Has anyone sold their property on The Modern House?

[tigerbear]

... and if so, what were they like?
Their website looks amazing, with loads of good reviews, but I’d never heard of them until a friend mentioned it.
It’s clearly a ‘destination’ site with a very particular type of property, attracting a very discerning kind of customer, but I’m intrigued to know how most people would find out about properties on there, as they never pop up on Rightmove.

I’ve just taken my house off the market with ‘normal’ agents, and going to do it up with a view to putting in back on next year.
With a bit of work and ‘staging’ I think it would be the kind of house that could sell on there (albeit, at the cheaper end of their kind of house, £680-700k)

Has anyone used them, what did you think, and how much is their fee?

I wonder how much legwork the staff do? I've only been to one viewing and there were various buyers milling about with just one rep from TMH and not much discussion or information - they were very PR-y. The FOF I mentioned did their own viewings. I wonder if, essentially, the website does the work for them?

There a house under offer through them near me (950k?) Their photos are excellent (very aspirational looking) but the write up is indicative of not knowing anything about the area as they probably don’t given their listings cover a vast geographical area. If you list through them, I’d make sure you sense check the info re things such as schools, amenities., commuter links etc.

@ScribblingPixie and @JoJoSM2 yes, I think you’re right about that. I guess as they don’t have offices, they won’t have agents in every area, in fact, hardly any.

If I was selling I'd be very tempted to use TMH - my flat is in SW London in a 1930s Police section house which was converted into flats almost 20 years ago. I'd be more than happy for TMH to style it for me - worth every penny if it gets a good sale. Our local agents seem to struggle.

Surprised that noone has come on to say they've sold via TMH.
I expect the % is high, maybe 3 or 4%.

TMH was featured in an article I read recently. They are considerably oversubscribed for the amount of listings they want to feature so it is not a case of ‘will they suit me’ but ‘will they accept me as a vendor?’ It would appear that The house has to be both architecturally interesting and styled in a TMH manner to pass the ‘test’ to be listed. HTH. Agree it is a marvellous site to waste an hour or two on though!

I haven’t sold through TMH but I had them do an appraisal of our last home which they agreed to list. Their team were very affable and easy to deal with. Our house was an unusual, very modern design and it fitted in with their aesthetic. We decided against using them for the sale because the price they valued the house at was too high - it just wasn’t realistic for the area, particularly as we had a very small garden and we knew that was going to put a lot of people off. They knew a lot about design but they just didn’t have a feel for the local market and we needed an agent that did. I can’t remember what percentage they charge but they priced the house at over 20% over what the two local agents suggested.

But the photography! The shoot didn’t take long, but they really knew what they were doing. Photographer did a quick recce and then came back the following day in time to get the perfect light. The photos were just gorgeous, they nearly made us decide not to sell! 😂

When I was buying, I looked at the Modern House. The issue is the price basically: they charge a premium for quirk, interesting properties or a property that has been done up to instagram quality.

So you see maisonettes for the same price as a house on the same street.

I wonder how quickly the second category sells?

I utterly love the houses on The Modern House! I love midcentury style and many of the homes do it so well. I think you should do it, OP.

@MrsJamin I’d like to, but we’ve got a lot to do it before it’d be even near presentable to them. As @Yesbutisittouching said, even though the house is the 1960’s/modern type they like, I doubt they’d accept it in it’s current state (not that it’s horrendous or anything, but we’d want the get the bathroom and kitchen redone, plus boring stuff like new heating)

It can be very illuminating to look at the sales photos on TMH and compare them with ordinary EA photos of the same property. A place a few miles away from us was on with TMH all through the summer - the photos made it look like Shangri-la. Didn't sell, and back on with a local agent for a lower price now, and although it's perfectly nice, it doesn't look nearly as alluring!

I'm another who's spent far too much of lockdown drooling over TMH photos.

It's always astonishing to see the exact type of little suburban 70's house I grew up in, styled up and on sale for zillions - though I didn't realise at the time how singular those houses were. Nor how nostalgic it feels to see them now.

I'm very much in love with the Barbican - but thankfully even TMH can't make those beautifully positioned flats look spacious.

Listening to some of The Modern House podcast today - so wonderfully arty, I don't understand much of what they are talking about but it makes me want to find out!

Thanks for all the info everyone!
I was looking again on the website earlier, and saw a 3 bed on for £650k, quite similar to ours, and it wasn’t even that great upstairs - wrinkled carpets on the bedrooms, shabby bathroom etc. I was really surprised, and kind of pleased - gives me hope that once ours is ‘done’ it could be a contender to be accepted by them.

OP, you may enjoy this article:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-cult-like-appeal-of-the-modern-house-qrlhps8v3

@Yellownotblue ooh, thanks for that, I’ll take a read.

Yes we sold with TMH earlier this year, we put it on the market late last year (think it was October time) got offers quite quickly and had accepted before Christmas with plans to move just after Easter.
Had delays due to Covid/lockdown at one point we temporarily put it back on the market and got another 4 offers, but as by them we just wanted to move we ended up sticking with our original buyers and sold in July.
TMH were excellent, they take great photos and all the people that came to view were vetted beforehand so we knew what position they were in. Most were London buyers, our house was 47min train journey outside of London.
TMH commission was slightly higher but not much, 100% worth it for us as a local agent wouldn't have brought in London buyers and that's who we sold to.
I've been a fan of TMH for years and was very happy that they felt our house was right for them, they don't accept everyone who contacts them, although they have really broadened their criteria, in the early days you needed to have a link to an architect to be sold through them.

Just reading from the comments above, TMH don't style the houses for you.
They will maybe move a few things for the photograps but the houses are usually already styled as shown.
I know someone who does style flats pre sale for a London estate agency called Brickworks, the photos all look beautiful, but have a bit of a house feel to me, as far as I know that isn't how TMH works, most people who sell through them have a genuine interest (or profession) in architecture or design, or the property is off some architectural merit/period.

@tigerbear I don't have the paperwork (as I'm not in the UK at the moment) but I think we payed 2.5% commission.

Very interesting, thanks for the info @Itscoldouthere. Hmm, 2.5% is what I was thinking would be the fee rate.
It is quite high, but as you say, an excellent service. Having said that, it’s a big leap from the 1% I had mine on with via a ‘normal’ agent.

Are you going to do renovation regardless if whether you use them?

I guess it’s a number thing. We got 1% with a good local agent with great shots (they always do close ups of Georgian taps for example, it’s their thing). They lowered commission as it was their best street -basically Georgian which was their patch.

Anyway if you’re going to do work anyway then you could think about whether you want do it to a good standard in line with TMH standards

@MarshaBradyo yes, we’ll def do the renovation work, regardless whether we use TMH. The main problem is our heating system needs changing - it’s currently a Scandi style ‘air flow’ system, where warm air comes up via vents in the floor and walls. It’s really efficient, yet every buyer was freaked out by it.

@tigerbear well it also depends on the valuation price, your location, etc, etc
TMH valued for a lot more than local agents, but because they have the reach to bring in people from outside the local area they definitely got us more money than a local agent would have done.
Our house looked great value for a London buyer, but was expensive for the village. Our village wasn't chocolate box pretty or in the most desirable place.
The people who bought our house did so because the house worked for them, they weren't looking in that area, they are now using the house as a location venue for photography shoots, there are 2 of them, it's a 5 bedroom house!

Very nearly bought a house advertised through them but also on with a local agent. It was original and beautiful but it took us ages to realise how small it would be for the price once you had all your stuff in it. And the flat roof needed replacing for £££ so we pulled out.

V interesting to hear your experience @Itscoldouthere - I've definitely seen a design consultancy that lists styling work for TMH amongst its credits but that might be from a while ago when they were smaller.