High Street Or Internet - Nova News Editorial July 2015

By the time you read this article Newport will have a new Estate Agency in the High Street. Competition between agents for property to sell will probably be intense for a while as no doubt there will be some good deals about for prospective sellers. This and an article in the Daily Telegraph about online sellers sparked a thought as to how people would be influenced by the Online Estate Agents.

Pretty well all of us shop online for all sorts of things, but how well do the online agents do? They can undoubtedly offer value for money. If you want to sell your house at little cost they are a strong option. Be careful though because the good value fee my have to be paid for up front and also there could be a time limit to the listing with additional fees beyond that time. Other charges may be made for services such as accompanied viewings, generally inclusive within the fees of your local agent. There is however much more to selling your property than listing it on the internet. Your local agent will rarely charge an up front fee and importantly has a significant amount of experience selling property in the local area. The online agent may say you have a dedicated representative working for you but how easy is it to give that agent a ring, or call into the office and have a face to face chat. Are you aware of their experience within the local market place? The agents in town will have experienced staff, many of whom have worked in the business for years, some of them as long as me (40 years)


The presence of your agent on the High Street of the town where you live is, surely the best place to be offering your property for sale. Knowledge of the local market, considerable experience relating to the valuation of the property, local services, schools and a multitude of other factors are what your local agent can offer to prospective buyers. Earlier today I was struck by the number of people looking at property photographs in the windows of our latest addition to the town and they won’t be open for another 10 days or so. People are always browsing the windows of the agents, be it to buy or rent. Now we can all sit at home trawling through the property portals and pinging off an email for a property enquiry to x y or z but there is no beating the ability of an agent to draw in the prospective buyer or tenant off the street with a face to face enquiry.

So who will you choose? Don’t forget to get me in first for an entirely independent valuation and no pressure to sell!!

Andrew Mason Independent Valuer 07507 928008
Email andrew.mason1551@gmail.com