online estate agents

Lister_2

I've just signed up with Housenetwork with their commision based deal (£238 upfront, another £954 if we sell).

Although this is more than the fixed fee, I figured this way we'd only be risking £238 to try them out, as the missus is a bit skeptical. If we sell we're only £1200 down as opposed to the £4,500 the local estate agents want. This is the same estate agent who showed us around a property today and couldn't answer a single one of my questions. She didn't even know what a hot water cylinder was!

Had a brief look at some of the other online agents, but went with house network on the strength of the various feedback threads on here. They seem to be the most popular, although certainly not the cheapest.

Experience so far mixed. They rang me within 30 mins of paying online, and arranged for someone to come out on Tues. Could have done Monday if I could so much quicker than I was expecting.

However, just received a confirmation email showing 8th of Feb instead of 8th Jan, and my "personal account manager" has now gone home. There are some numbers I could ring, but instead I have opened a ticket via their online system. Didn't really think I'd be using that quite so soon! Nevermind, I guess it's just a typo by their agent when he booked it. Time will tell how effecient they are at responding.

Other than that quirk it all looks pretty good. Good comprehensive email about the various systems available to me, and even a picture of the bloke who will be turning up Tues. Useful. Will update as things progress.

My affiliate code is EGMMOWJHHR in case anyone is kind enough to use it. You get 5% off, I get 10%.

Contessa

Lister wrote: »

I've just signed up with Housenetwork with their commision based deal (£238 upfront, another £954 if we sell).

Although this is more than the fixed fee, I figured this way we'd only be risking £238 to try them out, as the missus is a bit skeptical. If we sell we're only £1200 down as opposed to the £4,500 the local estate agents want. This is the same estate agent who showed us around a property today and couldn't answer a single one of my questions. She didn't even know what a hot water cylinder was!

Had a brief look at some of the other online agents, but went with house network on the strength of the various feedback threads on here. They seem to be the most popular, although certainly not the cheapest.

Experience so far mixed. They rang me within 30 mins of paying online, and arranged for someone to come out on Tues. Could have done Monday if I could so much quicker than I was expecting.

However, just received a confirmation email showing 8th of Feb instead of 8th Jan, and my "personal account manager" has now gone home. There are some numbers I could ring, but instead I have opened a ticket via their online system. Didn't really think I'd be using that quite so soon! Nevermind, I guess it's just a typo by their agent when he booked it. Time will tell how effecient they are at responding.

Other than that quirk it all looks pretty good. Good comprehensive email about the various systems available to me, and even a picture of the bloke who will be turning up Tues. Useful. Will update as things progress.

My affiliate code is EGMMOWJHHR in case anyone is kind enough to use it. You get 5% off, I get 10%.

I'll be interested to hear how you get on. I'm intending to put my house on the market soon and am considering which agent to use. I don't want to pay more than I have to but I do want to sell quickly.

Lister_2

Just to update that my date mixup ticket was fixed the same night. Got a new confirmation email and ticket closed at 1.00am!

So quite pleased so far.

Lister_2

Well it's looking good so far.

Bloke turned up on time and rang to confirm he'd be there. Spent about 45 mins measuring and taking photos. Produced the floor plans there and then for me to see and agree on. Nice bloke, but really only there to get the details and advise me on what will happen next. No advice on presenting the rooms or anything, but then I didn't ask and suspect most people with the nouce to use an online agent are clued up about presentation.

Literally one hour after he left I got an email to say my details were available for inspection. Good photos and lots of them. You will want to go through and prune them a bit (as he suggested I do).

"Virtual Tours" not great TBH. They are just very wide angle shots corrected into a flat panarama view. Not a true 360 degree virtual tour as I would describe it, but then I can't remember seeing one of these for a while now on rightmove. Maybe they're too much work. I create 360 panos as a hobby and they are very time consuming.

Their website is very comprehensive and allows you to customise pretty much everything. However I will say it is slightly clunky in places. Things like no obvious way to get back to your customer portal from some areas, the login box forgetting you're logged in even though you are, and it even locked up Chrome once. The plethora of photo options are a bit confusing at first too, and are also photo selection is also a bit clunky. Lots of clicking instead of drag and drop.

Despite these faults though I found my around it easily enough and it's great to have such power over layout and content. There are areas you can specify things such as when you are available for viewings, where they can park etc. All very useful.

Housenetwork charge £100+VAT for an EPC, so I got my own for £40. I attached it to a to a ticket and 40 mins later it was on my details.

We hit the button to go live at 10.00pm last night, and this morning it is on rightmove. I got a call first thing this morning with an immediate viewing, and another this afternoon, both arranged for tomorrow, so fingers crossed it seems to be getting some interest.

So far very impressed despite the website issues. Everything has been processed extremely quickly and efficiently, with constant email feedback. Hopefully it continues.

newsgroup_monkey

For the person who was buying and thought they got it on the cheap, it often depends how desperate the vendor is - they might be in financial trouble but under the radar of their mortgage company or they might have wanted to sell quickly to be in the chance of buying their dream home.

My and my ex-wife found the ideal place a few years ago and put our house on the market. We were prepared to drop by 10% and told our EA this.

They effectively refused to drop the price, we lost the house and never sold ours.

steven_85

I too might be letting out my property using an online agent.

Does anyone have recommendations?

MobileSaver

Ivana_Tinkle wrote: »

we put in a very cheeky offer and they practically bit our hand off. ... They'll never know that a good agent would have got them £50k more!

Are you getting confused, it was the seller that accepted your low offer, not the online agent?

How would a "good" agent have got them £50k more? Agents can advise on pricing but it's the seller who decides what price to list a property at and ultimately what price they'll accept.

Or are you referring to a typical "bad" high street agent that would lie through their teeth about phantom offers to get buyers to offer more?

Lister_2

Just accepted an offer on our house after a day and a half on the market. Can't describe how chuffed I am not to be paying an estate agent £4.5k for their "service".

I would not hesitate to use an online agent again. Housenetwork were great and I'd happily use them again. Had 4 viewings booked after 1.5 days, and second viewer bought. Every query dealt with very promptly.

FWIW we were selling a bog standard 90's four bed detached bryant in the suburbs done to a fairly high presentation, but nothing stupidly expensive (bog standard B&Q kitchen etc). The difference is that we were realistic about price after spending six months watching the market and seeing what was sticking, and what stuff was selling for. There are many houses identical to ours on for ludicrous prices, that gradually drop by £10k every couple of months and are still on there.

If you have a more specialised property I can still see that a local agent might be useful, but as for me, I'm now £3.3k richer. Special thanks for Hoof Hearted for his detailed thread about his experiences with housenetwork, as that is mainly what persuaded me to give them a go. :beer:

Contessa

Lister wrote: »

Just accepted an offer on our house after a day and a half on the market. Can't describe how chuffed I am not to be paying an estate agent £4.5k for their "service".

I would not hesitate to use an online agent again. Housenetwork were great and I'd happily use them again. Had 4 viewings booked after 1.5 days, and second viewer bought. Every query dealt with very promptly.

FWIW we were selling a bog standard 90's four bed detached bryant in the suburbs done to a fairly high presentation, but nothing stupidly expensive (bog standard B&Q kitchen etc). The difference is that we were realistic about price after spending six months watching the market and seeing what was sticking, and what stuff was selling for. There are many houses identical to ours on for ludicrous prices, that gradually drop by £10k every couple of months and are still on there.

If you have a more specialised property I can still see that a local agent might be useful, but as for me, I'm now £3.3k richer. Special thanks for Hoof Hearted for his detailed thread about his experiences with housenetwork, as that is mainly what persuaded me to give them a go. :beer:

Lister, Very well done, I'm pleased for you! You say you're in the suburbs-London? would you mind saying, roughly where? Thanks.

googler

Contessa wrote: »

Lister, Very well done, I'm pleased for you! You say you're in the suburbs-London? would you mind saying, roughly where? Thanks.

Exactly. The suburbs of which city?