In truth, we at The Advisory has already made public what we feel about those dodgy real estate agents incorrectly adjusting property prices for their interest and also doing other things that is worse than that. So fervent in our beliefs, it is entirely possible that some people would think this is the way we felt about all estate agents, but that just isn’t the case; we are rooting for the new brand of online estate agents, hoping that they can become a standard for the industry.
Well, you might or might not be aware that two of our biggest bones of contention regarding old fashioned estate agent model are:
A: The truth that estate agents are primarily in-charge for the value of properties in the UK market although it is a known fact that their commission is also a part of the price they will be asking. This gives them an incentive to wrongly inflate values
B: Also, you have the issue of their monopoly of the property market although it is now being met head-on by private sales portal and online estate agents.
As a result of the two factors, we could not fault several people to (not us… oh no, we are not that conceited) blame estate agents for prices becoming so inflated that severe corrections (crashes) are called for.
Meanwhile we have the new wave of online estate agents, which charge a determined amount with regard to services. This is typically on a stepped basis, with the lowest fee being purely for online advertising on their own website and/or a selection of portals, and larger packages including more portals, and packages including the agents conducting price negotiations and viewings on your behalf.
The most essential factor is that their customers will spend less, since their pre-determined fees are much lower than 1-2% of the average home cost and obtains a reasonable price and also the best assistance from the agent, because there is absolutely no onus on them to inflate the value, and it is in their best interests to sell quickly to increase turnover.
This is the reason why we are cheering for them… If their success can exceed that of traditional agents then we will likely see more traditional estate agents start charging a fixed fee.
For now, online estate agents are the perfect centre between private sales and traditional estate agents. Private sales is more affordable and if done properly can bring a good price and a quick sale, still, since private sales sites cannot list on websites exclusively for estate agents such as Findaproperty and Rightmove, there can often be a lot of work required. Online agents can list on Rightmove and Findaproperty, but — again — the seller pays less in order to do so.
Check out The Quick House Sale Advisory for more advice on these issues and to learn more about the world of online estate agents.
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