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Using online estate agents can be a great way to save money on agency fees, but sometimes you have to sacrifice other things for these low prices.  As the name suggests these type of estate agents use the Internet and online marketing to sell properties, and they are able to offer low fees as they don’t have the overheads of a traditional high-street estate agent.

Fee Structures

Often an online agent will offer one or more options of how to pay their fee.  These fees usually fall into two categories up-front or after-sale:

A one off up-front fee will be the cheapest and is the most cost effective way of marketing your property.  The other option is to pay after your property has sold, which will either be a flat fee or a percentage and will cost more than to pay up-front.  Paying once the property has sold is more like a conventional estate agent with a reduced cost. Some Internet estate agents combine both structures, you pay a small up-font fee and another when they sell your property.

The Service Provided

Some online estate agents don’t offer a great service; others may but will generally charge more. 

At the very basic level an online agent will simply upload you house onto a few property websites and wait for a sale. They will not deal with any of the logistics of the sale, it will be left to you to organise solicitors, financing and liaising with others in the chain.  To get a more complete service you will inevitably pay more, however you may be tied into a lengthy contract but the service will be more like a conventional agent.

Selling your home through an online agent can save you money, but there are some questions that you should ask yourself.

• On which property portals will they advertise my property?
• Will they take care of the administration work?
• Will I be tied into a long contract period?
• What will the level of customer service be like?

What is needed is an agent that will give you a full estate agency service but at a reduced cost.  Here at New Move we try to do just that, we provide our clients with the best possible service at a fraction of the cost.  Our service is almost identical to a traditional estate agents the only real difference is the lack of offices, which allows us to dramatically cut our overheads and ultimately pass that saving onto our clients.