Quick Query.....

Disorganised_Me

Hi all,

I have a family member who is selling their property. Their location is rural and they've signed up with a local agent. I looked for the property on rightmove once it was marketed for sale with pictures but its not advertised.

When I asked my family member about it they said they were charged an extra premium to advertise on zoopla but the agents don't use rightmove?

Is this as strange as I think it is? The market where she is isn't strong and properties can be listed for a while before getting a sale, if at all. I would have thought that rightmove would be the best place to advertise to get your property seen by the most people.

Is zoopla widely used and I'm just out of touch?

I've said that this would be a criteria for me in choosing an agent but to be honest I thought a rightmove listing was 'as standard' with anyone.

What's your thoughts?

Thanks,

Disorganised_Me

TheGardener

I would expect the agent to be using both. rightmove would be my go to site for property but I guess both are very popular, given that there is almost no point putting a house on the market unless its online - I would expect any agent, particularly if the area is a hard sell area - to be maximising all the online opportunities .

e13

I would always check both for properties, along with primelocation, onthemarket and mouseprices. I would certainly think it's better for properties to be on both, but as a buyer I'm not prepared to risk missing something by not checking all the sites.

Clutterfree

I only look at Rightmove tbh.
Of the two, I'd say most favour Rightmove rather than Zoopla but I could be wrong...

G_M

Obviously before signing up to any contract one should understand what one will receive in return!

Had your relative asked the obvious quesion: "How will you advertise my property?" they would have known what the agent would/would not do. They could then compare that, together with the commission fee and other factors, with other agents before making a choice.

Is it a sole or multi-agency contract?
If sole, what is the minimum contract period?
Was the contract signed at the agent's office or at home? And how long ago?

Thrugelmir

Disorganised_Me wrote: »

The market where she is isn't strong and properties can be listed for a while before getting a sale, if at all.

Sounds as if advertising on Rightmove is of little benefit.

alchemist.1

I only looked on right move after a while.

Started off looking on both but realised that majority of properties were on Rightmove and most agents around here didn't really bother with Zoopla.

glasgowdan

I'd definitely want my house on rightmove, but I don't think she will have any come back at all as she will have agreed and signed up to this.

All I could suggest is maybe forking out to add it to rightmove after a few weeks if no activity.

tom9980

My neighbour went with a zoopla only agent not a single viewing, now it was overpriced but not so much as to not even get a tyre kicker or two so after 3 or 4 months they changed agent reduced price and got it on rightmove, it sold within two weeks.

eddddy

glasgowdan wrote: »

All I could suggest is maybe forking out to add it to rightmove after a few weeks if no activity.

If an EA wants to use Rightmove, they are charged a monthly fee based on the number of branches they have.

So there's no real option for charging a seller a fee for putting a single property on Rightmove.

It sounds like this EA has chosen to only pay a monthly fee to Zoopla.

(And if the EA has signed up with 'On The Market', they have an 'only one other portal' rule. So the EA has to choose between Rightmove and Zoopla.)

moneyistooshorttomention

I was told the monthly fees to advertise on RightMove are very high (dont know about Zoopla) and hence EA's in a poorer/slower-moving area may not wish to use Rightmove.

The answer to that is to go to the nearest town that has an EA that uses Rightmove and put the property with them instead. That way - the property comes up on Rightmove whenever buyers look at it.

The only downside to that is that, being with an EA in another town, means there isnt a local EA to show viewers around - but if one is in area where EA's try to put the onus for viewings on the vendor anyway - then one might as well.