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My experience of selling online
urbanmyth
Posts: 65 Forumite
Be warned: LONG post ahead!
Draft contracts have now been prepared for the flat we are selling. I didn't want to offer my review earlier in case I got annoyed with the estate agent and had to retract this positive post!
I spent a while researching whether to use an online agent (in fact, it's how I came across this forum). The saving on fees were ever so tempting, but it just sounded too good to be true, right? But we did go with an online agent. And here are our reasons:
1. Our flat is in a 'hot' part of London where property literally flies off the market within days or hours.
2. We have first-hand experience of the above because we spent months trying to find something bigger in the square mile where we live. One agent told us he had 16 others on the waitlist for the same type of property, which just doesn't come on the market very often. Talk about supply and demand. We did manage to get a foot in to another, which had a total of nine offers in a day. We offered asking price (£380k) and got rejected - according to LR it sold for £395k.
3. Our experience with agents in the area was just awful. Because of this phenomenal supply and demand, they are arrogant, rude, don't return calls, not interested unless you're an investor or cash buyer, or god forbid, in a chain like us. I dreaded having to call them each time a saw a remotely interesting property.
4. Standard minimum fee for agents around here is 2% plus VAT.
5. Our own flat is nearly new (five years old), in immaculate condition and looks like a show home. Judging by how quickly everything else was selling in the area, we figured our flat would sell itself.
Also, I cringed at the idea of paying thousands of pounds to one of those arrogant local agents after my unfortunate dealings with them.
So an online agent it was. I read some great reviews for Hatched.co.uk so I filled in their enquiry form. A week later, no contact from them. Clearly they didn't want my business, or were too busy for it. So then I went to the next best reviewed firm, housesimple.co.uk. Here's what happened next:
Sunday - completed the online form.
Monday - property questionnaire came through. Completed and sent it back the same day.
Tuesday - they call to arrange for their photographer to come over.
Thursday - photographer comes, takes pics, measures rooms and he's gone within 20 mins.
Monday - draft listing comes through. We ask for a couple of minor tweaks to the wording. Photos looked great! We were really happy with all of them.
Tuesday - listing goes live on their site, Zoopla, Rightmove, etc.
Then...the same day the listing goes live, we are flooded with calls for viewings. Agent called, told us the buyer's position (FTB, investor, etc), gave us day/time options then confirmed the appointment with them. We just had to be there to open the door and show them around.
Viewings:
Saturday - three
Sunday - two
Monday - two
Tuesday - four offers come in. Two from FTBs, two from cheeky investors at much lower than asking price. (As a side note, we always agreed we would not sell to an investor, rather we wanted a FTB to have the opportunity to get on the ladder in our area like we did).
We accepted the asking price offer from a FTB. Cancelled all other viewings (quite a few more had been lined up for that week).
So we had an offer confirmation just one week after the listing went live on the web.
To reiterate, the flat, its condition/presentation and importantly, its location, sold itself. We were merely the facilitators. As for Housesimple, they were efficient, pleasant to deal with, and got the job done. That's all we ever wanted from them. And their flat fee of £474 was a lot more palatable than paying a local agent just shy of £5000 to sell a flat that sold itself.
For us, location was key. We're in a very popular part of London. And the type of buyer we attracted would naturally go online to search for properties rather than window shop. It was a no brainer. :beer:
Finally, our FTB was a bit slow organising herself. We chased Housesimple who chased her and gave us regular updates. They didn't stop working just because the offer was confirmed.
That's all from me! Now for the fun of exchange and completion on the house we are buying...which is another essay all in itself :eek:
Draft contracts have now been prepared for the flat we are selling. I didn't want to offer my review earlier in case I got annoyed with the estate agent and had to retract this positive post!
I spent a while researching whether to use an online agent (in fact, it's how I came across this forum). The saving on fees were ever so tempting, but it just sounded too good to be true, right? But we did go with an online agent. And here are our reasons:
1. Our flat is in a 'hot' part of London where property literally flies off the market within days or hours.
2. We have first-hand experience of the above because we spent months trying to find something bigger in the square mile where we live. One agent told us he had 16 others on the waitlist for the same type of property, which just doesn't come on the market very often. Talk about supply and demand. We did manage to get a foot in to another, which had a total of nine offers in a day. We offered asking price (£380k) and got rejected - according to LR it sold for £395k.
3. Our experience with agents in the area was just awful. Because of this phenomenal supply and demand, they are arrogant, rude, don't return calls, not interested unless you're an investor or cash buyer, or god forbid, in a chain like us. I dreaded having to call them each time a saw a remotely interesting property.
4. Standard minimum fee for agents around here is 2% plus VAT.
5. Our own flat is nearly new (five years old), in immaculate condition and looks like a show home. Judging by how quickly everything else was selling in the area, we figured our flat would sell itself.
Also, I cringed at the idea of paying thousands of pounds to one of those arrogant local agents after my unfortunate dealings with them.
So an online agent it was. I read some great reviews for Hatched.co.uk so I filled in their enquiry form. A week later, no contact from them. Clearly they didn't want my business, or were too busy for it. So then I went to the next best reviewed firm, housesimple.co.uk. Here's what happened next:
Sunday - completed the online form.
Monday - property questionnaire came through. Completed and sent it back the same day.
Tuesday - they call to arrange for their photographer to come over.
Thursday - photographer comes, takes pics, measures rooms and he's gone within 20 mins.
Monday - draft listing comes through. We ask for a couple of minor tweaks to the wording. Photos looked great! We were really happy with all of them.
Tuesday - listing goes live on their site, Zoopla, Rightmove, etc.
Then...the same day the listing goes live, we are flooded with calls for viewings. Agent called, told us the buyer's position (FTB, investor, etc), gave us day/time options then confirmed the appointment with them. We just had to be there to open the door and show them around.
Viewings:
Saturday - three
Sunday - two
Monday - two
Tuesday - four offers come in. Two from FTBs, two from cheeky investors at much lower than asking price. (As a side note, we always agreed we would not sell to an investor, rather we wanted a FTB to have the opportunity to get on the ladder in our area like we did).
We accepted the asking price offer from a FTB. Cancelled all other viewings (quite a few more had been lined up for that week).
So we had an offer confirmation just one week after the listing went live on the web.
To reiterate, the flat, its condition/presentation and importantly, its location, sold itself. We were merely the facilitators. As for Housesimple, they were efficient, pleasant to deal with, and got the job done. That's all we ever wanted from them. And their flat fee of £474 was a lot more palatable than paying a local agent just shy of £5000 to sell a flat that sold itself.
For us, location was key. We're in a very popular part of London. And the type of buyer we attracted would naturally go online to search for properties rather than window shop. It was a no brainer. :beer:
Finally, our FTB was a bit slow organising herself. We chased Housesimple who chased her and gave us regular updates. They didn't stop working just because the offer was confirmed.
That's all from me! Now for the fun of exchange and completion on the house we are buying...which is another essay all in itself :eek:
0
Comments
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.... And their flat fee of £474 was a lot more palatable than paying a local agent just shy of £5000 to sell a flat that sold itself.
....
Hi urbanmyth
I understand your sentiments, but I guess the key question is: would the local agent's arrogance, rudeness and long waiting list found a buyer prepared to pay £10k more than you sold for? Which would make their £5k fee a bargain.
There are so many variables, which makes it impossible to know for sure, I guess.0 -
Quite possibly, eddddy, but we were happy with the price we achieved. Interestingly some of the people who came to view said they also preferred the owner showing them around as we knew the property better, and we were more polite!0
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Quite possibly, eddddy, but we were happy with the price we achieved. Interestingly some of the people who came to view said they also preferred the owner showing them around as we knew the property better, and we were more polite!
That has certainly been my experience as a viewer. The owners know far more about their house than the EA. and viewings have been longer.
One EA didn't even know the council tax bands of houses I viewed with them and told me it was up to the buyer to look it up online as the EA could be guilty of misrepresentation if they got it wrong!
One of the houses I viewed was a bungalow with a SC studio flat underneath that was rented out so it was important for me to know the CT band. I couldn't find it when I looked online.0 -
Hi urban myth. Based on your fees are you selling about the £250k mark?
I'm considering selling via an online agent - do you think the experience from the buyers side is better or worse? I'd be selling a more expensive flat, so fees will be more like £20k but I'm wondering if buyers in that bracket like the pampering of a high Street agent.
Any thoughts here? Flats in my area sell very quickly. We are looking to sell in the spring so if this sellers market sticks around then I may be tempted to go online. We are mse style people who live in a non mse area!0 -
Hi time2deal - you're right, that is our range.
Based on the feedback we had from our viewers (and ultimately our buyer), it was a positive. As Contessa also points out above, the seller knows a lot more about the property than the EA. What sort of pampering might an EA offer that the seller can't? We presented our viewers with all the figures and knowledge they might need (utilities, CT, service charge, local transport, etc), let them wander around and take a look on their own but also spent time on the sofa answering any questions they had.
One viewer told me, when I offered him a glass of water (he looked flustered when he arrived) told me an EA had never done as such.
If flats in your area sell quickly and your type of buyer is more likely to check Rightmove, Zoopla, etc that walk into an agency, I'd say go for it. You only have to open the door and show them around. The online EA does all the negotiation and paperwork.0 -
What I've always said - if you're in a fast-moving area, go 'online'. I will definitely give an online agent a go when I next sell (no plans yet, LOVE my home!).
I think if there's enough interest, there'll be a bidding war at the start whether it's an online agent or an EA from an office. Most people who are on EA's 'hotlists', etc are more than likely looking at RM every day anyway. I'd probably wait a week before accepting an offer unless it was at the asking price just to give people a chance to see the listing.
Well done, and ta for the recommendation.
Jx2024 wins: *must start comping again!*0 -
Definitely try online. If it doesn't work, you are only risking £500 in the expectation of saving thousands. When we sold, we took all the booked viewings in the first few weeks before considering offers. We thought this was fair to everybody. We then accepted an offer and took it off the market with a proviso that we saw some commitment -- e.g. that the survey was done within 4 weeks.Je suis sabot...0
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This can really work when you get a grown up buyer and seller conducting the process where neither is overly egotistical, generally unreasonable or control freakish.
A lot of people are pretty awkward, self absorbed and plain nasty in which case they benefit from dealing through a middle man.
I personally would sell online although I'd be careful about who I let come round my house as there are bound to be scammers and thieves out there.0 -
Hi urbanmyth
I understand your sentiments, but I guess the key question is: would the local agent's arrogance, rudeness and long waiting list found a buyer prepared to pay £10k more than you sold for? Which would make their £5k fee a bargain.
There are so many variables, which makes it impossible to know for sure, I guess.
I think if online estate agents were routinely achieving less than the high street estate agent then buyers would be flocking to them to save themselves a few thousand wouldn't they?
I'd be interested in any evidence that this might be the case. I'm shortly going to market my own property and am considering using an online estate agent to sell but hadn't thought of maybe targeting them to buy too!0 -
I know a little about the current state of the London market as my daughter is currently looking to buy, and despite being a FTB she has had offers of the full asking price rejected on 2 properties.
Selling online, it itself, worked well for you urbanmyth. The mistake you made was accepting the FAP when you had so much interest in a property that was clearly in hot demand. You could have done all viewings then gone to sealed bids. No doubt you'll say that you're happy with the price you achieved, but wouldn't you have been happier with another 5 or 10K?0
This discussion has been closed.
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