In the past 15 years, there has been a revolution in how we buy and sell our homes. It began with the arrival of property portals such as Rightmove, the online shop windows that 98 per cent of us now turn to when we are thinking about moving. And this year a new breed of exclusively online estate agents is disrupting the property market and challenging traditional agencies with high-quality 24-hour services at a reduced cost.
Potential vendors are turning increasingly to online estate agents as they establish a reputation for offering what clients want. Online agents now carry out more than 5 per cent of all property sales in the UK, according to one estimate.
Property consultant Kate Faulkner says: “Unlike the previous internet boom, we’ve got people coming to the market who are proper estate agents as opposed to just sites that you sell on directly. These sites are offering a service rather than you having to do everything yourself.”
Daniel Attia, managing director of online agency YOPA, echoes this view. He says: “We wanted to provide the same service as traditional estate agents while drastically cutting the cost to consumers.” Set up by estate agents with more than 30 years’ experience of sales and negotiation between them, YOPA says it offers the newest way to sell your home, giving the vendor complete control of the transaction while offering round-the-clock advice and support.
It takes less than 10 minutes to add a property to the YOPA website. Within 72 hours it is given maximum exposure by being added to all three main property portals: Rightmove, Zoopla and Prime Location. Vendors can then manage every aspect of the sale, from setting viewing times to chatting with prospective buyers through the integrated messaging service and receiving updates on the easy-to-use YOPA account dashboard. YOPA says this allows vendors to arrange viewings at convenient times and show prospective buyers around themselves, which is popular as the majority of us prefer to deal with would-be buyers direct.
It proved particularly convenient for Ricky Dew, 49, who sold his house at Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex this spring. He says: “It meant I was able to arrange viewings at times that suited me, which was great because I work long hours as a driver.”
Dew, who was looking for a bigger house for him, his partner and son, decided to try YOPA’s service after spending a frustrating year attempting to sell through a local estate agent and receiving no offers at all.
He says: “I found the people at YOPA very friendly and easy to deal with — and placing the details with them was simple and quick.”
Dew was contacted by potential buyers within days of placing his property with YOPA on March 12, and secured an acceptable offer of £230,000 just over a month later. Dew said he was delighted with the level of support he received: "I was able to contact the agents at YOPA around the clock. They were keeping me updated and were available for advice all through the sales process.”
The YOPA team of estate agents can be contacted on the phone from 8am to 8pm, seven days a week or 24 hours a day through the website. Their service begins with a free valuation of the property, although they emphasise that the vendor can change their recommended price at any time. They also check buyers’ ID before viewings, validate every offer to ensure it is authentic, and then negotiate, accept or decline it on the vendor’s behalf.
Once the offer is accepted, YOPA handles the “fiddly bits” – drawing up a memorandum of sale and monitoring conveyancing through to exchange and completion. The huge advantage of online estate agents, in addition to the convenience and control that they bring, is the lower cost. Traditionally, estate agents who are selling a home charge the vendor a percentage of the property price, which can be one to three per cent.
Lloyds Bank estimates that estate agents in London charge £10,402 on average. Online estate agents work differently, charging a set fee with no hidden extras. YOPA offers a choice of three levels of service — Essential, Value and Premium — that cost from £510 to £870 including VAT – and give vendors the option of adding extras such as professional photographs, floor plans and 360-degree virtual tours, or a premium listing on the property portals to catch buyers’ eyes.
The main difference is that vendors have to conduct viewings themselves — but many have readily come to the conclusion that it is an inconvenience well worth a saving of £9,000. YOPA’s set fee means that the higher the property price, the greater the potential saving. Dew was happy to save £2,975 in estate agent fees on his sale.
Alison Reynolds, 57, placed her home in Wandsworth, south-west London, with YOPA on March 30. On April 9, less than a fortnight later, she accepted an offer of £615,000, making an even bigger saving on her higher- priced property. “I have saved £11,825 by using the online service rather than a local agent,” she says. “But at the same time, I found YOPA’s customer service just as good, if not better.”
Reynolds was delighted to receive such a speedy offer. “I needed to sell my home quickly as I am moving abroad. I was astonished how fast it all happened. The offer was made by one of the first people to view it. There was around a week of negotiations, which YOPA took care of for me, and I was very happy with the end result.”
The sale of Reynolds’ home is heading towards completion and she says that she is still benefiting from YOPA’s service. “We have been able to arrange a convenient completion date that suits everyone involved,” she says, “and YOPA is monitoring the conveyancing to make sure it is all going smoothly. I can now get on with organising my move, knowing exactly when it is going to happen.”
She concludes: “I would recommend anyone thinking of selling a property to try YOPA out.”
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