Are websites like Rightmove and zoopla actually any good?
Posted by lorenzoc04@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 42 comments
I’ve been casually looking on Rightmove and zoopla and onthemarket looking at buying a property whether it be a flat or a house, and it seems like the same properties have been there for the past year and there’s never really any new ones in the price range I’m searching for. What I find even more weird is the fact that when I speak to people they’re buying houses that are in my price range but never come up when I’m browsing the web for them. Am I missing something?
Spursfan14@reddit
Rightmove and Zoopla are good at showing you a snapshot of everything on the market at one particular time.
But you’re right, most people actually want to see what’s changing over time in their specific search, not just a snapshot of everything.
That’s why we’ve built useperch.co.uk, we focus on showing you what’s changed in your search. That’s new homes, price drops and properties going off market (and how long it took).
We’re still quite London focused but better coverage of the rest of the UK is coming in the next few weeks.
GlumAd9856@reddit
Pretty much every house being sold on the open market goes onto Rightmove - unless it's a very niche/expensive property where they are targeting specific people.
The houses that you see unsold are just the houses that have either been priced too high or have issues deterring buyers. You might be missing the 'good' properties that come up and go quickly.
mattymattymatty96@reddit
Not all. Many estate agents are boycotting due to Rightmove charging astronomical fees.
lorenzoc04@reddit (OP)
I’m not in a position to look for expensive properties😂even if I’m checking daily could I still be missing them?
Laescha@reddit
Could be - have you signed up for email alerts?
fearghaz@reddit
I forgot that i did this. The emakils were always up 2 days before
nivlark@reddit
Can you post a link to the page you are checking? I don't think there's anywhere in the country where the housing market is moving so fast that properties are getting sold within a day. So it seems like you might not be looking in the right place.
CraigL8@reddit
Speak directly to the estate agents in your area. They may put you on a list and get in touch with you before advertising it. The downside to this is that they may push their mortgage broker on to you like what happened one time with me.
Alternative-Day5268@reddit
You can contact estate agents directly. But to add the above's point, when you sell a house you generally go to an estate agent and ask them to sell it, they almost always are putting the house on Rightmove and Zoopla. When you click on a house it should show you the estate agent.
Some houses can take weeks, months, or over a year to sell, if they ever do. And even once they have a buyer they may stay on the website incase the buyer pulls out or to keep pressure on the buyer to move through the process quickly.
My take is that there are no houses in your filters (location, price, bedrooms etc) available at the moment.
For those who don't sell via estate agents these are private sales. You might see these on Facebook sometimes or if youre in the trade you might pick up on them.
fearghaz@reddit
Depends where you are but yes.
In areas where property is popular for cash buyers the properties are often sold before an ad can be put online.
A lot of them are next to useless, but I advise talking to all the estate agents in the area and explaining what your situation is and what you are looking for.
I ended up making an offer on my house before I'd seen it because of this. Good luck
The_Mayor_Involved@reddit
Are you asking me?
KoorbB@reddit
It’s a search engine, not much more.
ross-dirext-words137@reddit
If you have any examples of a house that sold and you never seen the advert you need to work out how it was listed.
Sometimes sales are fast but normally they get online as it increases the price getting additional bids.
You might have to just add your local estate agents website to your list of searches. Houses will normally show up there a few days before Rightmove or Zoopla but without photos etc
ARobertNotABob@reddit
Use the filters, both for your price range and for things like "Added in Last 7 Days".
You can also draw your own map for the area you're looking at.
AirlineSevere7456@reddit
If your house for sale isn't listed on Rightmove it will not get as much attention. It's the default site. Zoopla is a solid no. 2. But likely anything on Zoopla is on Rightmove anyway.
A different site which was meant to be more consumer friendly came out, Boomin or something, but never made a dent in the public consciousness.
namtabmai@reddit
Good in the sense they are helpful at filtering down to houses you are interested in? Not really
Good as in they are better than all the other alternatives? Yes.
Wonderful-Bonus5439@reddit
My house sold before it went onto rightmove - it did get posted eventually but went straight to the ”sold” listings.
twentiethcenturyduck@reddit
Sign up with Estate Agents.
Agents don’t put the houses up on rightmove straight away, they will offer them to people who have signed up with them first.
They will also let you know about houses which are going to come on to the market (where they are still writing up the details).
Beautiful_Security35@reddit
Longshot318@reddit
Register with local agents and you may well be informed of houses coming up before they get to the internet. If you're a serious buyer and the agent knows you're interested in particular house types/locations, they are likely to let you know in advance. Be aware however, you're not likely to be able to knock down a price significantly before it hits the open market.
We did this with a house we bought last year. We had a couple of preferred roads and we got in to see a house before the details had been prepared. We made an acceptable offer and the house never made it to the internet. This is not at all uncommon and explains why houses are being sold before you see them online. The internet is a great tool but is no replacement for dealing with actual humans (caveats regarding estate agents' humanity noted).
Appropriate_Trader@reddit
The properties on rightmove are the ones the agent didn’t have a ready made client for.
If you register with an agent and tell them you’re looking for this type of house in this area and this is the budget you might be given a sneaky chance to get in first.
They don’t this out of the goodness of their heart and you might even pay a premium. But to the agent this is the best route because they can pocket the rightmove listing fees from the seller.
lost-in-midgard@reddit
Set up an alert, you'll be amazed how frequently stuff comes up and how quickly it goes.
King_Kongs_fingers@reddit
That is more of a reflection of the property market rather than the website, not updating the website wouldn't be a very good business model.
Jess_atDamar@reddit
If you're seeing a property on there for a long time, either it's overpriced *or* it was sold, went through some of the process, then the sale went through so they relisted. When this happens, for whatever reason, it gets relisted at the original date of listing. Context: happened to us when selling a flat.
Would agree with others that registering with estate agents is a good foot in the door and more likely to get you first views. Also Purple Bricks, where people manage their own sales process, is popular in a lot of areas.
IguanaDog@reddit
I would say to register with any/all estate agents in the area you are looking to buy. A number of properties won’t make it onto Right Move as the agents will contact people on their list first and may sell before they are listed on the web.
waggers5@reddit
Yes. I'm searching for properties on Rightmove and there are new additions to my saved search pretty much every day.
It just depends on your price range, search area and other filters. I've set fairly broad parameters so I'm seeing quite a lot of properties on my list. It just reflects the housing market in your area.
Every estate agent worth their salt puts properties on these sites now so there's little point in going direct to the agents themselves since all the information you need is already at your fingertips.
KittyGrewAMoustache@reddit
Could be your search parameters? Like if you have it set to exactly 2 bed (no more no less) properties within a specific area or only 1/2 mile radius in the range of 200-205,000 many fewer houses will show up. I think with Rightmove you can set it to email you with any new properties that meet your search criteria.
PvtRoom@reddit
Rightmove is fine, but if your search is too tight you're stuffed.
it sounds like what you're left with is the "fixer uppers" nobody wants, people with impossible chains, and otherwise unaffordable houses
SonOfGreebo@reddit
Sounds silly, but make really sure you're clicking on the "Buy" section of the search.
Both Zoopla and Rightmove maintain information about houses that used to be for sale but are no longer on the market. I'm talking "sold many years ago".
If you browse just "houses in my area", this may be what you're seeing.
Both companies do this to provide mortgage evaluation data; and as legacy info.
Grouchy-Nobody3398@reddit
When we were looking it went dead January through March and then picked up during April/may. That was a hotter market than now as there wasnt as much uncertainty floating around.
lavayuki@reddit
That’s the main way to find a place to rent or buy. When I was looking for a house I used right move. The agents on the sales side always called me very quick like the same or next day whenever I did online enquiries via Rightmove.
The rental teams are asleep though, phoning them and trying to get through can be difficult. But I found with sales, they were always very proactive in trying to get people to view and make offers. At least in my experience.
I never used Zoopla because it didn’t seem to have as many properties. Rightmove seems to be the main one that everyone uses
TheTritagonistTurian@reddit
On zoopla I can look at the listing photos of my last house before I brought it and then also once I sold it.
That’s quite a nice little 5 mins looking at the progress I made and then ultimately the profit as well.
dod_murray@reddit
Yes new places come up every day. Even if there's a lot of people interested the listing stays up for a day at least, more like a week.
If your search terms are too restrictive e.g. low price range in a expensive area, you'll just see the same overpriced/problematic properties that are not selling
SilverAss_Gorilla@reddit
Lots of estate agents keep properties listed on those websites even when they're under offer as it brings them potential clients who call about that property, and who they can then show other similar properties. It was actually a pain to get my estate agent to remove our listing once it was under offer, they wanted to wait until the sale was finalised.
WhoLets1968@reddit
Izd you are on a position to buy and move quickly, then I would call upon several estate agents in the areas you want to move to, explain your budget and what you are looking for and if any new ones come onto their books that match your criteria, they will send to you and engage.
That way you maximise your chances of getting to here about them sooner rather than wait until they have processed it on a site like Rightmove or Zoopla
Good luck
whatmichaelsays@reddit
Registering with estate agents in the area you want can be useful here, as they often market to their databases before properties even hit Rightmove.
When we sold our last place, it never made it to RM because the agent we used knew of a couple that got gazumped on a near identical property a couple of doors down just a week earlier. We got an asking price offer within 3 hours of instructing the agent.
skibbin@reddit
My strategy would be to look at sold houses for indications of market rate in the areas you're looking. I'd look at what agency sold houses and contact them directly with your desired area and price range and let them contact you when something comes in. That's how I did renting anyway. Most good places were already sold by the time they made it onto those aggregated sites
Alas_boris@reddit
Speak to estate agents local to the area that you are looking at.
Often sellers will get quotes and valuations from multiple agencies before choosing who to sell with.
These agencies will have a lists of potential buyers who they know are interested in properties like this, and will often give them the heads up before the listing is posted on Rightmove.
If those potential buyers make an offer to the seller via the agent that the seller is happy to accept, then it may never actually make it on to Rightmove, or may appear as Sold Subject To Contract as soon as it is listed.
AnonyCass@reddit
We found onthemarket really good, plus you can set it to sent you a notification if any new house comes on that meets your set criteria (area, size, price)
LongjumpingCurve1869@reddit
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PolarLocalCallingSvc@reddit
You could try checking local estate agents websites instead of you think some properties are missing from those sites.
Some houses will be listed for many months either because they're undesirable or, particularly outside of Scotland, the buying/selling process falls through because of all the unknowns.
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