Who has sold a property using an online estate agent?

Lit_Up

lessonlearned wrote: »

the house is "stale". Prospective purchasers have seen it hanging around for ages when other, similar properties, have come and gone.

When a property is on the market for a long time people become very suspicious - they automatically assume it is a "bad 'un" - even though it may be a perfectly nice house with nothing nasty lurking in the shadows.

They will always go for the one that is fresher to the market.
.....

Well duh. I discovered this after having a property on the market with the same agent for a long time. Been on the market a year. What does EA do? !!!! all.

googler

Lit_Up wrote: »

Why should I trust a salesman with no qualification? Or anybody who professes to be in the know, when they actually left school at 16...

Why should anyone trust a call taker at an online agent's office, possibly hundreds of miles away from the property, who's never seen the property other than on their computer screen, and who may never even have been to the town or county that the property is in?

googler

Lit_Up wrote: »

Well duh. I discovered this after having a property on the market with the same agent for a long time. Been on the market a year. What does EA do? !!!! all.

Who's bitter now?

Lit_Up

googler wrote: »

Why should anyone trust a call taker at an online agent's office, possibly hundreds of miles away from the property, who's never seen the property other than on their computer screen, and who may never even have been to the town or county that the property is in?

I don't trust ANY agent, online or high street. I think it's all a con. There are many reasons why estate agents have such an unsavoury reputation.

lessonlearned

Lit_Up wrote: »

There should be a way for owners to sell their own properties without the need for agents. I fail to see why these fees are justified, even for online estate agents. Lots of other "agents" have disappeared with the internet. Travel agents for example.

If Rightmove opened itself up to people selling their own properties, rather than using the service of an agent to access the database (which is a total con) - then you wouldn't need agents. Look at airbnb.com. Free to list a property for rent. No agent needed. If you don't need one to rent a property, why do you need one to sell it?

It would appear that your first sensible post asking two straight forward questions, was, in fact, just a ruse to get some attention.

It would also appear that your real intention was to engage others so that you could simply rant and let off a little steam.

Of course people don't have to use an EA - no-one but no-one is stopping them from selling privately. There is no law that forces people to use an EA so what on earth are you wittering on about "lack of democracy" for.

There's no state conspiracy forcing all house sales down the EA route.;)

So - your house was with an agent for over a year and didn't sell.

So what - it's happening all over the western world. Wake up. No point in shooting the messenger.

I've just sold mine - took 3 weeks. There are plenty of people on these threads getting their sales.

Despite being an ex EA myself and being perfectly capable of selling my own property I used the services of an EA and coughed up my 1.5%.

Why would I do this.

Because I knew damn well it was my best chance of success in the current market.

1.5% to get me a quick sale at a price I was happy with??

Absolute Bargain!!! Worth every penny.

Lit_Up

Lister wrote: »

Housenetwork. Posted my experience here

Sponge wrote: »

I tried to sell via an online agent and I sometimes wonder if it was a waste of money.

mymemory wrote: »

My mum used Housenetwork.co.uk, but don't expect them or any other estate agent to "sell" your house - it's up to you.

Sdk2012 wrote: »

We have just sold our house through an online agent using myhouseadvert.co.uk
We are extremely happy with their service.

Hi can you all please tell me where your properties are located? this would help to figure out if they could sell themselves based on location, or needed the legwork of an agent.

Tancred

Lit_Up wrote: »

And which one did you use?

I'm currently with the House Network - I went for the Star Buy option, paying everything upfront. I've been with them for 28 days so far and I've had around 4-5 offers, only one of which was genuinely serious. Unfortunately the person making the serious offer has yet to sell his flat .

The photos they took were superb and I'm getting good interest - around 25 viewers so far. The trouble is the quiet market, so I can't blame them for that. One thing I don't like is that they will try to send you anyone instead of properly checking whether the interested parties are prepared to pay at or near the asking price, hence the large number of silly offers. The other thing that slightly annoys me is that they are only open 9am to 6pm, and only until 3pm on Saturdays. I would much prefer it if they were open 7 days a week 12 hours a day, but I guess that would impact on the pricing! So, early days for me but reasonably happy so far.

lessonlearned

Lit_Up wrote: »

Well duh. I discovered this after having a property on the market with the same agent for a long time. Been on the market a year. What does EA do? !!!! all.

Yep - bitter and twisted all right. And rude into the bargain.

Tancred

googler wrote: »

Why should anyone trust a call taker at an online agent's office, possibly hundreds of miles away from the property, who's never seen the property other than on their computer screen, and who may never even have been to the town or county that the property is in?

The House Network visits all clients, takes photos and does the EPC.

Lit_Up

lessonlearned wrote: »

I used the services of an EA and coughed up my 1.5%. Why would I do this. Because I knew damn well it was my best chance of success in the current market

Well if the best they can do is just keep ticking over with excuses for a whole year, and that's the best chance of success in the current market, then I'll be damned. I maintain - agents are superfluous, uneducated, obstructions to progress, who have an appalling reputation for all kinds of reasons. Should have stayed in school.

Some London wideboys (Foxtons) tried to take £12,000 in commission for selling my flat in central London (I had the offer). I took it off the market and decided to live in it myself. The most satisfying part of doing that was listening to the dubious twit whine, howl, and beg to get me to reconsider! Sorry chap. You lost the sale because you're superfluous effluent and not worth a dime. Not getting my cash.