Recommend me an online Estate Agent

freddieD

I called Housesimple today (Monday) at 10:45 on the only number they give on the website. They did not answer the phone!
I called again at 11:30 and they did. So the hangover from the week-end prevents them to start earlier than that on Mondays?

freddieD

I have been in contact with a number of the online estate agents. In their sites and their sales pitch over the phone they promise all kinds of special (secret from their competitors) sales techniques, leads, contacts, etc. However, when pressed, they all come back to the same: Rightmove and there seems to be little else.

After dealing with several high street and online estate agents my conclusions are:

1- You are paying the EA for the privilege of being in Rightmove. If we could, as individuals, have access to Rightmove there would be no need for EAs.
2- The EAs place your property in Rightmove and then sit back waiting for Rightmove to do the job to sell the property for the money they pay.
3- If Rightmove collapses so will all the EAs in the country.

Bananamana

freddieD wrote: »

I called again at 11:30 and they did. So the hangover from the week-end prevents them to start earlier than that on Mondays?

thats not just Agents!

googler

freddieD wrote: »

After dealing with several high street and online estate agents my conclusions are:

1- You are paying the EA for the privilege of being in Rightmove. If we could, as individuals, have access to Rightmove there would be no need for EAs.
2- The EAs place your property in Rightmove and then sit back waiting for Rightmove to do the job to sell the property for the money they pay.
3- If Rightmove collapses so will all the EAs in the country.

Not everyone is as time-rich as you, able to answer your phone at any time of the day, whether you're at work, play, whatever. Not everyone has the time/inclination to erect their own sale board. Not everyone has the time/inclination to print their own brochures, or organise their own advertising.

This is why people hire others - to do the work for them

freddieD

googler wrote: »

Not everyone is as time-rich as you, able to answer your phone at any time of the day, whether you're at work, play, whatever. Not everyone has the time/inclination to erect their own sale board. Not everyone has the time/inclination to print their own brochures, or organise their own advertising.

This is why people hire others - to do the work for them

I guess the EAs agree with you

cookiemonster1972

I have had some bad experiences with traditional estate agents and will be using the online route when I next sell. Sure most estate agents are ok but the ones who screw you and mess you around give the rest a bad name. At least when you take control yourself, if you offer a bad service you have no one else to blame.

cookiemonster1972

freddieD wrote: »

I have decided to give a try to one of those online estate agents to sell my house. I will appreciate all recommendations of online estate agents that people here have used, especially if they have managed to sell their property with one of these or even if the EA proved they did their best to sell it.

I do no not mean the sites where you can sell your property yourself, I know them. I mean the ones that do operate like an EA, doing a marketing exercise for your property. I guess their location is not important as, by definition they do it all online.

Thanks

Would also do no harm in putting it on the Sarah Beeney property site, Dont want to put the name of it on as could be seen as spamming. Its free, and covers the whole of the uk. it may not work but at least you could give it a go and see if you get any interest from it.
If you are from Ireland I can recommend another, but it charges a fee upfront.

tawse57

I used an an online estate agent and managed to sell my house for 2K more than the highest EA valuation and 42K above the lowest EA valuation.

It only cost me circa £200 for their top service but, with hindsight, their cheapest £50 option would have done for me which was basically a listing on their website and a 'For Sale' sign printed which I stuck in my garden.

The online listing was was good as I could stick a photo up there and have some details but, again in hindsight, the most important thing was having a sign in the garden that attracted attention. More people knocked on my door as a result of seeing the sign than from viewing the website. From the website I got interest from all over the UK - all timewasters - but I got 2 or 3 interested parties from the board in the garden. Of course, I got the the nosey types also who also justed wanted a nose.

https://www.houseweb.co.uk were the people I used.

If you think about it, a lot of people actually drive around the areas they want to live in so consider getting the sign.

WallyBird

new_home_owner wrote: »

If Housenetwork sell your house they get a fee ,and if they dont sell it they still get paid a fee, so they have nothing to gain by selling your house.

To be fair, it does cost them money to market the house. After six months, if they did not sell the house, they would be making a loss. So they certainly have a good reason to try and sell it! Apart from that, it would not look good for them if loads of houses were not sold.

I really feel we got our money's worth from HN (our house sold in May).