Doorstep Agents Review by Ashley, 2018-09-14T08:21:29
SUMMARY:I thought I'd provide a summary of what's advertised when you sign up and what you actually get:Item 3, Your Own Account manager - Over 6 months down the line I still do not know who this isItem 4, Enquiries dealt with immediately - This is simply not the case, most of the time you never hear back once they've taken the details, they say someone will call you back but it rarely happensItem 6, Sales Progression and negotiation - When my house was sold STC I was the one doing all the progressing/negotiationItem 7, You do nothing - This is the furthest from the truth, I ended up doing almost everything! If you leave it to doorsteps, be prepared to be waiting a long time.The one positive thing I will say is of the service received from Rianne in the Media Team, she was the only person at doorsteps who actually seemed to be competent in what she did (maybe the others are just too busy).DETAILED REVIEW:I had never sold a house before and after doing a bit of research, I was enticed by the fact I could sell my house for £99 and save thousands by not paying a high street agent commission. I signed up and after chasing the status of my listing, it quickly appeared on rightmove and everything was looking great. Within a week I received my first viewing enquiry and showed a young couple round, the viewing went relatively well. The first issue I stumbled across was that doorsteps won't approach a viewer for feedback post a viewing, they rely on the person replying to their viewing confirmation email in order to obtain feedback. I called doorsteps after not hearing anything for a few days and they said we can try contacting them for feedback but it's very difficult with the volume of viewings we book on a daily basis (something I hadn't considered but acceptable I suppose).A few weeks went by and no further viewings so we decided to reduce our asking price by 5k, this is where I had my first dealings with Rianne in the Media Team. Rianne was brilliant, always very prompt at adjusting the listing as per my requirements and you never felt uncomfortable about asking for amendments. I also requested that all viewing enquiries were dealt with by me so I could manage the process end to end because of the poor service I'd seen from the other elements of doorsteps. Almost immediately I received another viewing request so I contacted the viewer by phone and booked him in. The viewing went well, he made an offer and we eventually agreed on a price, my wife and I were elated.This is where more problems began, I had no idea who my account manager was but eventually was put in touch with one of the account managers. Sale progression from their side was very slow so I ended up dealing with the buyer directly. After about a month the buyer delivered devastating news that he was going to pull out of the sale. We relisted the property and reduced the asking price by another 5k.By this point we had also listed the property with a high street agent. Through doorsteps we received another 4 viewing enquires whereas we got around 20 from our high street agent. One of these viewers delivered shocking news that she had contacted doorsteps to view the property but had been told it was sold, even though this was around a month after we had relisted the property post the sale falling through. I contacted doorsteps to inform them of this and whilst they try to understand what went wrong, no explanation could be given. As the months went on we were still getting 90% of viewings through our high street agent and only 10% through doorsteps. I have no idea whether this was due to incompetencies at doorsteps or the fact that they were receiving less enquiries but we even went through periods where the property was cheaper with doorsteps than our high street agent but this didn't seem to make a difference.Around 6 weeks ago we reduced the property once again and received a viewing request via their new portal system. All looked to be good, I received an automated text, confirmed the viewing and awaited the arrival of viewer. The day came and after 10 minutes there was no sign of the viewer. I called doorsteps who said they would follow up and get back to me but this never happened. Did she just not turn up? Or did she not receive confirmation of the viewing? I don't know. We finally gave in and reduced our property with the high street agent so it was at the same price as doorsteps. Within 2 weeks we have now sold the property and had around 10 viewings in that period. We have received no further viewing enquiries through doorsteps during that time.The idea of selling my house for £99 was very appealing but unfortunately feels like it wasn't worth all the hassle. If my sale hadn't have fallen through maybe I would have a different opinion but my experience from start to finish has been poor regardless (apart from with Rianne in the Media Team of course).If you decide to sell with doorsteps, be prepared to do a lot of the work yourself and potentially lose prospective buyers due to their poor service.I hope this review helps someone decide to stay away from doorsteps and stick with a traditional high street agent where the incentive is there to sell the property or possibly go for a more professional online agent.