Advice needed on Estate Agent vs online Estate Agent

ccskitten

ccskitten wrote: »

If you are concerned about them vetting your potential buyers, why don't you phone a couple to book viewings and see what questions they ask you. It will give you the confidence in letting them market your property.

I'm with hatched.co.uk. When I get a viewing I receive an email informing me of the status of my potential buyer. Once I got an offer though, I didn't hear anything from them at all. I must say, they have been good since my sale fell through though.

An update on my recommendation, the marketing of the property online and arranging viewings and sales negotiation, I can not fault. However, sales progression is very poor and they only do things that you ask them to do. They don't naturally chase your sale through. I can't imagine this to be much different to other online agents. They have to cut costs on workforce somewhere and I suppose the most important thing is finding a buyer. If you are prepared to chase everything through yourself I would recommend online.

LittleMax

ccskitten wrote: »

An update on my recommendation, the marketing of the property online and arranging viewings and sales negotiation, I can not fault. However, sales progression is very poor and they only do things that you ask them to do. They don't naturally chase your sale through. I can't imagine this to be much different to other online agents. They have to cut costs on workforce somewhere and I suppose the most important thing is finding a buyer. If you are prepared to chase everything through yourself I would recommend online.

Thanks ccskitten - that is helpful to know. I think chasing it up was something I was expecting to have to do. I am selling a property we had rented out up to now, so there is no chain above us and I am not dependent on the sale for anything imminent (obviously I want to stop paying mortgage and council tax asap). It seems from reading the other posts that in my position online agents are fine, but if we were selling and buying I would probably reconsider. That said, my friend is currently selling and has no end of problems getting to exchange. The hold up seems to be their buyer's solicitors. Her high st agent is not much use, and only now after she has pushed to speak to the buyer direct is she beginning to get anywhere. I will be able to push, and think the saving will more than compensate for this extra effort on my part.

googler

Innys1 wrote: »

Ask yourself this question - what does a High St agent actually do that you could not do yourself or have an online agent do for no more than half the price?

In the case of many London agents, acts as a taxi service to take viewers from their offices to properties they want to view.

Is available all week to take phone calls, e-mails, and arrange things whilst the owner gets on with their own working life.

Keeps a better eye on their local market in a way that a remote online agent can't. Pricing a property to sell depends not only on monitoring actual sales, but monitoring what doesn't sell (at a certain price), and assessing the qualities of what does and doesn't sell against the property to be marketed. How will an online agent do this?

Monitors viewer and buyer sentiment in a way that a remote online agent can't - i.e face to face.

Has advertising space on your own High Street - where buyers and visitors to the area WILL stop and look.

Has a presence in your area to network with others for promotional purposes.

etc
etc

Richard_Webster

Make sure whoever you use they can follow up the sale. See next paragraphs for an important issue for people buying newbuilds.

If you are buying a newbuild is it nearly structurally complete and ready for you to move in? If not the builder will want you to enter intoa contract to complete 14 days after they tell you the place is ready. You may be able to negotiate a fall back date so that is the place isn't ready by then you can get out of the contract.

However you would then have impose the same formula on your buyer and he may not be very happy about not knowing when he is going to move. If he has something to sell his buyers will be even less happy. Did the agents mention that to you?

If you have unhappy buyers because of this potentially variable completion date you may be forced to move out in order to compelte a sale. Did any of the agents tell you that?

OK in London the market may be so good that buyers have to put up with this but they still won't be very happy.

questionss

We've just gone with a local agent - highly recommended by a friend and exceptionally competitively priced. He's agreed to a fixed price that is about 0.5% of asking price (inc VAT) plus it's no sale no fee.

LittleMax

questionss wrote: »

We've just gone with a local agent - highly recommended by a friend and exceptionally competitively priced. He's agreed to a fixed price that is about 0.5% of asking price (inc VAT) plus it's no sale no fee.

I have managed to get one of the high st agents down to 1%, the others won't budge. Must be a lot of people in Northampton paying 1.5 - 2 %... unless anyone knows different?

Puffin11

We used online agent too. Couldn't have been happier. Whenever they got news on a property, they informed us within minutes. And although online, they called us regularly and reminded us that they were real people. YourNaturalHabitat.com

We're going to be selling my mother in laws house in the next few months and I'm sure we;ll be using them again.

ipstim84

It seems as though it's shifting more and more online as there is such a great saving to be made. As long as you don't mind doing more of the work yourself - conducting viewings etc. and you're fully aware of what's included in the price, then I think it's a great way to sell. A couple of friends of mine sold through an agent called Settled and another through Sellahouseonline and said the process wasn't a problem, it's just more of a hands on approach - the major plus point being you can set the price!

That's not say high street agents are swindling us and aren't needed; they've got higher overheads from office locations and fleets of cars etc, and have great local knowledge.