Would you use an Estate Agent to sell your home who doesn't advertise on Rightmove?

Have been searching for a house for sometime now. We are looking to move approx. 3 hours away. Thus your mode of advertising a property wouldn't reach us. Rightmove allows me to save properties, I can see if they are reduced etc, see when they come back after they've been removed with a different Agent at the same price and as is often the case a higher price. It's quite useful information

It's not mind-blowing at all. Lots of people find buyers privately.

We did when we weren't even looking to sell but they made an offer and we decided to accept.

I'd never use an estate agent that didn't use Rightmove. You'd be completely limiting the customer pool.

Yes, indeed.

Most house sales are a kind of slow auction process, even those that aren't sold officially via an auction.

If you just want to sell your house and are perfectly happy to find one person who wants to buy it and then arrange the sale straightaway, great; but most people want to know that they're practicably getting the best price, hence advertising widely on the open national online market, to maximise your reach and your chances of achieving the best proceedable price.

Nobody would put their valuable jewellery or antiques into an actual traditional auction and then state that they'll only accept bids from people who arbitrarily happen to be wearing red trousers, which is effectively the same thing in severely limiting your potential buyer base: anybody who is interested and has the money to buy is considered, with the highest offer usually accepted.

I never let an EA put a board outside my property as a) i hate them b) it clutters c) it s free adverstisement for the EA who already charge way too much for what they do and I would absolutely want to be adverstised on rightmove.

i am sorry OP, you ve got to make that investment especially in a village setting word of mouth and SM not enought especially for those who want to relocates.

Oh @Yalta ... 😃

Google "selling off market".

There are plenty of us who don't need to see a digital noticeboard to know something is for sale.

https://www.hortonandgarton.co.uk/blog/selling-off-market/

TBF many a picture of a property can look really nice on Rightmove or any other web site, there are times, and more than a few in our case when viewing that the actual property/area wasn't all that the photos made it out to be, so for me personally I didn't find it as time wasting as making and attending viewings for times that suited everyone involved only to find that the property/area/surroundings weren't what we were looking for.

I think you’re using RightMove wrong. You’re supposed to call the estate agent, and they have no idea whether you’ve seen it on RM, their website, a board outside their house or in their shop window until you tell them. Finding it on RightMove will have absolutely no bearing on whether they answer the phone or have viewings (unless they’ve neglected to take a sold property off RM).

The advantage of an estate agent is they give you the package of valuation, pictures, floor plan , information, viewings, fielding the phone calls, viewings and negotiation. If you're happy to do all that yourself then that's great (you will probably do it better than some estate agents) but it's the same as anything, it takes time and will be difficult for someone who has no experience or they simply may not want to. It's a bit like saying you can cook your own dinner for less than restaurant, well obviously...that doesn't mean there's no point in going out for dinner.

I don't think estate agents are any use for advertising in this day and age as everyone uses Rightmove.

The problem with the very cheap estate agents is that the service tends to be shoddy and will probably put buyers off. I.e. they don't answer the phone, have no local knowledge, can only arrange viewings 1 Tuesday a month as they cover the whole of the north of England...

I've found our local estate agents to be not very proactive. Registered with several and they rarely if ever send me anything. I would love it if an estate agent would tell me of properties that meet my criteria. Presumably that kind of personalised service would be quite time consuming though. Might end up costing more that Rightmove. And would exclude people from further away or who didn't realise the service was available.

I used Rightmove but I kind of assume everything is on there. I don't look anywhere else. If one popped up on a local FB page then I'd have a look.

Do you call up Gocompare for your house insurance?

Rightmove is a platform for estate agents to advertise what they have

Just to let you know what it was like pre Rightmove (the internet, mobile phones (that worked))
We sold a house in 1997 and moved 100 miles south. We ideally wanted a 4 bed detached with an under an hours commute into Central London. So basically London and the Home Counties

We were visiting areas on train lines and spent our time in call boxes phoning estate agents that we had got the number to from the yellow pages in the library. All the EA said either they had nothing on their books or only had 1 place which wasn’t suitable

For some reason there was nothing for sale

We were in holiday cottage accommodation, our furniture was in storage in France (UK ran out of storage facilities) and every other holiday cottage on the complex was occupied with people in the same position

At one point we sat in a lay-by outside a train station wondering what we were going to do. I remembered an EA that only dealt with properties with stables. Knew the name and it was in the SE. Called 192 and managed to track down the EA.

They had one property for sale, it was in our price range and was incredibly 5 miles from where we were parked

Drove passed the house, it had a roof and 4 walls. I called from another pay phone asking to view. Waited in the call box for their reply. No one was in so offered immediately a price without viewing. Called back the next day and found we had bought the house.

If Rightmove had been available I wouldn’t have wasted 4 months of my life and £000’s trying to track down a property for sale. It would have taken a few clicks

If I am actually marketing my house, I do think I would be hesitant to limit my potential market to people.

Im curious how people who aren’t local would be able to find out about the house? Would the house be included on a website that shows up if I Google “houses in X area” for example? I do that sometimes when I’m fantasizing about moving to specific places. I look for agents that are highlighting specific locations.

No and also I'd never hear or know about your company, so I'm unlikely to know to approach you directly should I want to hear first about properties you offer in future.

There's a big market for people looking to be in with estate agents before the properties get listed on RM - that's the USP there. A VIP email list.

I'd definitely want my house shown on Rightmove. If an EA had a 'ready made buyer' and didn't want to advertise I would suspect they are trying to rip me off.

I'd go to Rightmove to check prices for my area before calling in and EA.

I would also go to Rightmove when considering selling

I'm sure there are other ways of buying and selling but I suggest 90%+ are going to do it this way.

Are you keen to avoid it? Or coming up with some alternative approach that you hope to market?

I always assumed the 'in the wings' buyers were just EA bullshit tbh, like when letting agents say that 3 other (fictional) potential tenants are just about to sign on the dotted line, to try and pressure you to commit.

To answer the OP, no I'd want my house listed on Rightmove and the EA's own website as a minimum. I wouldn't buy a house that was only listed on social media either.

I don't think so.
Last time we moved I sold via an online agents. Because I knew the house would sell the same day it went on the market. And it did.
In the tiny rural town I live in now there is a recently set up independent agent that I would chose but they are on rightmove too. It sucks that they have a monopoly but it is what it is!

That sounds like an easy sale and, of course, some people want that as they can then start looking themselves.

But did you get them the best price? If these homes were so sought after, might you have been able to have an open day with the buyer you had lined up and a stint on rightmove. Then the seller might have achieved a higher price?

It maybe they wanted speed and, probably better surety, over a potentially better price but just a thought.

I also wouldn’t go with a non-RM agent. And your “in the wings” buyer would have to make a seriously good asking-or-above offer before i’d consider not testing on the open market for a few weeks at least- in fact it would make me concerned you had undervalued my house or were just desperate to flip it for a quick commission.

Tbh we sold our last house privately. No board. Little point as very few people knew the road (tiny country lane) However it was on Rightmove
We went with an online “EA” who just got in touch with us if someone wanted to view.

We supplied all the pictures, the blurb, floor plan etc that they put on RM. We did all the viewings, negotiating etc

Flat fee of £99

Sold to the first person who came through the door

Not unless I was selling a luxury mansion and wanted to remain anonymous. So my buyers don't look themselves, they just ask someone to research for them then view and choose. But there will not be many houses like that in your area I presume.

I vieweda house a couple of years ago that was lovely and unusual. We knocked on the wrong door first of a neighbouring house that was similar, and the door was answered by a child who told us their house was also for sale 'and we really need to sell, do you want to come in?' (We didn't). I couldn't immediately find it on RM but eventually tracked it down on a very posh agents website. Searching on the agents' site was so painful - for a start you couldn't define what price band you were looking for so had to look through page after page. The house was on the market for a good chunk more than the one we were looking at. Not surprising that it wasn't selling. Rightmove has a market stranglehold for a reason.

Yes I'd give it a go if they're not your exclusive agent. Some independent agents are great at promoting on social media.

No. I only look on Rightmove

That's not how Rightmove works. It's just an advertising platform, you see a house you like then contact whatever estate agent is dealing with it directly, as usual. You don't arrange the viewings through Rightmove .

Not where I live, no. Here it’s the only place worth advertising.