Great Hunt: Have you sold your home using an online estate agent?

buglawton

It looks like eMoov vs traditional EAs is where Aldi was vs Tesco 10 years ago - lurking in the back of the minds of the entrenched EA business but not recognised as a real threat.

Only those trad EAs that totally change their ways have a chance of surviving the next 10 years.

I suspect that most of the surviving EA employees will become part time workers based at home and like the way bank branches are going, EA branches will only be found in bigger towns.

stinkeymonkey

Having just sold our house, and not having had the best experience with our agent, online self-sale sounds attractive, but...can I ask if the people who have posted live in small towns or larger cities?

Windsorcastle

I sold my house last year through House Network. My property was in a pretty ropey area of SE London. I bought a special package for about £750 that included the For Sale board, premium listings on the main portals, a full year of marketing, etc. The only minor gripe I had was right at the outset when the guy who came to do the photos couldn't do the EPC so we had to have another appointment for that, and also the For Sale sign was sent seperately and the first one didn't turn up.

HOWEVER, after that, the whoel process was excellent and I couldn't fault them. Customer Service was second to none and they were brilliant in pursuing the buyer's solicitor who was a total nightmare.

I put the property on in late April, accepted in offer at start of June and completed at start of October. the local high street agents had all quoted me around £4k to sell, so I saved well over £3k, which was brilliant. But I also didn't feel like I compromised on the service I got, House Network were really professional and efficient throughout.

I would NEVER use a high street agent again, a really good online agent will do the job just as well and save you a small fortune.

hitcheng

I sold my house within 4 days using Hatched. Saved myself over £3700 over high street estate agents. Very professional and always kept me up to date. Had to show buyers around myself and 14 in one day was hard work! Thoroughly recommended

SCOYA

I'm currently buying a property via Hatched, sadly they have been so useless with arranging appointments, passing on information etc., that the vendor and I now communicate directly!

terry33

We recently sold our house using Mousehouse, cost 295 pounds.
Sold in 3 weeks and they were very professional.
They had a shop, used zoopla and phones manned 8 til 8 7 days.
Had contact details for experts as needed, surveyor and energy cert provider.
would definately use again, much better than big name agents, always phones for viewings and confimed by email with good report back for each viewer

jockosjungle

We used eMoov, we sold our house for £400, it was a cheapen so we probably only saved about £600.

Many advantages to doing so that you would find difficult to see.

1. eMoov lets people genuinely interested in your house get an appointment because they've seen it on Rightmove, etc. They (and other online estate agents) don't...

a. Send their mate round to have a look to pretend they're getting viewings
b. Send unintersted people who they have on their books round.
c. Force you into a high pressure sales pitch from their dodgy mortgage adviser before letting you look at houses.

These are all things you don't consider unless you're looking for another house. Barstow Thieves send you to look at a house perfect for you, a two bed terrace when you want a 4 bed detached, etc.

You get fewer viewings, but you get more quality viewings, people who have seen your house and want to look.

We sold ours to the first person who looked around. My brother went with a national chain, had about 30 viewings, most who weren't really interested.

misswhitefinn

I am now selling my second property through Hatched.co.uk and they have been fantastic, my in-laws have also sold through them, because of our recommendation.

I would recommend them to anyone, we have saved almost £10,000 by not selling through high street estate agents, and just for showing people around our home, by ourselves.

The process is quick and easy, you register, pay the fee, arrange for the photos and info to be taken and the property is on the market within a few days.

Our old house sold in two days and luckily this house sold in 4 hours, so I can not fault them at all. The communication is as good as you make it, but I find them great value, and will use them every time.

Your home sells itself, so why pay high street estate agents to do what you can do.

Money_Man_Steve

I *really* wanted MyOnlineEstateAgent to work for my Central London 1-bed flat sale in Oct 2013 and was keen to try it out. I only received three viewings via MOEA, which resulted in one (low) offer. MOEA appeared to think I should take the low offer 'in case another didn't materialise.' I persevered and paid extra for a MOEA 'for sale' sign and Rightmove premium, which didn't seem to help. They could only suggest one other thing, and that was to reduce the asking price.

In the meantime, I used the online agent deal to negotiate a lower-than-usual commission deal with a local agent who seemed very keen, and they arranged 20+ viewings within the first few weeks. Their floor plan also had a different (larger) total floor area to My Online Estate Agent's plan, which I felt was important as similar properties in my area were achieving £1000 per sq ft. Despite me raising this with MOEA on several occasions and requesting them to do a new floor plan, they did not arrange for a re-measure.

My local agent's marketing work resulted in three offers, one of which proceeded to the sale of the property at over 98% of the asking price. Even after the agent's commission had been accounted for, I was still over £13,000 up on the best offer obtained via My Online Estate Agent. My local agent also helped to progress the deal through to completion.

Overall I would like to say: great idea, if you think it will work for you, but a good local agent can do a much better job, and you might end up with more money for the sale, even after you have paid the agent's fees.

splattsville

We've sold twice now using online agents. The first time was about 5 years ago using HouseNetwork - total cost was about £550 fixed price in advance, including all pictures, EPC, floor plans etc. We sold that house in 3 weeks, and everything was pretty straightforward.

The second time was 1.5 years ago (we like to move a lot), and this time we used MyHouseAdvert as they have a monthly fee (initially £80, drops down lower after 3 months) and we were reasonably confident about selling quickly. Good decision, as we sold in a month, and with the advance costs for the EPC and floor plans etc, ended up paying just over £200. They were really helpful as well, good service, good advice, helped us negotiate the price - I'd definitely use them again.

What I liked most about both was the amount of control you have over the way the house is presented. Both times I supplemented their photos with my own (and replaced some), moved the photos around so the order was better, changed the wording etc - all completely in my control. This compared to my father-in-law's experience of a local agent who took dreadful photos, made mistakes in the description, and took months to change anything.

To answer the question on location, we live in a village near a small town - there's a local agent who is very good and has most of the custom, but I just don't like spending thousands unnecessarily.