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Selling: Online Estate Agent or Traditional?

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Comments

  • WebGuru
    WebGuru Posts: 104 Forumite
    But I suppose in your world EVERYONE has acccess to the internet?

    Pretty much the world we live in?
  • WebGuru wrote: »
    Pretty much the world we live in?

    You're missing the point.
    My home is usually the House Buying, Renting and Selling Forum where I can be found trying to (sometimes unsucessfully) prove that not all Estate Agents are crooks. With 20 years experience of Sales/Lettings and having bought and sold many of my own properties I've usually got something to say ;)
    Ignore......check!
  • WebGuru
    WebGuru Posts: 104 Forumite
    Sorry MissM.

    I do see your point, and understand where you are coming from.
  • I think this has gone way off my original point.

    I just wanted to hear from someone with experience on selling with a traditional estate agents, or an online one. I don't know the inns & outs of the cost to each one, I just wanted someone experienced with both giving their view on the selling of their property.

    I did not intend my question to be construed as a drubbing of the profession!
  • googler
    googler Posts: 16,103 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    WebGuru wrote: »
    Googler, your responses always seem to cause people offence. Have you considered why? Do you think your responses actually add value?

    Evidently they do add value;

    Googler - Thanked 3,620 Times in 2,440 Posts

    WebGuru - Thanked 15 Times in 11 Posts

    Read into that what you will.
  • geoffky
    geoffky Posts: 6,835 Forumite
    wublet wrote: »
    I think this has gone way off my original point.

    I just wanted to hear from someone with experience on selling with a traditional estate agents, or an online one. I don't know the inns & outs of the cost to each one, I just wanted someone experienced with both giving their view on the selling of their property.

    I did not intend my question to be construed as a drubbing of the profession!

    I will give you advice that is worth its money in gold....price it wrong and you will find out what a waste of everyone's time and effort it is..
    price it right and it will sell....simples..
    It is nice to see the value of your house going up'' Why ?
    Unless you are planning to sell up and not live anywhere, I can;t see the advantage.
    If you are planning to upsize the new house will cost more.
    If you are planning to downsize your new house will cost more than it should
    If you are trying to buy your first house its almost impossible.
  • GAH
    GAH Posts: 1,034 Forumite
    Sorry OP, you are right.

    Heres my perception, having sold and bought a few homes and being an ex-agent of 15 years.

    Online Agent
    ____________

    Pick the right one, and they will get you on all the big web portals and get your property out to a large number of people.

    They are significantly cheaper, and will charge you an upfront fee. or different choices with % at the end (depending on the agent)

    The marketing is reactive, so you are relying on people enquiring directly about a certain property.

    The current market is very tough though, so pricing correctly is very important.


    High Street Agent
    _______________

    Again pick the right one, and you will be on all the major internet portals.

    Newspaper advertising - Yes it does not reach as wide an audience as the web, but people still do look through the paper.

    Good High Street Location - Property advertised in a high street window 24/7. Buyers walking in and registering.

    Canvassing - Actively promoting your property in the local area.

    Long database of buyers.

    Board at your property.


    A High Street agents marketing is more proactive, the majority of the time, people will enquire about a certain property, register their details and end up buying a totally different property.

    Again the price of the property will need to be marketed correctly to gain interest.

    Other costs involved for the High Street agent, is their time, 30-mins to an hour out of the office for viewing, Paperwork, then spending all the time required seeing a sale through to the end.



    Of course there are a lot of other variants involved, but spending a bit more money on fees, could mean more advertising, more viewers, more offers.

    But the only true way that anyone could ever tell if an online agent is better than high street agent or vice versa, is to put it on with both agents and see who gets you the best price.
  • GAH
    GAH Posts: 1,034 Forumite
    WebGuru wrote: »
    Yes, but there is hungry for a sale and there is hungry for sale. But look at the number of complaints we see on this board over claims for commission which EA's aren't entitled to or really poor service.

    Yes but to be fair, everybody comes to this board the majority of the time with a problem.

    Estate agency isn't the only business where people try and claim fees they feel they are entitled too.

    Yes there is lot of poor service out there, but there is a lot of great service out there as well, again, nobody comes on this site and raves about great service.

    A lot of the times as well people don't read their contracts properly either, and complained that they didn't read it or didn't understand, Im sure we have all been guilty of that before, but you can't really complain can you.
  • pineapple
    pineapple Posts: 6,934 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 7 September 2011 at 3:52PM
    I believe these guys were recommended in a documentary once
    TEPILO
    http://www.tepilo.com/
    I also understand it is FREE!
    Is there a catch?
    Can't find one.
    But they don't seem to attract many properties so it is probably worth just using it as a second outlet.
  • googler
    googler Posts: 16,103 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited 7 September 2011 at 4:01PM
    pineapple wrote: »
    TEPILO
    http://www.tepilo.com/
    I also understand it is FREE!
    Is there a catch?
    Can't find one.

    There is. It's detailed in post #56 in this thread

    and perhaps #20 as well.
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