List with local agent who knows the area, or an internet agent ?

[tanguero]

About to list, and am thinking, don't most people now use Rightmove as their principle house search tool, rather than the traditional looking in agents' windows ? Or am I wrong ? If I'm right - and am prepared to handle viewing myself - is their any point in paying - a lot more - for a local high street, agent ?

I wouldn't buy from anyone using an online agent such as purplebricks. They're cheap for a reason.

The easy bit is often finding a buyer.
Much of the work done by the agent is after terms have been agreed.

Purple bricks and the other internet agents are awful. Once they have your money they have no incentive to actually sell the house. Estate agents are much more than just doing viewings, they hold the chain together.

It’s very easy to sell a house, it’s a total pain the arse to hold a sale together through all the ups and downs and legal ins and outs. The likes of Purple Bricks take your money up front and then do nothing. Do yourself a favour and use a smaller, local firm who know the area and care about their reputation.

Point taken...I'll go local.

Of the 7 or 8 houses on my road that have been on the market in the last year, all have sold within a few weeks - EXCEPT the two that were/are on with Purple Bricks.

We tried to view a house advertised by an internet agent - never got back to us. Now I see said house is on with an agent on Rightmove We have sold, bought and recently moved into our new house. I would always use a local agent.

It goes way beyond viewing. Our local agent that handled the house we bought did an awful lot of arse kicking and worked to keep things moving as we had a nightmare vendor using a useless online conveyancer.

We've used both. PB are cheap, but you get what you pay for. Pictures poor, house details had to be rewritten, no interaction once house was online, that was the end of any input from them. If you're a confident house seller, know the market and are happy to manage the process yourself, then go into it with your eyes open.

Last house we sold was via a proper estate agent. It was much more straightforward. However, we, and the solicitor, found the 'real' estates agent's interaction with the chain counterproductive. So the estate agents were talking to our buyers and discussing dates etc when our solicitor (who was brilliant) and theirs had everything in hand. It caused no end of problems and we definitely preferred just communicating through the solicitors. I know how frustrated the solicitors found the EA input too.

It really depends.
An average house, in a sellers market, & if you're willing to put some effort in/be more involved in the process, I think Purplebricks et al are a good option.
Certainly for the last 2 houses I sold, I didn't feel I got much in the way of additional value at all from paying more to sell via a high street agent. Actually making the sale happen still seemed to fall on my shoulders.

I tried to view houses through internet agents and was frustrated they couldn't answer many of my enquiries, they weren't in the area and knew nothing about the locality I was looking at.

I’ve sold privately and it was straight forward as it all went through solicitors. Estate agents are only a shop window. The only concern I’d have is that you may have over estimated the house price. Ask for valuations and do your research and look at recent sold property prices in your area and you should have a good idea.

Yopa made it impossible for us to buy a house we wanted. They agreed with the vendor to price it at 60k+ over value. We got the vendor to come down by 60k but have since discovered it was still massively overpriced. No wonder it hadn't sold before us. When we lost our buyer, Yopa persuaded them that instead of waiting for us, it was better to put their house into a modern auction where the 'winner' has to pay 7k upfront for the pleasure of winning the bid, on top of any sale price. It is impossible for them to get out of the auction for less than 7k. We moved onto another vendor. The house is just on a rotating auction now that never gets any bids.

Purple bricks also try to foist this auction onto people. But also their agents are all a bit shit.

Find a local agent that isn't Connells (awful), or so snobby it puts people off, with realistic pricing, and you're good.

I've noticed PB tend to stay on the market quite a long time, but I would recommend Doorsteps. £300 to get photos on Rightmove, and then we just gave all viewers our contact details and managed it from there. It may not work so well if your house is a bit niche, but ours was fairly normal in a popular area.

(I've got no idea what estate agents are meant to do after offer has been accepted - all our Sellers' did was keep sending us potential properties...)

I wouldn't view a house listed with an internet agent as it suggests the owners are trying to cut corners and would make me think the house may reflect this. Additionally, we have moved 3 times now and every single time it's been a ball ache even with a good, local agent!

I only have experience of Purple Bricks from a buyers perspective.
When you see a property you want to view, you have to create an account with them and then book viewings online. If the appointment you have requested is inconvenient the buyer will notify you back and then you have to select an alternative. You get notified of the buyers response via email and text and it can take several tries before you finally get an agreed viewing. The constant pings and notifications into my email box and texts on my phone drove me round the bend. And I only wanted to view 2 properties. I had to give up in the end and never managed to see either.

Goodness knows what happens when you want to make an offer. Or need to chase up progress on a sale - I dread to think how clogged up your phone and email account would get.

I guess if you prefer online communication to picking up the phone it might work for you but beware you may lose potential buyers on the way. My honest opinion, nothing beats having and experienced agent at the end of the phone to sort out all the crap. And there will be crap - believe me.

A good estate agent will have their own list of buyers whose needs and preferences they know, will do ‘due diligence’ on any buyers and offers, check that they are proceedable etc.

They will then negotiate and advise on any hiccups in the process, liaise with other EAs in the chain and keep things moving.

I used an online agent saved myself 8K, service was great.

Definitely a high street estate agent. Ours kept the chain going if it wasn't for the manager and his people skills the chain would have fallen apart. He certainly earned his money in our chain and we were so grateful.

While we don’t go look on estate agents windows these days, because if covid, we did register with estate agents because there are a lot of properties that get shown to select buyers even before they hit right move. Estate agents with connections in other areas than where you’re selling are also of benefit because if you’re looking, they contact their other branches / affiliates snd it really helps vs just contacting after you see something on right move.

We would never buy a house listed using the cheap on line estate agents. There’s no support to help the chain along. I’d also be suspect about the sellers being so cheap and what issues might be hidden about the house

I’m sure a lot of people may not like that answer but you asked and that’s my honest answer.