Online agent stories please

[Thisandthat2017]

I literally woke up in a sweat last night at the thought of paying for an online agent and still not selling my house!

Background - put house on end of July. 22 viewings, 3 2nd viewings and no offers. Took house off this week as I can't be ar$ed over Xmas. Will put back on next year.

Had planned to use an online agent, possibly emoov. I found the high street EA wasted our time with people who were not really interested in our property and that we had to work to their opening hours - which really didn't suit us.

Please I would love to hear stories of online agents - good or bad! Xx

Purple bricks have been excellent for us. Both times we accepted offers within a week :)

Purplebricks good here too!

Wow. I am surprised to hear that, purplebricks seem to be the one people say to avoid on these forums. Can I ask, did you pay upfront? I would and would be worried once they had my money they wouldn't care. ????

After failing to sell with a disinterested local agent, we sold through housesimple. Very straight forward, saved a fortune in high street agent fees. We opted for their pay in advance package but were quite prepared to write off the ~£500 fee had it not worked out.
Booking viewings was straight forward and we could always speak to someone on the phone during the sale.

Another vote for purple bricks here. Accepted an offer with 2 weeks and has been great having direct contact with our buyer.

I sold with Yopa, I liked the online hub arranging viewings myself. Several local estate agents annoyed me when viewing for not calling me back, mixing up my appointment times etc so was glad not to be paying them. Saying that, I like conducting my own viewings etc anyway. I had a lovely buyer and liaised frequently. It all went through ( chain of 6) in under 9weeks. If my buyer was a nightmare could have been different story! Ultimately, remember most people are nice and want to move. The internet is more a place to vent when things go wrong.

Tepilo hideous. Online and phone booking for viewings unreliable, rude photographer and clueless call centre.

Just dont

Do your research
Purplebricks have been rapped over the knuckles by a number of consumer organisations including the BBC and regularly use heavyweight lawyers to try to stifle bad reviews/ comments.

There are some good LPEs' out there but you are paying for a service whether they sell your home or not. Independent research by GetAgent.co.uk suggests they don't sell anywhere near as many homes as they claim.

BBC Watchdog -
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2ZXGCTrVbzb1Z9bdXZYXn17/purplebricks

The ASA -
www.asa.org.uk/search.html?q=purplebricks

Independent estate agent comparison site GetAgent.co.uk
blog.getagent.co.uk/market-swings-towards-traditional-traditional-estate-agents-take-properties-left-unsold-online-rivals/

My Blog -
blog.pdq-estates.co.uk/2017/04/12/purplebricks-what-is-really-going-on/

We paid up front

We used Housesimple after being completely messed around by Foxtons - they were great! Incredibly professional and we found buyers within a couple of weeks. Of course, you can put the house in the market slightly lower because you are saving the agents fees, which we did. And the relief of not having to give 20k to Foxtons for being totally useless was priceless .

We used Tepilo about 3 years ago they were fab and it sold easily for a good price.

Just so you know OP the busiest day for traffic on right move is Boxing Day.

I've marketed my home with Doorsteps. It's cost me £99... they list on rightmove/zoopla/primelocation.

Had an offer within 24 hours. So far so good....

I guess it depends what you need from an EA. I knew my property would sell fairly quickly as it's a good location and ideal FTB place.

I really would have a look at Doorsteps website and reviews on trustpilot...