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Original poster

Would a house being sold through on line estate agent put you off?

47 replies

sunshineandhappy · 30/09/2014 12:52

I've had my house on the market for 3 months with an online agent. I'm happy with the details, and the photos are lovely. It's a modern house, but I'm getting no viewings. My neighbour sold an identical house in less than a week, for Â£2000 less than my asking price. Since mine has been on the market, 2 identical houses to mine, less than 100 yards away, have come to market and sold, for the same price. I didn't even get a viewing! I'm on rightmove and zoopla. Is my choice of estate agent really the only thing that's putting people off?

OP posts:

Juno213 · 01/10/2014 06:55

We have (hopefully) just finished the house searching process. We did look at one from an online agent. So this didn't put us off in itself but I felt a little uncomfortable being shown round by the owners themselves. I felt that I couldn't ask questions as much, as they had a personal attachment and were very proud of things that really needed work. I also think that, as others have said, a good, local agents it worth every Penny. They know how to sell the house and area, they chase things up, and are there to be the faceless person in the middle if things get difficult. With everything to do with house selling, you get exactly what you pay for.

SolomanDaisy · 01/10/2014 06:56

Maybe your particular internet agent is rubbish? Maybe they don't respond to people who send enquiries or don't respond for weeks. I think it's worth changing agents.

Soonish · 01/10/2014 07:06

I know what you mean Juno. We had some viewings like that - you can't look round properly let alone ask difficult questions when they actually live there. But those were properties for sale with local agents who just sent us to view with the vendors and no escort.

Awkward.

Bunbaker · 01/10/2014 07:11

"but I felt a little uncomfortable being shown round by the owners themselves."

Is it the norm these days to only have estate agents show people round houses?

We last moved house 11 years ago and when we sold our house we showed viewers around. (2 year old DD helped by pointing out her toys etc). We had three offers within a week - for the asking price or above. When we were looking at houses, again, it was the owners who showed us around.

Surely the owners know their houses far better than an estate agent ever will?

HavanaSlife · 01/10/2014 07:17

Yes weve tried to view properties with on line agents and could never get hold of them so it would put me off

lavendersun · 01/10/2014 07:20

We were on the market recently - first with an online agent, then with a local agent (at the same time).

The local agent was OK, accompanied all viewings, not very good at feedback. Told me they had a queue of about 25 on their books who couldn't wait to see/buy our house, etc., etc..

The online agent were fairly nice to deal with, I had to do the viewings myself.

We had 6 viewings from the local agent in four months and 15 viewings from the online agent in 10 months.

The online viewers seemed more clued up about the place (we are on a road), whereas the local agent's viewers turned up and were surprised that we were on a road.

After ten months we decided not to move for other reasons (Mum's health), we didn't have any offers from either agent's viewers - v quirky (but lovely imo) 300 year old house on a road in a rural area which I didn't expect to be hard to sell.

I don't buy the local agent has handfuls of people on their books - not in 2014 unless you are in a really quick moving area with a shortage of houses. Surely we all look at Rightmove and phone whoever it is listed with ... even my 75 year old Dad would do that.

littlemonster · 01/10/2014 09:58

Sunshine, sorry if I've missed this but are you doing the viewings ? I find viewings with owners showing you around very difficult. When looking with an owner DH & I have been so concerned about being polite that we've not really fully taken in the house. When the owners not here we've freely discussed what we could do about the decor, changing the layout, talked through what we didn't like there and then and talked about how we could improve it. When viewing with an owner we can't do this freely until we're in the car and the details are already fading by then.

Original poster

sunshineandhappy · 01/10/2014 10:17

I've sold houses before, and never found an agent who was prepared to do viewings. Just doesn't seem to be common here in the East Midlands. So that's another reason why I can't see why the agents justify their fees. You are making me think I need to change my strategy. I'm a keen photographer, and I know the pictures are good, and other people have agreed. I can't link as on my phone. Maybe this idea that agents have people on their books is more realistic than I believed.
Now I just think I've missed the boat in terms of time of year, so I'll sit tight and re-launch in March

OP posts:

littlemonster · 01/10/2014 10:46

Wow, we've recently sold our house and I wasn't even in the house for a single viewing. We're in south east. Its the norm here.

Might be a good idea to relaunch if you're not in a hurry and take your time finding a decent agent who agrees to earn their cash!

Pipbin · 01/10/2014 12:34

I don't buy the local agent has handfuls of people on their books - not in 2014 unless you are in a really quick moving area with a shortage of houses.

I disagree. When we bought our house about 18 months ago I was getting calls from agents that we had signed up with saying that they had just taken a house on that would suit us. Often we viewed them before they went online.

HavanaSlife · 01/10/2014 13:03

We were on agents books and had emails and phone calls when stuff came on

Also in the east midlands and estate agents always showed us around

beccajoh · 01/10/2014 13:07

Have you contacted them yourself pretending to be a buyer interested in the property? Might be worth giving it a go.

SantasLittleMonkeyButler · 01/10/2014 13:16

It's still completely normal for Vendors to do their own viewings around here . Why do you need escorting by an EA?

I wouldn't necessarily be put off by an online only EA - if the house was unlike any other & I was really interested in it. If there were other similar properties available with local agents I would probably view those first however. Mainly because if I end up buying the house, I would rather have an agent I could physically pop in to see. Likewise, I'd rather use a local solicitor - phone calls & e-mails are easier to ignore than a person stood in the office.

littlemonster · 01/10/2014 14:19

You don't need escorting by an agent obviously but it just seems to be the way its done here and I much prefer it, as a buyer and a vendor. When I first sold a property I was asked to do a couple of viewings and I really disliked it (the poor buyers obviously felt they had to say nice things about my baby, make conversation etc!!!), almost as much as I disliked being shown around by a vendor.

However it still wouldn't put me off viewing a property, neither would an online agent. The only thing I consider when buying a house is the house, everything else is just process, its the house you're going to live in for the next few years.

littlemonster · 01/10/2014 14:21

Beccajoh, that's a really good idea for the OP, she could ask a friend to register and arrange a viewing and see how well its marketed to her.

iwantgin · 01/10/2014 14:28

It wouldn't put me off. However we put ours on the market about 2 years ago - with Hatched. Only got one person interested in viewing in a year. And that was badly co-ordinated, as in the agent didn't contact us straight way to let us know that there was an interested party. so they didn't bother. Took the house off the market then and are staying put for a while.

Original poster

sunshineandhappy · 01/10/2014 14:36

I'm with hatched. I thought they were ok. Worried now. I'm going to ask my friend to request a viewing, and see what happens.

OP posts:

ContentedSidewinder · 01/10/2014 14:50

Bought and sold through Housenetwork. I can highly recommend them. Loads of photos, floorplan, negotiated sale and made sure everyone was kept happy by passing info to solicitors etc. Had a dedicated person for my house and a separate person for the house we bought.

As a buyer I didn't register with any estate agent, I knew the area I was buying in and let's face it no estate agent would say oooh yes sorry this house you are interested in is in a very dodgy area with a high crime rate. They work for the seller so they will do anything to earn that commission.

I used Rightmove and Globrix to search for houses.

And I totally disagree with ThunderboltKid who said

I would also think you are doing it to save money, so what else in the house have you "tried to save money on". IYSWIM

That is like saying if the vendor had a 10 year old car on the drive you would think the same thing

OP - At the end of the day, this could be about the position of your house in relation to others around you and overlooking, you could be on a bend on the road meaning parking outside was an issue. So it is difficult to tell why you are not able to sell. Maybe ask your agent.

lavendersun · 01/10/2014 17:23

Sunshine - we were with Hatched and had 15 viewings arranged by them, they were absolutely fine for us and reasonably efficient.

I still question the value of a local agent - I think that Hatched were about £375 up front and then £200 ish if they introduced a sale. The cheapest local agent for my house was £5500.

I too did my own photos, have a decent digital SLR and a good eye - the local agent asked if they could use my photos and virtually copied the Hatched brochure that I had edited.

MindReader · 01/10/2014 17:27

Interestingly I spoke to someone from my village today whose house is on with the expensive local agents.

To go on with them, for a house valued approx. £200K was around £2.5K. Then you pay 2% final fees too - so around £6.5K just to sell...

She has a really nice house. Very smart family house in village with good school. Should be very sellable even in this market. She's had 1 viewing in 4m...

Crutchlow35 · 01/10/2014 18:47

Sunshineandhappy, you ask how a local agent drums up viewers. Easy - by having a high street location where people come in and talk to us. Often, once you start speaking to people, find out what they want, you can encourage them to view other properties they may have not considered or discounted.

Someone from an online agency is probably sitting at a desk 200 miles from you with no idea on the local area, properties for sale in it and how to chat to people about the local community. NOT all sales are as a direct result of people purely using rightmove.

lavendersun · 01/10/2014 18:55

One of my friends works for a large chain of agents, she advised that 95% of their enquiries come from right move.

My local agent certainly did not produce any more viewers than the online agent, in fact they dried up after three months (whereas the online agent kept requesting viewings). When I called the local people to ask if they had anything in the pipeline because I hadn't heard from them for almost a month they became very defensive. Fortunately my four months was up a couple of days later and I gave them notice.

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