from "just upload your home onto their website and rightmove" ???

Since housenetwork openly professes to be an 'online estate agent' or similar, how can they provide 'more' than a traditional agent, when they don't have any print advertising, no high-street presence, and are unlikely to have agents close to your home?

pie81

I think the main differences are:

(1) viewings. We couldn't do viewings ourselves (we work long hours) so decided against housenetwork for this reason.

(2) following up on viewings/negotiation of offers/follow up on sale process. I'm not sure how good the on line agents are on this.

VickyA_2

Some people won't even think of using the internet to search for a home. Amazing to think of this, I know. Having spoken to our new neighbours this morning (our new house, they've been there for 20+yrs), they freely admitted that they "don't do technology" and don't have a computer. No doubt there are many more people who will try to find a new home in the traditional way ie walking around in the town/area that they wish to move to and look in estate agents' windows.

MissMotivation

googler wrote: »

Well then, you're not offering the same service, are you?

...........:p

iandv

Very true about many people still like looking through newspaper property guides to find out about homes.

However after speaking to nearly all local estate agents they all stated that they rarely advertise in the newspapers anymore (our house would be listed every 4-6 weeks) as their research shows that everybody now looks online for homes.

No I know that this is not the case as lots of people I have talked to still look in newspapers / printed property guides for homes including me who works in online marketing but I still prefer browsing through the paper once a week.

I'm also thinking that this research has been conducted by Rightmove?

So if this is the view of many local agents who don't really advertise in the paper much anymore as they also upload the property onto the property portals what is the difference between them and an online agent? -

The only differences I can see between the two is

1. Traditional estate agents have a high street shop / bricks and mortar presence where customers could come in to look for property - although the majority of people don't really do this now anyway.

2.) They have a customer database - but this could be useless anyway if it is not properly managed - I doubt any have a sophisticated CRM system in place.

3.) You have a local agent to talk to via phone or face to face

4.) They can carry out the viewings on your behalf.

4.) However you end up paying a significant sum more to a traditional agent than an online agent such as housenetwork

So is it really worth paying the extra few thousand pounds commission (the average in our area is 1.75%) for just having a listing in a shop and occasionally in the local press.

I am still undecided on whether to list with a local agent or housenetwork hence the reason of my post - so it would be great to hear any pros or cons and what would you do if you had a property to sell or would you sell it yourself?

new_home_owner_3

googler wrote: »

Well then, you're not offering the same service, are you?

a lot of estate agents dont do viewings, the good thing about these online estate agents are they open longer hours than most traditional estate agents, i got through to the housenetwork at 8 pm on a week night, how many traditional estate agents can offer that?

One of the trditional esate agents i used, you could never get anyone to pick up the phone.

googler

iandv wrote: »

However after speaking to nearly all local estate agents they all stated that they rarely advertise in the newspapers anymore (our house would be listed every 4-6 weeks) as their research shows that everybody now looks online for homes.

1. Traditional estate agents have a high street shop / bricks and mortar presence where customers could come in to look for property - although the majority of people don't really do this now anyway.

2.) They have a customer database - but this could be useless anyway if it is not properly managed - I doubt any have a sophisticated CRM system in place.

So is it really worth paying the extra few thousand pounds commission (the average in our area is 1.75%) for just having a listing in a shop and occasionally in the local press.

The likelihood of your local EAs having exhaustive research that conclusively proves everyone looks online to the exclusion of all else seems remote, to say the least.

Where's the evidence to support your assertion that the majority of people don't look at EA's windows? Have you monitored their numbers on your high street? Has anyone?

You 'doubt' that any of your EAs have a buyer management or monitoring system, but again, this seems an unsupported statement. Do they or don't they? Have you asked them if they have?

If your local EAs have given up and stopped trying (and from the sounds of it they have), then they probably aren't worth their 1.75% (is that REALLY the average in your area?), but if there's one or more of them who has the get up and go to actually get out there and do something active (and I could easily suggest a few more marketing ideas for them), then he/she might be worth it......

googler

Stumbled upon some average commission rates for 'realtors' in the good ol' US of A today....... if you think 1.75%, 2.00% is expensive........

http://www.usnews.com/money/blogs/the-home-front/2009/03/10/2008-average-real-estate-commissions-inch-up-to-520

beccad

Presumably a lot of it depends on the target 'audience' for your property? If you're selling a bungalow, popular with retired people then you probably want a more traditional approach with an advert in an estate agent's window, and a picture in the paper. On the other hand, my husband and I are looking to sell our two bed flat, which is in an area of London suitable for first time buyers. Clearly that sort of buyer is going to be web-savvy, so it's a toss up between the traditional agent and the online vendor.

googler

"Clearly that sort of buyer is going to be web-savvy, so it's a toss up between the traditional agent and the online vendor."

Why? Are you suggesting the web-savvy buyer will ONLY find the online EA's website? Or are you suggesting that the traditional agent DOESN'T have a website?

ALternatively, are you suggesting that the online agent's website will gather more web traffic than the traditional EA's ???