No Upfront Fees Online Estate Agents – Your Best Options!

Yup, Online Estate Agents are continuing to gather momentum – and to the utter disappointment of most high-street agents – it doesn’t seem like they’ll die a painful death anytime soon.

So, for now, we still have the luxury of choosing between ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’, or ‘cheaper’ and ‘expensive’- depending on how you look at it – when selling our home.

Both methods have their own set of pros of cons, which you’re probably already familiar with. One of the major criticisms of the online model is that we have to pay a fee- usually upfront- regardless of whether we sell our property or not. Meanwhile, traditional high-street agents only charge a fee, a substantially greater fee in comparison, once the property has been sold.

For all intents and purposes, that’s a pretty good reason not to use an online agent, even if they are considerably cheaper.

High-street agents 1, Online estate agents 0!

In the spirit of keeping the fight alive, many of the online agents have started to swing their arms a little more aggressively in an attempt to even up the score. Yup, they’ve started offering ‘No sale, no fee’ packages, which means sellers don’t need to pay upfront fees until a sale is achieved.

High-street agents 1, Online estate agents 1!

List of recommended ‘No sale, no fee’ online estate agents

Err… yeah, I think there’s actually one!

Why do I recommend the following online agent, even though many others also offer a ‘no sale, no fee’ package? Good question.

Because 99home doesn’t charge extra for the privilege of paying only on sale, it’s part of their standard package(s). That’s called decency, as far as I’m concerned.

Estate Agent	Rating	Duration	Includes / Notes	Price
99 Home	Rating 9.9 / 10 TrustPilot Reviews	Duration Until Sold	Includes / Notes Combo package Markets on Rightmove, Zoopla + more Photograghs Floorplan Negotiation For sale sign No sale, no fee *£99 non-refundable advance admin fee, remaining balance due after sale completes.	Price £399Inc VAT Normal price: £499 Discount available	Visit Website£100 Discount Code: Spring

The ‘other’ online estate agents that offer ‘No sale, no fee’ packages… but at a higher cost!

Estate Agent	Rating	Duration	Includes / Notes	Price
HouseSimple	Rating 9.2 / 10 TrustPilot Reviews	Duration 6 months	Includes / Notes No sale, No fee package Markets on Rightmove, Zoopla + more Photograghs Floorplan Negotiation For sale sign In-person valuation No sale, no fee	Price £995Inc VAT	Visit WebsiteBook Free In-Person Valuation
House Network	Rating 9.3 / 10 TrustPilot Reviews	Duration 12 months	Includes / Notes No Sale, No Fee package Markets on Rightmove, Zoopla + more Photograghs Floorplan Negotiation For sale sign In-person valuation No sale, no fee	Price £1420.25Inc VAT Normal price: £1495 Discount available	Visit Website5% Discount Code: NRWTKLSXCY
Yopa	Rating 9.2 / 10 TrustPilot Reviews	Duration 12 Months	Includes / Notes No Sale, No Fee package Markets on Rightmove, Zoopla + more Photograghs Floorplan Negotiation For sale sign In-person valuation No sale, no fee *Selling fee of £2,999 in a few specific London postcodes.	Price £1999Inc VAT	Visit WebsiteBook Free In-Person Valuation

What’s the catch with the ‘others’?

What, you mean besides from the fact that the ‘No sale, no fee’ packages they offer are considerably more expensive than the upfront payment packages, which come with zero extra features and services?

Well, nothing really.

Here’s what the SAME packages cost without the ‘No sale, no fee’ policy:

Estate Agent	Rating	Duration	Includes / Notes	Price
House Network	Rating 9.3 / 10 TrustPilot Reviews	Duration 12 Months	Includes / Notes Home Selling Pack package Markets on Rightmove, Zoopla + more Photograghs Floorplan Negotiation For sale sign In-person valuation	Price £736Inc VAT Normal price: £775 Discount available	Visit Website5% Discount Code: NRWTKLSXCY
Yopa	Rating 9.2 / 10 TrustPilot Reviews	Duration 12 Months	Includes / Notes Standard package Markets on Rightmove, Zoopla + more Photograghs Floorplan Negotiation For sale sign In-person valuation *Selling fee of £1,399 in a few specific London postcodes.	Price £889Inc VAT	Visit WebsiteBook Free In-Person Valuation

My very initial thoughts? It’s terribly appealing to only pay a fee if a sale is achieved, even if it costs a little extra. I can see why people would, and do, opt for the eye-candy.

But then.

I actually thought about the situation for more than a 10 seconds, and I realised… that’s all it is, eye-candy! While I wouldn’t discourage anyone from opting for a “No sale, no fee” package, I have to say that it rubs my tits the wrong way that these agents are charging more for a package without actually adding a single iota of extra value.

You seem to get the same bang for your buck in terms of service, despite paying a shitload more

Nope, not even an insulting novelty fun size toy that’s worth pennies to help absorb the blow. Of course, a shitty toy imported from China wouldn’t make me feel any better, but at least they’d be trying. Because as it stands, you’re literally agreeing to pay near enough DOUBLE if a sale is achieved, and nothing else. Seems like daylight robbery to me.

From the business perspective, I get it. However, from the consumer perspective, it’s bullshit, and I don’t give a crap about the business perspective.

Aren’t they simply saying, “Pay us extra for doing our job, or pay us less in case we don’t do our job”?

Should you opt for a ‘No sale, no fee’ package?

If you only want to pay if you actually sell your property, then absolutely. Go for it. You have nothing to lose.

However, my only word of caution is to be wary of those agents that whack on a hefty premium for the privilege. Do the maths first, because in some cases, depending on the value of the property and which online agent you choose, it can actually be cheaper to use a high-street agent, who provide a ‘no sale, no fee’ model by default.

Traditional high street estate agent fees drastically vary, typically between 1% – 3%, some even charge less.

The whole point of using an online agent is to save thousands on fees, so if you’re not doing that, you may want to reconsider your plan of action. Personally, unless I’m literally saving thousands, I can’t see the value in using an online agent. I feel like some of them are getting greedy and losing their way.

The cheapest online estate agents, are they worth a punt instead?

I recently wrote a blog post covering the cheapest online estate agents (which I highly recommend you read if you’re in the midst of weighing up your options), and it was mostly about the following two agents:

Estate Agent	Rating	Duration	Includes / Notes	Price
99 Home	Rating 9.9 / 10 TrustPilot Reviews	Duration Until Sold	Includes / Notes Standard package Markets on Rightmove, Zoopla + more 2 days Rightmove featured listing Negotiation	Price £94Inc VAT Normal price: £99 Discount available	Visit Website5% Discount Code: HomePIP5
Door Steps	Rating 9.4 / 10 TrustPilot Reviews	Duration Until Sold	Includes / Notes Standard package Markets on Rightmove, Zoopla + more Negotiation	Price £99Inc VAT	Visit Website

Yup, you can currently privately sell your property on Rightmove on Zoopla for as little as £94. Mind-blowing, I know. But those deals are legit.

Without entirely rewriting what’s in that blog post, I made the point that you shouldn’t really use an online agent for personal and impeccable customer service (because there’ a good chance you’ll be sorely disappointed), but more so as a vehicle to get your property listed on Rightmove & Zoopla in order to generate leads. That’s it.

So I offer you the following food for thought: instead of splashing out on a ‘no sale, no fee’ package with an online agent, maybe you’d be wiser to gamble on one of the two cheapest online estate agent packages, which provide Rightmove & Zoopla listings.

Worse case scenario? You pay £94 – £99 and don’t get a sale.

Not exactly ‘end of the world’ stuff.

So, what do you think?

On a sidenote, I personally favour 99home, because their service is awesome, even though they charge peanuts.

List of online estate agents

If you’re interested, here’s a more complete list of online estate agents, which allow for better comparisons.