How to sell your house online Online sites offer virtually all the services of a traditional estate agent – and their fees can be thousands of pounds lower Sunday 7 July 2013 Online seller Ron Houston: 'They did everything I would expect from a traditional estate agent, with the exception that I had to conduct viewings myself, but I actually enjoyed that side of it.' Photograph: Antonio Olmos for the Observer As the housing market gathers momentum, one group of people hoping to rake in the cash will be estate agents. But a growing number of house sellers are shunning the traditional approach and marketing their properties online, saving thousands of pounds in the process. While high-street estate agents charge between 1.5% and 2% of the sale price, or up to a whopping £6,000 on a £300,000 property, online rivals offer a flat fee of between £250 and £1,000. This breed of private-sale sites and low-cost online agents now accounts for around 5% of completed sales, according to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. The biggest sites all report a rising number of property listings and sales, and the ability to save sellers a chunk of cash, as the sites do not need to fund a chain of offices and company cars. For example, eMoov, which sold 520 properties worth a combined £170m in 2012, has 850 properties for sale, says founder Russell Quirk. "We will sell your property for a flat fee of £395 plus VAT," he says, adding that eMoov saved its average customer £3,846 last year. Meanwhile, online estate agent Hatched listed 503 new properties in the three months to mid-April, up from 306 for the same period in 2012. Director Adam Day says its fees are 85% lower than the average high-street estate agency, saving its typical customer £3,800. "We offer a number of payment options, including a flat fee of £225 upfront, with a further £225 on completion," he says. "This means you can sell your property for just £450. We offer a similar service to a standard estate agent, including professional photos, floorplans and property descriptions, but at a fraction of the cost. Once you find a buyer, we will handle your paperwork through to completion." When selling online, you have to show prospective buyers around your property yourself, but Day claims this can be an advantage: "You know your house better than anybody, and are best placed to sell it. In any case, many owners who hire an expensive estate agent end up doing most of the viewings themselves." There are also sites which enable you to market your home online without paying a penny, such as DIY house sale website Tepilo, run by television property expert Sarah Beeny. But, crucially, your property will not feature on the major portals, drastically limiting the pool of buyers. It's vital to make sure that your property will feature on portals such as Rightmove, Zoopla, Globrix, PrimeLocation and Findaproperty, given that nine out of 10 buyers start their property search there. Typically, sites offer a range of services. The Little House Company, for example, offers a private house sales service from £29.99 a month to help sellers draw up a floorplan and prepare an online add – though this won't get your property on the major portals – or an online estate agency package for a flat fee of £325 plus VAT. Additional services such as professional photographs, bespoke For Sale boards, with your own printed number, and social media campaigns, typically come at an extra cost. One seller who took advantage of the online estate agency route was Ron Houston, who sold his terraced house in Lewisham, south-east London, in May. Houston, 58, who works in social housing, attracted plenty of interest when he marketed his two-bed end-of- terrace Victorian house through online agent Housesimple, with an asking price of £353,000. Housesimple arranged professional photographs, drafted property details, advertised his home on the major property portals and handled buyer inquiries. He organised a dozen viewings over one weekend, and got a staggering seven offers. He accepted one for £362,500, but that fell through when the buyer's chain collapsed. The second round of viewings produced five offers, including one for £365,000 from a chain-free buyer. "This wasn't the highest offer, but given my previous experience, I decided it would be prudent to accept it," he says. The sale is moving to completion, and Houston is delighted with his decision to shun the high street: "Housesimple did everything I would expect from a traditional estate agent, with the exception that I had to conduct viewings myself, but I actually enjoyed that side of it." If he had sold his house through an estate agent charging 1.6% of the sale price, he would have paid £7,008 in fees, including VAT. Based on this, he saved £6,474, given that he paid Housesimple a marketing fee of £534, including VAT. However, sellers need to choose an online agent with staying power, says Alex Gosling at Housesimple: "Many sites disappear in a few months after blowing all their money on Google AdWords. So be wary of recent start- ups with only a handful of properties." Check the quality of the various sites' listings before signing up, including photographs and property descriptions, as well as their charges. You can find customer testimonials at online directory Allagents.co.uk. Also confirm that they belong to the Property Ombudsman, giving you redress if something goes wrong. Estate agents claim they give sellers the edge by using local market knowledge to price your property accurately, but plenty of online tools allow you to do this yourself, adds Richard Patterson, director of My Online Estate Agent, which will market your home for a just £249. "Estate agents also claim to have a list of willing buyers on their books, but with most property searches now starting online, this matters less and less." But could an agent clinch a higher price? David Newnes, director of LSL Property Services and owner of estate agency chains Your Move and Reeds Rains, says: "A good estate agent can use their skills and experience to price your property accurately, review potential buyers, arrange viewings, get meaningful feedback, and co- ordinate the details of exchange and completion." They may also have valuable professional negotiation skills: "By securing the best possible price for your home, they should more than offset their fee, which is a relatively minor part of the overall cost of selling and buying." Online agents work best for people selling attractive properties in popular areas, adds Giles Hannah, managing director of London residential agency VanHan. "Local estate agents really come into their own if your property is tricky to sell, say because it is on a busy road, as they will be able to point out its redeeming features during a viewing." .