online estate agents

googler

Hoof_Hearted wrote: »

So the message is that if you have an expensive house use an online agent....

..or that you're the exception, not the rule.

BertieUK

googler wrote: »

But you seem to miss my point about the valuations again; it's not an issue about valuing low or high. How can you complain about high-street agents charging more than mere online operations when you, and others, routinely expect more than two-thirds of their number to provide at least an hour's worth of free advice before hiring them, or even without hiring any of them, and when high-street operations are expected to spend time with viewers who don't turn up to view, buyers who don't buy, and all manner of other interaction with the general public that are routinely expected of them, but which the online operations are insulated from?

How many times have you seen the exhortation on these forums - "Get three or more local agents to give you a valuation before you hire one (or before you hire an online agent)" ???

With respect to you, getting three estimates is a natural course we all take regarding having work done in to our properties, so I cannot see any difference with getting an evaluation done by an EA , electrician, plumber or any other professions.

They dont complain when they dont get the business and their prices do not reflect this.

We all appretiate that work has been carried by EA but when you look at the difference between the price of a house and a small flat why should the cost be so much more for the expensive building.

Regards

Hoof_Hearted

I recall saying on another thread that we actually took a punt on a online agent, prepared to give it a go for a few months and, if we didn't sell, we would try a local agent.

The motivation was that high street agents were quoting £6-8,000 & VAT to sell a house in good condition in a popular area. In my opinion, this is too greedy. The house was sold within two weeks at a better price than that quoted by high street agents.

We now live in a house worth around £700,000 (we are lucky to have worked hard all our lives and followed MSE philosophy). Could I justify paying £12,600 (inc Vat) to sell? I think not.

googler

... Which merely reinforces my statement that the figures applicable to you are nowhere near the mainstream.....

BertieUK

Hoof_Hearted wrote: »

I recall saying on another thread that we actually took a punt on a online agent, prepared to give it a go for a few months and, if we didn't sell, we would try a local agent.

The motivation was that high street agents were quoting £6-8,000 & VAT to sell a house in good condition in a popular area. In my opinion, this is too greedy. The house was sold within two weeks at a better price than that quoted by high street agents.

We now live in a house worth around £700,000 (we are lucky to have worked hard all our lives and followed MSE philosophy). Could I justify paying £12,600 (inc Vat) to sell? I think not.

Our previous house was sold in May of 2009 for £260,000 brought down from an EA valuation of £325,000 when it was put on the market the previous August, the dwelling had a Granny Flat so was not the easiest type of propert to sell at the best of time.

Why we were cohersed into taking a 'fixed fee' of £5542.50 commission we are not sure. The EA reduced the fee by £150 in total because of the massive drop due to the economy collapse.

The property that we purchased in May of 2009 was £273,000 and it was originally on the market for £325,000.

We are planning our sale in Feb/March as we previously indicated and thought about going to an online agent.

When we sold our property mentioned we were not impressed with the EA on numerous occasions, we know that an EA cannot always have enough staff to follow up on every property and be intune with the layout as we expected, numerous occasions we were asked to do the viewings ourselves as the Agency was outstretched and did not have staff available.

So cutting a long story short, which is more boring than this one, I cannot see how their high charges can be justified, maybe that it may be that I am going through a Senior Moment I dont know.

hotpot1000

I sold with HN a 2 bed little house and they were tenacious in forcing updates and answers from Countrywide who were acting so sluggishly it was unbelievable - for my buyer.

I paid under £500 as I used a loyalty code at the time and have since received money back back by other people using my loyalty code (PQXALIGMWQ)
HN did a great floorplan, detailed description, plenty pics and discussed the local housing market with me to determine a price.
The photographer made suggestions on furniture layout, etc and was most helpful.

I had the misfortune to have to contact a local EA to purchase the house I moved to. No EPC on the website, no floor plans or room measurements. They never even put the house on rightmove.
I asked 3 times for room measurements and eventually was told they didnt have them yet, so I asked for them to forwarded.
After 3 months waiting I knocked on the door of the house and arranged a viewing directly with the vendors and all other dealings were done between us.

I cannot justify paying all that commission to EA's.

BertieUK

hotpot1000 wrote: »

I sold with HN a 2 bed little house and they were tenacious in forcing updates and answers from Countrywide who were acting so sluggishly it was unbelievable - for my buyer.

I paid under £500 as I used a loyalty code at the time and have since received money back back by other people using my loyalty code (PQXALIGMWQ)
HN did a great floorplan, detailed description, plenty pics and discussed the local housing market with me to determine a price.
The photographer made suggestions on furniture layout, etc and was most helpful.

I had the misfortune to have to contact a local EA to purchase the house I moved to. No EPC on the website, no floor plans or room measurements. They never even put the house on rightmove.
I asked 3 times for room measurements and eventually was told they didnt have them yet, so I asked for them to forwarded.
After 3 months waiting I knocked on the door of the house and arranged a viewing directly with the vendors and all other dealings were done between us.

I cannot justify paying all that commission to EA's.

This morning I looked on HN website, and while checking out their various options a window poped up asking me if I had any question to ask, I just replied 'Not at this moment thank you' then they closed the window screen.

I thought that this was very helpful.

BertieUK

Hoof_Hearted wrote: »

I recall saying on another thread that we actually took a punt on a online agent, prepared to give it a go for a few months and, if we didn't sell, we would try a local agent.

The motivation was that high street agents were quoting £6-8,000 & VAT to sell a house in good condition in a popular area. In my opinion, this is too greedy. The house was sold within two weeks at a better price than that quoted by high street agents.

We now live in a house worth around £700,000 (we are lucky to have worked hard all our lives and followed MSE philosophy). Could I justify paying £12,600 (inc Vat) to sell? I think not.

I am sorry but I am not clear as to your conclusion. Did you purchase the house that you live in now through an online agent.

Hoof_Hearted

No, we bought direct from the vendor. We sold through HN.

[Deleted User]

We'll be putting our house on the market with an online agent in February. Tume will tell if it works