How useful are traditional estate agents? Thinking of going online

[QueenFool]

We're thinking of selling, had a few valuers round. One online and the rest traditional local EA.

We have a pretty standard house which would appeal to first time buyers mainly

I'm swaying towards online. Cost is one factor, but probably the main factor is cutting out the crap and middle man.
I would conduct viewings myself anyway. The photo/floorplan/online listing is all included.

I'm a bit torn. Anyone got experience with online agents?

I bought through purple bricks and honestly never again. I’d not look at a house marketed by them.

We bought and sold through an online agent (in the same house move if you see what I mean). All went very smoothly and we saved thousands. Was 6 years ago now though.

Last time we moved we used a traditional agent, because they were the ones selling the house we were buying so were motivated to sell ours (as it meant two sales for them - ours and the one we were buying). I couldn't really tell you what value they added but was nice to put a face to a name from emails I guess!

Don’t use online - we managed to secure our current house against another bidder who offered the same price as we had a traditional estate agent. Honestly the process is stressful enough without dealing with online agents that you can never reach x

Agree with previous poster - I would never buy a house now that was using an online agent.

Our local EA was an absolute star, I know we only got the price we did because of her. The communication was excellent and she made it stress free. Even though we did our own viewings, they were worth the money. OTOH, family have used Purple Bricks and it was a nightmare. It totally put us off online EAs.

The trouble is that it isn't just on-line Vs traditional EA.
We sold our house a few months ago using a local EA and they were awful. Lazy and lying seemed to be their watchword.
Currently selling my late parents house using a (different) local EA and so far the experience could not be more different. Hard working and keeping us fully informed.

We used Purplebricks to sell our house and it took 3 weeks. So convenient as you set up availability so the viewers can book to view during the times you are avaliable. No going to and fro through the estate agent. Plus we saved thousands of pounds.

We’ve recently bought a house through Purple Bricks. They were good.

We nearly bought a house through Strike. They were appalling. In the future I won’t even look at a house with them.

I would not even consider buying a house sold by Purple bricks

My estate agents were phenomenal. Not just the simple stuff with marketing and having a long list of people waiting to buy in my area, setting up open days etc. But, when a sale fell through and my purchase almost fell through too they were really helpful with negotiating tactics and supporting me get the house I wanted, researching my buyers bona fides and speaking to the vendors' estate agents.

I wouldn't buy from a Purple Bricks listing.

We've just sold my MIL's house using Doorsteps. £99 to list on Rightmove / Zoopla. It was brilliant. The listing was live within 48 hours. People were able to request a viewing - we got sent their name, contact number, email address and position. We called the people to confirm their viewing and if it wasn't suitable for us, we mutually agreed a new time.

We did all the viewings ourselves and feedback from everyone that it was so refreshing to talk to someone who actually knew the house and the location.

We were also able to do viewings outside normal EA hours and at shorter notice. Our listing went live on Saturday lunchtime, we did 7 viewings in total over the next 3 days and had 5 asking price offers. Doorsteps then helped us manage a best & final process and validated the positions. The house was under offer for 10% above asking price within 5 days of the initial Doorsteps enquiry.

Conversely, the local EA could not even fit us in for a 'market appraisal' for 7 days. The house was sold before that appointment!

I wouldn't even consider buying or selling a house through an online agent. The thing to think about is that actually selling the house (ie marketing it and getting the offer you want) is in 99% of cases the easiest bit of the transaction. The tougher bit is the sales progression, and that's where a good EA comes into their own.

Both my last sales would have fallen through had it not been for the motivated local EA who held the whole chain together when things got difficult and when people in various stages of the chain threatened to pull out. Solicitors don't tend to do that; they do your sale and purchase but don't go up or down the chain. Whereas a good EA often knows the other EAs involved and the solicitors, and can smooth things over.

You won't need this if you have a straightforward transaction where everyone plays ball. But you can't possibly know if you're going to get one of those, or if your buyers are going to turn out to be knobs. Our last buyers were brilliant until the day before exchange, for example, when they tried to pull a fast one. The solicitors weren't much use but the EA sorted it out.

Although it does mean spending extra cash - though not that much in the context of the wider transaction - going with a well rated local EA is always the sensible decision IMO.

I wouldn't even consider buying or selling through a traditional agent. Bought my present place recently, through an online agent.

We've just had a house sell via a traditional agent. It's not the initial selling, any listing in Rightmove would probably achieve the same result, it's the subsequent chasing of the conveyancing. Our agent did a fab job of keeping everything on track, sorted it out when it went Pete Tong, then got the next sale through plus looked after the house. Amazing service, so I'd not discount a traditional agent, so long as they're good.

I wouldn't even view a house these days if done through an online EA. We were interested in one property and the crap we had to go through just to view it, a complete computer says no automated frustrating system. Not worth the energy.

Another vote for a traditional estate agent. We all like to slag them off and they can be very annoying but ours have worked really hard to progress our sale and tbh, they do deserve the commission.
Daughter looking at flats through online agents in the other hand, some have been dreadful and make it almost impossible to organise viewings as they don’t answer the phone and rarely reply to emails either

We moved house in January, and both our own traditional estate agent and the estate agent of our vendor were absolutely brilliant. Such incredibly proactive and kind people, completely different from the image estate agents have.

There ended up being quite significant problems further up the chain, it all happened during lockdown, and our buyers nearly ended up homeless if we couldn't complete in a very tight timeframe. So it was all fairly stressful and our own estate agent and the vendors EA one were just incredibly helpful at sorting it out.

I would definitely try and get local advice and recommendations. Perhaps put a thread on here for the area you are in and ask if anyone can recommend good local estate agents?

Lots of varied replies, thank u!
A lot to consider

Sold our house via local village Facebook site. Happy with price we got for it (this was 8 years ago when stamp duty increased at 250k so we were very unlikely to get more). Don't feel like we missed out on anything not having an estate agent!

My neighbor sold a house online. Try getting advice and recommendations first of all. Research estate agent firstly of all.

We just sold a house through a traditional EA and had some amazing service.

Would rule out any house on RM with purple bricks or any of those.

I think the thing is that it isn't just about the viewings and initial offee. Our estate agent and our buyers were just brilliant at keeping everything going right until completion.

I had valuations with both.
I didn't really understand what would motivate the Purple Bricks agent to prioritise chasing our chain, pushing for exchange etc.
Our local "traditional" agent did a lot of communicating up the chain, helping to negotiate completion dates when various people were digging their heels in, generally trying to ensure the sale actually went ahead as they didn't get paid until it went through.
PB just seemed focused on getting an offer.

I sold with Strike, saved a small fortune. They were brilliant. I did the viewings myself. You have to prepared to put some work in but I like to be in control and I was happy with the service given the small fee.
I am in the process of viewing houses to buy now and I prefer when vendor does the viewings. I am sick of shitty local EA who will say anything and everything

Just to add that they have an app, so everything is transparent. You see viewing requests, offers etc. No messing about. You are in control and speak to you Buyer direct. Absolutely brilliant