Would you view a house with an online agent?

[Riya011]

Would you view a house that’s on the market with an online EA? If “no”, please can you tell me why?

I did. And bought it. It was a very smooth and fast transaction really with good communication on our end.

Yes, the estate agent has no bearing on whether I view a house or not

Yes of course. It's about the house, not the agent.

I can't see why I wouldn't.

Yes as long as its realistically priced and I am interested in it from details and photos, same as from any EA.

Thanks @alongwaytogo and @soulrider.

I hardly have any viewings on my property. If it’s not the “online agent” thingy, it’s probably Brexit or the price or both.

Please keep your replies coming!!

I would, if it’s a house I would have viewed anyway if it was on with a high street/premium agent, but I would be much more cautious and wary about there being something wrong with it. Round here, in the bracket we bought in at least (which admittedly is at the higher end of average) houses don’t tend to go on with online agents unless they’ve first tried and failed to sell with someone else - and I would be asking why. That said, if there wasn’t anything ‘wrong’ the online agent wouldn’t put me off, but I might expect a more prolonged sales process without the ability to deal face to face.

We sold our house with an online agent and definitely would do the same again.

Of course, they are very easy to book an appt with, I found them far easier than with standard estate agents.

We tried to view a house with a national online agent. They couldn't locate it in spite of it being on Rightmove. Pathetic. Later on I saw it was reduced.

Thanks everyone. My house is on the market with an online EA and I hardly have any viewings. So it’s either Brexit or the price or both!

We bought sold our old house and bought our new one with an online EA. Actually prefer it to traditional high street EAs.

I tried to get a viewing through an online agent for a property and literally called twice/ three times a week until they finally called me back (kept getting answer machine) to tell me it had sold a month later.

I'm going against the grain here which I find surprising but I would be more reluctant. The experience i have had when trying to book a viewing is it's always an ordeal. It's never straight forward like with a high street agent, they always seem confused, don't know the property or person selling it and they never know what times might be suitable. With a local high street agent they at least usually know the property from just saying the street and the vendor. As it goes all the ones I did try to book I either got no follow up call or it ended up sold/off the market a week later.

Don't get be wrong, if the house was PERFECT and I really really loved it then I would go through the ordeal I'd have to be head over heels though.

In our area a new online agent has been doing lots of advertising and offered to list houses for free for a while. We were so tempted, why wouldn't you be with £s saved but we really do think we were right to go high street. They had a list of people ready to view before it went to market and it sold to one of them that first weekend. You don't get that with an online agent. As it goes ones we've had been for sale with this company haven't shifted at all though of course it could just be down to house type.

If you put the advert on here people might be able to try and work out what the issue is. Its worth looking what else is on the market to see what you are up against and also see what has sold for prices and what hasn't. In our area there's some realistically priced and some definitely overpriced. It could still be the agent if people can't get a viewing booked in they might move onto the next place.

I looked for flats on RightMove. I didn't notice what estate agent they were with until it came to arranging a viewing, and even then I doubt I'd have noticed whether they had a physical shop or not.

Yes definitely. Wouldn’t put me off

No viewings almost certainly mean overpriced

This is interesting and timely for me. I’ve just viewed a house through on online EA and as a result are thinking of selling ours through the same agent. The house we’ve viewed is in a nice area/higher end etc- in fact a good few houses round here (home counties) are on with various online EAs. Seems to be less of a stigma to it now.
Online booking for viewings appears to have been smooth and simple- However we were considering putting in an offer but haven’t worked out how to!
Those of you that have been pleased or unimpressed which agent have you gone with? The agent we have used to view is House Simple.

Yes, if it ticked other boxes, including, location, photo of the outside (if it's missing there's usually a reason why). good floor plan with measurements, etc.
And of course assuming the price wasn't wildly optimistic, i.e deluded.
'Offers over' would always put me off too, often it = deluded, as above.

Yes I would if I liked the house. However bear in mind that traditional estate agents work on commission so usually have details of potential customers on their books and put effort into drumming up business. Online agents take your free at the start so have no interest in working hard to get a sale for you. Also often the ‘local’ agents of tge online companies cover a couple of counties whereas the traditional ones have local branches in towns and villages so know the area and the people much better.

It's great money saver for a selling but when it actually comes past the point of an offer my experience has been bad

If this falls through I'd definitely be put off unless the house was perfect and I got to swap numbers with the vendor so could almost by pass the agent if needed

I would, but when we were looking a couple of years ago, the two house with online EAs had huge barriers. One was clearly very overpriced (in relation to virtually identical properties in same road), and we could never get a suitable viewing time for the other. Had it actually been possible to see the latter, it would have been a serious contender.

We sold ours with an online agent and had plenty of interest.