We sold our house using Strike for free rather than Burkmars
We sold our house using Strike, and bought a house listed by Burkmars in Lymington, Hampshire. We considered selling our house using Burkmars. Here’s the difference in our experience.
On communications:
Burkmar; nice people but poor communications let them down. Slow, old fashioned and limited business hours typical of “old school” local agents.
Strike; a high technology business clearly motivated to ensure things were done quickly and efficiently, including early and late hours support on our listing, including Sundays! Very quick process, property was on Rightmove within hours of starting (94% of properties sold are via Rightmove apparently).
On choosing an agent to sell our property
On the prospective sale of our house Burkmars were so much more expensive than the agent we went with instead (Strike, at 0% fees). We used the Strike free service and it worked well for us to get a few viewings straight away and an offer close to our asking price so we accepted immediately. We looked at the assisted viewing and photo package but it wasn’t needed for our situation as we are happy to show people around ourselves.
The Burkmars contract is ridiculous. It states even after terminating their services they still get commission up to TWO YEARS and 14 days later should any sale happen, even privately, or within 6 months even if another agent had been appointed.
On working with an agent when you are buying a property
On the purchase of our home that was also listed with Burkmars we were disappointed. We submitted an offer on our dream home om Friday but on Monday the agent was still setting up viewings for other buyers to see the property, and Burkmars hadn’t passed the offer on to the vendor! We were furious.
On sales particulars
On the sales particulars for the house we bought from Burkmars there were numerous errors and a general lack of detail. The house is a semi detached but was listed as terrace. The Burkmars’ sales particulars description was very brief and did not list several key features of the house. Most of the pages were blank, they clearly had not spent any time on this.
On Strike our own sale listing required a couple of revisions and they were published immediately. They guided us on the description and details, and used our drafts to help ensure everything was covered.
On arranging viewings
When we called Burkmars to ask for a viewing on the house we wanted to buy, they said we would not like it (we are downsizing, but they knew that this location was right where we wanted to be from previous viewings) but we persisted to ask to view this one in particular.
The Burkmars agent who attended could not answer any of our questions, nor did he write them down or promise to look into them and get back to us. He did manage to carry the key from his car to the front door but after that we were on our own. There was no effort to help us, or sell the property. He just stood there as if he had never done this before.
Strike viewings were easy as we used the app to accept the various viewing slots proposed by buyers. We let them look around by themselves so they didn’t feel like to them like it was our home; they were able to see themselves living there with out the fact that they were visiting our home getting in the way of that. They asked us questions later, and they commented that they preferred this.
The offer process
We put in an offer to Burkmars at full asking price on Friday but didn’t hear anything back till we chased them again on Monday by which time they had arranged 2 more viewings!
We had met the current owner and struck up a conversation with them which turned out not to tally up with what the agent was telling her. Luckily enough our bond with her was strong enough for us to figure it out and ensure the process will be smooth. No thanks to the agent who frankly nearly cost us both the sale. As we had previously put an offer in on another property via Burmars they knew we had money in the bank for a cash purchase, knew that we had also sold our house and that we wanted to live in a specific area. Seems they forgot all that.
With Strike, we received and accepted the offer in the app which was easy as it gave us time to think, was easy to use and made an emotional decision easy. No annoying salesmen haggles conversations with Strike, no smarmy agents messing you around.
Would I use them again?
Yes absolutely I’d use Strike again to sell my house instead of Burkmars.
Would I buy through Burkmars again, begrudgingly yes but only where I can talk directly to the vendor to ask questions about the property, and to get the offer actually submitted efficiently, and ensure good communications.
What can Burkmars do better?
Find a way to compete with free and great modern rivals like Strike or shut up shop frankly.
Strike was free to sell our house and was great. So glad we did not sell via B.