Strike estate agents

GDB2222

A house near us has gone on the market, and it’s now sold. The estate agent is Strike, which charges nothing for a basic service. Has anyone used them, and do you have any experience to share?

Bonniepurple

I know nothing about them, bar that a local bungalow has just sold (STC) after 8 months on a very buoyant market.  Anything else (bungalow, house, flat) marketed by the local estate agents  has been snapped up within weeks.

IMO, national estate agents can work well in big cities, but in smaller areas where everyone knows everyone else (our vendor is the aunt of my daughter’s friend, our estate agents sold our current house to us, our vendor’s estate agents sold my in-laws house to them in the 1990s!) I don’t think they do as well as the locals who know the area inside out.

NameUnavailable

Plenty of reviews on Google.

Whilst I'm sure you'd be happy to sell your home for free, it's interesting that they don't put any value whatsoever on their service. Even though there are costs for them to advertise your home etc. If they think what they offer is valueless then I wonder what that says about their approach and care?

Of course they sell extras and I guess you get the hard sell on those. It would be interesting to know how the price for a sale 'with extras' compares to the cost of a local agent who includes all of that within their commission.

eddddy

As you probably know, HouseSimple has re-branded as Strike. HouseSimple's fees used to start at around £600.

Maybe Strike's business model is to make money selling associated services.


Or maybe this is a loss-leader to build up market share.

i.e. They want to get lots of free advertising from thousands of 'Strike - For Sale' and 'Strike - Sold' boards in front of houses. Then eventually they'll start charging for their services again.


PurpleBricks has been spending about £26m per year on advertising. Maybe Strike don't have millions to spend on advertising trying to 'steal' market share from PurpleBricks. So they're trying this strategy instead.



Lots of tech companies take the approach of 'giving away' their products/services for free (or at a loss) initially to build up market awareness and market share - then they start charging. Maybe Strike are trying that approach.

GDB2222

Thanks. The house that sold was on for over £2m, so the estate agents round here would typically be charging well over £20k. Some of the agents want 2.5% on a multiple agency sale. Plus VAT. So, the EA charges would normally be in the range £25-60k.

Any extras Strike charges would be extremely modest in comparison. 

It was listed a couple of months ago and it’s now under offer. This is London, where the market is not red hot, so I think that’s relatively normal speed for London. 

SDLT_Geek

It is good to see someone like @GDB2222, who puts in so much effort helping others on this Forum, get some useful feedback. Sorry that I was not able to contribute anything, no stamp duty land tax angle here!

RJM90

We used Strike and couldn’t speak more highly of them. They have been great from start to finish and as you progress you get a new person who looks after you. I had issues with my buyer early on and I every time I rang Strike I was through within minutes and speaking to someone who could help.

Liverpool is awash with Strike houses now and I really fear for other estate agents in the area. Basically they make their money from commission and recommendations.

So… we got asked if we wanted 3D photos for the house and a person to take viewings. This would have cost us £500, however we said no. Therefore we did the viewings and just had normal (high quality) photos.

We were then asked if we needed a solicitor. We already had one lined up but the person who bought our house didn’t have one lined up. Strike recommended someone local or Liverpool and the buyer took it. 

Since that they have asked us about mortgage advisers, moving services, electrics, house removals and everything in between.

If you have any further questions please let me know. I’m happy to help.

NameUnavailable

eddddy said:

Or maybe this is a loss-leader to build up market share.

i.e. They want to get lots of free advertising from thousands of 'Strike - For Sale' and 'Strike - Sold' boards in front of houses. Then eventually they'll start charging for their services again.

I expect that you are right with this.

When I worked for an EA we opened a new branch and offered low fees to get some vendors on board. I was speaking to a local homeowner one day who told me that lots of her friends were talking about the new EA, but were saying they wouldn't want to use us because neighbours would assume that they couldn't afford to pay the more established agents fees!!

eddddy

NameUnavailable said:

eddddy said:

Or maybe this is a loss-leader to build up market share.

i.e. They want to get lots of free advertising from thousands of 'Strike - For Sale' and 'Strike - Sold' boards in front of houses. Then eventually they'll start charging for their services again.

I expect that you are right with this.

When I worked for an EA we opened a new branch and offered low fees to get some vendors on board. I was speaking to a local homeowner one day who told me that lots of her friends were talking about the new EA, but were saying they wouldn't want to use us because neighbours would assume that they couldn't afford to pay the more established agents fees!!

Yep - I'm sure that 'snobbery' is also a consideration in some people's choice of EA.

Some EAs have reputations for selling distinctive and exclusive property - so by selling through them, you're trying to give buyers the impression that your property is distinctive and exclusive.

And those types of EAs make special mention their Mayfair offices and international offices.

fiveacre

Personal experience with Strike - I found them great at every point.

At valuation, they suggested listing higher than I had planned, the price I had in mind was based on recent nearby sales. The viewings were easy to manage through their app.

I took my own photos which I preferred as I could take time staging them, and you can update photos whenever you like which I did based on feedback.

We had quite a few viewings then an offer at asking price. They did step away quite a bit after that, but perhaps that was because everything progressed quickly anyway so there wasn't really any need for pushing things faster.

They asked if I'd like to use their conveyancer or mortgage broker, I declined and they didn't mention it again.

bsmith147

We put our house up for sale with Strike in April - it sold very quickly, but it's recently renovated and in a desirable area so we knew it would sell itself, which is why we took a chance on Strike.

I honestly can't tell you how useless they are. We don't know how they are allowed to operate, nevermind get good reviews. They do nothing. Are incompetent. If you're buying an onward house, estate agents refuse to deal with Strike. 12 weeks after we accpted an offer we got a call from our solicitor that Strike had rang them to say they weren't supposed to be acting for us (they were) and were supposed to be acting for our buyer. I contacted the FTB direct who hadn't even instructed a solicitor and Strike hadn't picked this up in 3 months. They're just awful, I could go on all day but I won't, my biggest stress/regret with the whole process so far.