Do online bosses use High Street agencies to sell their own homes?

Whisper it quietly, but it may be that some bosses of online agencies used traditional High Street companies to sell their own homes - or at least are coy if they went through online firms.

This week EAT asked the chiefs of 10 leading online agencies how they conducted the most recent sales of their own properties. 

Some last sold many years ago before they were personally involved in the online world, while one is too young to have actually owned his own property anyway.

But a few of the other responses were - shall we say - carefully worded, and in the case of four agencies there were no replies at all. 

We made it clear that we did not want any personal financial information, but simply wanted to assess whether online chiefs used their own technology when it came to their own transactions. 

Most online agencies are normally extremely keen to get the word out to the industry and wider press, so we’ll leave it to readers to draw their own conclusions if a few replies are perhaps not quite as full as they might have been...

Doorsteps - founder Akshay Ruparelia: “I’ve never bought or sold a property. My life experience is different, as I’ve been a carer for my parents my whole life. We moved from outside London to inside London a few years ago and I was very involved with the High Street agent on behalf of my parents. That’s what actually led me to think there was a better way of buying and selling homes.” (Akshay Ruparelia) 

easyProperty - no response.

Emoov (now including Tepilo and Urban) - chief executive Russell Quirk: “I used Urban.co,uk to rent my property out very successfully. I achieved full price AND let much quicker than my neighbour did using a traditional agent. The tenant is superb, pays on time and has just renewed AND Urban didn't charge me again. Win win!” (Russell Quirk)

Hatched - no response.

House Network - chief executive Mark Readings: “Mark successfully sold his home using house network” (company spokeswoman)

HouseSimple - chief executive Sam Mitchell: “His last move was into a rental property, and he rented his property in London” (company spokesman).

99Home - co-founder Vijay Vashisatha: “My last move was in 2008, I used a high street agent” (Vijay Vashisatha).

Purplebricks - chief executive Michael Bruce: “I am not aware that Michael has sold a property in recent years” (company spokesman).

Settled - no response.

Yopa - no response.