Online estate agents - your opinions please folks!

moob_2

Hi all,

I'm about to put my house on the market and I'm looking at methods of marketing to save a few bob.

I was looking into online estate agents - such as emoov.co.uk - where they allocate you a local estate agent, you get the for sale sign, they take measurements, photos etc.
They then place the house on the market via online site like rightmove etc.

I'm always sceptical about things that seem too good to be true - but I've read up on them and they seem legit.

They do all this for £349.

Anyone had any experience or know anyone who has used this or similar companies before?

googler

There's a thread on this almost every week. If you do a forum search within House Buying, Renting and Selling for

"online agents"
"online estate agents"

and variants, there's a lot of reading there..... most recent thread was started 16th of this month, the one before that on the 12th....

Do they take £349 upfront?
If the house doesn't sell, do you get any of the £349 back?

Just looked at their website;

"We sell houses .... in ..... Isle of White, ....."

GAH

Never heard of this online agent myself, but just checking their website, you have to watch out for the extras, ie, to have a For Sale board, thats £35 extra on top of £350 upfront.


Its weighing up the pro's and con's.

The USP for the online agent is that their cheap, but I would never feel comfortable myself paying for a service thats not going to guarantee a result.

Where as a high street agent is going to be more expensive, but if you find one that is truly 'no sale, no fee', you will have your property marketed more proactively in your local area, boards and newspaper advertising usually included, agent liasing with solicitors upto exchange to earn their fee.

I would always choose the High street agent even if it means paying a little bit more.

funkyparott

I wonder how many houses are actually sold as a result of a 'For Sale' board?
I'm inclined to believe the For Sales boards are more about advertising the agent's own brand name!

WebGuru

I have just sold with a online estate agent which I found via an online estate agent comparison website.

All of them do deals where you pay upfront from around £300 and no commission.

These days all you need is rightmove to sell your house. Adverts in local shop windows and local papers can't compete with Rightmove which seems to totally dominate the Internet these days.

moob_2

googler wrote: »

There's a thread on this almost every week. If you do a forum search within House Buying, Renting and Selling for

"online agents"
"online estate agents"

and variants, there's a lot of reading there..... most recent thread was started 16th of this month, the one before that on the 12th....

Do they take £349 upfront?
If the house doesn't sell, do you get any of the £349 back?

Just looked at their website;

"We sell houses .... in ..... Isle of White, ....."

I did search before posting, but couldn't see a great deal of opinion - more people (like yourself) posting smart comments - as indeed you did in the very thread you linked to.

Congrats, it's folk like you that dissociate people from forums like this.

moob_2

WebGuru wrote: »

I have just sold with a online estate agent which I found via an online estate agent comparison website.

All of them do deals where you pay upfront from around £300 and no commission.

These days all you need is rightmove to sell your house. Adverts in local shop windows and local papers can't compete with Rightmove which seems to totally dominate the Internet these days.

That's the way I see it - I'm struggling to find an advantage of getting an EA is likely to speed up the sale of my house by using their 'contacts' - or this magical 'list of buyers waiting'.

Can you tell me what site you used and what advantages and disadvantages you found with them?

moob_2

GAH wrote: »

Never heard of this online agent myself, but just checking their website, you have to watch out for the extras, ie, to have a For Sale board, thats £35 extra on top of £350 upfront.


Its weighing up the pro's and con's.

The USP for the online agent is that their cheap, but I would never feel comfortable myself paying for a service thats not going to guarantee a result.

Where as a high street agent is going to be more expensive, but if you find one that is truly 'no sale, no fee', you will have your property marketed more proactively in your local area, boards and newspaper advertising usually included, agent liasing with solicitors upto exchange to earn their fee.

I would always choose the High street agent even if it means paying a little bit more.

I'm struggling to justify the price differential between £350 and (at the cheapest) £1500.

I don't know how they can market more proactively in todays market with the majority of sales generated through the web - newspaper listings are a waste of money, alongside schedules.

WebGuru

The major advantage of an Online Estate Agent verse high street agent is the cost. Find out how much commission a high street agents inc VAT. Then compare this to the cost of an Online Estate Agent and you will find the saving is considerable. £3092 on averge.

The website I used was www.cheapmove.co.uk This lists the details of 14 online estate agents, their pricing model and number of properties they each are selling.

It was very close between House Network and Hatched, as they are number 1 and number 2, but I went for HN in the end. I would defo recommend them.

You will see with the pricing structure that the online estate agents offer, the more you pay upfront the less or no commission.

Good luck and post back on what you find etc.

moob_2

WebGuru wrote: »

The major advantage of an Online Estate Agent verse high street agent is the cost. Find out how much commission a high street agents inc VAT. Then compare this to the cost of an Online Estate Agent and you will find the saving is considerable. £3092 on averge.

The website I used was www.cheapmove.co.uk This lists the details of 14 online estate agents, their pricing model and number of properties they each are selling.

It was very close between House Network and Hatched, as they are number 1 and number 2, but I went for HN in the end. I would defo recommend them.

You will see with the pricing structure that the online estate agents offer, the more you pay upfront the less or no commission.

Good luck and post back on what you find etc.

Thanks very much - will look into this.

googler

moob wrote: »

I did search before posting, but couldn't see a great deal of opinion - more people (like yourself) posting smart comments - as indeed you did in the very thread you linked to.

Which would those be? The post numbers are next to them - #1, #2, etc. Please tell me.

(or is that a 'smart comment' too?)