Selling or renting out a property can be a stressful undertaking and a costly one at that! First there is the hassle of choosing an estate agent who is willing to do the legwork for you and trusting them to find a buyer/tenant who is serious about what they are viewing. Secondly there’s the fee that you have to pay them to find your buyer/tenant, not to mention the extra costs involved if you wish for them to further manage it for you.

 Your property is your biggest investment, so as in investor, it’s all about the net yield you will be able to enjoy. If you choose to pay a high street estate agent, you will be liable for a fee, which can be as high as 17%  if you are renting or 3.5% on sales.

 Here’s where an online estate agent can be the better option to optimise your yield and keep you with more cash in the bank.

Whether selling or renting, here’s a quick checklist with the best reasons to use an online estate agent, such as IAmTheAgent.com, to save you money:

Selling your property:

•  An online estate agent such as I Am The Agent charges a one-off fee to market your property through the most widely-seen sites such as Rightmove and Zoopla. You just upload your photos and add a property description to the agent’s website and sit back and wait for the enquiries to come in.
• Here at IAmTheAgent.com we charge a one-off sales package starting from £299, whereas a high street agent would typically charge between 1 – 1.5% of the property value. As an example of the savings you could make, if you were to sell your property for £400,000, you would pay a traditional estate agent a fee of around 1% which would equate to £4000, whereas if you sold via an online estate agent, such as IAmTheAgent.com, you would only pay a one-off fee for as little as £299. So the more expensive your property, the more you stand to save!
• You remain in control of the selling process. Once your property has hit the market, you will receive all enquiries from potential buyers and you are in charge of managing the viewings of your property.You know more about your property than anyone, so when you are selling, you can inevitably offer more advice about than an estate agent could.
•  A good online estate agent such as IAmTheAgent.com will be able to assist with offering a best-price guide and valuation to help you with gaining an accurate value at which to market your property. They can also help with advice and will also provide a ‘for sale’ board, should you wish to use one all for just £299inc VAT. 
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Renting out your property through an online letting agent:

1.   If you wish to rent out your property, an online estate agent will, once again, only charge a one-off fee for you to list your property for rental. You can upload your property with photos and description quickly and the feed through to the major portals will usually be uploaded within 24 hours. It couldn’t be simpler

• You are in control of meeting with potential tenants and showing them around your rental property. This can often give you peace-of-mind when you are trusting your investment to someone you have just met.
• You are not completely alone. Depending on which level of service you pay for, a good online agent, such as IAmTheAgent.com can provide extra assistance with reference checking, tenancy agreements, Gas Safety Certificates, EPC’s, Inventory checks etc. Even if you opted for the full package, you would still be saving a great deal.  IAmTheAgent.com offers marketing of rental properties for as little as £99.
• The main key is the saving you will make as opposed to the traditional high street estate agent.

How do I choose an online estate agent I can trust?

All agents must be a member of one of one of three bodies – either the Property Ombudsman, the Ombudsman Services Property or the Property Redress Scheme, however this is not always a fail-safe.

More advice can be found at the following link:

http://www.tpos.co.uk/downloads/TPOE5%20Consumer%20Guide.pdf

The Home Owners Alliance website offers a great deal of advice about selling or renting through an online estate agency and also offers a comparison table of the main online estate agency operators at the following link:

http://hoa.org.uk/advice/guides-for-homeowners/i-am-selling/how-do-i-lower-my-estate-agent-fees-use-online-agents/

Where do I begin?

The Home Owner’s Alliance (HOA) offers brilliant advice and answers a great deal of questions about using online estate agents, so might be worth a look if you’re still not convinced! Here’s the link:

http://hoa.org.uk/advice/guides-for-homeowners/i-am-selling/should-i-use-an-online-estate-agent/

The HOA also list IAmTheAgent as one of the major online estate agencies, so why not log onto our site and see for yourself how much you could save. GET STARTED