An estate agent has turned to Twitter to vent his frustration at losing an instruction to HouseSimple, which has been offering vendors a ‘no commission’ selling service since June this year.
Maurice Kilbride, who owns an eponymous estate agency in the North West of England covering the Cheadle and Stockport areas of the region, turned to the social media platform to vent his anger at losing the instruction.
“Jeez we really are in a race to the bottom,” he said. “How is a business sustainable charging no fees?”.
The seller involved told Kilbride that he had decided to go with HouseSimple because ‘they aren’t charging a penny’. Kilbride then checked the online agency’s terms and conditions to see if there was a catch, but says he couldn’t find one.
Lost instruction
Kilbride says he valued the property last week after being contacted by the vendor, to whom he had also sold the home, and was confident he would win the instruction.
Worryingly for many agents including Kilbride, HouseSimple’s message appears to be getting through to some home owners, which the online agency has been spreading largely via social media.
It’s latest twitter campaigns says: “We’ve made it easy and free to sell your home from the comfort of your own couch – so you don’t have to move, until you move”.
HouseSimple’s push to promote its free service is still limited to Yorkshire and the North West but, the agency says, may go nationwide ‘soon’ after its listings increased five-fold since it launched the free service.
Sorry, Maurice,
The vendor just didn’t like you enough. There was perhaps some like, but not enough for them to trust.
The fee is often blamed for any agency losing the instruction. But there’s never a precise figure in the mind of the vendor when a Yes turns into a No.
That said, there’s some vendors that simply aren’t a good fit. Some, that deserve the agency they choose.