Anyone used an Internet agent to sell their house in Scotland?

[ActualAl]

I'm looking to put my house on the market in the next few weeks. I've had a few quotes from local estate agents and they are all quite expensive. I've had a look at house network and house simple and they seem quite good and we'd save a lot of money.
The problem is they don't seem to have properties in Scotland on their books. Is this something that should worry me?
Has anyone on mumsnet used these sites to sell in Scotland?
Thanks

If your are in Scotland do you not have to use a solicitor due to the whole bids system and acceptance of a bid being effectively exchange of contracts?

Just called home network and apparently they do not operate in Scotland at the moment tho theyre looking to expand here in near future. Never mind! I'll have a look at other Internet companies now. Anyone used patch properties? They're based in Glasgow and do all for fixed fee of £599.
And yes you do need a solicitor as well for the buying and selling of the house.

Your local estate agents cost more because they offer more for their money. They will be proactive about selling your house in a way an online estate agent will not be.

For example - when I viewed a house via a commonly used online estate agent I did get a follow up call asking my opinion and that was it. When I viewed via a local agent, they went to great effort to try and get me to look at other properties, sign me up to their mailing list, etc. Patch will give you a rightmove advert it seems, but doesn't mention any other sites. It also won't give you any coverage in your local press.

Personally, I think I would have the following issues with Patch from looking at their website:

• Is the fee dependent on a sale or do you have to pay whatever? My estate agent's admittedly higher fee was dependent on them actually selling. (You don't want to pay an up front fee now and then end up wanting to switch agent and so have wasted that money - so think carefully about this one)

• Do they conduct viewings or do you have to? Do you have time to do the viewings yourself if you have to?
• Looking at a couple of their adverts the pictures were poor - blurry and with the sun often glaring through the window so badly it made parts of the room hard to see.
• No floor plans. I like floor plans. I know other online agents do them.

I'm not saying online agents are bad. I just think to a certain extent you get what you pay for. It really depends on your property, what kind of time scale you are working on, etc.

Akandra, thanks for the advice. I hadn't noticed the lack of floorPlans on patch and you're right it's better to have them, one of the first things I look at when I'm viewing!
As far as the follow uP phone calls and the amount of website coverage go I've found a company called scottish house move that seem to offer these things at a reasonable price. Off to investigate them now!
Haven't ruled out local estate agents though, have another coming round tomorrow to have a look at the house.
Thanks again

I am an EA in Scotland. It hasn't really taken off selling by yourself in Scotland.....yet although it is becoming more popular. I have a new one on the market this month where they tried themselves but didn't get enough interest. Not saying that will be the same with your own property though. If you do it you must, by law have a completed home report and make sure your asking price is enough to encourage people to look.

Where are you?

Your EA fees in Scotland are likely to be:

Listing fee
Your local property centre listing fee - check to see if they are doing any January special offers. ESPC are for certain postcodes.
Your Estate Agency commission
Conveyancing costs.

It isn't cheap selling or buying property.

In my firm we do lots of viewings, although not all. We fit in around what our clients needs are so for instance we do day time viewings if they are at work etc. Al viewings are followed up so our clients know what people thought of their property. We do all the negotiation when an offer comes in etc.

To the poster above who asked about binding contracts. A contract in Scotland is not binding until missives are concluded but that is generally a good few weeks before exchange happens. Without concluded missives a buyer can walk away at any stage although it is strongly frowned upon by agents.

Unfortunately, there has been a big shift with surveyors and their valuations in the last couple of weeks due to unhappy lenders so I expect the Scottish property market to become very difficult for sellers in the coming months.

Thanks greggssausageroll! I'm in west Lothian, think the market is pretty similar all over Scotland, houses round here have been on the market for ages and we have our eye on a few we like, need to sell ours first though so ideally we'd like to sell quickly. Maybe an EA would be best for our circumstances in that case.
Hope to make a decision in next few days so we can get it on the market as soon as we can.

I used an agent called scottishhousemove.com in Scotland and it worked out for me very well. They only charged me £399&vat and my house sold in 4 weeks.

I have sold lots of property in the past and I experienced a better service from these guys than most high st agents. The only difference was high st guys wanted 10 times the £££ (not worth it)

So give these guys a try in Scotland or other internet agents in the Uk for elsewhere