Should I use an estate agent who is not on Rightmove?

[Moreveganice]

Just about to list my house and I am thinking about using a local, independent estate agent who is not on Rightmove?

The house is (hopefully) easy to sell. It’s on a good road and is a sought after type. We are planning to market as an open day as likely a fair bit of interest(????)

We bought the house from this agent ( 10 years ago so online was not such a big thing) and they are acknowledged as knowing our local area best. - they argue that they simply don’t need to advertise on Rightmove as they have plenty of sales without. - they are on zoopla and n the market… their photos/ floor plans etc look good and they are offering a good rate.

we are just about to sign the paper work and I am having a wobble about not being on Rightmove? Aarrghhh. What would you do?

Yep. Good for them.

Ooh, you are in the Dales - much jealousy!! We might be able to afford that when we retire :)

I think it depends how in demand your area is OP. I bought in an area where house's were sold within a week of going on market with multiple sealed bids, it was much easier to just be in contact with the various estate agents and have them send details whenever a new house was on the market than faff about searching rightmove every day.

No way. I'm looking to buy at the moment and RightMove is the only portal I'm using to look. Even when we're looking more seriously (we have yet to sell), I wouldn't be approaching individual estate agents to see what they have, I'd just be using other online services.

Which is fine, I was just explaining to another poster why I don’t ever use that function, despite it “being easy” - it doesn’t matter how easy it is if nobody gets back to you.

But the only reason I know these houses are on the market are the boards outside is my point, and then I have to trawl through the website to find the house because it's not on the Rightmove app. I live in a cul de sac so few potential buyers are doing drive bys to search for boards, I assume. They look at rightmove.

It wouldn't cross my mind to look anywhere but Rightmove, but perhaps it's area dependent.

No most people only use rightmove

No way.

You're not a serious buyer though. I would assume that any serious buyers will (a) spend at least some time physically looking at the streets/areas they are wanting to buy in in order to get a feel for them, and (b) register with the local agents. Those agents will email the potential interested parties on their books before the board even goes up.

If you are looking to buy in a desirable area where few properties come up, and you wait for something to hit Rightmove before you make an enquiry, you will be viewing that property several days later than the people who have registered their interest with local agents, I can guarantee it.

In the current (slow) market that might not be an issue, but in a fast market it might mean you never even see the house - it could be sold before the agent even takes photos.

No way, we only ever used RightMove when house hunting. You'll be missing out on so many potential buyers.

Those of you who don't register with local agents - are you not worried about missing out on seeing those houses that are sold before they hit Rightmove?

There is always a short delay between the seller instructing the agent and the house going on Rightmove with photos. During the intervening days, a good agent will email/call every person on their books who is looking for that sort of property, and the first viewings could (and often do) happen before it even goes online. If the house goes under offer at that point, it won't even appear in your Rightmove search.

I'm actually astonished by the number of people saying they only use one specific online portal when looking to make the biggest purchase of their lives. Lots of people put more effort into researching a new vacuum cleaner than that!

You're making a lot of assumptions there.

It's just as likely that a serious buyer doesn't spend time looking round streets and areas because they already know the streets/areas where they want to live. And they wouldn't register with local agents because they don't want to be bothered by loads of EA phoning them up and giving their data to other people they don't want to be hounded by like in house financial advisers.

It's just as likely a buyer would prefer to look on Rightmove, identify a few properties they like, (if they are lucky and there are any) and then phone the EAs in question to try to organise viewings. More likely, in my opinion.

they don't want to be bothered by loads of EA phoning them up and giving their data to other people they don't want to be hounded by like in house financial advisers

Maybe I've been lucky, but this has never happened to me.

sure, people put more effort into researching a new vacuum cleaner than buying a house because they use only look on Rightmove 😂

It may be exaggeration, but there's an element of truth. I'm surprised that some people won't even take 10mins to set up a Zoopla alert for the location they're looking to move to.

In a hot market maybe but in today's market that isn't a concern in most parts of the country. Most Sellers want to get the best price which means they want to reach the widest possible market hence they list with Rightmove. To make out you gain some exclusivity by registering with agents is mainly a marketing gimmick in the current stagnant market.

I have sometimes checked Zoopla as well when researching properties and they never seem to have anything new. All their stuff I find I have already seen on Rightmove because I check Rightmove first.

It's becoming very unusual for people not to list normal, nice houses on Rightmove. Ones that are a bit niche they may try other avenues.

We viewed a bunch of houses last March and my other half has been inundated with spam calls from nothing to do with property ever since.

Re: financial services. The fewer houses they are selling, the more pressure is being put on them by big management to sell hooking up with their broker and their recommended surveyors and conveyancers, for which they get quick and instant backhanders, sometimes as much as 50% of a conveyancers fees.

And, even though it is illegal, some EAs won't even let you book a viewing unless you agree to use some or all of their services. Or they will lie and say 'our financial adviser needs to talk to you to ensure you are truly able to afford the house before we book an appointment' and then they'll try to flog you mortgage services.

It's a bloody viper's next out there for the inexperienced/naive. Branches have to earn money somehow, so they've resorted to ruthlessness.

Kinda feel bad for them really.

I agree about the current market - no-one needs to rush to view or make an offer at the moment (unless it's an extremely unusual/unique property) but the market won't be like this forever.

However, even in the current market, there are areas where having a good local agent will be more effective than having a listing on Rightmove. I would guess that more rural areas where properties are scarcer (and rarely come to market due to more stable local populations who are less likely to move) might fall into this category, whereas urban areas might not.

The OP will need to consider whether her local area is one where being on Rightmove is essential or not.

Wow! Appalling behaviour. Are these independent local agents, or chains?

That's fine when you're looking at ONE area.

At one point, we were looking at 12.

My inbox was constantly full of alerts from Prime Location, OTM, Zoopla and Rightmove.

Zoopla sometimes get 'exclusive' properties for 48 hours, but other than that, not a single property hit my inbox that didn't eventually turn up on RM.

It was stressful, so I turned them all off.

The other portals have got a lot of work to do to nudge RM out of their no. 1 position.

Iirc, there were three agencies in total. All of them had at least five branches. One was Yopa. One local to NW. One country wide (who have also offered to value my house 16 times in 8 months on email).

I've also had my phone number sold off by someone at Marie Curie this year - as have a bunch of others who have donated to them in the past, according to feedback on whocalledme.

Desperate times = d*ck moves by ordinary folks.

It's quite sad, really.

I'll go against the trend as I always look at Zoopla as well as Rightmove. I also prefer local independent agents who know the area well.

Oh, if you're talking about agents refusing to give viewings without the buyer using their services, I haven't a clue. People in the industry openly talk about it and bemoan agents being given a bad name, but they never name names.