Would someone using an on-line estate agent put you off viewing/buying?

[Fizzylemonade]

We are wanting to put our house on the market in the next few weeks, we have had local estate agents round to value our property plus we have done our own research into the value of our house.

We are thinking of using an on-line estate agent namely www.housenetwork.co.uk/ who charge a very small fee as they are on-line.

They advertise on all the major property websites such as rightmove but they also do floorplans and a virtual tour as part of their deal. So people viewing would have a very good idea of what the house has to offer.

The question is would this no-brand name estate agent put you off? Do any of you actually walk into estate agents to ask to see details of a property or do you all seach on-line and would therefore make a telephone call to view a property or make an offer?

Thanks

No, it wouldn't put me off. The RL agents send through details automatically, but I would still search online and would still contact an online agent.

Only thing that would put me off is if I'd had a bad experience with an agent.

wouldn't put me off at all Fizzy. I did all our surfing for properties online and the fact you get a virtual tour and floorplan would be a bonus for me as a prospective buyer.

No - around here most agents will point you towards their websites to view their portfolio of available properties ....

The important thing in house buying is certainly not the agentcy - they usually take their fees and run ...

Thank you, I know this but my dh was saying ask MN to see what MNetters think

I always look at rightmove and propertyfinder never in an estate agency window.

I think the floor plans are a winner too, I constantly wonder how a property must be laid out. Ours is a little different as the stairs go across the house so the room sizes look odd. I think floorplans will show how it works.

I always look online and love it when there are floor plans and lots of photos. That would be more important than an estate agent to me.

Lots and lots of photos, showing the rooms from several angles. And virtual tour of the room is great.

Our local estate agent has this (floor plans and virtual tours) & map of whereabouts the house is - makes househunting a whole lot easier ...

It is also a lot easier to dismiss the house - perhaps not such a good thing if you are wanting to sell....

itsjustafleshwound - I would rather someone dismiss it without me having tidied, cleaned and got my hopes up and toured you round

They promote it as a way to only get real potential buyers through the door.

The house I saw with housenetwork had 52 photos which showed every angle of every room, I thought this was brilliant as it meant nothing was a surprise when you actually viewed it (this was a property my friend was looking at about 100k more than I'm looking at )

True! Though in the good days for selling houses, I don't think some of the houses we viewed had ever seen a bottle of Flash cross the front door ...

first house I bought, I had to clean wee wee off the front of all 3 toilets and their were no children in that house

We had so many viewers that dismissed the house because the 'garden was too small', 'its got an annexe' etc I'd have preferred them to have read the spec's and dismissed it at that point. I spent hours cleaning for them, arranging for dc's to go out for an hour - as for cleaning adult wee off toilets, that's just made me real queasy!! have got that prospect at our newhometobe - that and congealed grease on the cooker, matted dog hair on the carpets and more bluebottles that I could poke a stick at...

I take it they don't do the viewings though so you would have to be available? Also, worth making sure that they keep in touch with everybody after a sale is agreed. The vendor is not able to contact the purchaser's solicitor direct, (else the purchaser incurs costs), so it is important the estate agent does a good job in chasing it all up and keeping the chain together. Worth making sure.

Dying at my "their" instead of "there" error

Yes Helennn they even make sure the buyer has sold their house etc,

Yes I would have to do viewings but then again I did before and I paid £2k for the estate agents

I know my house better than the estate agent and although they do have a vested interest in selling because they get their commission, I have more of an interest IYSWIM so I am happy to do it.

I am a sahm so can be here to do viewings, plus if dh is home from work he will take both my young boys out or I can palm them off to other people whilst a viewing is taking place. Hopefully there won't be many viewings before an offer as they will have seen a lot of my house on-line with the floorplans, virtual tour and lots and lots of photos