Online estate agents

Laf_2

Hi,

Can anyone recommend a particular online eaters agent? I want to sell my house but I am reluctant to pay thousands. Whilst the online agents ask for cash up front, I would rather pay £450 upfront for one year than £1,700 once it has sold! I am it's out of negative equity and need that £1250 towards my deposit!

If anyone has any experience with an online agent or knows which are regulated that would be a great help!

Thank you!

Davesnave

If it's not going on Rightmove, you're effectively cutting off a very large % of the potential customers. That's the first thing to check.

Do you think the vast majority of sellers who use traditional agents are a bit naive, then?

PusscatT

Hi, I used House Network as they advertise on Rightmove and all the others. This was a couple of years ago but they had different charges depending on what you wanted. I paid £500 and this covered all advertising and the management of appointments. In the end I sold privately but had no complaints about House Network's service and there were plenty of photos etc on Rightmove.

The one thing you will need to consider is that if you use an online EA, you will have to do viewings yourself. However, I used traditional EAs in the past and many of them wouldn't do evening or weekend viewings anyway so it was no great hassle.

irishcol

Laf wrote: »

Hi,

Can anyone recommend a particular online eaters agent? I want to sell my house but I am reluctant to pay thousands. Whilst the online agents ask for cash up front, I would rather pay £450 upfront for one year than £1,700 once it has sold! I am it's out of negative equity and need that £1250 towards my deposit!

If anyone has any experience with an online agent or knows which are regulated that would be a great help!

Thank you!

One thing to consider about paying a fixed fee upfront is that you have basically removed the incentive for the estate agent to help sell your house. The company get paid whatever happens.

At least with a traditional EA, they only get paid if they are involved in an offer which you accept. They should (note, should!) also be better at things like viewings and handling offers, which might (note, might!) get you an extra few thousand on the sale, more than off-setting the extra fee.

Horses for courses, and it's up to you. Personally, I've been happy to pay my EA his 0.75%, as it's meant that I don't have to do all the first viewings, plus it's given me someone else to work on the sale for me.

ebee1

hi, i have just put our house up with hatched.co.uk
its a really good service and the photos look great, theyre pretty organised so far... our house has only been on a couple of days so i will keep you posted

sirmosh

When you look at the prices offered by online estate agents you'll quickly find that to get most of the things you get from a normal estate agent will end up costing almost as much since their cheap rates only offer a very basic service.

I actually bought my house from a vendor using House Network and although their service was completely acceptable I must say that it put me off even getting a viewing in the first place and it was only the fact that this was a real find that made me still go and see it. If you're house isn't desirable enough to sell itself then I wouldn't recommend using an online company since they just don't have the same client base or selling power as a local estate agent do.

It might save you a bit or money but it might mean you can't actually sell your house and you'll end up going with a local estate agent anyway.

pmlindyloo

Another vote for HouseNetwork.

Sold my house through them and got the price I wanted - 18 months ago.

Very pleased with the service, excellent photographs on Rightmove (maybe too many but easy to remove some)

Have no faith in estate agents and my experience is that people are glued to Rightmove when they looking to buy.

Only thing is you will probably have to do your own pricing. We got 3 valuations from local estate agents and looked at sale figures for similar properties in our area.

WebGuru

To view all the online estate agents go to https://www.cheapmove.co.uk

You will see each agents pricing and number of property for sale. Some have discount codes as well.

It's the cheapest way to get into Rightmove!

richardw

sirmosh wrote: »

If you're house isn't desirable enough to sell itself then I wouldn't recommend using an online company since they just don't have the same client base or selling power as a local estate agent do.

Good point, so perhaps only good if your property is highly desirable.

steve1980

WebGuru wrote: »

To view all the online estate agents go to www.cheapmove.co.uk

You will see each agents pricing and number of property for sale. Some have discount codes as well.

It's the cheapest way to get into Rightmove!

It's out of date for House Network.

pmlindyloo

I really don't understand the part about estate agents having 'a good client base.' Aren't these the same clients that look at Rightmove to see other houses with other agents?

I do wish someone could tell me what exactly an estate agent does that having a good advert on Rightmove doesn't cover.

In my experience they send you to houses that are entirely inappropriate and will do anything to get their exhorbitant fee.