Estate agency revolution in Exeter

A new style estate agent has set up in Exeter with the aim of changing the way the housing market in the city operates.

Smart Estate Agent will sell any property of any size for a one-off upfront fee of £395 plus VAT.

Rob Graves says after 25 years in the business he has seen how the internet has radically changed it and believes traditional estate agents can no longer justify their large percentage fees.

“The internet has transformed the way buyers and sellers operate,” said Rob. “Now they go online to look at property listing websites. No need to trek round town looking in estate agents’ windows and going through loads of printed property details.

“Yet agents are still hanging on to the old ways of doing things – and charging handsomely for it.”

Rob provides a full professional service based on his many years of experience selling property all over the UK. He gives a valuation, draws up particulars with floor plans and photos, uploads the details onto all the web outlets that only estate agents can legally access such as rightmove, zoopla, findaproperty, prime location and globtrix, puts a board outside the house, arranges viewings, deals with offers and sees it through to completion.

Smart has stripped away the overheads of the traditional estate agent and passed on the savings to the seller.

“Exactly the same amount of work goes into selling a property whether it’s £100,000 or £1 million,” says Rob. “So why shouldn’t people just pay a one-off low cost fee to get the job done. The higher percentage-based fee is from an era when agents closely guarded their lists of potential buyers who relied on them to match them up to a property. It’s totally outdated.

“In most cases all sellers need to do is get their properties on to the internet, especially in Exeter’s current buoyant market conditions. 95% of property is now sold this way.

“But money laundering legislation and the Property Mis-description Act mean that they cannot directly access these websites, they need an estate agent to do it.

“Because this is all that needs doing, it’s irrelevant how much your house is worth. Yet the traditional agents are still charging between 1% and 2% of the sale price of the house. People accept these prices because it’s the way things have always be done, and when you move you’re dealing with such big numbers people become blind to it.

“I believe all estate agents will one day soon work like this, selling any house of any size for the same fee and primarily using the internet to do it – it’s much more common in other parts of the UK and the world. I want to be at the forefront of this change in Exeter.”

Smart Estate Agent’s has no sole-agency tie-ins, penalty fees or hidden extras. For more information visit www.smartestateagent.co.uk