Online estate agent or not

samuela66

Morning


We are looking at putting our house up for sale, the fees in a general estate agent seem rather high in comparison to the likes of purple bricks, can anyone tell me the real disadvantage for not going online


thanks
sam

Surrey_EA

It might depend on the type of property you are selling, and exactly where in the country you are.

If you are selling a property in an area which has high demand, and you don't mind putting some extra time in yourself, then taking advantage of the lower fees offered by online only EAs would be an idea.

If you have an unusual property, or would find extra support useful then a traditional EA would be worth considering. Of course, not all traditional EAs are capable of offering useful extra support, and whichever EA you end up with you must choose wisely, as there is often a significant difference between the good and the bad.

Some online-only EAs will manage the sale post offer acceptance, and for me this is the hard bit of the whole process, finding a buyer is generally considered the easy part.

samuela66

Thanks for the reply.


Its a terraced house in a place called Dentons Green in St Helens, nice area, house is great nothing wrong with it, Kitchen and bathroom like new, all fitted wardrobes, so I think we may go down the online route.


sam

Alderbank

I know the area and agree that it is a pleasant and popular area. PB currently have some terraced houses for sale in WA10 and have sold a few recently.

If you are as cheeky as me you could have a stroll round and ask what they think of their agent

Surrey_EA

What level of fees have you been quoted?

samuela66

Surrey_EA wrote: »

What level of fees have you been quoted?

I think my partner said around 2500, its quite a difference!

thebigstillmeister

I've commented on a previous post about my experience with Purple Bricks when we moved last Dec.

Couldn't fault the sales guy we had he was fantastic, he did all the viewings and was contactable whenever we needed him. I would certainly use them again in future,

We tried another online company the year before where it was a faceless website, no direct contact with a single person and we had to do all our own viewings, that was not a great experience.

Two things to keep in mind with Purple Bricks is the after sales team were always helpful if you call them, but didn't seem that proactive, our sellers HS estate agent was great and she was far more helpful,

Also, we had the option of paying PB up front at the start or paying right at the end on completion, the second option ties you in with their partner conveyancing company,... DON'T DO THIS,. pay up front and go with a local solicitors, one where you can walk in, it all started fine at the beginning but when things started getting a bit messy our contact was never available when we called which was many many times towards the end, and the person on the phone would always 'check' to see if he was there which i'm sure was them saying do you want to speak to them with him waving and miming no in the back ground.

googler

samuela66 wrote: »

I think my partner said around 2500, its quite a difference!

Because it's a different service offering.

Surrey_EA

samuela66 wrote: »

I think my partner said around 2500, its quite a difference!

PB appear to charge £849, which is payable upfront. Most traditional EAs work on a no-sale, no-fee basis, so that is worth bearing in mind. It is likely, although not always the case, that you will need to be more involved with using an online-only EA, than a traditional firm.

As thebigstillmeister found, someone to keep things moving post offer acceptance is very helpful, and if a firm have already received their fee, how motivated are they going to be to help move the sale process along?

Brightspark87

Just to add my thoughts. I hated being shown around some of the houses by online agents - they didnt know the area, house or anything. Local agents really sold us our home and made us see full asking was reasonable.

selina37

Just make sure its no sale no fee - otherwise there is no incentive for them to keep pushing for you.