Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Original poster

Has anyone sold their home via online estate agent?

29 replies

Summerdaydreams · 19/01/2015 21:43

We are going to put our flat on the market and are considering using an online agent in order to avoid the extortionate estate agent fees. Could anyone share their experiences please?
How much more work does it involve? Will we sell as quick as going down the conventional route? We are in London. Thanks.

OP posts:
bexster5 · 19/01/2015 21:52

We are in the process of doing so. We are however on our third sale as it has fallen through twice!

We will have saved money on fees but we wonder if a traditional high street agent would have got us a higher sale price?

If the sale had been straightforward and gone through first time we would have been perfectly happy. It's when things have gone wrong and we've needed help or advice that we've been made really aware of the differences. Other traditional high street agents in our chain have subsequently said why don't you do X to try to sort out this problem? The online people have never helped on that way.

Our online agent claims to do the negotiations but we've ended up doing ours as they don't seem clued up about anything.

Sorry have gone a bit waffly there. In short, if your sale is straightforward and your house is pretty saleable anyway then do it. You will (probably) save lots.

If you're likely to have a difficult house to sell or a long chain I would avoid it.

I would also avoid paying in advance. We, foolishly, did that and I don't imagine it's helped with the lack of service as they've already got their money!!

Original poster
Summerdaydreams · 19/01/2015 22:08

Thanks bexster hope this sale goes through and proves to be third time lucky Smile.

I think that is what we are concerned about is having to negotiate and knowing what to do when problems arise.

Yet the thought of paying thousands to an EA, when we ould put it towards our next home, motivates me to give it a go.

How did you find managing viewings? And did you sell relatively quickly.

We are in a popular(ish) part of London and hope to sell with relative ease, but you never know especially as the market seems to have calmed down a little bit.....

OP posts:
BlueStringPudding · 19/01/2015 22:31

I sold mine online 10 years ago. It was also on with a traditional estate agent too, but I made it clear I was advertising online and checked that if I sold it I wouldn't need to pay them fees. (it was early days of online selling, so this may now not be possible).

My advert emphasised the house's potential for extension (only had a downstairs bathroom), and I think had a better write up and nicer photos than the estate agents.

I got almost the asking price via the internet, and it was much better dealing direct with the buyer than via an estate agent, as we sorted things out much more quickly. We had a few issues with our chain - all down to my buyer's estate agent not communicating properly with the person at the beginning of the chain.

I suggested that DH, then DP, also sell his house online (as we were selling to buy somewhere new together), but he put his on with an estate agent, and then ended up selling it to someone he worked with and had to pay estate agent fees unnecessarily.

BugBugBug · 19/01/2015 22:45

We sold our house in liverpool with EMoov two yrs ago. They were brilliant. We did the viewings, they did the rest and the house sold for over the asking price in less than a week.

emptycoffers · 20/01/2015 08:11

Sold twice with Housenetwork - would never go back to using high street agents.

bexster5 · 20/01/2015 12:24

Thanks summerdaydreams! Fingers crossed!

As for viewings that wasn't a problem for us at all. We didn't kind doing them. Organising them was fine too. We mostly did open days every time to try to keep the viewings to fewer occasions.

It's difficult because some of the objections (lack of service, no negotiation, no advice) could equally end up happening with a traditional agent!

Perhaps try online (sign up to the pay when sold option unlike us) and you can aways change it... but at least then you've tried to save the money!

Good luck!

sunshineandhappy · 20/01/2015 12:44

I sold with hatched. They were great. I think some buyers were put off though, as houses identical to mine sold more quickly, in periods when we hadn't even had a viewing. In terms of service, efficiency, details and photos, they were fab. Oh and price Grin saved me about £1500 in fees

ContentedSidewinder · 20/01/2015 13:22

Bought and sold with HouseNetwork and couldn't fault them. They did the negotiating, follow ups on viewings and kept us informed of where it was all up to.

Quite frankly I know more about my house than an agent, was happy to do the viewings and in this day and age how many people look in an estate agent's window or register with one? I certainly didn't when I was looking to move 5 years ago. I relied on Rightmove and Globrix.

Saved a fortune in fees and had 3 local agents price my house before I went with HouseNetwork, plus I had been watching the market for years to see what houses sold for so knew we were correctly priced.

bexster5 · 20/01/2015 15:29

Perhaps I should add we've been using Tepilo.

bryonyelf · 20/01/2015 15:52

Contented, I have over a hundred active buyers registered with me at the moment. Rural town area in Scotland though so England might be different. Rightmove is the biggest by far but I still have footfall every single day.

OneStepCloser · 20/01/2015 16:00

HouseNetWork, would use them again in flash.

Original poster
Summerdaydreams · 20/01/2015 21:00

Wow thanks for all your experiences. I think we will give it a go. Will keep you posted.

OP posts:
JonathanRolande1 · 21/01/2015 17:07

There are (as usual) pros and cons. An online agent probably won’t visit you or do viewings, or be able to guide you through the process so personally. However you will pay for this with a higher fee. Online or traditional really depends on you – how confident you are, how much help you think you’ll need etc.

Also, as the market is pretty good even traditional agents in my area (Sussex) are offering 0.75% fees so the difference may not be that great.

You may well be able to have your cake and eat it!

emptycoffers · 21/01/2015 19:04

Always worth noting what an agent means when they say they have a list of 'ready buyers' - it's people like you and me who see a house on Rightmove or Zoopla and ring up the agent - whether you view it or not, if they take your details, you join this mythical 'list'.

Estate agents don't have hot 'lists' of buyers - just people who come mainly via online search engines looking at houses which may or may not be like yours and they may already have found houses thorugh other agents.

I've never yet been followed up by an EA with an offer of a more suitable property - EVER - they just sit there and wait for the internet to do the work.

bryonyelf · 21/01/2015 19:20

That is utter bollocks empty.....or certainly is round these parts.

Original poster
Summerdaydreams · 21/01/2015 19:27

Thanks for sharing all your experiences. Here in London, the EA agents won't budge from 2% and only one offered 1.75% if we didn't get a certain price. It makes me sick to think of handing over so much money for them not really doing too much!
I really am tempted to go online and I suppose if it doesn't work out then we can go the traditional route. Now need to look into which online to use....
Will keep you posted....

OP posts:
emptycoffers · 22/01/2015 10:02

@ bryonyelf

with respect - you are in Scotland and don't know what you are talking about in relation to UK which is where the OP is - come down here and learn and then you'll have a truth to tell

BugBugBug · 22/01/2015 11:10

Scotland is part of the UK...

bryonyelf · 22/01/2015 12:48

Thanks bug!

Yes, Scotland is in the UK!

BugBugBug · 22/01/2015 15:33

I'm sure there was some kind of referendum about it... Wink

pierpressure · 22/01/2015 15:44

empty; in my estate agency days in London, not long ago, there were certainly "hot" lists. These were buyers who we knew would actually be able to move quickly, and not mess about.
We also followed up regularly, and phoned registered buyers before properties had the chance to be listed, as soon as they were signed up, so maybe you were registered with not great agents...

BenWolf · 22/01/2015 16:17

A friend of mine has recently sold her house via online estate agent 'My Online Estate Agent' and highly recommends them!

She sold her house within weeks and saved nearly £5k. Using traditional estate agents just doesn't make sense these days, they just charge you way over the odds to put adverts on rightmove.

The blog section on their website has got some really handy info too..

myonlineestateagent.com/blog

Hope this helps!

emptycoffers · 22/01/2015 18:55

of course Scotland is in the UK - my cock up - however they do have a legal system of their very own - so for pedants and others - they may as well not be connected to England for estate agency purposes - the two systems are entirely different which any Scottish agent would be expected to know and point out.

bryonyelf · 22/01/2015 19:00

Yes, the legal system is entirely different but estate agency is similar, ie marketing and selling houses.

ContentedSidewinder · 22/01/2015 20:10

bryony I think that it does depend on the area. I am in a large Northern city so there is a lot of choice, people aren't vying for property.

The only time I registered with an agent was in 2001 when the market was moving fast, so fast in fact that houses sold before the details were typed up and put in a window.

We put my Grandad's house on with a high street agent because sadly the property was empty, none of the family could do viewings (geographically a nightmare) and it was a bungalow so the thinking was that it would attract maybe older people who wouldn't be on Rightmove alerts.

I understand that if people are looking in a particular village or specific number of streets then registering with a high street agent makes sense. If a house comes up then the agent can contact someone on their list, but it still makes sense to advertise it on Rightmove to get more viewings, more offers and therefore a better price for the seller and a better commission for the estate agents.

The OP asked if anyone had used an online agent, I did, I sold through HouseNetwork because 5 years ago it cost me £700 rather than thousands. We thought we would try them. It just so happened that the house we ended up with was also on with them.