Virtual Estate Agents

smoberly

Has anyone ever used a virtual estate agent instead of a high street one? My high street one would charge £15,000 in fees while the virtual one seem to cost under £500.

Which ones would you recommend?

What are the pitfalls?

Any other comment/advice welcome.:eek:

Richard_Webster

Virtual ones take your money put your property on their website and do nothing more. If someone approaches you through the website you then have to sort everything out like checking the chain beneath your buyer and checking he can get the mortgage he says he needs.

One such set up has been approaching me to put advertising for my practice on their site. They have 200-300 properties in my area - which is impressive and they say they have been going for 8 years - so I find it quite strange that in all that time I have never once dealt with a transaction where they have been involved.

So I reasonably conclude that lots of people pay the cheap upfront fee, find nothing much comes of it and go on to instruct ordinary estate agents.

Colincbayley

smoberly wrote: »

Has anyone ever used a virtual estate agent instead of a high street one? My high street one would charge £15,000 in fees while the virtual one seem to cost under £500.

Which ones would you recommend?

What are the pitfalls?

Any other comment/advice welcome.:eek:

There are BMW's in this world and then there are Lada's. You pays your ££ you takes your choice.

Doozergirl

I've used House Network several times with great success.

I think some houses don't necessairly suit the budget option and I also think that if you go with the budget option that you undertand that it's more like DIY and that it is you responsible for your own pricing, checking the details, decent photos etc. (personally I think everyone should feel that way, regardless of whothey use but some people like someone to blame)

On the other hand, I've experienced the worst sort of service from agents that are being paid a pretty penny so I think the best advice is to do proper research first.

googler

smoberly wrote: »

Has anyone ever used a virtual estate agent instead of a high street one? My high street one would charge £15,000 in fees while the virtual one seem to cost under £500.

...which would seem to suggest you're selling a house with a value of £1mill or more..... is this so?

You need to look at the agents who routinely handle properties of this value in your area.

You also need to consider how many properties of this value the online agent is likely to handle, and ask yourself -

If someone is looking for something at this level, where will they look? I'd suggest most of them will look at the high-end agent, rather than the online one.