Estate Agents - Online vs Traditional

elforward

Hi
On the verge of putting our house on the market and currently evaluating costs. Traditional estate agent fees are huge even after following all the haggling tips. Looking at the online agencies they certainly charge a lot less but are they any good??
Anyone out there got any experiences / advice they can offer??
Thanks in advance
ELF

googler

You pay less for a partial service - i.e. an online presence only.

kr15snw

We're looking at an online agent (House network) mainly because we know from experience that our kind of buyer (first time / young couple / young family) are likely to just go onto rightmove to look at houses.

The only thing for us is that it won't appear in our local paper, but to be honest half the properties for sale down here don't anyway (they only put their favourite it).

So we're very happy with this

shortchanged_2

googler wrote: »

You pay less for a partial service - i.e. an online presence only.

From what I gather that's what most estate agents do these days anyway.

Plans_all_plans

I wouldn't use an online agent at all.

We were FTBs last year and we attempted to view 2 houses with different online agents a number of times: they were SHOCKING! You couldn't get through to anyone, had to leave messages all the time; if by some miracle I got to speak to an actual person, they never called back when they said they would; they didn't arrange viewings properly etc. In the end we took the unilateral decision not to view any houses that were on with online agents only, cos the 2 we'd had dealings with were c r a p.

googler

shortchanged wrote: »

From what I gather that's what most estate agents do these days anyway.

Depends on where you are and how many you've 'gathered' from - up my way, some have their own printed property guides, some do all viewings for the clients, some do some viewings, etc etc. On my high street, I see people looking in agents' windows every day of the week.

In London, I get the impression the agents are almost invisible without a fleet of staff cars to ferry buyers to and from viewings.

Tinkaf1

Search on here for House Network. Lots of topics about them. We are using them, they are excellent. £425 plus vat insteat of £3000 plus vat. Fantastic.

jamesrowley

Most people now start their search for property on Right Move which is why it is the most successful property portal in the UK and why every estate agent uses them. The only difference between an online estate agent and a traditional high st one is that you do the viewings yourself, if you would like to talk to an online estate agent estateagentin.com is worth a call as they have agents who are trained mortgage brokers who live and work in your local area and can market your property for as little as £75.00 with a top price of £395.00 and they advertise your property with Rightmove, Zoopla and hundreds of other portals.

WelshNic

jamesrowley wrote: »

blah blah blah

Stop spamming the forum with your rubbish website :mad:

jackomdj

we are buying through a fixed fee agent - forefront.

We had been into the local agents, but also surfing right move each night for any new properties in a 5 mile radius of our current postcode. Gave them a call, sorted a viewing over the phone, made an offer over the phone, negotiated over the phone. So far I can't fault them.

Littleweedj

This is my first post and how glad I was to come across this thread.

I'm at the starting point of selling my house and had never even thought of doing this online before However, just about everyone I know who is buying or selling researches the internet first before even thinking of high street estate agents.

I've been talking to one located in Bury called Express Estate Agents, they charge 1.95% commission plus vat. They state they can sell your house really quickly for 90 - 100% of the market value. However, this does seem a bit expensive. Does anyone have experience of this company or recommend them?