As one of the longest-running online estate agents, Strike have won several awards for their service.
That includes an award in 2018 at the Estate Agent Awards for ‘Best Online Agent’.
Working like most of the other online agents, Strike do not have local high street offices but do use local property experts. That allows them to value homes and provide a point of contact without the overheads that come with multiple high street offices.
What They Offer:
At the time of conducting our Strike review, we found their service consisted of the following:
- Local expert valuation
- Photos and floorplan
- A property expert to oversee the sale
- For sale board
- Full negotiation and sales progression service
- Advertising on Rightmove, Zoopla, and more
The price of all of the above is £0. Yes, you read that right, selling your property with Strike is 100% free.
How can they do this? Put simply, they know that when you sell your property, you need other services too.
For starters, you may well need an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). This is available for £90 inc VAT. There’s also a hosted viewings package available if you don’t want to do them all yourself.
Plus, of course, there are mortgage advisors, solicitors, removal firms, and so on. They’ll have relationships with most of these types of services where they receive a kickback if you choose a service they recommend. That’s how they make up for not charging you for the sale.
How It Works
The process with Strike is relatively straightforward. It all starts when you request a free valuation. At this point, a local assessor will contact you to arrange a mutually convenient time to come and look at your property. In some areas, your valuation may be done remotely instead.
This visit will consist of a valuation, photographs being taken, and measuring up for the floor plan. It should be noted that it doesn’t mean you are obliged to use Strike just because they have started taking photographs, etc. They simply do this to help save time if you do decide to list with them.
Once you have instructed Strike to sell your home you’ll be allocated a local expert who will become your main point of contact.
They’ll make sure your property description, photos, and everything else is up to scratch. Once everyone is happy, your listing will go live on all the major portals.
Viewings, feedback, and offers all happen via the online portal you’ll be given access to. This allows you to ensure viewings happen when it’s convenient to you. Offers are handled this way too. Once you’ve accepted an offer, your property expert will help see everything through to completion.
Advantages of Strike
Here are just some of the advantages of Strike estate agents, we’ve discovered.
Free Listing
You can list your property on both Zoopla and Rightmove without any fee.
Free Agency Services
In addition to listing your property, Strike offers full estate agency services without any fees.
Free Negotiation and Sales Progression
The Strike team will negotiate any offers and progress the sale on your behalf.
Disadvantages of Strike
As with any service or platform, there are some potential downsides to using Strike estate agents.
Limited In Person Valuations
In person valuations ar not available in all post codes. If you’re not in certain postcodes, an online valuation will be used.
A Little Pressure for Add Ons
Since Strike offers free services, it does need to make money in other areas. This is through referrals and add ons. Although there are no high pressure sales tactics for these optional services, you will be asked regularly.
The History
To delve into Strike’s history, we need to look first at Housesimple. This was the original company name before it was rebranded as Strike in July 2020.
Housesimple was established in 2007, making it one of the first online agents in the UK. In the early years, Housesimple was overlooked by many sellers in favor of bigger spending rivals. At this point, Housesimple was still charging for listings, but this changed in 2016. Sir Charles Dunstone, founder of the Carphone Warehouse, provided a £13 million investment in the company.
This helped Housesimple to establish itself as a leader in the online market. So, it came as a shock when in June 2019, Housesimple announced that it was moving to a 100 percent full service for free.
The reaction from the competitors was certainly scathing, and the company was called out to be “certain to fail.” However, within a year, the free model was still in effect, and Housesimple was retaining its title as a leading online estate agent.
In 2020, Housesimple again mixed things up by rebranding. No definitive reason for the name change was given, but it did make a cleaner break from its paid services. With a new name, Strike is set to continue growing its market share to become a leader in “free” estate agency services.
A Closer Look
Despite marketing itself as a “free” estate agent, Strike offers some fantastic services. Here we’ll take a closer look at how this service works and what Strike can offer you.
Simple Four Step Process
Strike has developed a simple four step process that is quite similar to working with a traditional high street agent. The first step is a valuation, and the majority of valuations for Strike and other estate agents involves checking data, including market value trends and recent sales data.
However, in many postcodes throughout the UK, a local expert in your area will perform a home visit. This is not available in all areas of the country, so you may be offered a “virtual” valuation in certain postcodes.
This should not affect the accuracy of your valuation, but you can compare it to valuations from other estate agents, if you want to double check.
The second step involves the actual listing. This will include professional photographs, a floorplan, and a description of your property to ensure its best features are highlighted. You will then have the opportunity to request changes or approve the listing.
Unless you’ve opted for hosted viewings, you’ll need to conduct viewings, but Strike will provide feedback. Once you receive an offer, the team will help to negotiate the best possible price.
Finally, the Strike team will facilitate completing the sale. Your sales negotiator will help to iron out any issues, working with experts to deal with any changes, and chase up solicitors to avoid any major delays.
Free Comprehensive Service
Although many companies may advertise “free” services, Strike actually does deliver with its free comprehensive services. The standard free package includes a valuation by a local expert, a “for sale” board, professional photos, a floorplan, full Rightmove and Zoopla listings, professional offer negotiation and support from listing to completion.
This is almost the same service you would expect from a traditional high street estate agency. There is even an app to manage all aspects of your listing, so you’ll get viewing feedback direct to your phone.
Impressive Add Ons
Despite the comprehensive free package, Strike also offers some impressive add ons to reduce the stress of the sales process further. While many companies may aim to lure clients in with cheap basic services and costly add ons, this is not the case with Strike.
The Strike add ons are actually reasonably priced, so they won’t break the bank.
For example, if you need an Energy Performance Certificate, Strike charges £90, which is approximately the same cost as you would find with many of the leading estate agencies.
Other adds ons include a hosting package that offers an unlimited number of agent led viewings for £549 and upgraded Rightmove listings. This is a reasonable £399 and provides enhanced photographs and a custom video trailer.
When you browse the list of add ons, it is clear that Strike estate agent doesn’t overcharge for these extras, and they are completely optional.
Access to Additional Services
Strike also provides access to additional services to make the moving process straightforward. The Strike mortgage advice offers quick guidance, and it is also offered for free. Obviously, it is still a good idea to compare rates and deals, but this could provide a stress free solution for your financing.
Strike also provides access to conveyancing services.
The company charges a flat fee for conveyancing that is only payable once your house sale is complete. You can also use the Strike moving services. The strike team can arrange removal vehicles and can even forward your mail and help you to switch your broadband. This will eliminate a great deal of the stress of moving.
Again, these are optional services, but it is nice that Strike effectively offers a one stop shop for all your house sale and moving needs.
How Do They Use PropTech?
The way they used PropTech is in the online management system. That allows sellers to manage and edit things like their property description, photos and even price, as and when they wish. This puts a lot of instant control in the vendors hands.
Sellers also receive viewing requests and feedback via their online portal. It’s set up in such a way that you can communicate directly with interested parties via the secure messaging system. That means even offers can be received and countered via the portal. There is also an app available for iOS and Android.
Strike Reviews
Strike are pretty well represented on independent review sites and, on the whole, the reviews are very positive.
The negative comments tend to be either from buyers (which is still something worth keeping in mind) or from people who have had issues with the recommended conveyancing solicitors. You may want to keep this in mind if you’re thinking of using Strike.
