Online or high st agent? Sellers reveal their decision-making process

Google ‘online vs high street estate agents’ and you’ll get nearly 5,000,000 pages debating one of the biggest decisions a vendor will make about the most valuable deal of their life.

It’s a huge thinking point for home sellers, and a bustling topic of conversation in the property industry.

Just recently a company surveyed 14,530 home sellers in its Home Moving Trends survey. As well as touching on Brexit and Virtual Reality viewings, the respondents shone a light on their decision to go with a high street, rather than online, agent.

Brave sellers
In the Home Moving Trends survey, 85% of respondents said Brexit “has not impacted my decision to move.” 2% decided not to move, and 7% perceive property prices to have decreased in their area.

Movers are also showing increasing confidence in new technologies such as Virtual Reality; as 60% would consider viewing online prior to a physical viewing in the future.

Bricks vs clicks
When asked whether they considered selling their property through an online agent, 30% had thought about it, but eventually went with a high street agent. The remaining 70% didn’t consider it at all.

Out of the 14,530 sellers, 34% or a little under 5,000 of those never even visited the agent, compared to the 32% who visited in advance.

And although this is most likely the biggest deal of their lives, 1/3 of sellers don’t take the time to visit offices at any point in the process.

By Amy Smith abs@keyagent.co.uk

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