Has anyone ever used a property-finding company?

[TheVeryHungryPreggo]

DH is very taken with the idea of delegating the task of house-hunting to a property finding company. We tell them what we want (schools/nurseries, tube/train proximity, number of bedrooms, garden size, square footage and area/region) and they do the sifting and summon you to look at the ones which match your brief. Like this

DH is convinced that they will save us money by negotiating a better purchase price for us, and save us time by looking at all the options for us too to find one which fits our shopping list. He is very guarded with his free time and likes it to be as free from chores as possible - evenings and weekends for relaxing, not traipsing round etc etc. Personally I think it's a waste of money tbh. I'll know what I want when I see it and in the meantime there is RightMove! The problem is, we are in central (very central!) London and need to move out to zone 3-4 - but where? We have no idea about any other area. We also need somewhere with good schools as DS is 2 so starting school in another 2 years and this is our first rodeo, so to speak.

I'd happily stay put in my lovely flat for longer but he's very boisterous and we have another on the way, and the lack of enclosed outside space for him to run around is a problem. I have to stay on top of him in the small parks and playgrounds near here or he will bolt for the road. DH is daydreaming of summer BBQs in the garden and a trampoline... I'm heartbroken at leaving our Ofsted outstanding nursery and short commute.

Anyway. Has anyone used one of these companies and what was your experience? If you haven't used one, chime in anyway, I'd like to hear your opinions...

DS is very boisterous I mean obviously, not DH... though to be fair there's only one of them I regularly tell off for kicking footballs in the house and it's not the 2 year old!

I've never used one - I'd assume they were very expensive?
Can see the point if you really don't know the area(s) you are looking in though.

I think they cost about the same as estate agents, so 2% of the purchase price plus VAT. Although I don't know if they save that much money by negotiating for you, since it would be against their own interests if it means bargaining down their commission...

I suppose the real gain is from the time spent, if you don't know the area. And as I'm pregnant and we both work, time and energy is sort of at a premium. Still not convinced. I love RightMove though. I've practically moved us into a gorgeous family home in Penge already.

Oh Oh me! We did. We spent literally years trying to find a house in London. We were stuck in a rut of what we were looking at, stuck to the areas that we sort of 'knew' and couldn't quite commit to anything.

I got SO fed up of spending weekends looking at houses that we knew, the minute we walked through the door, were never going to be suitable (after spending 30 mins getting there). So we employed a company. We told them what we were looking for, they pin pointed a few areas we had never even thought of. Then they made us a short list of 9 houses which we saw back to back one Saturday (with them driving us between them). We found a house that day, put in an offer (which they negotiated for us) and bought the house a month later.

Without them, I swear we would still be looking.

Blame .. What did they do that was different from what you had done?

The areas they thought of...were they obscure, off the beaten track?

what was wrong with houses you found alone, and what was so different about what they found for you?

I'm thinking that people may be attracted to personal shoppers in the housing market, and find it easier to buy something found by somebody else, as it feels less of a responsible decision made under ones own steam, iyswim.

Like some people prefer restaurants with small menus!

Look at beckenham, lovley compared to penge!!!!!

Thank you BlameIt, that's really useful!

I think Penge over Beckenham because although it's close to Beckenham for amenities it's also closer to the Overground - and DH and I will be spending 5 days a week commuting to the City and Canary Wharf, though we will still have to fit in drop-offs at school and nursery and be at our desks for 8.30 and 9... And the houses look better value in Penge for some really nice ones!

I would harness the power of MN before paying someone tbh! Give us your tick list and you'll get a list of suggestions from people who love trawling rightmove but aren't moving any time soon, and will be itching to help out.
Penge is definitely on the up, but the High Street is currently still pretty grim I would say. Although I've only ever driven through so don't really know.

Have used a couple in the past. I agree they save a lot of search time, particularly if you don't know the area - both times we were relocating to somewhere we didn't know well.

I'm not sure they will save you much in terms of price, particularly if you are already quite savvy about the local area, but they have extensive contacts so you're more likely to see things that aren't yet on the market or have just come on the market. Alternatively, you could just drop Phil and Kirsty an email and you might get on the telly!

Oh, and they were quite good at suggesting areas within quite a broad set of criteria eg. "within 1 hour commute of station X", which sounds like it's the sort of thing you need. I remember one guy driving me across three counties to show me three different houses (that all met our criteria) in one afternoon. There's no way I could have done that on my own.

If you can afford to hire one then just Do it. I'm with your dh on that one. Anything you can afford to outsource should be outsourced when you have a DS aged 2. House hunting is a real drag if you are trying I buy in a popular area.

What's your budget? There's also Sydenham, Forest Hill, Anerley, etc depending on what it is.

Penge has a useful high street but not a fancy one. You can easily trek into Beckenham for fancier shops. However, you might need to think carefully about schools and make sure you buy someplace close enough to one.

If we could afford it I would've used them. We had a nightmarish a couple of months bundling DC (who was just over 2) into a car every Saturday morning. It doesn't matter how clear you are about big no-nos estate agents invariably show you houses that are unsuitable for one or more reasons. If you can find somebody to weed those out and just be on your case then great.

West Wickham/Hayes good for overland/DLR and the schools are better.

I know a fantastic Outstanding nursery too, my boys went from 6months to 4 and got on great.

We used one, and would again. Because they have contacts and know the estate agents they often have access and clout that a normal punter wouldn't have. For eg. ours got the house info before it was officially on the market and when he knew we wanted to make an offer, got the EA to cancel an open day that was due the following weekend.

Sun a few things:

• they found areas I hadn't thought of (and researched the schools there before going any further)
• they found properties not yet on the market
• and they visited all the properties and weeded out ones that wouldn't work (too small bathroom, next to a railway line, bedrooms on different floors etc etc etc) so that on the day it was down to taste and not fit with our criteria.

Worth every penny. We also had a toddler in tow an it was a godsend.

Sold! Very useful thread. Thanks for your response blame

This is much more positive feedback than I thought I'd get tbh. I was all prepared for people to tell me it was a huge waste of money! But those who are positive are very positive indeed. I'm impressed. DH is smug.