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Estate Agents Vs Online Purple Bricks Type

Come August we will need an extra room and have put our house on the market with estate agent Haart. 1.5% plus VAT. They're the best in the area and have offices all over and claim 90% are moving out from London to my area on the past few years.

Most Unlike me I signed the agreement pretty much straight away and had the first viewing a day later.

A colleague had just sold her flat and used doorsteps.co.uk and it cost £200. Mines going to cost £7k which is a new kitchen in a new house.

Anyone got any experience with these online places and is it worth it or are estate agents still the best people to use to get people through the door & get top value?
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  • Surrey_EA
    Surrey_EA Posts: 2,042
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    It depends a lot on the type of property you are selling, how in demand that type of property is, what the market is like in your particular area, and how much legwork you want to put in yourself.

    In many cases finding the buyer is the easy bit, getting from offer acceptance to exchange is the tricky part, and where a good estate agent can make a difference.
    Haart. They're the best in the area
    Not many places you'll hear people saying that!!!
  • the_quick
    the_quick Posts: 75
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    We used emoov, more expensive than doorstep, but we were very happy with the service. We were bit weary about paying up front as the "incentive" wasn't there. No problem at all, office staff you have contact with by email/phone were brilliant, really quick to respond, passing messages from the buyer. No complains really. We had to do our own viewings, but on many occasions when we were looking for the house vendors were doing the viewings, despite being with high street agents.
    I have mixed experience with high street agents, the big chains not so good, always pushing really hard on their mortgage advisers and their recommended solicitors - multiple times on same meetings/calls. And sorry to say quite poor communication, responding to emails days later. Clearly they have mostly own interest in mind, rather than own client's - quick commission was clearly a goal.
    Local independent agents were much better, no so much hard selling and much more friendly, good communication - just more honest and decent people.
    We only did choose hybrid agent to save money and would do it again, but if I would have to, for some reason, work with estate agents, I would always choose local, independent one.
  • Davesnave
    Davesnave Posts: 34,741
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    If you've already signed-up and had a viewing, why are you asking the question, which is one that's asked in some form or other about once every 2 weeks here?

    Anyway, if Haart are so good, you won't need anyone else. Or will you?
  • PokerPlayer111
    PokerPlayer111 Posts: 343 Forumite
    edited 27 March 2018 at 8:35AM
    Surrey_EA wrote: »
    getting from offer acceptance to exchange is the tricky part, and where a good estate agent can make a difference.

    Genuine question, what can an EA do at this point? is it not down to solicitors for the most part?
  • ashe
    ashe Posts: 1,546
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    Geniune question, what can an EA do at this point? is it not down to solicitors for the most part?

    EA's will handle the price negotiation element of it. not everyone is a good sales negotiator. Good EA's will give advice around layout and photos, I'd be wanting a premium listing if I as paying a 7K fee mind. They will also act as a go between as solicitors often take ages and its good to have that layer of separation between you and buyers/sellers, without needing to rely on the solicitors workload. Solicitor is getting paid by you regardless but if the sale falls through the EA loses their commission, ours has resolved loads of queries before the solicitors were able to even raise them, ferried documents two and fro etc. We had our property on with one EA who as useless, other EA we moved to sold within a week from someone who came into their shop to look at what they had available, so sometimes its not just having it on right move that helps - this agent had the most properties for sale in our area according to GetAgent, which is why we chose them.

    Trouble is for OP they've already signed the contract so are probably locked in for some huge period. OP - read your terms and see how long you are sole agency. Unfortunately you have a time constraint and if you just signed the contract its probably at least 3-6 months you are locked in with them for to pay that fee if it sells. After that you can switch.
  • Surrey_EA
    Surrey_EA Posts: 2,042
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    Geniune question, what can an EA do at this point? is it not down to solicitors for the most part?

    Most conveyancing solicitors have 100-150 cases on the go at any one time, too many imho, but that's the volume needed to make any money out of it. Consequently each file does not always get the attention it deserves and they certainly don't have the time to chase very often, it tends to be very reactive from the solicitors point of view, rather than proactive.

    A good EA will be able to identify problems, and help find a solution to these problems, as well as being in a better position, likely with more time than the solicitor, to communicate progress to other parties in the chain.

    Particularly if there is a lengthy chain a good EA will be speaking to all other parties involved, where the solicitor will only be in touch with their own client and the solicitor acting for the other party, therefore may not always be aware of problems/delays elsewhere in the chain which will ultimately affect everyone.

    It's not rocket science, but many EAs perform the task poorly which results in some transactions needlessly falling through and general frustration on the part of buyers/sellers.
  • Davesnave wrote: »
    If you've already signed-up and had a viewing, why are you asking the question, which is one that's asked in some form or other about once every 2 weeks here?

    Anyway, if Haart are so good, you won't need anyone else. Or will you?

    Due to stupidity from my part. Rushed into something, overlooked that the fee would also include VAT then a colleague said it cost her only £200 so has given me sleepless nights now!
  • ashe wrote: »
    EA's will handle the price negotiation element of it. not everyone is a good sales negotiator. Good EA's will give advice around layout and photos, I'd be wanting a premium listing if I as paying a 7K fee mind. They will also act as a go between as solicitors often take ages and its good to have that layer of separation between you and buyers/sellers, without needing to rely on the solicitors workload. Solicitor is getting paid by you regardless but if the sale falls through the EA loses their commission, ours has resolved loads of queries before the solicitors were able to even raise them, ferried documents two and fro etc. We had our property on with one EA who as useless, other EA we moved to sold within a week from someone who came into their shop to look at what they had available, so sometimes its not just having it on right move that helps - this agent had the most properties for sale in our area according to GetAgent, which is why we chose them.

    Trouble is for OP they've already signed the contract so are probably locked in for some huge period. OP - read your terms and see how long you are sole agency. Unfortunately you have a time constraint and if you just signed the contract its probably at least 3-6 months you are locked in with them for to pay that fee if it sells. After that you can switch.

    20 weeks sole selling rights. I didn't realize that even if you find the buyer yourself you still have to pay the agency fee!

    Contract was signed on the 20/03/2018 so have 14 days cancellation period.

    My family always have a go at me for taking my time to make a decision so it was most unlike me to rush into it.
  • eddddy
    eddddy Posts: 16,292
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    A colleague had just sold her flat and used doorsteps.co.uk and it cost £200.

    I'm not averse to using an online agent, but I always like to understand the business model of people (including EAs) that I do business with. It helps me make better decisions.

    Doorsteps job adverts give an interesting insight:
    Telesales Executive
    Doorsteps.co.uk - Harrow

    The overall purpose of the Telesales Executive is to approach/cold-call very targeted customer lists/data we have on a daily basis and encourage them to become our customers and allowing us to advertise their home online.

    In a typical day the Telesales Agent for Doorsteps would be making 20-30 calls

    Package
    TBC - commmission only
    [Target] £15,000.00 to £30,000.00 /year

    Link https://www.indeed.co.uk/jobs?q=doorsteps.co.uk%20Telesales&l

    So the salesperson only gets paid if they sign up sellers. So this emphasises that employees are rewarded based on the number of sellers they sign up, not based on the number of properties they sell.
    Apprentice Receptionist
    DOORSTEPS UK

    Responding to customer enquiries, booking viewings, cancelling viewings

    Wages P/W £160.00
    Hours P/W 40.00

    https://www.getmyfirstjob.co.uk/Search/Jobs.aspx?id=79916&id2=1

    So it seems that a person who will be dealing with buyers enquiries and booking viewings is paid £4 per hour. Will they attract competent and efficient employees at that wage level?

    (From a moral perspective, is this a genuine apprenticeship where a young person is gaining skills and training - or are they cynically putting the word 'Apprentice' in front of the job title, so they don't have to pay minimum wage.)


    Having said this, I'm sure that many high street EAs (especially the large chains) use very similar tactics. So it's always good to do the research and understand the type of EA that you are dealing with.
  • I can only give one side of the story, but I bought through Purple Bricks and they were totally unhelpful.

    Didn't do anything other than email the seller to notify them I wanted a viewing, then when my offer eventually got accepted I actually heard from my 'local agent' who tried to push me to provide all information and documentation over the phone when I was at the pub on a Friday afternoon (probably so he could get the sale in that week's commission figures).

    My seller used their in-house conveyancing team and what followed was a painful battle of them not filling out documents correctly, not providing information correctly or at all, and generally not giving a damn whether the sale ever actually completed.They also failed to pass on messages from my solicitor about my intention to pull out of the sale at multiple points, and even told him that I was obstructing the sale which was why it wasn't progressing, even though we were waiting on documents from them!

    I have heard similar stories from friends trying to sell properties through them, and would be hard pushed to consider buying through them again, or selling via them either!
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