Sell your house at Tesco for £200!!

googler

Beeny did it, Tesco are doing it - use an over-inflated %age for your comparisons and high house price to make their figures look better.

From the OFT's study, published a week or so ago - average EA fees in England - 1.6%. Average in Scotland - 1.1%.

Tesco's comparison percentages range from 1.5 to 2.0% - are they overstating the average?

Taking the average Scots percentage, 1.1% of £95,000 (a typical 1-bed flat in my area) = £1,045, plus VAT = £1,227. That's not too much more than Tesco, and that gets you a service much closer to home.

A typical fee of 0.75% for the same £95,000 flat = £837.19.

???

slimgym

googler wrote: »

If they don't, how will they know what to value it at? They won't have dealt with anyone who's actually been looking to BUY in the area, so how will they have any idea what the buying public are likely to pay for a house in your area? Will they use the estimates on zoopla and nethouseprices?

Thing with house prices is it's worth what people will pay and there are rarely identical houses to offer comparisons. My EA put me on at £335k and we dropped to £325k because we'd had no offers. We then had an offer at £310k. Mouseprice gave £323k so we might as well have used Mouseprices guide anyway. An identical house might be tidier and get better offers, an untidier one get worse offers. It's such a random thing house buying. You will get people who see beyond clutter and to potential while others want to move into something already decorated to their style.

Agents have a place, but they need to better identify where they bring value over what an online agent would bring. My agent told me he had people waiting to view, and that didn't happen. All the viewings we've had are as a result of people searching on rightmove.

BTW talk of fees, my agent wanted 1.5% sole and 2% multi.

googler

slimgym wrote: »

Agents have a place, but they need to better identify where they bring value over what an online agent would bring. My agent told me he had people waiting to view, and that didn't happen.

I'm not sure what point you're making with the first para, but regarding the quote above - the prime value point for me is dealing with a real person, rather than exchanging e-mails and phone calls with a negotiator in Tesco's call centre in Bristol. I've had my fill of dealing with call centres and their telephone queueing systems.

A secondary value point would having a valuer who isn't crossing half the country to reach my house, and a valuer who might actually know my street, and know my area, without having to research it.

Tesco's offering seems to leave the owner to do all the selling, apart from the online presence. They supply a board, the owner puts it up. The owner does all their own viewings. There seems to be no physical promotion other than the sale board. Essentially, a lot of what's provided as standard by your local agent seems to be missing from iSold.

iSold.com mentions "combining the very best of local traditional estate agency with advanced technology" but I'm struggling to find anything advanced - can you tell me what's 'advanced' about putting listings on their own website and feeding them to Rightmove et al?

The public are fickle in all walks of life. The folks your agent referred to might have left their names, saying they were looking for X, Y and Z. The agent phoned round when your house came to market, and they said "Nah, we're really looking for P, Q and R" or they'd changed their mind about 'Z', or maybe they found out in the interim they couldn't actually AFFORD X, Y and Z. The agent's fault, or the fault of the folks who'd possibly misled the agent???

ghostbusters

Richard_Webster wrote: »

That may be so, but as others have said, will they do any more than provide advertising and leave the seller to decide whether to proceed with someone who makes an offer?

Will they check the buyer's mortgageability and handle later negotiations about price after damp proofing reports etc etc?

Depends on how much you think Estate agents do in validating buyers + adding value to the negoaition phase I would of thought

I am sure spicer haart could provide assistance for a fee if required

slimgym

I'm happy to deal with an agent, but as a salesman he said he had people literally queueing up to buy a house of my size, in my price range in my area. Other agents have told me the same when I called to ask about going on with them. So I signed up at speed, thinking it was a done deal, didn't barter for the commission, didn't barter for the lock-in period, and probably lost the house because I couldn't multi-agency it. He was sure the house I wanted wouldn't sell to anyone else and that mine would sell within a few weeks.

I'm will go with another EA before going online direct but I need that 1% multi with no lock-in. Unfortunately I went in green the first time around and got taken as the newbie

FWIW I seem to be doing 50% of the viewings too as people want to come sundays or in the evenings (although that could be because they want straight answers rather than agent guesses). When I was here with the agent he erroneously told someone it was single glazing when it wasn't ...

slimgym

ghostbusters wrote: »

Depends on how much you think Estate agents do in validating buyers + adding value to the negoaition phase I would of thought

The agent I'm selling with checked I had funds to match the offers I was making, however the house I wanted was on with a different agent who accepted an offer when the bidder didn't even have a mortgage sorted... So they don't all check financials before taking offers.

timmyt

nic_santorini wrote: »

I am loving this idea - most houses are generally sold via the web these days and the old techniques only reach the minority - I can't wait until the site goes live - I hope it is really successful - £200!! I sold my house without an estate agent and it was easy peasy lemon squeezy - much easier than with one and I have thousands. So, if you are thinking of putting your house on the market - STOP and wait because you will be snared by the small print of being with a sole agent for 16 weeks!!!

Does anyone have the 'go live' date because unfortunately I do not. Just get rid of the ridiculous and useful governement earning HIP pack and the housing market will get a much needed boost.:j

who are you? Obviously Rightmove is the only way forward if you want maximum exposure and the best price. Agents can pay for themselves for fighting for that little bit extra.

Remember, all Teso offer is 'every little bit'.

When selling a house, you want 'maximum'.

Those who asscoiate their wealth and assets with Tesco, as opposed to just doing their shopping only, well good luck. With all their buying power, they dont pass on the lowest prices, they have an angle, whereas an estate agent's reputation is on the line, Tesco can just go back to selling food.

not_loaded

googler wrote: »

…The website says they're using the latest technology - but I can't find what special technology they're using...... what is it?

Not Clubcard points is it?

Jowo wrote: »

If an estate agent charges a 3% fee for a £300k property, they'll charge 9k for selling it, plus VAT…

But they don’t. 1.35% to 1.5% is very much the norm around here.

I found an old newspaper in the garage recently. It said that Tesco would ‘soon’ be selling scooters and then, cars. They can afford to dabble like this and just walk away anytime with their rip-off prices.

googler

not_loaded wrote: »

Not Clubcard points is it?

Well, blow me down - it is. From the Estate Agent Today news site;

Sellers set to get Tesco Clubcard points on iSold

Friday 5th March 2010


People who want to sell through the new iSold service launched by Spicerhaart in association with Tesco will have to pay an upfront, non-returnable fee of at least £299.

If they opt for the dearer packages, the upfront fees – again, non-returnable – will be £499 and £599 respectively. In all three instances, a further ‘completion’ fee of £700 will be payable when the property is sold.

The cheapest package, costing an overall £999, will buy a listing on Rightmove and other portals, 15 pictures, floorplans and a For Sale board. The particulars will be emailed to the seller for them to do their own printing out but, said an iSold worker yesterday, can be made available in print form.

The seller will have to handle all their own viewings and price negotiation.
In the premier package, the seller will still have to do all their own viewings and negotiations, but will also get a Rightmove premium listing, local newspaper advertising plus an open house with some marketing materials.

In the top-priced package, costing a total of £1,299 plus VAT, the seller will in addition get the services of an iSold sales negotiator to attend the open house.

All properties, regardless of which package the seller chooses, will be “visited by one of our trained valuers,” said the worker. He said the iSold service is already under way: “We have launched but our website is still in Beta form,” he said. “As we speak, our valuers are out and about visiting properties.” A HIP service is also available to sellers, costing £329. This package includes £50 towards legal fees, we were told. All the properties will be listed on Rightmove and other major portals, but also on the Tesco website.

iSold will also be able to access the database of Tesco Clubcard holders for marketing purposes.

Will there be Clubcard points for those who sell through the service? Apparently so, we were told: the amount is likely to be about 5,000 points, worth £50.

JA1000

Why can't we just have an Auto Trader style website for houses, I think it makes so much more sense to do it privately, every house I have ever bought I offer to do it privately but the vendor gets scared (EA contracts aside).

Too many ongoing fees in this, £200 should be the fee with a for sale board. I know there are private sites out there but the momentum just hasn't taken off and it needs a push.