Why online agencies have been told they will not be approved by ELAA-UK

Following the recent decision by The Estate and Letting Agents Association UK not to approve online only agencies a number of them are asking for an explanation as to why they are not approving their applications.

As a result The Estate and Letting Agents Association UK (ELAA-UK) has released a statement explaining why they have made this decision:

‘As many of you will be aware, The Estate & Letting Agents Association UK has recently made the decision not to approve applications from online only agencies as our own research has led us to the opinion that online only agencies cannot provide the level of customer support, customer service or customer satisfaction that we, or the public, would expect from an ELAA-UK approved agent.

In addition to the overall customer service it is also our opinion that an online only agent may also lack in the knowledge of the local market which is an extremely important part of an estate or letting agents job and is crucial in the valuation, marketing and negotiating process.

We have also been made aware of what could be considered deceptive pricing by some online agents meaning clients could end up paying much more than they initially thought due to additional charges not clearly explained when being instructed. Our research has also shown that, on average, a property sold via an online only agent achieves around 5% less than similar properties sold by local estate agents meaning that home sellers could be losing out on tens of thousands of pounds.

There were a number of other factors that ELAA-UK also took into consideration when making this decision and you can see all the information and our analysis on the ELAA-UK website at www.ELAA-UK.org ’

ELAA-UK that created the hashtag #AppreciateEstateAgents has been proactively promoting the benefits of using local agents to home sellers and landlords throughout the UK and has recently seen a surge in the number of agents applying to become approved by the association making it the fastest growing association for Estate & Letting Agents in the UK.

To read the original article regarding the decision by ELAA-UK please visit http://bit.ly/30yws01 or for further information about ELAA-UK visit their website at www.ELAA-UK.org