How to visit 10 estate agents in 30 mins. (RightMove.co.uk)

Member Name: Vixstar

Product:	RightMove.co.uk
Date:	16/06/09 (77 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use; wide range of properties and agents

Disadvantages: Information available depends on the estate agents; addictive

When I put my flat on the market and started considering buying in a different area I realised my life would change - that I would become obsessive about keeping my place immaculate, that being on first name terms with estate agents would be unavoidable and that randomly driving and wandering round the area where I wanted to move to would become an acceptable pastime. What I hadn't realised was that Rightmove.co.uk would become one of my favourite site and that I would spend countless hours on there looking at realisitic and what if properties.

As a seller it has become obligatory that your property is listed on one of the property search sites in order to attract the attention of all those property detail addicted buyers. As a seller there is very little input you have to Rightmove, your estate agent is responsible for putting the details on the site and maintaining them, obviously the seller has the right to check that the online information is accurate and puts their property in as good a light as possible. It is possible, though I'm not sure how, for estate agents to keep tabs on how well your property is performing on Rightmove and they will hopefully keep you updated on this. It is also possible to keep for the seller informal tabs on other properties in the area so that they can get a feel for the competition and the local housing market.

But it is the buyer that Rightmove is trying to attract...

*Search Function*

Rightmove is basically a property search engine. On the front page you can fill in the location you wish to search in and whether you are looking to rent or buy. From there you are faced with a simple form which you fill in with as much information as you require to narrow down properties that are suitable for you. There are the obvious options such as location and distance to search from your desired location, number of beds (min and max) and price (min and max). If you just fill in this information you will probably end up with a fairly large general selection of properties. However, you can be even more specific including new build or not, the specific type of property you require and whether you want to look at retirement properties or not. You will then select whether you want the properties displayed from the most to the least expensive or vice versa. And lo the properties appear.

If from the list the picture and price causes your eye you can click on the blue text and you are taken to the details page. The amount of information depends on what the estate agent in question has uploaded. But there will be a map of the area with a "house is here" arrow, a button to click to request further details from the agent and the option to email the property information to a friend.

*House Prices*

At the top of every Rightmove page is a tab labelled house prices. In the interest of making sure this review was thorough I clicked it and found another way to while away the hours on this site (like I needed another excuse). This tab basically gives you the option of entering the postcode of an area you are interested in and then it will give you a breakdown by street of the number of properties sold in that area and the average price. On delving deeper you can find out how much each individual property sold for. The default for this function is the total number of properties sold in that area in the past 2 years. But you can change this and specify the exact types of properties and the years you are interested in. I'm not sure how much actual use this function is to the buyer, but it is interesting for the nosey.

*Registering*

You don't have to register with rightmove but if you do there are a couple of extra features it offers. Firstly you can save your search so everytime you log on you can just click on it rather than filling in the whole form again - saves seconds but there you go. You can also save properties you are interested in, this means you have a list to work from so you know what you want to go and view next. And finally, and I think a fairly weak function, the site can e mail you new properties based on your search every however many days you ask for. I find this to be a little useless as they don't seem to just send me properties based on my search characteristics - I specifically asked for flats and they insist on sending me house details - and as I go on the site too often for my own sanity I've usually already added the properties to my I'm interested list.

*Summary*

You can't buy a property direct through rightmove but , with the large number of properties in their search engine, it is a useful tool to search a large number of properties in an area without wearing out the shoe leather. Once you've found the properties you can contact the agent via Rightmove and so start the more traditional house buying stuff.

As a property search engine I haven't found one that is easier to use.

Summary: A useful place to start house hunting