Estate Agents

[fempsych]

Anybody used an online estate agents? The difference in cost between purple bricks (etc) and local estate agents is thousands and we are trying to work out how to justify that!

Do a search of Mumsnet. You will soon find out that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys. I know EAs are often hated, but from what I have seen, the online ones are worse. Purple Bricks take your money upfront, whether you sell or not. How many PB's sold boards have you seen? Is the local agent truly local with local knowledge or covering a huge area?

Actually in our area we are seeing more and more Purple Bricks signs. Also their new tv ad suggests they offer different levels of service.

What about one of the new hybrid EAs? We're selling with a company that don't have any high street offices, but provide a full service (EA hosted viewings, professional photography, local knowledge etc.). We got amazing photographs, lots of exposure on social media, as well as RM etc, and great EA support for the same price as the basic (I.e. Non-professional photos etc) package offered by local high street EAs.

I think a lot will depend on your area, and the state of your local market. They don't really seem to be a thing where I live and those houses that do go on with an online agent generally go on with a high street agent after a few weeks.

PB take the money whether you sell or not. As an EA a property that I saw came on with PB today. An elderly lady is selling. It's come on about £25k lower than what it should be on at. I honestly don't think they will work in your best interests.

We were tempted by purple bricks but went with a local agent after we had a few valuations and it became abundantly clear which of the 3 agents knew the local area.

We had 3 viewings booked and one offer (a low one from who i suspect is the landlord of the houses either side of us) before we went live on right move or the board went up because the agent rung round her list.
Hopefully we'll get a quick sale and the extra £1500 will be worth it.

I personally wouldn't go near an online EA. If you have to pay upfront, where is their motivation to sell your house? My EA lined up viewings before our house was even listed and the first to view bought our house - the EA had kept a list of interested parties from a similar house that had recently sold. I just don't see that online EAs would do that.

Also do negotiate with EA's, it won't necessarily cost thousands more - we are paying ours £1200 after we negotiated a lower rate.

We negotiated with our EA as well.

We really liked Purple Bricks. There was someone who worked for them who was exactly like a normal estate agent and you could pay extra for viewings. She was really motivated to sell our house. Much prefered them to the high street one we ended up using who did sell our house in the end.

All the PB viewings dried up when we got the High Street one. Next time I would just use Purple Bricks.