High Street VS Online...

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It is well-known within the property industry that online Estate Agents have attracted vast sums of money from investors on the back of the explosion in digital technology in recent years, which has meant that consumers have been able to shop, bank, compare services and make appointments online. But we believe that equating property with these other retail and convenience activities is “a flawed logic” - and here’s why.

While a book ordered from Amazon is going to contain exactly the same pages as one purchased in a bookshop, and banking services are broadly similar whether transacted in person or online, transacting a property is very, very different. Property is a people business.

Good High Street agents recognise this and offer a bespoke service to their clients, building a relationship and ensuring that they are always mindful of their client’s wants and needs. On the other hand, most online agents generally act only as “passive intermediaries” whose sole aim is simply to list properties on their portals and appease their investors by appearing to increase their market share, which is the only measure of their success.

We believe that they add little or no value to the house buying process as what you may not realise is that their business model is built on instructions, not sales, and none of them employ sales people to actually sell the homes they have listed. They simply sit back and leave it to chance, working on the basis that your property may sell itself on the back of being listed online, but if it doesn’t it really doesn’t matter to them as they have been paid anyway. And they certainly wouldn’t exploit the possibility that a potential buyer may pay a higher price for your property; offers are taken and passed to the vendor, often via email and with no personal interaction with either the buyer or the seller.

High Street estate agents, by contrast, have a database of active potential purchasers and have a human mechanism – Sales Negotiators and Sales Progression teams - who hunt down those buyers who are looking to buy a property and pay the right price for it. They also use their skills and training to ensure that they introduce properties to prospective buyers that they may not have considered otherwise, persuade them to view it, encourage them to make an offer and then satisfy themselves and the vendors that they have achieved the best possible price for you.

So, what makes more sense? Paying a cheap fee up front simply to have your property listed for sale and incurring the full fee whether it sells or not, and regardless of what price it sells for, or agreeing to pay a slightly higher fee but on the basis of solid results, because the agent has not just listed it for sale, but because they have also pro-actively marketed it to prospective buyers and negotiated a sale at the best possible price?

Saving a few hundred pounds at the outset could end up costing you thousands of pounds down the road. So, look at the bigger picture and compare like for like. If the fee seems too good to be true it usually is, and in this case, there’s a good reason why!

Thanks for reading,

Sue Iles

P.S Would you like to get a SOLD or LET sign outside your property quicker?

If so, call Sue, Joe and their sales team on 01934 512537 or email: sales@ilesandjenkin.co.uk for honest, expert and friendly advice.