Compare Online Estate Agents

The main distinction between an online estate agent and a traditional estate agent is that online estate agents' primary mode of existence is online and without a walk-in premises that the property seller can visit. Online Estate Agents usually provide more basic services that are primarily focused on marketing your property on online property portals, and saving you money.

There are further distinctions that can be made within the online estate agent umbrella, such as between hybrid estate agents and regional online estate agents

The primary benefit of online estate agents vs high street estate agents is, without doubt, to save your hard-earned money. High-street estate agents commonly charge fees between 0.75% to 3.5% ^[1] of a property's selling price, which is in contrast to online estate agents who generally charge flat fees unrelated the value of the property. For example, a £400,000 house being sold through a traditonal agent could typically accrue fees of £7,000, while it wouldn't be unusual for a typical online estate agent fee to be £700 -- a tenth of the price of a traditional high-street agent!

While it's hasty to apply the below to all online agents (check out our filters on our comparison table), there are common drawbacks in exchange for the potentially remarkable savings when enlisting the services of online agents:

• Most often, an online agent's fixed fee is paid up-front, regardless of whether the property sells. However, online estates agents now increasingly offer split-fee or no-up-front-fee deals in exchange for a higher overall price.
• Online estate agents' valuations may rely on automated estimates using local data, as opposed to a local expert. However, local high street agents will often provide free valuations for your property, with no obligation to enlist their services. However data suggests high-street agents may be more prone to overvaluation. ^[2]
• Many online estate agents may not have specialized knowledge of your area or contacts, which may affect selling the property, beyond the valuation.
• Most will require you to conduct the viewings of your property. When this is not the case, the price is usually significantly higher
• Some online agents require you to photograph the property.
• Your property may receive less exposure, as online estate agents generally have no high-street presence with which they can advertise to passers-by.
• The negotiation process may be left down to the seller. It can also be argued that with a fixed-fee setup and no commission, there is less incentive for an online agent to achieve a higher price.
• Many can feel the process is somewhat 'faceless' and that they prefer a personal touch. Many hybrid estate agents use 'local experts' to mitigate some of these downsides, and not all online estate agents offer the same services. As such, be sure to compare online agents with our acclaimed comparison table.

The property industry has changed remarkably in the last decade or so, with the vast majority of properties now being discovered using online property portals. 93% of searches for properties involve online research. ^[3] Online estate agents' primary marketing avenue is through online property portals. In the UK, the two property portal behemoths are Rightmove and Zoopla. Almost all properties sold to the public in the UK are listed on Rightmove, with Zoopla not far behind.

You may see marketing for a relatively new property portal called OnTheMarket: This is a property portal run by a consortium of long-standing high street agents to challenge Rightmove and Zoopla, and through which online estate agents are not allowed to market.^[4]

Due to the popularity of property portals for marketing properties, online agents are able to compete with high street agents by advertising their clients' properties on most of the same portals. Other staples, such as saleboards, are often provided, which can mitigate, to an extent, the missed exposure of a display in a shop window.

You can compare the agents on the basis of which portals they market on by using our comparison table.

They are able to effectively undercut traditional agents by providing the most effective marketing avenue to clients while cutting on expensive overheads like high street premises. There are also economies of scale at play with nationwide online estate agents, they are happy to take on clients across the UK, while a high street estate agent usually only wishes to market properties nearby within their own range.

It is also worth noting that it is not always the case that using an online estate agent will save you money, as it does depend on the property itself and the individual estate agent's pricing structure. For example, a property which sells for £70,000, at a 1% fee, would cost £700 to sell, which is within the realms of your average online estate agent. However, do be aware that high street agents may be more prone to hidden fees in comparison to online agents operating on a flat fee basis.

Hybrid Estate Agents are a compromise between online estate agents and brick and mortar high street agents. They aim to address some of the perceived shortcomings of online agents by employing local experts who can, for example, provide valuations just the same way as a traditional estate agent, handle viewings, and provide a personal touch. They still do not have physical premises.

Due to the extra services provided, you can expect hybrid agents to be a little costlier than pure online estate agents, but still quite a bit less expensive than high street agents who operate on commission. If you feel a hybrid estate agent is more suited to your needs, you can filter our comparison table down to just hybrid estate agents, enabling you to more easily compare hybrid estate agents.

Regional online estate agents (sometimes called 'Local') are, as the name suggests, simply online estate agents who operate in a region. They can range in size from as small as a ward in a city, to the size of a country, but most regional online agents fall into the regular use of the word regional, e.g. East Midlands.

In theory, a regional online estate agent can have better knowledge of the area they're selling in due to the reduced scale, while still having all the benefits of a nationwide online agent.

Regional Online Estate Agents are marked on the comparison table as such, and the areas covered are listed on their details page.

Estate agents, online or high street, can be set up by anyone at all, as there are no qualifications or licencing necessary. Some estate agents will voluntarily join a dispute resolution body, a list of which you can find here, but these bodies are sometimes seen as lacking in influence due to their optional nature.

You can check the linked review websites found in the comparison section to read other customers' experiences of online estate agents and to gauge a general opinion of the service provided by an online agent.

The most pertinent risk is that the fee is paid up-front regardless of whether your property sells. Make sure you are aware of the length of time your property will be marketed for, as this differs between agents, with the most common lengths being 6 month and 12 months. If the data is available, you can compare the listing lengths offered using the comparison table above.

Online review websites are a great way to learn about real-life experiences of a business or a product from people just like yourself. However, online review websites can be susceptible to gaming and rigging. ^[5] Indeed, not only can agents attempt to write their own reviews, there are also companies who market to agents (of all types) whose sole product is the 'improvement' or 'management' of review profiles of companies, primarily through fictional reviews. ^[6] Many review websites are also quick to remove negative reviews when contacted by the subject, which can leave non-representative profiles where only the positive reviews remain. Other popular review websites operate on an invitation-only basis, which also tends to skew scores overly-positive, as agents are not obligated to invite every customer, rendering those profiles not much more reliable than a hand-picked testimonial page.

The two review sources used by OnlineAgentPicker are allAgents and Trustpilot. allAgents, started by a disgruntled web developer who couldn't find a platform on which to air his letting agent grievances, is the largest review website in the UK property industry niche. It is over a decade old, and has a reputation for standing up to agents who request the removal of bad reviews.

Trustpilot is a popular general review website founded in Denmark, whose format of reviewing websites lends itself to reviewing online estate agents. It has become a popular website in the UK for reviewing online estate agents after it featured in Purplebricks' ubiquitous advertising campaign starting in 2015/2016.

A quick note about Trustpilot

Trustpilot changed its review system in late 2019, and its rating system is now more inline with our own, using a Bayesian average. Stars were always out of 5, but half-stars now exist. Ratings are now out of 5 instead of 10 as they were previously. All ratings were simply halved.

Online Estate Agents generally use automated tools to assess the value of a property. These tools are usually based on relatively reliable factors that local professionals use also. Examples of these factors are the selling history of the property itself, sold-prices of neighbouring properties, house price trends, the property's standard features and so on.

Several factors can skew the valuation. For example, valuation tools cannot take into account the condition, furnishing or unique features of the individual property. They may also extrapolate a valuation of a property based on nearby properties which are not comparable, e.g. properties are nearby, but with differing square footage. Generally, valuation estimates are usually good enough for an estimate. Automated valuation tools are usually very accurate for a property with a history of sales, and quite accurate for properties which are located in an area with a uniform housing stock and a high turnover of properties. You may wish to have some local agents provide free valuations to ensure a more accurate valuation.

Hybrid agents usually provide a local expert who will value the property in the same manner as a high street agent.

Online estate agents generally expect you to physically handle the viewings yourself. Most will liaise with you by phone or e-mail to arrange a suitable time for viewings, but in some cases the details of potential buyers may be passed on to you, leaving you to arrange the viewings with potential buyers directly.

Some online estate agents will conduct viewings on your behalf for an extra fee (or even rarer, include them in the price). These can become costly if you end up requiring a lot of viewings. We recommend you compare the fees using our table if having the agent conduct viewings for you is a requirement.

Many online estate agents will negotiate the price on your behalf, while still involving you in the process. However, this is not always the case -- some may just pass on the offer to you expecting you to negotiate with the potential buyer yourself -- so be sure to compare using our comparison table whether this service is offered, if you're not confident about handling negotiations yourself.

Usually no -- most online estate agents will hire local professional photographers to do this, or train their agents in the same manner a traditional estate would. You can check whether professional property photography is provided in our compare online estate agents section, where a filter is provided for this purpose. We recommend you check the quality of the photography on online estate agents' properties on Rightmove and Zoopla, by using their find agent sections here and here respectively, and then entering their name to find their property listings.

It has been suggested that online estate agents' properties often have superior photography when compared to high street agents. It is often floated that the reason for this is that more high street estate agents take the photographs themselves, and while usually trained, the quality shouldn't be expected to be up to the standard a professional photography company.

Usually no, but many will for an extra fee. For information on how to arrange this yourself, please visit the UK government's site on the matter.

EPCs are now a legal requirement to sell your property in all countries that comprise the UK, and cost between £60 and £100 to have done. Bear this in mind when comparing online estate agents's prices, as it may end up the equivalent of a hidden fee for the unaware.

Compare agents with our comparison table filter to see how they stack up in this regard.

Usually yes. You can compare online estate agents on this basis using our table and filters.

Usually yes; about 75% include it at no extra cost. A few don't offer it at all. Again, if this is an important criterion, you can use our comparison table's filters to restrict the list to only agents who do.

Many online estate agents offer a choice of fee structures, with most offering a fixed-fee & up-front payment option. As of March 2018, 69% of agents listed offered a pricing structure in which the seller pays up front. However, a pay later option, after the house is sold or at a pre-determined date in the future, is almost as common, with 66% of agents offering this, but with the caveat that this is usually more expensive. Nine percent of agents offer the option of splitting the fee up front and on completion. No agents are listed as offering a fee structure based on commission, leaving it in the purview of traditional high street estate agents.

With some online estate agents, yes, but not all. This is often a surprise to customers, but it always becomes apparent early on in the process. Our comparison table will make it clear where this is the case.

Online estate agents are usually up front about the whole cost. The fixed fee is usually as stated. All the prices we provide that allow you to compare the agents include VAT, but the online agents themselves may not advertise as such. However, most online estate agents will include VAT in the price, which is something high street agents often omit from their advertising.^[7]

Most Online Estate Agent packages will not include an EPC, which is legally required to sell a property. Many will offer to provide one at an extra cost, usually around £60 - £100.

Be aware that estate agents, both online and high street, do not generally handle the legal aspects of a property transaction. You will require a solicitor or a conveyancer (rare in Scotland) to handle this. The average cost is around £500 to £1,500. You will generally want to arrange this at the same time you choose an agent, so as to not delay the sale of the property later on.

We now have our own rankings of the best online estate agents available here.

YOPA is currently ranked as our best online estate agent, but they are closely followed by Ewemove and Strike.

This is however a subjective question to which the answer ultimately comes down the customer's personal priorities. Some online estate agents will provide more or less than others, but this can be irrelevant if you only need the basics. Examine your personal circumstances to see which agent's services are best suited to your needs. For example, if conducting viewings will cause you stress, it may not be worth the savings.

Click here to the view the best online estate agents.

This is a simpler question to answer (than who is the best) but still not easy. You can compare the prices of online estate agents by sorting our table in price order here. But to answer directly, Housesimple is the cheapest estate agent, provided you are in one of the areas they cover, which are mainly in the North of England: Housesimple will sell your home for completely free. Otherwise, the two cheapest agents are 99home and doorsteps. They tie as the cheapest online estate agents nationwide, with their £99 packages.

In short, no. Neither Rightmove or Zoopla allow private sellers to advertise on their platforms, meaning the only way to list a property is using an agent with access. It's unlikely either platform would ever allow private listings, as these portals generate their income from estate agents' pricey subscriptions, and the "agent-only" exclusivity is part of the value to agents. Allowing private listings would very likely be poorly received and cause the portals to lose a large amount of their customer base and stock.

For those who wish to list their property on Zoopla or Rightmove without using an estate agent, using an online estate agent with a basic or hands-off package is as close as you can get to listing directly.