Online Estate Agents - worth a shot or stay away?

smorri4

Hello,
Looking to sell up and move, and just wondering peoples experiences of online estate agents and any that have been particular good/helpful.
Local estate agent was 3% of selling price of house - so looking at somewhere around 7.5k!

Thanks

Sarah

laptop80

I tried Doorsteps - at £99 it was extremely cheap and the listing was fine, but the process for people to book viewings etc was an awful automated phoneline when I'd assumed it would be a call centre. We worried it would put people off so decided to go with a local agent instead who gave us a flat-fee deal for £900. Doorsteps said they were working on improving their system, so I don't know if they've done it yet, but it was shockingly bad at the time.

PasturesNew

In a "funny market" agents provide somebody actively trying to sell your house for you as they are having conversations with people and have to work harder to get viewings from people.

As a buyer, I "step away from" most selling their own house as I think they'll have an inflated view about its worth ... and so hard to negotiate with as they'd take it more personally.

Any house at the right price will get viewings/offers though, so if it's a good house at the right price it'd sell no matter who was marketing it.

johnathan45

smorri4 wrote: »

Hello,
Looking to sell up and move, and just wondering peoples experiences of online estate agents and any that have been particular good/helpful.
Local estate agent was 3% of selling price of house - so looking at somewhere around 7.5k!

Thanks

Sarah

That's very expensive. Get a few quotes, take the cheapest quote and ask the agent you like the most if they can price match. Don't know which part of the country you are in but most agents are desperate for business around here.

lees80

North West - average between the three agents we approached was 1.2%. At 3% I'd be looking elsewhere.

johnathan45

If you do end up using online ones, I wouldn't recommend their extra packages where they conduct the viewings. The agents have zero interest in showing people around as they already have been paid.

lees80

johnathan45 wrote: »

If you do end up using online ones, I wouldn't recommend their extra packages where they conduct the viewings. The agents have zero interest in showing people around as they already have been paid.

It was the 'already been paid' part that actually put me off using them altogether - payment upfront for a selling service leaves very little to zero incentive at all to produce results.

Bluntman_1983

3% for local estate agent seems awfully high. I'm based in the South East and selling at the moment and all three estate agents we had round to do valuations quoted 1% of sale price. Never considered an online agent for a second, but then the potential saving wasn't as big as what the OP is looking at.

For what it's worth, the local agent we went with have more than justified their fee and their support has been invaluable.

davidmcn

As above I'd expect you to be able to haggle a better deal with "traditional" agents, though 3% seems absurdly high for them to start at.

Flugelhorn

I had several estate agents quote in Shropshire and they were all 1% - some included the VAT in that, some didn't

welwynrose

We’re buying a property through an online agency that was supposed to be buyer ready 6 weeks after making our offered we’re still waiting for the paperwork from them I will be making a complaint once our purchase is complete, the vendor is equally as frustrated