Housenetwork or equivalent

[Blackduck]

Thinking of selling and relucant to pay EA (IMO) extreme fees for doing very little so was looking at alternatives such as housenetwork or doing it ourselves. Has anyone done this and got views/tips?

Housenetwork basically do what estate agents do, except the viewings. i.e, bugger all!

They came round really quickly, did a lot of very good photos. The blurb they wrote was a bit formulaic but you can go online and edit it yourself, which is much better than having to hassle an estate agent to change what they've done.

It goes on RightMove. Viewers phone/email HouseNetwork and HN call you. You show the people round. Then HN call them, get feedback and stick it on your online account so you can see it.

It's an admin service to get the viewers to your house. They don't do any "selling" in terms of encouraging individuals to buy your house. If you have the choice of a good estate agent, (ones who are actually salespeople) then I'd pick them.

All our local estate agents basically act as an admin service to get people to view the house, so for us HN was just as good. Better, actually, cos we haven't had to put up with loads of viewers who weren't really interested in our house but just came cos the EA pressured them!

We've used HN twice before. You must get local estate agents round first to get a sense of the value of your property - HN are not 'local agents' and you would need more local insight to get an idea of how to price your property. I think HN use historical data to gauge your pricing.
We used the base 'pay upfront' package twice and sold twice. They take lots of quality photos, floorplans are ace and you can edit all your details online and add your own pics and comments. Very very efficient.
They will negotiate on your behalf - I've found them very good at this but they will not play the "I'm your best mate" game that I've found local agents often do - it's very businesslike and they expect you to know and say when your best price has been achieved and to make the decision to agree a deal - they don't hold your hand.
They don't live near you so you have to write down all the key local factors in your sales blurb - look at what local agents say in their adverts.
They will not hassle you to lower your price and you can see lots of stats on your Rightmove clickthroughs and how this compares to local averages and what this means for your pricing.
Unlike many local agents they are not open on Saturdays and bank holidays - but viewings can be booked in advance of course. They always answer the phone to you and you always get an email response on their messaging system - always. can't say the same for local agents we've dealt with.
I would recommend them.

I also used HN last year to move house and the house we bought and now live in was also sold to us through HN.

I agree with everything said above. We had local estate agents view ours and price it although to be fair we already knew what it was worth as we had been watching the market for years (both advertised and sold prices)

HN also did our HIP the same day they did the photos and measurements. Thought they dealt with things very well. You get one person who deals with you from start to finish so they know you and your property.

Having also bought through them we dealt with one person (different one) and I didn't feel pressured in our offers, as they don't work on commission they aren't interested in squeezing every last penny out of you.

Oh thanks all - reason we were thinking about them is we do the viewings anyway as we have a dog so it can be tricky.....
Good to hear they are efficient, that is pretty much what we want!