COULD THEY SELL YOUR HOME?

Yes

DAVID WITHERS ( left), a retired kitchen designer, says he saved more than 60 pc in fees with online estate agents.

David, 68, initially paid £895 to Tepilo, TV presenter Sarah Beeny’s online agency, in April last year to list his mother’s one-bed bungalow in Suffolk. This included professional photographs and a floorplan.

Last May, Tepilo merged with Emoov — which went bust in December. In January, David signed with Property Eagle, which offered Emoov customers a special deal at £99 for six months of sales work. The firm usually charges £399 upfront or £999 on completion (plus VAT).

David, who lives in Linton, Cambridgeshire, with his wife Lynda, 65, says: ‘ Someone would always get back to me — even when they had finished for the day and at weekends.’

Property Eagle listed the property at £205,000, managed the visits and correspondence.

A sale was agreed in March at £195,000 and it completed the next month.

No

YVONNE (left) and David Filby did not have a single viewing after signing with Purple bricks last August. They were told eight people had made appointments to view their two-bed bungalow in Strood, Kent — but all cancelled.

The couple, who are pensioners, plan to move closer to their daughter in Northampton. They chose Purplebricks to avoid up to 3 pc in commission on their £ 325,000 house, deferred the £899 fee for 10 months and paid £300 for an agent to conduct viewings.

They have since hired a local estate agent, which charges 1 pc commission, and have had five viewings since December.

A Purplebricks spokesman says: ‘The vast majority of our customers sell quickly and give five- star feedback, but there will always be a few properties which are harder to sell.’