Use online agent?

GadgetGuru

Looking to sell my home an move to something a little bigger.
Currently have a 3 bedroom with linked garage.
Looking to upsize to 4-5 bedroom house (growing family! Also need another room as to set up an office/editing room if possible)

Have had a few valuations, one of them with Purple Bricks - an online agent, and I was rather impressed by the valuer as well as the £800 fee, compared to other agents who charge between £4-7k.
I know the old saying - you get what you pay for - but considering most people search for their next property on sites like Rightmove, what more can the highstreet agent actually do?
I'm happy with performing the viewings myself etc, just want my property on the market really....

Anyone else used Purple Bricks?
Online reviews seem to be positive.

Any thoughts?

Lemonsqueezer78

Purple Bricks and other online EAs can work well for some people - but in my view only where you have a property that is in a area with a buoyant property market and where you have a good property (by "good" I mean no niche, unusual or off-putting features) and that is priced realistically.

What you don't get with PBs is anyone pro-actively contacting lists of prospective buyers to drum up viewings. If you are in an in-demand area and you have a decent property that will more or less sell itself, and you genuinely feel that all you need is to put your property on Rightmove and Zoopla, then they will probably be fine. However in some areas, the market is not so robust - or some properties are not quite as saleable or appealing and in these cases you would be surprised how much value a good high street estate agent can bring in terms of contacting people on their lists to push your property.

You have to be honest with yourself about the property you have and how appealing it is, how well priced it is and whether it presents any hurdles that buyers may find hard to get over on their own, without a proactive EA pushing people to view it.

One other thing you will find with PB... the "after sales" support is very light - and the other estate agents involved up and and down the chain will probably be annoyed about the fact that you are using PBs as they pretty much do nothing to proactively nudge things along - and the other EAs generally end up doing most of the legwork to keep things moving or resolve issues should they arise. PBs are basically just a call centre, who are usually friendly when you do call them up, but really do very little work after an offer is accepted to ensure a smooth sale. The other regular EAs get left to do most of that and in my experience are less than complimentary about online EAs (unsurprisingly).

That said, I think they do have a place. I'm selling my current place through them and have had no real issues so far. My place pretty much sold itself and was priced realistically and in a very sought after area so I knew an estate agent would have to do very little work to sell it, so begruded the idea of paying them $4000+ for the priviledge of them doing nothing. Sure enough I had an asking price offer from the first person through the door... so was proven right (assuming it does through). But since the offer was put in, I have barely heard a peep out of my "property expert" and have called their support line a couple of times, but it has gone quiet... so I don't expect they would be that great in the event things didn't go well for any reason.

It is true that you get what you pay for.

AFF8879

In addition to what lemonsqueezer said, I seem to notice that properties (in London, at least) listed with purplebricks seem horrendously overpriced. Like, worse than Foxtons. This can't be a generalism for all online agents though as e-Moov properties usually seem very cheap...

Hoploz

Finding a buyer is only the first stage. The tricky bit comes later when there are queries. A good estate agent will be a middleman and sort out niggles. Without, you run a greater risk of the deal falling through

ellie27

We used an online agent and it all worked out perfect. We knew what we would be able to sell it for, got a few agents round to value it and knew the recent sold prices.

I am in Scotland though, and here it is pretty much the solicitors that do everything. Once you have made the offer and had it accepted it is over to them to do the rest.

Levs01

You really have to be prepared to be your own agent. I am purchasing a place sold through an online agent and as a buyer I have found it ok, but, I have had to suddenly work out stuff I would normally just give the agent to do. I have spoken with the vendor several times about things that I would normally direct at the agent and he has to be available to answer me. He wants the sale to go through so has to do the work, Having said that we do have a sale progression person who is available should we need him and he is the middle man for the likes of my surveyor getting booked in at the property etc. Other than that they haven't done anything as yet. Need solicitors chasing, I contact the vendor, queries about the property, I contact the vendor, want to re visit, I contact the vendor etc etc.

so if you're prepared for that level of after sales care then use them. Our estate agent who marketed our place is earning £4k for doing sod all. We found our buyer and have done all the aftersales stuff direct. Wish we had gone online agent but we needed to sell asap and so went with an agent and their client list.