Online estate agents

[Dioskouri]

We're considering using one to sell our flat. The amount of money you can save is so vast, that it seems a no brainer to at least have a go. If it doesn't sell, then we can try a traditional agent.

And yet... In our area, no one seems to use them. Our flat is worth about £1m (yes, I sound like a smug twat. Sorry.) Why don't sellers of more expensive properties want to use online agents? What am I missing?

If in a popular area then why not however I have had a client try to buy a property from an online agent who was marketing. Utterly shocking to deal with. Wouldn't put our bigger offer forward to the client. Took days to come back to us and generally only when we called to chase. Dreadful. The sellers have lost £7250. Complete lack of emthusiasm or to do anything to get the best deal for the seller.

With a property at your level though I'd be wanting professional photography, ie not an agent in the corner of the room with a £50 camera from Jessops. Good floor plans and good sales particulars. Just keep in mind you get what you pay for.

I know of several people who have initially marketed with online agents - NONE have managed a sale via them or some hardly even had a viewing. Yes paying EA fees is a pain but they do actually do a good amount of legwork and pushing of sales to achieve a complete sale. Worth it IMO.

We used an online estate agent with no problems and it saved us around £5k in agent's fees. I knew that houses like ours (2 bed house in South London) were selling quickly anyway and as soon as it went live on rightmove we had loads of viewings and were under offer within ten days. We didn't even put a board up outside, just went for the cheapest package they did. The photos were fine, floorplan was included and we could tweak the descriptions ourselves.

We were in the lucky position though of DH being a SAHP so he could do viewings pretty much any time. If we were both commuting and working long hours, we probably would have had to pay a traditional estate agent and give them keys.

People think EAs just take pics and rip you off. It's true that some do, but actually getting the sale is the easy bit, half of all sales fall through, so really the skill is the post sale through to completion bit, keeping the chain moving.

Most of the onlines don't do viewings which leaves you a bit vulnerable if you are on your own / with young DCs in the house. I work for an EA and we have establishes safety protocols / pre-vet people before doing viewings.

I did it, no luck selling or even getting viewers. A year later I put it with a proactive ea and it went in four days.. well worth it to pay ea

Oh and an online estate agent will charge upfront whether they sell or not, a good local independent agent won't charge until you complete.

Just used Tepilo to sell our 3 bed (a much cheaper property than yours) Did the photos myself but paid extra for a floorplan. Got plenty of viewings, am on mat leave so it was easy to be in whenever requested, the viewings would be the tricky bit I think if you are not available yourself. Saved thousands and quite happy.

We sold online.

As long as they put it on right move, I don't see the issue.

But then I am staggered that regular estate agents stay in business in the internet age.

We were interested in a flat which was being sold via an online EA. It was an utter PITA, they wouldn't commit to viewing times, had no knowledge about the flat, building, service charges etc. I wouldn't want to deal with them when it came to nailing down the details and discussing fixtures and fittings etc. we walked away.

Personally I'd rather use a local independent EA to sell. I wouldn't trust a faceless EA to negotiate on my behalf. I'd be suspicious that what you save on fees you might lose in the selling price. No experience of selling with one at all mind you, it just wouldn't be for me.

And as an estate agent myself I am always a bit wary of someone selling your house in an office hundreds of miles away from the property on the market!

There are plenty of online agencies that offer a local service too.

I really don't think estate agents nowadays offer a service worth worth thousands of pounds.

Used Housenetwork a couple of times - excellent service - excellent result - good sale at good price after high st agent had started nagging to drop the price.

Purplebricks listing lots and achieving many sales down my way.

It took a while but Ebay eventually killed off the classifieds section in local newspapers - that's the same business model and that's the way traditional estate agents will eventually go.

It's progress and it's inevitable because estate agency is unregulated and shows no intention to self-regulate or improve or censure the cowboys (and there are so so many) within its own ranks.

Always had better photos, virtual tours and floorplans from online agents because they work online and know the power of these tools.

Unlike high st agents who chime on about knowing the 'local' market and about how 'local' folks don't need all that stuff - just saving themselves the upfront costs without the bottle to say it - no sincerity, very little honesty - timewasters - consign to history - asap

I don't know whether you write your own blurb with the likes of Purple Bricks or they do it, but I've got an alert set up and received details of a new listing this morning. The description is shockingly bad for an expensive house. It is both inaccurate and full of embarrassing typos - really bad ones. I wonder if someone has used voice recognition software. Plus some of the photos are weird. If you do it yourself I would recommend you get a trusted friend who will give you an honest opinion to proof read for you.

Used housenetwork and nothing but praise for them - really excellent photos (I can't comment about other online estate agents). Are your buyers likely to be on rightmove? if so, to me it's a no brainer. Around here, housenetwork just sold a 1.2 million house, so the sellers must be delighted with all the commission saved!

I think on housenetwork's own website you can search by area, so it might be worth looking at the photos for houses in the wider area, as that would be the photographer who would do your photos, and check you are okay with the quality.

Another vote for HouseNetwork, sold our old house through them, loads of photos, floorplan and virtual tours of several rooms wit 360 degree video. Dedicated person who dealt with my sale and direct phone line to them.

The only thing they couldn't do was viewings, but I was fine with doing that.
They followed up on feedback and negotiated the sale.

I bought this house also through HouseNetwork. Again a dedicated person dealing with this house. Means their knowledge of the house/viewings/negotiations is with that one person.

Quite frankly I think the percentage estate agents charge to sell houses is ridiculous. We didn't register with any high street agents when we were house hunting except in the year 2000 when everything was selling before they had even written up the details.

These days most people would use RightMove/Globrix etc to search for housing, especially with the "draw a search" facility on Rightmove and the alert function on RM and google.

I think the important thing is to use an agent that knows what they are doing. By that, I mean that they are able to realistically value your property; take good photos and floor-plans; write a description that doesn't sound like it was written by a grammatically-challenged used car salesman; and crucially can handle the complications of a bidding war, a complicated chain, or a difficult buyer. If you have confidence the online agent can do that then fine, but it's very rare that you see good quality properties with online agents in our very sought after and horribly expensive area of the South East.

We've just had a private sale go wrong (complicated chain and volatile vendor) and honestly I wished we'd had a good local agent involved. I'd have felt the 1% was worth it for the high levels of stress it would have removed, and if the purchase had actually gone through.

There's a property on with an online agent in my village for £1m and it's hung around for a year. The valuation is questionable, the photos are very unflattering, and the description just doesn't chime with what you see. Good properties at that level go in days here, but they very easily go 'stale' and hang around if they are on for too much money or potential buyers don't have confidence that it's on with a reputable agent.

I'd give an online agent a short trial, but if you don't get good quality offers quickly, or you doubt the agent's expertise, I'd revert to a traditional agent after a couple of weeks.

Neighbour in my block is using online and another using high st agents. The difference in photos was incredible. Ie high st people so much better. And the person doing online actually has the better cleaner flat but it doesn't translate from the pics.

Chosen randomly and with no regard for the agent or location - only that both are in Kent in this price range - which is better?

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50882371.html

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-35902119.html

Which will cost the thick part of £3000 and which will cost about £600?

My parents used online Estate Agents and were very pleased with them, a positive experience which they didn't receive from the high street Estate Agents (who lied all the time). If I had to sell I would def use online Agents.

It’s true that many wealthier seller’s tend to use tradional agents but this is probably because they can afford to! in fact, a good online agent can do everything just the same and will often be successful where others are not. Most do not erect boards so they do seem less visible than High St equivalents.

Thanks everyone. Lots of helpful advice here.

On balance, I think it's worth a go with an online agent - perhaps with a separately instructed professional property photographer to ensure that the photos and floor plan are up to scratch.

Online agents are definitely the way to go. I've used one called your natural habitat.com and I received the best service I've come across and i've sold a few houses. Why would you pay traditional agency fee's which can be over 1.6% of the property value when you can have a fixed fee of a fraction of the price. As long as its listed on rightmove I don't see the point in paying more than you have to.

Avoid purplebricks awful