Strike estate agents (formerly Housesimple)

[User7261498]

Hello,

I have had 5 estate agents to value my property and I am thinking I would like to list with Strike. I am happy to do my viewings and use the online portal/app. What concerns me is I have seen some negative reviews where people have tried to arrange viewings and not been able to contact Strike/hear back from them. I don't understand this as my understanding from the valuation was that this would all be conducted by ourselves and Strike wouldn't need to be involved. When I queried this with a complainant, I was informed that buyers book a time slot but Strike have to get back and confirm. Is this correct? I don't understand why they would need to do this? Surely the booking would just come through to us as the sellers and we would confirm?

I haven't used Strike, but it sounds similar to Yopa in that you book a slot with a central team, who then go and check with the local agent. In our experience the central team offers every time slot known to man, but only a few will be compatible with the agent's/seller's actual diary! For both viewing and valuation appointments our booked time changed suddenly, with very little notice. Absolutely ridiculous system and the Yopa agent was unwilling to hear any negative feedback about it. Put us off ever going with them, in any capacity!

I have viewed a house that was listed with strike, I phoned them up to book, they checked with the seller and emailed me confirmation. Then they phoned me for feedback. I had the option to contact the sellers directly through the online portal, but I didn’t use it.

We’ve sold through Strike, viewing are all done on the portal with no involvement from Strike in that part. Viewer selects dates/times they can view, it comes through to you, you confirm or suggest new date/time, viewer confirms and that’s it.

I tired to get viewing for 3 houses with strike. None of the viewings were confirmed or agreed. Never did see the houses.
A house opposite my old house was on the market 9 months before ours with Strike. In very nice condition as had done a lot of work on it. At first it was clearly way overpriced and it took them ages to drop the price. Then, at what i through was reasonable price it still did not sell- I had 3 offers on mine within 5 days of going on market in April. I would say be careful- once the price was reduced there is no reason that house didn’t sell very quickly (unless it stank that you couldn’t tell from details!). Strike just seems so flimsy a set up for buyers.

We we're buying a house through Strike (fell through but unrelated). Originally we really liked the set-up of booking viewings and submitting offers online and having the ability to message the vendors. But that is where the positives end.

After actually having the offer accepted, it became painfully slow to do anything with them. It took nearly a month to get the house as SSTC on Right Move due to them being extremely difficult to get hold of and being extremely slow at approving documents. Our vendors also messaged us several times asking why we hadn't submitted X, Y and Z when we did it days ago. Everytime we rang we would get put through to a different agent, not the person that was meant to be dealing with our purchase, and each time nobody actually knew what was happening.

We are in the middle of buying another house and it's only now that I realised how inept Strike actually were.

All the online only agents are shit IMO. I think you will sell because of the way the market is but as a buyer I hate using them.

@daviesbrownsmithgreen thanks that's really helpful. What sort of documents were they not approving? I thought all the documents went to the solicitors?

[quote User7261498]@daviesbrownsmithgreen thanks that's really helpful. What sort of documents were they not approving? I thought all the documents went to the solicitors?[/quote]
They wanted to see 2 forms of ID, proof of deposit and mortgage. Which I don't think is unusual especially the deposit and mortgage but it just took so long to approve them. The forms of ID alone took nearly 10 days to be approved.

Ahh yes! Apologies I've never sold before and cannot remember the requirements as a buyer!

Some buyers are put off viewing through them because you do it all online. Not all buyers can set up an account, use an online portal, some buyers do not speak fluent English and others want to speak to an agent. Then after the offer is accepted (good) estate agents often calm down chains, manage expectations and take the heat out of a stressful situation. In the current climate selling the house is easy, getting it to exchange in a timely manner is not so easy!

Don't do it. What you're missing here is that actually selling the house is the easiest bit; it's the sale progression that's tough, and where a good "real" estate agent comes into their own.
Good estate agents can hold chains together, keep things moving, chase people up and down the chain where solicitors are being shit, and use their local knowledge and contacts to speed things up. Our last sale would have all fallen through on exchange day if it hadn't been for our vendor's EA, who worked miracles up and down the chain to keep everyone sweet.
You won't get that with Strike. Which is fine if everything runs smoothly, but if it doesn't (and these things often don't) a good local EA is worth their weight in gold.

@fellrunner85 I totally agree. Good agents earn their commission.

fellrunner85 is absolutely right. Keeping a chain together is the hard part. I wouldn't use an online agent for buying or selling (and would be uneasy if someone in the chain was) Twice our sale and purchase has been saved by a diligent estate agent who kept a chain going

I work with estate agents every day (but I am not one)
And strike (plus purple bricks) literally fill me with dread.
As other people have mentioned, a good agent is worth their weight sale progressing and communicating up and down the chain.
It is a really challenging and difficult job.
The selling of a house is seriously the easy bit. It's the rest of it that is hard work

I tried to arrange a viewing to see a house for sale with Strike about 6 months ago. First of all it wasn’t listed on the website, then the appt I requested was t confirmed. Never did get to see it.

It's so tricky though because I read reviews of our local high street agents and there is also an abundance of comments saying they are impossible to get hold of, don't return buyers calls who want to view etc. When I bought before, not once did the estate agent do anything to progress the sale, it was just myself constantly calling the solicitors.

Hmmm - I would say always go with a High Street EA but you do want them to be contactable, progress the sale etc so that's a tricky one OP. Maybe ring some up pretending to be a buyer, see how good they are at answering the phone. Dont forget all the satisfied customers will be too busy enjoying their new house to be writing online reviews, so what you are seeing is negatively biased.

One thing I would say is why would you want to do the viewings yourself? I hate viewing houses when the vendor is present, it's quite awkward and offputting. Much better to have the EA do it and you go out during the viewings.

DS is looking to buy at the moment. He saw a house with an on line agent, who were holding an open day. Local rep was confident it would go to best and final offers after the week end. He decided against it, so didn't offer. It was advertised by a local agent a month later at a lower price.
We have also seen other properties advertised with on line agent and a "real" agent as well.
Also saw one advert of a house with an on line, which had 7 different prices in as many weeks increasing and decreasing - up £10K, down £5K, up £10K, down £15K etc. Not sure what advice they were getting.
TBH , stopped looking at houses with on line agents on Zoopla and RM as its hard work organising an appointment and they never answer any questions about the property.

@RainingYetAgain

DS is looking to buy at the moment. He saw a house with an on line agent, who were holding an open day. Local rep was confident it would go to best and final offers after the week end. He decided against it, so didn't offer. It was advertised by a local agent a month later at a lower price. We have also seen other properties advertised with on line agent and a "real" agent as well. Also saw one advert of a house with an on line, which had 7 different prices in as many weeks increasing and decreasing - up £10K, down £5K, up £10K, down £15K etc. Not sure what advice they were getting. TBH , stopped looking at houses with on line agents on Zoopla and RM as its hard work organising an appointment and they never answer any questions about the property.

@RainingYetAgain it was my understanding that the point of online agents was that they aren't there to be arranging viewings or answering questions, rather they have online portals which the vendor has put up their availability and you book appointments with them. Similarly there is a facility to ask them questions directly? To me this seemed much more effective - where you should receive responses much faster as the vendor will be notified of any communication day or night (rather than restricted to estate agents working hours and restricted time due to dealing with multiple properties, buyers and vendors). I wonder if it varies between online agencies, with some acting like traditional estate agents but functioning only online?

He sent messages via the portal- no response other than they had received it.
Yopa, I think, did organise an appointment with one house and said another was having a viewing day on a weekday during normal office hours only- OK that might be the vendor's choice. They did organise the viewing on the phone, but it could be because their local representatives were doing it.
I can only recount his experience, although a friend of mine had a similar experience with different company in another part of the country.

My house buyer had sold through purple bricks. We pulled out of the sale because their EA and EA recommended (must use) lawyers were equally as bad. It has put me off ever wanting to be involved in a chain with any online agent

We bought our house through Strike - it was a nightmare! Never spoke to the same agent twice, messages weren't passed on; they even told the vendors we had pulled out and put the house back on the market without telling us - thankfully the vendor had our number and asked why; it was the first we'd heard of it!!
I'm also sceptical of buyers putting houses on with Strike as so cheap so you wonder what else the owners have cut corners on - our house was bought as a project but after we moved in discovered it was far worse than originally thought plus a resident rat!

DD has just completed on a purchase with Strike.

Viewing was easy as the appointments were managed through the app by the vendor. She was great at keeping in touch throughout the process this way.

Strike assign buyers to different advisors through the process, one at offer stage, one in the middle and one at completion. All trying to upsell their services and products.

DD went with our own solicitors and insurance and utilities and I think the only reason she got the house was because her and the seller worked at the same NHS trust and there was a mutual trust.

I think Strike would have preferred a buyer that used all their products.

It was a sloooooooooow process, six months to the day and no hold ups from DD. The Strike conveyancing factory acting for the seller weren’t brilliant although the Strike contact centre were fairly contactable.

I would personally use a local reputable agent that you can turn up in person if need be.

I sold with Strike. And they were great. Yes you have to be in control, but I liked the transparency (all viewing requests come to me, all feedback and my offers straight to me). I also liked doing my own viewings. I prefer it when an owner shows me around and not a high street EA. I have completed my Sale, but looking for a place to buy. However, I am going against the grain here, but high street EA fill me with dread, they are incompetent and just so untructworthy.
My sale with Strike took 4 months exactly, was a leasehold which always takes longer. I also used their mortgage brokers (which were excellent), and their Solictiors.