Online agents in London - any success (or failure) stories?

[Bookshelfer8]

Looking at Yopa or 99Home or similar. It will save us a lot of money (£16k judging by one agent’s quote) and we have a very easy to sell property.

I won’t use their conveyancers, will take my own photos (because I have the equipment and I can take good ones) and happy to do my own viewings. I’m also going to be chain free as we’re moving areas and want to rent first to get a feel for it.

Anyone had a good or bad experience as a seller or a buyer using an online agent? I can’t get my head around spending £16k on a high street agent as opposed to £1.5k with an online! But there must be a reason?!

We had a good experience with Yopa in north London. Each area is covered by a different local agent so I think it depends on how good they are individually.

Viewings and photos were included in the price so we didn't have to do that ourselves. They had an online portal where you can see what viewings are in the diary, message the agent and then your buyers make offers and communicate through there.

We did No Sale No Fee as our flat was tricky to sell, but it was relatively quick in the end. The fee was £3k in 2019 and we had been quoted £14-18k from other agents so definitely saved a lot.

It's the only sale I've done so can't compare to a traditional agent, but we thought it was a good service. Interesting to see what others say!

That’s good to hear! Did the buyer seem to have an ok experience? I read that buyers get put off by them - my big fear!

But my thinking is, if I’m saving £16k of fees, I’m more likely to take an offer from a buyer so everyone wins?!

Is the £16k a percentage of your house price? I hadn't thought much about agency fees - we are hoping to sell soon - but that's a huge amount!

Yes 1.5 and 2% were the quotes we got from two agents. (2% surprised me! Neither agent told me their fee until after they came and gave me the sales pitch.)

Another local quotes 1%, but I didn’t contact them yet. Even 1% is a big chunk of money compared with the online agent fee!

Yes if you pay £99 (there used to be codes to get it a bit lower too) to 99Home then they will list your place on Rightmove. For that they don't do much else though apart from pass on messages via their slightly clunky messaging system.
If you know what you're doing then with an ultra wide angle lens and tripod you'll have better photos than most ads. I'd suggest also having a floorplan. Not sure a sign is worth it for most properties - everyone serious will look on rightmove.
I found the hardest bit was negotiation. There's no-one in the middle to help seal the deal. It's best to be confident in the house valuation and know how you're going to approach offers in advance.

5 years ago so maybe not relevant but we sold and bought with Housenetwork (which has now been bought, I think by Purple Bricks). It was very fast and painless and yes cheap. Did the viewings myself but I think they came and did the photos. Used separate conveyancer. All good!

We’ve since moved again and used high st estate agent for various reasons inc we have kids and I cba to figure out how to do the viewings myself. Not sure where the real life estate agent adds thousands of pounds in value.

Yes that’s a good point about the negotiation. I do have a price I want in mind that I think is fair. I would be reluctant to go under that, so that may help!

Bumping this in case anyone else has any stories to share! Going to decide this week.

To give the other side: we went with a high street agent and to us the money was definitely well spent. We had a sale fall through and they got us new buyers very quickly. They definitely worked for their money. I appreciated getting the feedback from them and their judgement on when to accept an offer and how similar properties were selling locally.

We viewed a property with the owner showing us around and it really, really put us off the home. We loved it and it would have been our first choice but she was dreadful. She spent way to long talking about money, how her garden was superior to her neighbours...

I think it depends on your property - if it's the sort of home that is never online for more than a weekend or two I would go for it. If it needs work or may take a few months to sell them I would personally consider an agent.

We sold 6 months ago and got a rate of 0.75%. Can you negotiate fee?

I did think about trying to negotiate, Alien, but it still comes out (even at 0.75%) at £6k(ish) as opposed to £1k.

The agents charging 2% would laugh at me - so they wouldn’t be the ones to take that cut! But maybe a smaller high street agent would.

I don’t want to make a mistake by going with an online agent, but then I am also confident I can take good photos and won’t be an annoying when showing people around.

We’ll be chain free, too, so don’t need an agent to hold our end of the chain together.

Honestly don’t know what to do! My place is ready to go on the market, but I’m dithering in indecision with who to go with now - holding myself up!

*£1.5k