A new online gizmo unveiled over the weekend promises to save money for would-be sellers.
The website www.netanagent.com has installed a calculator tool which enables vendors to assess how much they could save when negotiating fees and services with estate agents.
It works like this: a prospective seller uploads details about a property and then local agents log on to the site and post their best deal on how to market the property, including fees. The website then posts this to the seller, who is in a position to choose the least expensive (if that's their option) or the one with the best marketing strategy.
No negotiation, no hassle is how the service is described by the website, which claims to have over 14,200 estate agents signed up. It also says that on a notional £280,000 home it saves prospective sellers an average of £2,074 on fees as agents apparently scramble to win instructions.
EAT strongly believes that anything giving prospective sellers better value for money is a good thing but the success of services like Netanagent depends on whether participating agents are truly honest with their clients.
For example, a low commission may win an instruction for an agent via Netanagent or though conventional pitching to sellers. But it means nothing if the agent then cynically tops up' the fee with one-off costs for marketing or other promotions.
The key message from EAT is be transparent, be honest.
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Comments
In theory the basic idea is a good one, especially for the prospective seller. It has been used in many sectors including the building industry, which has about the same reputation as Estate Agency in terms of honesty and work ethic.
In a perfect world this idea would work perfectly for both parties; the seller would receive several fair, comprehensive quotes, each with an appropriate marketing strategy and the estate agents, who would all have submitted fair quotes that were directly proportional to the extent of their services offered, would be picked on whether or not their marketing strategy and extent of services offered suited the seller. The estate agent would not attepmt to 'cynically top up the fee with one-off costs for marketing or other promotions' and everyone would live happily ever after.
However, in this reality we cannot expect such a squeaky-clean scenario; some agents will employ dishonest tactics and some sellers will make (often self-inflicted) uninformed choices.
Ultimately, as stated in the article, if agents elect to be fair, honest and transparent and/or sellers strive to be a little more savvy, this gizmo could have its place.
Bad idea. Poorly executed!
Why would any agent sign up to a process which will simply drive prices down Have they really 'signed up' that many agencies or are they simply counting the number of unsolicted emails they send out