Using online estate agents

[JulieAnderton]

Has anyone had any experience of either buying or selling a house via an online estate agent?

DH is keen on going with an online estate agent to save ££, whereas I'm rather more sceptical about how good they'll be at marketing our house.

[HaveToWearHeels]

I would never use one to sell and would be very reluctant to use one to buy either. Very impersonal.

[Potterer]

I like many others on here have used an online estate agent and saved ourselves thousands of pounds. I never registered with an estate agent when house hunting either, simply relied on RightMove and Globrix.

If you do a quick search you will see that lots of us have had very positive experiences. I used HouseNetwork 3 years ago to sell my house (have previously used high street estate agents, local ones and national one) and the house I now live in was also sold by HouseNetwork, pure coincidence.

The only time I would use a high street agent would be if I was selling a bungalow, as my Grandad did, mainly because he wasn't internet savvy (although he did have family looking for him on the internet) and older people tend to use high street agents.

[QuackQuackChicken]

I used eMoov. They were fab, did all the pics, got us on right move, handled all the calls - we just had to do the viewings. We sold the house in five days! Couldn't recommend them heartily enough.

[JulieAnderton]

Thanks for your feedback. I guess the main thing that worries me about using an online estate agent is that you are dealing with a centralised "call centre" who don't know the specific area in which you are selling. A high street estate agent would probably have a list of potential buyers registered with them looking for properties similar to the one I am selling. It is my perception that potential buyers are unlikely to register their interest in such a way with online agencies.

[Crutchlow35]

I would say it very much depends on the area you live in. If you live in a quick sale area then yes, probably give them a try but if you live in an area that is a slow burner then I would consider a high street agent as you need to be in touch with the local market, meet potential buyers in your property shop etc to push the property on.

[QuackQuackChicken]

It also depends on who your target is. We were selling to young professionals/young families and they are all going to have smartphones, internet connections. So we didn't need to be on the estate agents lists or in a shop window.

[lynniep]

I have a neighbour who used housenetwork. She said it was great and very cheap (about £900 compared to our local estate agent who charges 2.5k) As others have said though - it really depends on what you're selling. Our road is quite desirable and their home was a good family house.

[JulieAnderton]

Hmm, good point about thinking about who we'd be selling to. I'm in a street with 32 identical maisonettes. Of those that have sold recently two have gone to developers, another to a first-time buyer and another to a retiree, so quite a mix. I guess selling using an online agent would get the developers and possibly some first-timers, but not the retiree market.