Online Estate Agents - worth a shot or stay away?

peterhjohnson

The housing market is intensely local. I find it difficult to believe that an online agent will have the local knowledge to price properties accurately. A busy local agent should be a lot better. I am very pleased with a small local "chain" recommended by a friend.

Davesnave

See the post above this.

A friend ignored my advice to go with a local agency which has a track record of selling and went on-line instead, 'saving' several thousand pounds. Her property isn't what one would call standard and she needs a specific kind of buyer.

She's just paid out to the online agent and remains as she was at this time last year: unsold.

When wasted time in a deteriorating market is factored-in, her experience in saving on agents' fees has been very costly.

Mutton_Geoff

The difference in cost between online and traditional agent is miniscule in comparison to the fact that the human contact and sales/marketing ability of a proper agent can achieve much closer to your asking price than the online ones.


I would not view a property listed with an online agent for the reasons above.


1% plus VAT is the norm. Perhaps the agent saw a weakness in you and decided to try their luck? Time to play harder.

knightstyle

So what is the cheapest way to get a property onto Rightmove and Zoopla?

AdrianC

knightstyle wrote: »

So what is the cheapest way to get a property onto Rightmove and Zoopla?

Cheapest is not necessarily the best.

I'd far rather pay a little bit more for a good local agent, and get better marketing, better sale management, and a better sale price.

Getting hung up on saving a couple of hundred quid could easily cost thousands plus time/sweat/blood pressure.

Of course, that doesn't mean ALL local agents are good. Or even that all good ones are good value. 3% is firmly in the Michael Extraction category.

Davesnave

knightstyle wrote: »

So what is the cheapest way to get a property onto Rightmove and Zoopla?

Something like Doorsteps, I suppose, but if that's all anyone's concerned about, they're not seeing the whole picture.

Take the property I sold in 2006 with an agent at 1%, which I had to haggle very hard for. Their negotiator rang me one day and said, "OK, I've got the price you wanted, but shall I push for more? I'm sure I can get it."

No need to state my response!

Ten minutes later: "OK, done and dusted at asking price, and that's our fee paid."

Prior to appointing that agent, I interviewed 5 of them. One said he could sell it in under a month. The one I chose took about 6 months, with one lost sale due to a noisy neighbour.

The difference in their valuation = £18k.

Of course, if I'd needed to sell fast.....

There's many things to consider, but we know nothing whatever about the OP, or their property, so we must assume for now she thinks that's not important. It is.

Crashy_Time

lees80 wrote: »

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

With transactions heading back towards all time lows, no wonder they need to price cut to get any business.

http://www.plumplot.co.uk/North-West-property-transactions.html

Crashy_Time

Davesnave wrote: »

Something like Doorsteps, I suppose, but if that's all anyone's concerned about, they're not seeing the whole picture.

Take the property I sold in 2006 with an agent at 1%, which I had to haggle very hard for. Their negotiator rang me one day and said, "OK, I've got the price you wanted, but shall I push for more? I'm sure I can get it."

No need to state my response!

Ten minutes later: "OK, done and dusted at asking price, and that's our fee paid."

Prior to appointing that agent, I interviewed 5 of them. One said he could sell it in under a month. The one I chose took about 6 months, with one lost sale due to a noisy neighbour.

The difference in their valuation = £18k.

Of course, if I'd needed to sell fast.....

There's many things to consider, but we know nothing whatever about the OP, or their property, so we must assume for now she thinks that's not important. It is.

Not sure where you are, but if we stick with the N.West example looking at how many sales there are now compared to `06 show us that the two markets are not comparable.

http://www.plumplot.co.uk/North-West-property-transactions.html

Davesnave

Crashy_Time wrote: »

Not sure where you are, but if we stick with the N.West example looking at how many sales there are now compared to `06 show us that the two markets are not comparable.

I don't recall me saying that the markets are comparable, but if selling is tougher now than in 2006, that's a very good argument for avoiding DIY solutions, which is what a mega-cheap online upload to one of the big platforms is.