About to sell my house online! (advice welcomed)

eddddy

argeetee wrote: »

My update was to offer my experience to others considering online or traditional EA!

Hmmm... I'm not sure what conclusions you can draw.

You've really just highlighted that you used one 'traditional' EA who was wickedly devious. That's not a very big sample for drawing conclusions.

In the past couple of years, I've dealt with 4 'traditional' EAs for selling. I'd say one was a bit devious (and rubbish at selling), but the other 3 varied from 'quite good' to 'very good'.

I wouldn't be surprised if some online EAs are wickedly devious as well.


FWIW, I got a quote from a gas engineer the other day. I'd say he was wickedly devious. But it doesn't mean that all gas engineers are wickedly devious.

fed_up_and_stressed

I sold through House Network. We had listed through a local estate agent and it was unsold at the same price, the local agent basically could not be bothered marketing it properly. It was easy and far more stress free through House Network, buyer just phoned them up to arrange viewings and they placed them on hold whilst they rang me to confirm time.

My mum was considering moving and I recommended them to her. I was very impressed.

jamesmorgan

Having recently sold a property through a 'traditional' agent, I can empathize with many of the points raised by the OP. My key issues were:

a) Allowing the agent to do the viewings were a bit of a disaster
- they lacked basic selling skills (such as listening to the viewer's requirements)
- they spent as much time trying to sell them other properties on their books as my own property
- they were often late

b) When an offer is received the agent has very little interest in trying to increase the offer. A few £000 makes very little difference in their commission. They just want to sell houses quickly. I had tried to anticipate this by negotiating the contract to give them a £500 bonus if the sale price exceeded a certain amount, but this seemed to have little impact. In the end we spent more time negotiating with the agent to get them to go back to potential vendors than they spent negotiating with the vendor. If left up to the agent we would have received £20K less for the property.

c) When attempting to contact them you often get routed to a centralized call-center. This was a medium sized regional agent rather than a national one, but they still seem to centralize a lot of functions.

That said, I see little reason why an online agent would be any better (or worse). Increasingly there is little difference between the two anyway. Whilst the 'traditional' agent has a high street presence, neither myself or any of the potential purchasers had attended the office. All viewers had seen the house on rightmove. All discussions with the agent were by phone (or when they attended at the property). In fact, our agent could have labelled themselves as an 'online' agent and I don't think I would have noticed any difference. I suspect the days of agents having a physical presence will soon be over.

As is often the case, the quality of the service provided will be more down to the individuals you deal with rather than the organisation that they belong to.

Car1980

I sold a flat with an online agent. No complaints at all.
Tried the same with a house and it didn’t sell. Changed to a local agent and I suddenly started getting twice as many viewings.

Surrey_EA

argeetee wrote: »

My update was to offer my experience to others considering online or traditional EA!

Your experience is only relevant to people considering using the same firm of estate agents you instructed, otherwise it doesn't tell anybody a lot, other than some estate agents are rubbish, which is hardly news.

Like edddy says, I used the services of an oven repair firm earlier this month who I would describe as wickedly devious, but that does not mean all people who repair ovens are so.

argeetee

As for the relevance of my experience, I'm in my mid-fifties, have worked in construction and been buying and selling for nearly 30 years in differing parts of the country, for personal use and buy-to-lets (since '96). My cool scepticism towards EAs is founded on all that experience, but I still decided to give the local company with a good reputation a try, simply because when it was time to market I had a heavy workload. I should've just waited until I could do it myself. Sure as with everything online, I'll be careful.

I can't help wondering if some of these responses indicate Estate Agents again trying to influence the reading of this thread?

cloo

The first place I sold I used two trad agents. First were useless, made bad call on pricing and didn't get many viewers. Second were great, secured five good offers and managed them so that I got an excellent price on it.

Online services are still finding their feet right now, so to me it feels like using them is still more luck-of-the-draw than using a high street agents.

AlexMac

Thanks for the update OP... but...

Good EAs... bad EAs... luck of the draw, or judgement?

Last time I sold I did the usual beauty parade to compare 3 local firms; and the one we chose sold for us, a week later, at £80k more (about 15% more) than their 2 rivals' valuations! Didn't even bother asking an online.

The one who sold for us has come out tops on four out of five of our last 20 years sales and purchases... Which is no help to anyone unless you live in SE London, and like us, you stay local?

And what does that prove? I had a great lunch today... from a restaurant chain who served me a mediocre meal in one of their other branches three years ago!

antilles

We (myself and my girlfriend) have now sold 2 houses using House Network (hers completed last month actually). Found them through the forum here via recommendations. Both houses sold very quickly. Can't recommend them enough, photos were fantastic and service is great, they're always on the ball. Did the viewings myself. Would be happy to send you more information privately if you need anything.

You will hear a lot of stuff about how using high street agents is better, but selling houses isn't really that difficult. And high street agents are far more expensive. I have no idea why anyone would use one any more, they don't give you anything over an online agent as far as I can see. Any estate agent can be bad, whether online or high street, so best thing is to get recommendations.

Good luck and PM me if you need more info.

Fiesto88

Sounds like a pretty naff experience in the end. But I don’t think you can use one example to consign all bricks-and-mortar EAs to damnation for all eternity.

We’re buying through Purplebricks. Touch wood, as we’re not quite there yet, everything’s been fine. But. I wouldn’t be in a hurry to use them to sell. They haven’t lifted a finger in facilitating the sale - all the legwork and chasing has been done by a combination of us and the vendor.