For many years high street estate agents held the keys to buying and selling a home, with sellers often paying them thousands of pounds in fees.
But now a new breed of online estate agents has got in on the action, taking advantage of technology and lower overheads to sell your home for less – potentially saving you substantial sums on traditional percentage-based sales commission.
Most charge a fixed fee, typically between £500 and £1,200, and will list your property on the main online portals, such as Rightmove and Zoopla, which is where the vast majority of people now go house hunting.
Services vary from basic listing deals to those who will assign you a local agent to do viewings, negotiate and hopefully get a deal closed and you moving home.
By using one of these agents instead of a traditional high street option, sellers can save thousands of pounds, while also getting their property marketed professionally.
But they must remember that it’s not all about cost and instead pick a service based on its quality, as this is what is likely to achieve them the best sale price on their home.
The biggest online agents Purplebricks Group PLC (LON:PURP) and Yopa charge £849 and £839, respectively, plus an extra £300 if you want them to do viewings.
The average estate agent’s commission fee is 1.3 per cent, including VAT, according to conveyancing form MyHomeMove.
On a £300,000 home, a seller who chose Purple Bricks or Yopa and opted for them to handle viewings would pay £1,149 or £1,139, respectively, whereas using a traditional high street agent at that typical rate they would pay £3,900. The online option could save them £2,761.
Someone selling a £750,000 property would face a potential average high street agent charge of £9,750 and could save £8,601 by opting to use an online agent.
