Online house sales

[M1nstrel]

Does anyone have any experience of selling their house online rather than via an estate agent? Any pros/cons/tips please? TIA.

I'm under offer with emoov at the moment.

Pros - sold £20k over asking price within days and offers handled really well.

• saved 2.5k on local agents quotes

• superb photos of my house

• liked having control of online booking system

• staff in call centre friendly

Cons - They haven't been in contact once with me since my house sold back in early Feb, unlike the house I'm buying their agent chases contracts every week. Luckily for me it's still proceeding well but I do have to do all the chasing from my side.

I saved 2.5k though and I'm more than willing to chase things.

Don't do it!

I monitor the local market like a hawk and everything that goes on with online agents either doesn't sell and drops the price regularly or ends up moving to an agent with local knowledge and selling quickly.

I went to view a house on with Purple Bricks and the photos showed a stunning garden with an old orchard, description stated it was a good size garden with established trees. So I assumed that of the three exterior photos, two were the garden and one was the view... arrived and discovered a postage stamp sized garden and that the photo of the trees was the end of the adjoining field.

House is still for sale 6 months later despite several price drops!

Also, if a house is on with an online agent I assume the owner is wanting to save money and move quickly so I assume they would accept less than asking.

Am in the process of buying and selling. Using a traditional agent to sell buy the property I am buying was marketed by purple bricks. Their agent has been shockingly shit and very hands off, whereas my agent is in regular contact with everyone. Post-exchange viewings to measure up - my agent took care of that but I had to organise with the seller and it all seems v unprofessional really. There's also some weird issue with keys on completion - the person I am buying from Has to deal with key transfer so no idea how that will work.

I can certainly see the appeal of saving £££ but from our perspective a traditional agent takes away the hassle. I also negotiated on fees so there is definitely scope to make savings but not compromise on service.

User that may be true in your area but around here. I also watch the market closely and around 50% are now up with online agents, I do not see them reappearing on the market.

We've been buying via a traditional agent, selling via online.

The traditional agents couldn't tell us much about the house we bought, provided completely inaccurate (i.e. for a different house) floorplans and didn't correct them after we pointed this out. Quite good at chasing me for purchasing updates but generally disorganised - and they're a reputable national firm.

Selling via House Network. They were able to get someone in quickly to do photos, which were excellent. Very accessible online account. Put it online within 24 hours, had three viewings for the next working day. Phoned us with an offer as soon as they got it and have kept in touch well since - they actually have a money-back guarantee if they don't contact you weekly. Not exchanged yet so there's still time for them to mess it up, but so far very impressed!

We are also with house network. Sold same day went on market for more than the asking price. They have a sales progression team as well. The cheapest trad agent was 5200. We have paid 775. Bear in mind though i had a really good idea of the price to put it on for, rare house in a popular area etc etc.