Estate Agent fee question

[JQ]

iDrive said:

I'd recommend Purple Bricks - No Fees for the For Sale sign, no commission on sale and a basic listing on RightMove - before going with an established agent

Having tried to buy a few houses marketed by Purple Bricks I would now actively avoid any houses being marketed by them. In fact, any of those £200 fixed fee internet agents are a red flag to me. Value and cost are different.

[GasEngineer]

JQ said:

iDrive said:

I'd recommend Purple Bricks - No Fees for the For Sale sign, no commission on sale and a basic listing on RightMove - before going with an established agent

Having tried to buy a few houses marketed by Purple Bricks I would now actively avoid any houses being marketed by them. In fact, any of those £200 fixed fee internet agents are a red flag to me. Value and cost are different.

Why a red flag JQ?

[JQ]

GasEngineer said:

JQ said:

iDrive said:

I'd recommend Purple Bricks - No Fees for the For Sale sign, no commission on sale and a basic listing on RightMove - before going with an established agent

Having tried to buy a few houses marketed by Purple Bricks I would now actively avoid any houses being marketed by them. In fact, any of those £200 fixed fee internet agents are a red flag to me. Value and cost are different.

Why a red flag JQ?

2 things that would worry me

1. The ability of the agent to be diligent during the WHOLE process - we've had a few nightmare chains over the years that have only been kept together by a very good agent and generally the spanner in the works has been a crap agent (twice it's been Purple Bricks), a cheap online Conveyancer or an idiot vendor.
2. To me, using the cheapest firm available to sell the single most valuable asset you are ever going to own is likely to significantly increase the likelihood that I’m going to end up dealing with an idiot vendor or a cheap conveyancer (see point 1).

I realise everyone likes to slate all EA’s but having bought and sold numerous houses over the years and having had to deal with both good and bad EA’s, the good ones are worth their weight in gold, both in terms of adding value, acting diligently and shielding you from idiot vendors and crap conveyancers. Nothing can be proven, but I genuinely believe on several occasions using a good agent has gained us £10’000’s in extra value and saved £1,000's in abortive costs.