Mumsnet user review Yopa - an online estate agency

[EllieMumsnet]

This activity is now closed

This thread is for the 5 Mumsnetters who tested the Yopa service for 10 weeks to try and sell their home.

Non testers, in order to be entered into a prize draw to win, where one Mumsnetter will win a £150 John Lewis voucher, please share your thoughts on the following - ‘Some online estate agents have local agents covering the whole country and others do not. How important is local knowledge when choosing an estate agent to sell your home?’

If you'd like to find out more about Yopa, please feel free to visit their website

Here’s what Yopa have to say: “At Yopa, we’ve kept the good bits of traditional estate agency and done away with all the bad bits. Like the expensive commission, the 9-5 opening hours, and the old-fashioned way of doing things. In their place is the 21st century way of selling your home. That means your own dedicated local estate agent, with you every step of the way. A professional advert for your home that goes in front of millions of buyers on Rightmove, Zoopla and PrimeLocation. And your own online control centre that lets you track your sale and receive viewing requests and offers directly, 24/7. All this for a low fixed fee including VAT of £839 (£1,399 in some London postcodes). That’s it. A low fixed fee. No small print. We’ve been rated 5-star by thousands of happy home sellers. On average, we find a buyer for them within 30 days - and they get over 98% of their asking price.”

Testers, please answer the following questions:

First impressions

• First lot of questions: impressions on the valuation -
  
• Did you find your valuation with your local Yopa agent useful?
  
• How well was the process of Yopa explained to you?
  
• Did you feel your Yopa agent had lots of local knowledge?
  
• Are you happy with your agent?
  

Second lot of questions: putting your home up for sale & advert -

• So far are you pleased with the service?
  
• Were you happy with the adverts prepared for your home?
  
• How is the process of selling your house online?
  

Third lot of questions: finding a buyer -

• How’s the process been so far?
  
• How much success have you had in selling your house?
  
• How easy have you found using yopahub (your online dashboard)?
  

Final batch of questions: overall impressions of the service -

• What did you like most about the process?
  
• Would you recommend selling with Yopa over a high street agent? -
  
• Would you use it again if you were selling again?
  
• What are your overall thoughts on the process?
  
• Did your property manage to sell?
  

All testers who complete all feedback will receive a £50 John Lewis voucher.

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

[crazybutterflylady]

Tester here
First impressions - first lot of questions:
Impressions on the valuation The valuation was slightly lower than we marketed it for very briefly earlier in the year. However, the agent gave a well-reasoned rationale for this and I was happy to go with his advice.

Did you find your valuation with your local Yopa agent useful? Yes, it took a long time but it was thorough and the agent took me through a lot of local properties and their market history which I found interesting and useful.

How well was the process of Yopa explained to you? Very well

Did you feel your Yopa agent had lots of local knowledge? Yes, it certainly felt that way, he lives relatively locally too.

Are you happy with your agent? I am so far, yes. He was thorough and listened rather than talking over me. He took time over the photographs and was very attentive to the details. However, I have had a few bad experiences with agents and big egos, spouting loads of rubbish about how quickly the house will sell etc and then being less than useless once we sign up - so because of this I am reserving full judgement. Time will tell ;)

In terms of using high street agents, I was curious to try Yopa because I've had nothing but bad experiences with High Street agencies. It will be interesting to see whether the no-commission/incentive aspect makes a difference. However even on the High Street I had one agent say to me he wasn't interested in getting a higher price on a property for his Vendor as it was "a drop in the ocean" for him! I think the entire industry needs a massive shake up and if we are headed towards online agents it could be just what we need.

I have to say I am intrigued about the after sales service given there is no real incentive for the agent/Yopa to see a sale through to the end. I guess we will see.

[frowner]

Tester here. I have my valuation booked in for later this week. Struggled initially to find a suitable time slot for the valuation using their online booking system so decided to email them. I had a personal response very quickly and a suitable appointment time was found. Will update after the valuation.

[frowner]

Tester here:

• First lot of questions: impressions on the valuation -
  

My husband and I were impressed with the valuation experience and
felt that the house was appropriately valued based on similar
properties and current market conditions.

• Did you find your valuation with your local Yopa agent useful?
  

Yes we did, the agent explained the process clearly and we felt
confident to move forward to place our house on the market based
on the valuation.

• How well was the process of Yopa explained to you?
  

The agent clearly explained how an online agency works explaining
both the flexibility of this approach and how it is managed through
the Yopa hub from organising viewings to offer negotiations.

• Did you feel your Yopa agent had lots of local knowledge?
  

There wasn't much discussion surrounding local knowledge but the
agent was aware of the local estate agents.

• Are you happy with your agent
  

Yes, based on the first visit we are happy with our agent. He was
friendly, polite and appeared very knowledgeable and confident in his
role.

Our agent will be returning after Christmas to take the photos and complete the listing, this was our decision he was happy to come back before. Will leave further feedback once this has been completed.

[Geckos]

Tester here -

First impressions

• First lot of questions: impressions on the valuation - Having done some research on the current market conditions ourselves, we felt that the agents valuation was on par with other similar properties in the area.
  

• Did you find your valuation with your local Yopa agent useful? - Yes, we felt that he gave us some useful advise to consider that we hadn't previously thought of. He was also friendly but professional and not pushy or 'sales-y'
  

• How well was the process of Yopa explained to you? - He gave us an overview of the company, its history and its niche in the marketplace.
  

Being an online agent appealed to us as it gives us online access to our own property dashboard where we can view messages, upcoming viewing appointments, feedback and statistics from Rightmove, Zoopla etc on the number of hits our property has had. This is a great feature that keeps you informed about everything happening and not something that you get with normal high street agents.

• Did you feel your Yopa agent had lots of local knowledge? - Yes, he lives locally so he knows the area quite well and has worked for other estate agents in the area for 20 odd years so his knowledge of the town is good.
  

• Are you happy with your agent? - Yes, so far it is going well. His speed and efficiency has exceeded all expectations. Having given the go ahead via email to market the property, it was on Rightmove and Zoopla within 30 minutes.

[Stargirl84]

Tester here!
First impressions

• Did you find your valuation with your local Yopa agent useful?
  

Really useful, realistic price of the property quoted and the agent understood the selling points of the property as well as the target market for potential buyers.

• How well was the process of Yopa explained to you?
  

Very clearly. I’m looking forward to using the hub but I’m glad our agent will be doing the viewings, as we didn’t want to do those ourselves.

• Did you feel your Yopa agent had lots of local knowledge?
  

Yes, he’d looked into the local area and knew its selling points, like the fact that our property is close to local amenities. He knew that another property for sale in our road is currently under offer, which we weren’t aware of.

• Are you happy with your agent?
  

Very happy. He was punctual and polite without being pushy. He’s happy to come back after Christmas and take photos so that we can put the property on the market at the beginning of January.

[EllieMumsnet]

Hello, please could testers answer the second lot of questions:

• So far are you pleased with the service?
  
• Were you happy with the adverts prepared for your home?
  
• How is the process of selling your house online?
  

Thanks
MNHQ

[crazybutterflylady]

Update/second set of questions:

So far are you pleased with the service? yes, very happy. The agent has kept in touch and is quick to respond to messages. The hub is really interesting and informative; I think more should be made of this in Yopa’s marketing. It’s definitely a USP for me.

Were you happy with the adverts prepared for your home? yes, very happy. The proof was sent over and we made a few amendments which were addressed and then the advert was live!

How is the process of selling your house online? seems easy so far. I like the interface and the hub, it’s good to be able to keep a check on what’s happening and how many views you get online. We have not had any physical viewings yet, so haven’t experienced the feedback section yet.

[Geckos]

Tester here -
Second lot of questions -

So far are you pleased with the service?

• Were you happy with the adverts prepared for your home? Yes, we are quite happy with the advert. We reviewed the wording for the ad before it went live and we were also told in person that if we wanted anything changed within the ad, all we had to do was ask.
  

• How is the process of selling your house online? So far we prefer this process over selling with a high street agent, we have sold 3 properties previously with High Street estate agents, never an online agent before now. Having access to the online dashboard/hub is a big bonus for us.
  

We are pleased so far.

[Stargirl84]

• So far are you pleased with the service?
  

Our Yopa agent has been very helpful, however there was a mix up initially which meant that we as the owners were booked in to do viewings ourselves, instead of the agent. Our agent did apologise and explained that this was due to an administrative error. This meant that we had to do three of the viewings ourselves, rather than risk cancelling or rescheduling the viewings and putting possible vendors off. However, it has worked out ok because our house sold on the third viewing! We’re really happy about this.

• Were you happy with the adverts prepared for your home?
  

Yes, the advert was well written and the photos were crisp and clear. We felt the advert sold the property for us and had five viewings booked within the first few days.

• How is the process of selling your house online?
  

I like the Hub. I like keeping track of viewings and seeing feedback about the property. It is really helpful to know about potential vendors (e.g. if they’ve already sold their property/are first time buyers/are cash buyers) and have this in writing. It was useful to receive a text alert from the Hub when people were trying to book viewings or give feedback. It would be useful if the Hub was an app, too.

[frowner]

Tester here second lot of questions:

So far are you pleased with the service?
On the whole yes, the agent is easily contactable via the Hub and the advert has generated a number of viewing requests already. Unfortunately no agents were available to do the first lot of viewings so we were given the option of rescheduling them or doing them ourselves.

Were you happy with the adverts prepared for your home?
The agent returned after Christmas to take photos and create the advert. They took numerous photos which were emailed to us for us to choose our preferred ones. The listing was created and we were able to submit any amendments we felt necessary via the Hub. Our property is now live and we are pleased with the listing, it reads well and looks professional and all our amendments were included.

How is the process of selling your house online?
It has been straightforward so far. The Hub allows us to see how many times our property has been viewed on Rightmove and gives information on people requesting to view the property which is very interesting. We haven’t received any feedback yet, however the first viewer was unsure of how to leave feedback as wasn’t sure if Yopa would be contacting her so this is a conversation I’ll need to have with the agent, as any feedback is valuable.

[EllieMumsnet]

Hi MNers, please could testers answer the third lot of questions:

• How’s the process been so far?
  
• How much success have you had in selling your house?
  
• How easy have you found using Yopahub (your online dashboard)?
  

Thanks
MNHQ

[Stargirl84]

- How’s the process been so far?
It’s been a straightforward process and we sold our house after the third viewing. (See posting above!)

- How much success have you had in selling your house?
Sold after being on the market for four days. We’re in a short chain with a good buyer and are hoping to move before Easter if all goes smoothly.

- How easy have you found using Yopahub (your online dashboard)?
It was really useful when we were having viewings, to know the status of each potential vendor, as well as receive feedback on our house. It automatically generated a memorandum of sale once we’d accepted an offer, which made the sale process feel complete.

[Geckos]

third lot of questions:

• How’s the process been so far? The process has been very easy and straight forward as far as everything being done online and the agent dealing with viewings but after one viewing we had to chase the estate agent after 5 days because he didn't give any feed back at all. None via phone, text, email or the online dashboard/control hub. That was quite disappointing having to chase him for information.
  

• How much success have you had in selling your house? No, luck yet.
  

• How easy have you found using Yopahub (your online dashboard)? The dashboard/hub is very easy to use and informative (if the agent fills in the information). All estate agents should have this!

[crazybutterflylady]

Third set of questions:

1. How’s the process been so far? Umm, it’s been quite slow for us. We have had one viewing in 9 weeks which is a bit disappointing. One of the things I was really looking forward to when we first met our agent was receiving the feedback online from the viewing. Sadly, the people who viewed didn’t bother to complete is and our agent has been pretty scarce since the viewing despite telling us he was chasing to get the feedback. We haven’t heard from him much in the last few weeks.
   
   
2. How much success have you had in selling your house? None, see above.
   
   
3. How easy have you found using Yopahub (your online dashboard)? The dashboard is very user friendly, you can see exactly how many people have clicked on your ad which is useful (if a little soul destroying given our situation!). It’s a good way of being able to keep in touch with the process. I imagine it really comes into its own when people have a lot of interest.

[frowner]

Tester here third lot of questions:

• How’s the process been so far?
  

The process has been pretty straightforward. The only slight negative has been the agent not being available for any of the weekend viewing requests however we were given the option to reschedule if we didn’t want to do the viewings ourselves.

• How much success have you had in selling your house?
  

We have accepted an offer on our property which is fantasticafter such a short time on the market. We have been passed over to the sales support team now to follow the sale through and so far they have been very informative.

• How easy have you found using Yopahub (your online dashboard)? It has been very easy to use and is a useful tool both to look at statistics and as a form of communication with the agent.

[EllieMumsnet]

Hi MN testers please could you answer the final lot of feedback questions:

• What did you like most about the process?
  
• Would you recommend selling with Yopa over a high street agent? -
  
• Would you use it again if you were selling again?
  
• What are your overall thoughts on the process?
  
• Did your property manage to sell?
  

Thanks
MNHQ

[crazybutterflylady]

Final set below:

• What did you like most about the process? I liked the hub. It is a brilliant piece of technology and definitely a USP. I have said before that I think your advertising should make much more of this.
  

• Would you recommend selling with Yopa over a high street agent? Hmm. I think it is definitely worth a try, I like the model and I think it works well but feel that at present it is very location-dependent.
  

• Would you use it again if you were selling again? Probably, yes.
  

• What are your overall thoughts on the process? I like it. As I say, it is a good business model. I think the hub is fantastic and in the right location/market it is a genius approach.
  

• Did your property manage to sell? Nope. We have had one viewing.

[Stargirl84]

What did you like most about the process?
The fact that we sold quickly and were able to get an advert onto Rightmove very quickly after our initial appointment with the Yopa agent. Other reviewers have mentioned the Hub and we agree that it was a good platform. We felt it would have been ideal if it was a phone app, as we used it a lot during the viewing process.

Would you recommend selling with Yopa over a high street agent?
It worked really well for us this time. We were definitely in the market for a hybrid/online provider, and yopa seem keen to differentiate themselves from purplebricks, via the specific features of the Hub platform and an increased focus on customer relationship. We’d certainly recommend a hybrid/online provider over a high street estate agent based on our experience with yopa, compared to previous experiences with high street agents.

Would you use it again if you were selling again?
If the brand continues to grow so there’s more support outside cities, yes. Our agent was based about 30-40 mins away so we felt a bit bad dragging him over for viewings. We’d probably use yopa rather than purplebricks or another hybrid, as we’ve had a good experience with them now.

What are your overall thoughts on the process?
Fundamentally, it’s a much cheaper option than a high street estate agent, and if the process works and you manage to sell (which we did) that’s great - it costs far less than half the price of high street option, but still provides the things you need (rightmove ad, pictures, an agent for viewings and a chase team afterwards, plus direct communication with the agent and updates via the Hub platform).

Did your property manage to sell?
Yes, as noted previously, we sold almost straight away, so we were very fortunate. We are hoping to exchange next week. Thanks yopa!

[Geckos]

Final batch of questions: overall impressions of the service -

• What did you like most about the process? We liked the hub the most, it is very informative and easy to use.
  

• Would you recommend selling with Yopa over a high street agent? - I think I would because they are so much cheaper and being able to log onto the hub makes you feel like your up to date with everything that is going on with your sale.
  

• Would you use it again if you were selling again? Yes, definitely.
  

• What are your overall thoughts on the process? I like it. The way people do things is changing and I think that this way of selling will become more popular than a High street agent. People are also becoming quite thrifty, so Yopa being cheaper than a normal agent will be very appealing.
  

• Did your property manage to sell? No we didn't manage to sell our property.

[frowner]

Tester here final lot of feedback questions:

• What did you like most about the process?
  

The Hub has undoubtedly been the most positive aspect, it is extremely informative and a very useful means of communication.

• Would you recommend selling with Yopa over a high street agent?
  

Having sold through a high start agent previously I’d definitely recommend trying to sell with Yopa initially as moving home is such a costly time and I’m not sure a high street agent offers much better value for money. I’ve also seen advertised recently a no sale no fee option for Yopa which seems like a great option.

• Would you use it again if you were selling again?
  

I think I would be inclined to go for a no sale no fee option if I were to use them in the future, as if a sale was not secured through them then nothing would be lost moving to another agent.

• What are your overall thoughts on the process?
  

On the whole positive, the Hub has been extremely insightful and the process of getting our property on the market has been efficient and straightforward. I’m not sure I’d have been so pleased if I’d opted to pay extra for the agent to perform the viewings as we’ve carried out some ourselves when there was no agent available so as not to risk losing a potential buyer. Also, contact with the sales support team after such promising initial contact has since been disappointing.

• Did your property manage to sell?
  

Sadly, after accepting an offer on our property very early on the chain has since collapsed and we are back to square one. This is no fault of Yopa though, just one of the frustrations of selling.

[happychange]

Non tester here

Some online estate agents have local agents covering the whole country and others do not. How important is local knowledge when choosing an estate agent to sell your home?’

I think having local knowledge is really important especially when it comes to valuation and selling the property to people! Will definitely value a local agent.

[Winningbeauty]

Non tester

Local knowledge is invaluable, I would expect this in a estate agent selling in an area, without this I would not use that agent

[sharond101]

Non tester. I think local knowledge is important. We had two very different valuations done. One wasn't local and undervalued as they didn't know the area.

[Elliepurplestar]

Non tester:
I’d want an estate agent that had local knowledge, as it would make valuation more accurate, and they would be able to advise buyers on local things such as schools better.