Online vs traditional estate agents

eyeofthetiger999

Hi everyone. My house will be put up for sale to fund a new house very shortly. Its the first time I will be doing this. I have had various quotes form traditional vs online agents.

Purplebricks charge £895
most of traditional estate agents charge 1% of transaction fee plus VAT so for my property this could be a total of £3.6-3.7k

Theres quite a large difference between these quotes. Ive had mixed reports of both online and traditional estate agents and various comments such as:

"traditional estate agents dont actually do much for their fee"
"online estate agents wont have much motivation to do much once you pay upfront"
"estate agents can sometimes not transmit offers correctly made for your house and may favour faviroute buyers"
"if you use online,you waste your money if it doesnt sell"

My house is a detached 4 bed in the northwest. I would be able to do the viewings myself for the house.

Does anyone have any personal experience in selling their own homes?

Thanks

Davesnave

Your question feaures regularly in these threads.


Why not just read the last one? Although the OP has edited their first post, (something we prefer people not to do) the rest covers the various arguments fairly well:


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6010881/purplebricks-yopa-or-private

steampowered

If you hit the "forum search" button and search for purplebricks, you will find a lot of posts by dissatisfied customers.

Especially for purplebricks' viewing service - a lot of people saying they find it impossible to arrange viewings through PB.

ynyswen

Hello, just from personal recent experience, I would go with a regular well known (in your area) estate agent. My reason- we are buying a house marketed buy an online agent and selling ours through a local agent.
We have hit a bit of a snag in the chain and our estate agent is getting in touch with the other estate agents in the chain and also the conveyancers/solicitors to try to get things moving. We are being kept fully informed. Whereas the person we are buying off is in the dark or would be if I wasn’t emailing to let them know what is going on.

Yes we are paying a lot more for this personal service but for us it seems well worth it. They were also very good with viewings and giving feedback from viewings plus the photos were very professional on the brochure and on the online portals.

AdrianC

If ever I see a place advertised by the online agents, two things pop into my mind...

1. The vendor is a cheapskate.
2. The vendor didn't like what the local EAs told him.

Neither of these bode well for a smooth sale.

rumandcoke

After using an EA and the sale of my Bungalow falling through (which I was informed of by someone other than my EA putting a note in my door!) I am now using an online site. Yes you pay up front but it is to cover advertising so even if I put it in the press I would still have to pay. As we are on the MSE site which encourages us to be shrewd I shall save approx £3,500 . I am by no means a cheapskate and, in fact, a potential Buyer may use my choice of using an Online company and saving money, to make a lower but acceptable offer.

AdrianC

So if you've "saved" £2,500 in fees, and your buyer puts a £5,000 lower offer in... that's just cost you £2,500.

Davesnave

rumandcoke wrote: »

After using an EA and the sale of my Bungalow falling through (which I was informed of by someone other than my EA putting a note in my door!) I am now using an online site.

So, you chose a crap agent, and from that single experience where you maybe didn't do due diligence, you assume that an online agent will therefore be much better?


OK........

babyblade41

Davesnave wrote: »

So, you chose a crap agent, and from that single experience where you maybe didn't do due diligence, you assume that an online agent will therefore be much better?


OK........

:rotfl:

It amazes me how some people think..

Online , set fee, money upfront or defer on finance and have to use allocated conveyancer as opposed to proper well respected EA ......EA , no money upfront, has more incentive to get not only an offer but to make sure it goes over the line and doing lots of jiggery pokery in the background to make sure you get the best price possible

I think some would spend 900.00 to receive crap service ..I, however would rather spend my hard earned dosh on decent service ie recommended , well respected EA

System

Purplebricks have just announced losses of £51 million and that is despite getting paid on every one of their instructions. For every 10 sales an estate agent agrees 3 will fall through.


Traditional agents have an incentive to get the sale through to completion as the vast majority are no sale no fee, PB have no incentive to even get an offer for you as they already have your money even when the vendor chooses the deferred option as the finance company pays them.

hazyjo

babyblade41 wrote: »

I think some would spend 900.00 to receive crap service ..I, however would rather spend my hard earned dosh on decent service ie recommended , well respected EA

I agree with you, but therein lies the problem. There aren't many 'well respected EAs' around.