Surely everyone checks Rightmove?

[Zoricthespaceman]

About to put house on the market. Favoured high st EA is going to charge 1.5% (incl VAT) to sell our house- an actual fee £18k, if we get the £1.2m asking price. Purple bricks charges a flat fee of £1199 (and you can pay an additional £300 for them to do viewings).DH thinks we’ll get a better price and potentially quicker sale possibly without even going on the open market going through a high end EA. I think that everyone checks Rightmove and the same people will end up looking at the house regardless, and we could save £16k. Anyone used DIY EA for expensive properties?

I would have agreed with you before we sold our house but I now think a traditional estate agent does earn their fee (or some of it at least!) We're a week away from completion and our agent are on the phone every day to everyone in the chain trying to get the exchange sorted, they know more information about everyone in the chain than anyone else. Yes the solicitors do their part but only the agent can pick up the phone to your buyer or vendor of the house you're buying and get an answer quickly. I'm really glad we didn't use purple bricks after some of the horror stories I've read on here.

I met our local PB agent; seemed professional and knowledgeable. However, my concern (as we were selling and buying, therefore there would be a chain) was that PB wouldn't have the same incentive (of commission) to prioritise my sale once an offer had been accepted.
I used our local small business instead, and they did a hell of a lot of chasing of my buyer and the buyers useless solicitor. We might have lost the house we were buying otherwise, so to me it was worth having someone who was pushing the sale and who handled all the communication with the buyer (as at several points I would have lost it with them 😂)

I wouldnt look on rightmove. Went to agents with our brief andcsaid notify us if something cones up that fits.

This was for an Equestrian property so quite specific though.

I'd never look at a property on PB again. Hard to get hold of, call centre staff couldn't pronounce the name of the town where we were buying, let alone knew anything about it. "Local property expert" negotiated with us via a string of text messages complete with emojis. Offer was accepted in the same way
We'd lost out on a very, very similar house just before. Loads of viewers, closing date, sealed bids, way over asking. PB house had, erm, just us.
Similar story to a house in our estate - we sold in less than a week with a traditional agent, and a PB house sat for ages.
I think the issue with flat-fee agents is there's no carrot for them. You need to decide if you can be bothered with the hassle of being the stick!

Obviously should say the problem with the upfront, flat fee agents.

There are lots of really good local estate agents out there that sell mid priced properties and they are usually open to negotiation as to fees etc , talk to them and have several around for a valuation ( last property that was pretty unique got very different valuations and I went with the middle one along with the agent I felt I could have best working relationship with ) I think it's essential to have Rightmove involved , and would only consider agents that did the viewings in person.