Online agency HouseSimple is introducing a High Street agency style No Sale-No Fee option for vendors, with a reduced fee if they choose to use the firm’s recommended conveyancer and mortgage providers.
Online agents have long been criticised for in theory saving money for sellers but in practice taking up-front and/or fixed fees which the vendor had to pay, even if a property did not sell.
Some onliners have changed their model to include No Sale-No Fee options and now HouseSimple has followed suit with a charge of £795 including VAT.
This will run alongside its existing £395 including VAT fixed fee option, where the fee is payable on completion of the sale or after 12 months. It replaces the Pay-as-you-Go fee option, which HouseSimple trialled last year.
However, to qualify for the £795 fee option a vendor would need to use both a conveyancer and a mortgage provider recommended by HouseSimple.
If the vendor uses one or the other - but not both - the fee is £895, and £995 if they use their own conveyancer and mortgage broker. All fees are including VAT.
“We have introduced the No Sale No Fee model because we recognize this is a structure that the British public are familiar and comfortable with. For people who have never sold a property online before, there is always likely to be a degree of uncertainty about paying up front. It’s understandable for them to think, if I pay my money upfront, how committed will they be to selling my house?” admits the agent’s chief executive, Alex Gosling.
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its staggering that some on line agents have thought that customers will gladly pay 'up front' and not question the model - especially when public trust in the estate agency industry isn't great.
"It’s understandable for them to think, if I pay my money upfront, how committed will they be to selling my house?”
That's the main difficulty online agents have. Having said that, some do prefer the pay upfront model. Horses for courses and all that.
Seems like no one wants to be an online agent any more - even the online agents!
"We have introduced the No Sale No Fee model because we recognize this is a structure that the British public are familiar and comfortable with." - what a backtrack, weren't saying that before, were they?
Back-tracking is a massive understatement if you ask me. They've realised the error of their ways, thank goodness. It's incredibly rare to find vendors who are willing to pay upfront.
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