Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

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

Anyone use Tepilo?

15 replies

MrsFlorrick · 04/06/2015 08:45

Anyone used Tepilo or similar self sell online agents? Very curious to hear if it was a success.
Estate agents charge a fortune and generally seem to wait for people to ring them after they've seen something they like on rightmove.

Currently have house on market and my current EA sucks. Their contract was up a while ago and on rolling notice now and I'm ready to sack them. Any interest they've generate has been people who have phone after looking on Rightmove and they actively lost a buyer who had put an offer in because they didn't ring us fast enough (offer Saturday didn't call us until Monday and didn't call buyer back till Tuesday by which time they had offered on something else) AngryAngryAngry

Fed up. And wondering if I could save myself self their extortionate rip off 2.5% fee and actually do a better job?

Please any experinces good or bad welcome. In London btw.

OP posts:
Original poster
MrsFlorrick · 04/06/2015 08:52

Title should be "used" not "use" Confused
Sorry.
Any ideas advice experinces and not just Tepilo. Any online diy service of this kind.

Particularly interested if your house was in London and £1m+ value.

When we originally appointed our estate agent, the ones we had round were all so quick to point out that you could never sell a £1m+ house with a diy online service and that high St estate agents offered the "bespoke" service needed.
HmmAngry Bespoke my arse. So far it's been pure time wasting and incompetence.
To be fair they are lovely to speak to but useless.

OP posts:
beansagain · 04/06/2015 09:07

I'm afraid that I hold the opposite view. I strongly believe it's worth getting a personal recommendation for a quality local agent who has contacts and experience and knows the local market.

No matter how well you know the market, things change quickly and local agents are on the cutting edge of that. I've also found it helpful that they have been able to suss out my buyer's bona fides as they know my buyer's agent personally. Equally, they have been able to give me a steer on places I've looked at as they know the area so well.

For these reasons, I wouldn't use an online agent to sell and would be put off buying from someone who is using an online agent as it seems a bit cheap.

2.5% seems a huge fee though for a property valued at £1m+. I would ask around and try to find a better local agent and then push hard on the fee. 1% is a figure to aim for.

BovrilonToast · 04/06/2015 09:08

I'm mid sale with Purplebricks - my house is not worth 1m though Sad

They have been very good. You get a local property agent, mine had been an EA with the largest company round here for 22 years. So he knows the market and all the solicitors etc. He answers texts at all times of day or night and has been very good when our buyer tried to mess around with the price. We had an open day and sold that day. You get offers via the website and you can negotiate directly with the buyers or the EA can do it. We also paid £135 on top of the initial price for accompanied viewings. The EA also accompanied the surveyor when he came round.

We are due to exchange/complete next week and I have to say I'm so pleased we went with them and we have saved over 4k.

BovrilonToast · 04/06/2015 09:13

Beans I agree with you totally with the local market knowledge. I think it's key. The EA we had with Purplebricks knows everyone in the local market, that's why we went with them!

Just for comparison, the EA's we are buying from told us before we'd expressed a vague interested that the vendor had already accepted an offer significantly lower offer than the asking price but it had fallen through. So we should make a cheeky offer if we liked it. I would be massively pissed off if someone I was paying a small fortune to sell my house did that!

Original poster
MrsFlorrick · 04/06/2015 09:23

That's interesting. They other local experts we spoke to before appointing this agent were useless.
And two of them over valued the house quite worryingly. One of them valued it for £900k more than it's currently on the market at. Hmm

I know it's an over valuation because we have a recent bank valuation from a Chartered Surveyor which values it at the price it's currently on sale at.

I have spoken to 4 agents locally and obviously appointed one who has been crap or at least not very interested.

OP posts:
BovrilonToast · 04/06/2015 09:35

We looked at using Tepilo too - but we needed accompanied viewings and they don't offer that!

Also, I had a few local agents round, (I have bought and sold here a few times so know the agents quite well) and without fail they were slow to respond to queries and the quotes to sell and contract lengths were ridiculous. And they wouldn't budge on price or contract length (by much) I really think traditional estate agencies are on the way out...

beansagain · 04/06/2015 09:39

That's interesting. I didn't realise Purple Bricks had "people on the ground". They sound like they've done a great job for you, Bovrilon. Good luck with your move.

BovrilonToast · 04/06/2015 09:54

That's why we went with them Beans, and thank you!

I had tried to sell a property when the online EA's were around in about 2011 - but it was a case of take some photos and a floor plan and asking you how much you want to stick it on Rightmove for. I think this is most people's idea of how it works, and some clearly still do (the mega cheap ones)

Purplebricks' operation is the same as a traditional EA; professional marketing, sales progression, viewings etc - but at a fixed fee, and with no office.

Original poster
MrsFlorrick · 04/06/2015 10:09

Bovril. That's really interesting. I didn't realise that about purple bricks.

Am off to google....

OP posts:
BovrilonToast · 04/06/2015 10:38

They have a lot of reviews on TrustPilot - I found my agent on there and read his reviews!

Storagehunter · 04/06/2015 18:13

Another strong recommendation for Purplebricks from me - and I agree with Bovrilontoast in every sense.

I too have saved over 4k using an online agent. I simply can't see how the traditional agents can still justify charging SO much more than online agents! The agent I dealt with was also a very experienced ex-traditional agent, and he was definitely at the cutting edge of the market, as beansagain puts it.

There seems to be some (completely unjustified) snobbiness about online agents. But, IMO, that will soon change, when people start to realise the 'opportunity cost' aspect.

Good luck OP, with whatever you decide to do.

PettsWoodParadise · 04/06/2015 19:11

We use online only for renting out property: Openrent - they are fabulous, £29 for an add that ends up on Rightmove, Zoopla etc. I don't think most renters realise the difference except we had a no fees clause which was attractive - would never pay 5 to 10% per month for an agent or three months rent for a finder fee. I realise buying and renting are different but with reaching the audience in the first place it doesn't really make much difference in my experience whether you use an EA or Online.

RCheshire · 04/06/2015 19:53

This topic comes up frequently so worth searching for more views. I've sold twice with hatched. No problems and more money in my pocket.

Original poster
MrsFlorrick · 04/06/2015 21:43

Thanks so much everyone! It's great to know that it works.

Need to convince DH now.

OP posts:
Walnutpie · 16/06/2015 11:49

mrsFlorrick will you keep us updated? I'm all for cutting out the EA's if poss.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page