Mumsnet user review Yopa - an online estate agency

[EllieMumsnet]

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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

Non tester - this was a big issue in us selling our house. We went with one of the bigger UK agents and although they got people through the door, we ended up doing a lot of the viewings ourselves and making up for their lack of local knowledge e.g. schools.

In the end we moved it to a small local agent who sold it really quickly. Might just have been luck as it is often down to with selling houses but they knew what to promote and how to market our house effectively.

Non-tester - I think it would be a nice to have, but there is so much local information available on the internet now and on websites like Right Move that I don't think it is a deal-breaker for me if the agent doesn't have a huge amount of knowledge of the local area.

I would expect an estate agent to have local knowledge at his fingertips - at least in the form of a sheet listing local schools, where doctors' surgeries were etc. It wouldn't matter if this had been gleaned from the internet because I would be checking the information myself but it would give me some where to start my researches.

NON TESTER

Local knowledge to me personally is key. Id want someone who could understand my needs and were confident in knowing details about our area. Locally to myself a new estate agents opened last year, now they may have been around for the shortest time but all their staff are local to the area and have been for over 40 years, i would look here first before any of the bigger companies who i don't believe would understand me on such a personal level.

Non tester here

I'd say local knowledge is crucial for some locations/people and not others. If I was moving to an area I didn't know, I'd rely on EA quite a bit, but if I was staying local, as long as the house is listed on property pal (NI equivalent of rightmove), then don't really need local EA at all as long as the photos of the property are decent!

Non Tester:-
Local knowledge is most definitely important - the agent really should be able to answer any questions from a prospective purchaser, such as availability and quality of local schools, doctors, nearby shops, libraries etc. To an extent this can be researched by an agent but intimate knowledge of an area is both impressive and hugely helpful to a prospective purchaser.

Non-tester: Local knowledge is fundamentally important in valuing a property correctly and ensuring it’s properly presented online to meet the requirements of the target demographic. These things can’t be properly researched online - you need someone who understands the local area and the local housing market.

Congratulations to Stargirl84 for winning the £50 John Lewis voucher

Congratulations to domesticslattern for winning the £150 John Lewis voucher

MNHQ

Hi EllieMumsnet please can you clarify the £50 John Lewis voucher for testers as I wasn’t aware that it was a competition. The initial post states that all testers who complete all feedback will receive a £50 John Lewis voucher. Thanks

Hi @frowner my apologies, I am currently putting through all the tester's voucher orders.

You will be receiving an email from me today with more details.

Thank you Eliiemumsnet much appreciated.