housenetwork - a review

WallyBird

19vivat wrote: »

i have just seen this thread. so presumably you have to show the people around yourselves (viewing I mean). I wondered two things: what happens about the hips package? what happens about the mortgage? I mean do house network follow up things in the way high street agents do?? thanks for any info.

Yes, you show people round yourself. Both Housesimple and housenetwork provide HIPS if you want them, and their prices are reasonable. Otherwise you can get your own. I don't know about mortgages.

cashndash

Housenetwork does everything an agent would do, they just don't have a shop on the highstreet.

You can get a Hip through them, but with regards to mortgage, you don't need an estate agent for that, they just like to try and sell you as many things as they can. You can get a mortgage from anywhere you like.

googler

cashndash wrote: »

Housenetwork does everything an agent would do, they just don't have a shop on the highstreet.

... but they don't do viewings - they don't have any regular press advertising - for my local area, they don't appear to have any local agents - for my area, and for the whole of my country (Scotland) they don't appear to have any properties listed ......

They don't do everything that the agents here do, I can tell you that much.

SheppyD

googler wrote: »

... but they don't do viewings - they don't have any regular press advertising - for my local area, they don't appear to have any local agents - for my area, and for the whole of my country (Scotland) they don't appear to have any properties listed ......

They don't do everything that the agents here do, I can tell you that much.

You forgot to add that they dont charge thousands of pounds either !!!:rotfl:

We have had ours on with them since Thursday and have had one viewing and are arranging a second. So far so good. Last time we moved the local estate agent didnt bother to come along to do viewings when I was home - so in terms of quality of service so far this is miles better!!!

becs

It all comes down to what we've been saying earlier, if your potential buyers are looking for houses through going window shopping on the high street via estate agents windows then housenetwork or any online agent is not for you. If your potential buyers look for houses on the internet as I suspect the vast majority do then having an agent in the high street is of no benefit to you.
Yes I've looked through local papers in the past for houses and agents windows but most of my searching has been done on the laptop in the evenings in front of the tv on rightmove so would have found any property listed on there regardless of whether it was advertised in press or not.
If you'd rather pay thousands than a few hundred for an estate agent to do your viewings (if you're lucky!) then that's your call. People have asked for a review of housenetwork and those of us that have used them can't fault them in any way. My experience first class service at a knockdown price! Interestingly I had my house up for sale at the same time as the neighbours either side of me, one being a mid terrace like mine the other being and end terrace. Both took longer to sell with local agents than mine with Housenetwork and the end terrace sold for nearly £13k less than mine through the local agent, when it should have been more being end terrace and having a conservatory.

Goodymp

I viewed a property that was advertised with Housenetwork and it took about 3 phonecalls to arrange the viewing, no one knew which property I was talking about and it just seemed very impersonal. I then had two different people phone me within 5 minutes of eachother to confirm the viewing for different times on the same day. After the viewing I phoned to give my feedback but after going through the many options on the phone it then just rang for ages. I had two emails from them asking for feedback, but they had gone to my work junk email. Obviously if I had really liked the house I would have persisted on the phone so it would not have been a lost sale.

googler

"If your potential buyers look for houses on the internet as I suspect the vast majority do then having an agent in the high street is of no benefit to you."

You say this as though every agent who has a high-street office or display window lacks a website, or the use of a portal or two. I don't think this is the case. I'd like the best of both worlds. It may cost a bit more, but...

becs

No Googler that's not what I am saying of course high street agents have an internet prescence. My statement was in response to the earlier comment about no press advertising or high street agents for housenetwork. I was pointing out that this should not be a problem if your potential buyers are searching for their properties on the net. As I've said before even my 60 year old mother who could not switch on a computer a few months ago is now surfing right move to find her ideal home. There will be buyers who do everything, search the net, papers and agents windows and you would not miss their sale if you went with housenetwork or other online agent because they would have found your property on right move. If however your buyers are not internet savvy or the type of buyers who would be going to an agent on the high street then yes you would be fairly silly to go with an online agent.

henpecked1

I am quite shocked to read that agents dont like doing viewings. Am I missing something here. It is like a waitress not wanting to take orders....

I was considering using a particular agent but i found they didnt bother opening Saturdays. surely, weekends are prime househunting time.

19vivat

I think I must be thick or something. I go on to rightmove and type in london as an area and can't find anything from housenetwork. when i went via the agent link just the housenetwork site came up. i then tried to find my way around the housenetwork site but couldn't find any way of choosing an area to look in e.g. london. i just got a huge list of every property they have on their books.?????? any advice most gratefully received. thanks