Yopa - a really bad idea if you use 'no sale no fee'?

orangecrush

Hi moneysavers!

We're thinking of moving this year, and have had a few valuations from both local highstreet, chain and online agents. We had a valuation from Yopa (value in line with all the others) and are debating using them but ONLY on their no sale no fee price. Even that (which is double their fixed fee) would save us around £1,000. The agent is local enough, and seems to know his stuff. Was very factual which I liked but may not appeal to all. He said for a property of our size and value, we shouldn't worry about the snob factor of online agents and that as we'll be appealing to first time buyers and young professionals, they'd cope with an online booking system etc.

Two of the agents (one local, one chain) are saying that they have streams of buyers for our place, PLUS giving us the "we have the perfect house for you but the owners don't want to market yet... sign up with us and you'll get a preview blah blah". Not sure how much weight I put on this but it is bugging me that we might miss out on the elusive second-step house in our area.

And the other local agent just came highly recommended by a friend. But isn't that local and isn't one of the boards you see strolling around our neighbourhood. Does that matter if he's got a good reputation for getting a deal?

All the fees are for the traditional agents are identical - we've been challenging them all to price match each other and we've got all to the same T&Cs and fees.

Would Yopa be a really bad idea in this situation? Our house isn't big or grand. It's in a desirable area and right now there isn't any competition. I'm not sure if we'd regret it - we want to maximise the price we get for this house and logic says that should mean we go for an agent where their commission is tied to the price achieved. But is that worth £1000 extra in fees?
Should I just throe a die?

Sorry for rambling. I'm off sick recovering from norovirus and have too much time to think!

Advice welcome!

seradane

orangecrush wrote: »

I'm not sure if we'd regret it - we want to maximise the price we get for this house and logic says that should mean we go for an agent where their commission is tied to the price achieved. But is that worth £1000 extra in fees?

No advice on Yopa, but the logic of agents being incentivised to get the best price is a bit overrated - sure they get more commission but for the sake of say £25 extra commission or no commission at all they're not going to want you to hold out for a better price if they can get any price agreed.

seradane

Another thought - if you start with Yopa and don't have any luck, you've not lost out on anything (aside from time) as you won't have to pay any fees - and can then move on to a more traditional agent and see if that works better.

orangecrush

Two really good points, thank you! I'm loathe to go through repeated sets of agents as we've got a toddler and cats to get out of the way and deep clean whenever we have viewings. I'm hoping we can get one, maybe two open viewings done then have a decent pool from that.



I'm leaning towards Yopa just to save the money but I've read time and again here that online agents are a bad idea, and I am not sure if I'm viewing it all with money goggles!

pinkteapot

We viewed and offered on a house through Yopa last year. I’m not sure what the point of the agent was - when we offered we filled in an online form (like bidding on eBay) and the vendors reviewed it and messaged us direct to negotiate. We’re experienced buyers/sellers so it didn’t bother us. Might put off some buyers.

If you will be negotiating with buyers yourselves, just ask yourself if you’re as good as it as an estate agent. If you save £1k but a good local agent can get your buyer to offer £5k more than you can then you’ve lost out.

They are at least better than Purple Bricks. Phoned them to book a viewing and spoke to someone who sounded about 16 and said “Cool beans!” when I said we were cash buyers.

cloo

A good agent *can* make a difference though. Put my first house on the market, at a very busy time in a very popular area. Initial agent promised 12+ viewers, lots of offers. I got one offer, right at the bottom of what we were considering, and rejected it.


Took it off the market and put on a few months later with much better agent - they secured 5 offers and the one we accepted was 15% higher than the previous agent got (a bit was knocked off final sale price in the end but i didn't mind, it was still loads more than I expected)

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser

Interesting post OP. Genuine question, what's the catch in Yopa's no sale no-fee deal? Other than the online part, how's the contract,/TCs different from the brick and mortar EA?

orangecrush

Thanks everyone for your responses.


It's raised a few questions I need to go back to the Yopa guy about! I'm not sure who will be negotiating... the package he's quoted us for will involve him doing the viewings, premium rightmove listing, floorplan, extra photos blah blah. I asked him about progression and he said he would be our main point of contact until completion, but there is also a progressions company they use (the chain estate agent we asked also use this) who assist.



In terms of the contract, it seems much the same. We've negotiated away all the tie in periods and withdrawal fees with all of them. So I'm honestly not sure what the catch is. I suspect is 1) not having a pool of local buyers ready to harass and 2) not doing the negotiations. The first I'm not so bothered about because I know this is a desirable area and anyone who wants to live here will be registered with rightmove alerts, but the second is perhaps a dealbreaker. I cannot be bothered with negotiations. I am an introvert and would find it so painful!



All the people we had round seemed like good agents. They seemed decent, professional, had done their research, really listened to our needs... although in two cases the people we had round were the valuers and the other two cases the valuers would also be the sales agents.



On the traditional agents, the one who we bought the house through is one of the "we have the perfect house for you, I'll give you a sneak peak" ones. They were a PITA to buy through as they outsource progression to a company run by a dinosaur ex-conveyancer who called me "dear" and almost cost us the deal because he lied through his teeth. They still do that although its someone else doing the actual work so perhaps less lying and patronising to clients.



The agent with the highest (unrealistic) valuation is definitely the local volume agent. They have around 40% of the market. The guy did do his homework but I still felt uncomfortable with his valuation.



The one who came recommended is from a neighbourhood about 4 miles away; doesn't really have a presence in the market here. Is that a bad thing? They're a small operation, too. But the person who recommended him really doesn't give praise often so it carries weight that she did so.



There's a really annoying lack of second step houses around here - giant family houses, yes. First time buyer houses, yes. Something in the middle? Heck no. So we're stuck going for the slightly crappy giant family houses which means every pound counts. So we do want to find someone who can maximise our sale price. But equally there's no huge push factor. We do love our house. Just have the opportunity to move and thought we'd test it out. So if we don't get our price, we just stay.

orangecrush

pinkteapot wrote: »

Phoned them to book a viewing and spoke to someone who sounded about 16 and said “Cool beans!” when I said we were cash buyers.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: COOL BEANS:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
I haven't heard that in decades. Hilarious!

PasturesNew

My agent sold my house - he spotted an opportunity to convince me, my buyer and their buyer to put a chain together.... it'd have not happened if he'd not proactively realised "they want to buy A, A wants to buy B, if I can get a good price from B we've all got the deal we want". I was B and he phoned me......

ethank

I also think that the best service the estate agent provides is sales progression and trying to move everything forward. What do Yopa do there? This is why I'd always go for a traditional EA