Since Rightmove & Zoopla why use an expensive High St estate agent ?

I don`t think the "list of interested buyers" that estate agents traditionally used is worth much in these days of the internet. You can go on Rightmove / Zoopla and actually draw an area that your`re interested in, then get all the houses (from all the agents) for sale in that area. We were on a few estate agents lists and they kept sending us info on houses which were no where near where we said we wanted to love.....

When you say the local high street agent was more proactive in selling your house, what exactly do you mean ? I`m of the view that there`s only so much an estate agent can do to sell your house, even if they do the actual viewings (and generally it`s the seller doing the viewings anyway) because people know where they want to live and what they want / need in a house. Thus no amount of sales patter will do much to help sell a house.

We sold with haybrooks a couple of years ago, and it was their 'list' that got a sale, the lady who bought went to haybrooks and looked through a list suitable houses, viewed ours and bought. The other good thing is for buyers, you get the heads up before properties hit the online sites so don't miss good deals.

In fact I don`t actually see why the price a High St estate agency would charge for the reduced service option should be much higher than an Online estate agency charges.

Actually, for some of them, it isn`t.......

There are a few points here.

Quite clearly £2100 for the amount of work my estate agent did is very high, most people would say excessive. Surely even Cyclone would agree with that, or, then again, maybe not.

 

Lack of knowledge (only those who can`t do their own viewings have any reason to pay a High St estate agent £2000 odd to sell their house because the great majority of sales are generated through Rightmove / Zoopla), or to put it another way, I didn`t have all the facts. Yes I plead guilty to that, which is why I`m doing my best to educate / inform other potential sellers, to be frank if Sheffield Forum wanted to save their readers thousands of pounds they`d make this thread a sticky. If someone else had started this thread (particularly if it`d been a sticky) before I had to sell my house I`d not have wasted £1400. I may have wasted all that dosh but I`d like to hope some good will come out of this.

 

Basically I suppose it comes down to what you mean by "gamble". Are you telling, me that estate agents are in the business of making money by "gambling" ? To put it a different way, are we saying estate agents only make money out of sellers who don`t know what they`re doing ?

Bleedin` Hell ! ! ! I really did go into this house sale with my eyes shut........

I`ve just phoned up a couple of lower priced estate agents, Purple Homes (about £750 up front) and United Homes (about £800 up front) offer a local service for very little more than an Online estate agent. Both, obviously, but very significantly, offer listings on Rightmove and Zoopla. In fact both said they would do accompanied viewings, though Purple Homes said they`d only do them in working hours. That said, for about one third of what Morfitt Smith charged me, that`s fair enough, and, quite apart from anything else we`d be more likely to be able to do the viewings out of working hours.

What was it I said above ? It`s worth repeating. Is it any wonder estate agents are one of most mistrusted professions ?

To put it a different way, are we saying estate agents only make money out of sellers who don`t know what they`re doing ?

In my case estate agents valuer KNEW we definitely had to sell our house (and as soon as possible, i.e. at a realistic price) therefore what we really needed was a cheaper up front arrangement. To be frank I`m even more annoyed with the estate agent now. I accept I didn`t do my research (it really is/ was a case of buyer beware) but I didn`t know then what I know now. The fact the estate agent wouldn`t consider giving me any discount on £2100 (about 3X what the above agents charge) for a sale which was **** easy just shows how they regard their customers. They`re certainly not interested in repeat business or recommendation ! I suspect, most other expensive High St estate agents would be the same as Morfitt Smith in this though. CAVEAT EMPTOR.......

There can't be much repeat business as an estate agent, how often do people even move house? (Off to check the stats).

---------- Post added 19-06-2016 at 10:10 ----------

Hmmm, stats difficult to find, they seem to include stuff like "going to university" and I suspect they include renting, which isn't relevant.

But if it's once a decade (just as an example) then most estate agents who aren't owners of the business will have moved on, so repeat business becomes entirely irrelevant.

There can't be much repeat business as an estate agent, how often do people even move house? (Off to check the stats).

 

---------- Post added 19-06-2016 at 10:10 ----------

 

Hmmm, stats difficult to find, they seem to include stuff like "going to university" and I suspect they include renting, which isn't relevant.

 

But if it's once a decade (just as an example) then most estate agents who aren't owners of the business will have moved on, so repeat business becomes entirely irrelevant.

To an estate agent I`d have thought recommendation would be more significant than repeat business. That said, people in the buy to let market and/or property renovations might give a reasonable amount of repeat business.

There are a few points here.

Quite clearly £2100 for the amount of work my estate agent did is very high, most people would say excessive. Surely even Cyclone would agree with that, or, then again, maybe not.

 

1 Lack of knowledge (only those who can`t do their own viewings have any reason to pay a High St estate agent £2000 odd to sell their house because the great majority of sales are generated through Rightmove / Zoopla), or to put it another way, I didn`t have all the facts. Yes I plead guilty to that, which is why I`m doing my best to educate / inform other potential sellers, to be frank if Sheffield Forum wanted to save their readers thousands of pounds they`d make this thread a sticky. If someone else had started this thread (particularly if it`d been a sticky) before I had to sell my house I`d not have wasted £1400. I may have wasted all that dosh but I`d like to hope some good will come out of this.

 

2 Basically I suppose it comes down to what you mean by "gamble". Are you telling, me that estate agents are in the business of making money by "gambling" ? To put it a different way, are we saying estate agents only make money out of sellers who don`t know what they`re doing ? That then brings into question whether they`re actually good salesmen. A good salesman sells you what you need, not something that`s expensive and you don`t need. That`s certainly the attitude we adopt at ATV. But, with reference to this post, it seems basically I`m more bothered about pleasing my customers than Morfitt Smith are.

 

3 Say my house had taken three months to sell, and let`s assume that I did all the viewings. That would still mean that no employee of Morfitt Smith would ever have had to come to my property (other than the initial "free" valuation). Thus we`re talking about answering the phone / making phone calls. Now there is a cost to making phone calls, but it`s not that expensive. I`m sure neither Morfitt Smith nor any other estate agent routinely gets their highest paid employees to make and receive phone calls.....

blimey you really do have a bee in your bonnet about estate agents dont you?? on another thread ESTATE agents mega thread we had quite a discussion about high st agents V online:roll: and why high st will always be better as its not just the marketing:help:

---------- Post added 05-07-2016 at 11:29 ----------

There can't be much repeat business as an estate agent, how often do people even move house? (Off to check the stats).

 

---------- Post added 19-06-2016 at 10:10 ----------

 

Hmmm, stats difficult to find, they seem to include stuff like "going to university" and I suspect they include renting, which isn't relevant.

 

But if it's once a decade (just as an example) then most estate agents who aren't owners of the business will have moved on, so repeat business becomes entirely irrelevant.

agents do get repeat business i sell a few houses and always use the same agent, because i get a service doing the mundane chasing around, viewings if necessary although i prefer to do my own but not always possible, they liase with everyone and financially verify the purchaser. i get a reasonable rate sometimes it works out that they dont do much? the last property sold within 2 days of going on the market.

blimey you really do have a bee in your bonnet about estate agents dont you?? on another thread ESTATE agents mega thread we had quite a discussion about high st agents V online:roll: and why high st will always be better as its not just the marketing .

I personally think that for most people selling a house paying £2100 is a massive waste of money. I`d use an Online estate agent rather than pay that, but, as it happens, there are estate agents in Sheffield who will sell your house for not much more than an Online estate agent :

The most important thing to remember is that these days 80 to 90% of house sales are generated by Rightmove and Zoopla, see full thread on this here. That is to say it`s Rightmove or Zoopla (plus you, because it`s you who are probably showing them round) who are selling your house not the estate agent. Thus you want to use the cheapest method of getting on Rightmove/Zoopla, either an Online estate agent or a cheaper local estate agent, as of June 2016 Purple Homes will sell your house for about £750 (up front) or United Homes about £800 (up front). Both offer a local service for very little more than an Online estate agent. Rather surprisingly, for that price, both will still do viewings if necessary* .

Be realistic about the price you ask, it`s easy to check the prices of all the properties sold in your area for the last 15 years or so using Rightmove or Zoopla.

Personally I`d always pay any extra to have a floor plan, that was one of the first things we looked at on Rightmove when we were searching for a house.

Paying up front is much cheaper than a pay on completion sales package (though to be fair, with the latter, it`s often a no fee [or minimal fee] for no sale) so if you genuinely need to sell your house (not just "testing the market") make sure you choose an estate agent who offers cheaper up front payment. We chose to use Morfitt Smith (I didn`t know much about selling houses then.......) and they did not offer that service, they actually charged us £2100 even though Rightmove sold our house (partly due to the realistic price ? ) within 2 days. The estate agent never even advertised it in their shop ! However, despite the fact they didn`t really have to do much at all, they were adamant there`d be no discount whatsoever ! I suspect most High St estate agents would be the same, so learn from our mistakes, you could save a shed load of money !

 

* Bear in mind, if you can`t do your own viewings, that the estate agent might be more efficient / flexible about doing them if they`re on a "pay on completion" sales package..... Or am I just being cynical !

 

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More than ever I think the advent of Rightmove and Zoopla has changed how people sell their homes and expensive "full package" estate agents are not required for most people. BUT, looking on Rightmove has repeatedly reminded me , why do so many sellers not have floorplans on their Rightmove entries ? It really is so stupid and such a false economy.

Always have a floorplan in your house sale info ! ! !

We asked for a floorplan to be done on our house, estate agent didn't bother.

House sold fairly quick to be honest, maybe in some area's the demand is good enough that even a half-assed advert will get the job done.

Actually thinking about it, the photo's on our advert were shocking and the description was crap.

Perhaps the local agents know which areas need work putting in to get a sale and which require just the basics??

Zoopla even give a free averaged house price for all the houses in my street.

We asked for a floorplan to be done on our house, estate agent didn't bother.

 

House sold fairly quick to be honest, maybe in some area's the demand is good enough that even a half-assed advert will get the job done.

Actually thinking about it, the photo's on our advert were shocking and the description was crap.

 

Perhaps the local agents know which areas need work putting in to get a sale and which require just the basics??

Whenever I go on Rightmove, once I`ve established exactly where the property is, the floor plan is the first thing I look at.