Sell My Home took just two weeks to sell my flat for GBP 25K above the asking price in January 2017, after four high street agents had failed to sell it for a full year prior. Whatever was stopping my flat from selling in 2016 (stamp duty changes dampening the buy-to-let market in April, Brexit in June, or the lacklustre performance of agents ?), from the moment I talked to Tom Crosthwaite at SellMyHome they were like the light at the end of the tunnel. Friendly, upbeat, thoughtful and insightful they had a can-do attitude and the team spirit of a start-up that fully believe in their offering (and have the awards to prove it).
They deserve to succeed because they have stripped away the jargon and obfuscation, the needless firewalls between you and the buyer and demystified estate agency.
"Who knows your property better than you?" is their motto and I don't believe it was just the GBP25K price reduction after Christmas 2016 that sold my flat, since it went for the pre-reduction asking price anyway. Taking control of the sale with SellMyHome restored my shaken confidence in myself, my property and the housing market. The photographs they took were excellent and the listing looked fresh and professional. I enjoyed meeting potential buyers after the depressing, anxiety-inducing experience of being disconnected from the selling process (of the High Street agents) that was not yielding results. I received five offers from the seven viewings I conducted and believe the verbal and non-verbal communication between myself and the vendors was key – they could tell I was on their wavelength, understood their hopes and fears, and indeed was in the same boat as them as I would be having to buy again in the same market as soon as I could sell. I think I answered most of the prospective buyer’s questions before they could ask them, and Harry at SellMyHome did the rest.
Most estate agents who do the donkey work of viewings seem to be in their early twenties, and have not bought or sold their own property, so don't intuitively know what buyers want to know or need to hear. Most importantly they haven't lived in your flat, with your neighbours, in your building, in your neighbourhood and travelled across the city to and from your address. By using Sell My Home not only did I save around 7K of agency fees, the buyer of my property said how much they had preferred dealing directly with me throughout, having previously been gazumped in a process managed by a high street agent. I did not opt for the 'completion management' package offered by SellMyHome for the reason just mentioned and because I had the time and inclination to do it myself, however I can see it would be useful in other circumstances.
Without fail everyone at Sell My Home from the photographer, to the technician who loaded my listing onto the system, and those who alerted me to viewing requests – was polite, friendly and professional. The whole culture of Sell My Home feels young, vibrant, honest, intelligent and full of energy and motivation to get things done. It is the missionary zeal of a disruptive business model which knows they are 'the future of estate agency'. SellMyHome are a classier outfit trying much harder than Purple Bricks who I also approached, which felt to me like a high street agent in disguise with the same impersonal service.
SellMyHome's vibrant blue and green image of a clenched fist raised to the sky on their 'Sold' board is a visual echo of the slogan on their website: Join the property revolution! They have indeed returned to people the power to buy and sell their own property. Seize that power with SellMyHome - it is the ultimate win-win if they can get achieve the scaleability to make their pioneering efforts pay. In its economy of time and resource, it feels right and makes sense. It won’t be long before we wonder why we ever did it any other way.