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When you’re selling your property, it’s of vital importance to know who you’re working with.
This is our independent Express Estate Agency review. Our private researchers analysed their company records, strengths and weaknesses.
In here, you’ll find everything you need to know about Express Estate Agency and whether you should trust them to sell your property quickly.
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Company
Established in
January 2012
Members of NAEA
Not shown
Members of TPO
Yes
Members of PRS / CMP
Yes
Registered with ICO
Yes
Approved by CTSI
Yes
Estate agency fees
Not shown
No sale, no estate agency fee
Yes
Free photography
- Yes
Property portals used
Rightmove, Zoopla, Prime Location & more
Average sale time
Aim for 30 days
Availability
24 / 7 freephone
Complaints procedure
Yes
Customer service
4.2 / 5
Google rating
4.1 / 5 (2791 reviews)
Trustpilot rating
4.3 / 5 (3990 reviews)
Reviews.co.uk rating
4.3 / 5 (6 reviews)
Feefo rating
N / A
Express Estate Agency is an online operation with a staff of over 120 property professionals and more than 5,700 properties available on their website. They operate nationally and can sell any property from £15,000 to £5million.
Express Estate Agents have been in business for over a decade and have agreed sales worth over £1bn in the past year. They aim to sell your property within 30 days.
- PSW Rating
4.5 / 5
1. Express Estate Agency: Company Overview
(source: Companies House)
- Founded: January 2021
- Headquarters location: St Georges House, Peter Street, Manchester, England, M2 3NQ
- Number of branches: 1
- Location of branches: Manchester
- The current directors are: Mark Brogan, Christopher Brogan
- Company number: 07914454
- All the information seems up to date and correct
Express Estate Agency is a large, online estate agents based in Manchester that sells around 350 properties per month. They say that they have industry leading technology and 120 expert staff on hand to help sell your home.
They advertise on all the major property portals and many more. Their website claims they have sold over a billion pounds worth of property in the last year ranging from £15,000 to £5 million.
Whether all of that’s true, will be revealed in this review.
Express Estate Agency sit somewhere between the traditional high street agents, who have local branches and know your area, and the budget online estate agents who offer little in the way of practical experience or support. As such they are hard to compare to other companies in the sector.
Their sales figures and target sale time of 30 days are impressive, but we only have their website as a source for these and it would be worth trying to get independent verification or proof of these claims. They do not list their fees on the website.
2. Express Estate Agency: Strengths & Weaknesses
The strength of Express Estate Agency is their size, with an extensive team of industry experts available 24/7. Their weakness may lie in their lack of local knowledge compared to a local estate agent in your area. Some of the negative reviews also suggest that they are hard to get in touch with at times, and their remote working model does not help with this.
Are they NAEA members?
The Express Estate Agency website does not display the NAEA Propertymark logo, however this does not necessarily mean that they are not members of the scheme. They are members of the Property Ombudsman and they do provide protection for client funds under their Client Money Protection scheme.
Are they TPO members?
Yes, Express Estate Agency is a member of the Property Ombudsman.
Since 1 October 2008 all estate agents in the UK who engage in residential estate agency work are required to belong to an approved redress scheme, either The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme. This is a requirement of the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007.
The Property Ombudsman (TPO) defends the interests of the public by investigating and addressing complaints of maladministration or a violation of rights. It has been providing consumers and property agents with an alternative dispute resolution service since 1990.
Members of TPO agree to operate to a strict code of conduct and also agree to following their formal complaints procedure.
Are they members of a financial protection scheme?
Yes, Express Estate Agency are part of the Client Money Portection scheme (CMP). This is a reimbursement scheme meaning your money is safe should an agent unexpectedly go bust or commit theft. Under the CMP scheme, agencies have to hold client money in a separate client account which is independently inspected every year.
Are they Registered With The ICO?
Yes, Express Estate Agency have been registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) since December 2016.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the UK’s independent regulatory body set up to uphold information rights. The ICO also governs all forms of data collection and advertising intelligence. The ICO has a Free Online Checker where you can verify whether a company is registered with them or not.
Are they GDPR Compliant?
As far as we can tell, Express Estate Agency is GDPR compliant. They have an extensive privacy policy and cookie policy listed on their website (one of the most detailed we have seen). These set out how your data is collected and stored, and how that data may be used.
Nonetheless, users should be aware that their details may be provided to other companies and services, who may send unsolicited emails or call you directly. Users are urged to err on the side of caution when providing personal information, and always read any cookie / data use agreements carefully before clicking your consent.
Have They Traded For More Than 5 Years?
Express Estate Agency was registered with companies House in January 2012, so they have been officially trading for more than a decade.
We use the ‘over/under 5 years trading time’ as a metric to gauge whether a company is an established entity with a lot of experience under their belt or just a newly founded business that may have ulterior motives.
Not all newly formed companies are scams but it’s still important to check how long they have traded. If they’ve traded for more than 5 years, then this is a minor but still a notable vote of confidence. And it needs to be acknowledged.
What Is Their Average Time To Sell?
The Express Estate Agency website says that they aim to sell your property within 30 days. This would be significantly faster than you would expect from a standard high street estate agency, which can take around six months to sell a home on average.
However, it is worth noting that this is an ‘aim’ and not a promise or standard process. There is no guarantee that your home will sell this fast. Once again, you should ask for evidence to support these claims.
It is also worth noting that the statistics provided on their website are based on ‘Express Estate Agency internal statistics correct as of August 2019’. It is worth asking why these statistics are so out of date, and whether they have maintained this level of performance in recent years.
According to Statista research, the average number of days taken to sell property in UK from September 2018 to November 2020 is 65 days. This includes selling properties via estate agents, auctions, fast-sale companies and everything else under the sun.
Again, this graph represents every single method of selling a property, combined together. If the 30 day sale claim is accurate, Express Estate Agency would seem to be performing very well compare to the market as a whole.
Charitable Initiatives
Supporting a charity is by no means proof that the estate agency in question is necessarily ‘good’. In fact, dodgy estate agents might purposefully support and/or pretend to support a charity just to win brownie points and credibility in the eyes of the customer.
All that being said, it’s still important to acknowledge when a company genuinely supports a charitable cause.
We didn’t find any charitable initiatives which Express Estate Agency supports listed on their website. Nevertheless, some companies prefer to donate privately or anonymously rather than stating it publicly.
Anything Else Suspicious?
Our investigators sifted through all of the data and legal records of Express Estate Agency and everything was clean. We didn’t find anything that raises suspicion during our thorough research of Express Estate Agency.
This paragraph is only valid up until the ‘Last Updated’ date of this review, which can be found at the top of this page. We never stop researching and our unbending commitment to excellence doesn’t waver and we’ll redact this paragraph at the first glimpse of dodgy practices.
Anything Else You Should Know About?
As far as we are aware, Express Estate Agency haven’t received any additional awards or prizes.
There’s nothing more we could add.
3. Express Estate Agency: Customer Experience
To assess the overall user experience (UX) of expressestateagency.co.uk we first analysed their website for ease of use and intuitiveness.
There are some obvious spelling errors on the website which could suggest a less than thorough approach (for example in the quote from founder Robin Paterson).
They make it very easy to get a fast ‘indicative offer’ for your property and say that they will confirm this within 48hours.
Also, they have a landline number which you can use to contact the company Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, plus an email address of [email protected].
We calculated their First Response Time (FTR) by messaging them at approximately 2 PM on a non-holiday weekday (on a Friday to be exact) and used a stopwatch to estimate how long it took them to respond.
First Response Time
We calculated their First Response Time (FTR) by messaging them at approximately 11 AM on a non-holiday weekday (on a Wednesday to be exact) and used a stopwatch to estimate how long it took them to respond.
Express Estate Agency responded in 55 seconds. This is much faster than the industry average. And a fast FTR is something we consider highly important, especially in this sector.
A faster response time suggests that the home-selling company is better equipped to deal with customer queries. And if they’re better equipped to deal with customer queries, then it means they’re investing their resources where it matters the most.
Client Satisfaction Guarantee
While there are no guarantees as such, Express Estate Agency does have a ‘customer charter’ listed on their website. This details their commitments to you and provides a channel for feedback at [email protected].
This charter is very positive and clearly states what they will do for you as a client and what you can expect from them.
Client Complaints Procedure
In the competitive market of home sales, an estate agency should preferably have a formal complaints procedure on their website, where clients can express any disagreements, issues or just plain dissatisfaction with the overall service.
By having such a complaints procedure in place, the company shows that they are willing to listen and if possible, rectify any problems that may arise.
Express Estate Agency have a very thorough internal formal complaints procedure published on their website. This details the steps to take if you are not satisfied with their service. You can also email [email protected] if you have a problem.
If this procedure fails to satisfy you, you can submit a complaint through The Property Ombudsman because Express Estate Agency are a TPO member. Every TPO member agrees to The Property Ombudsman Code of Practice which allows customers to file complaints against TPO members, if needed.
Speaking To Past Customers
A good quality estate agent that does what it promises shouldn’t have a problem letting you speak to their past customers.
Of course, they need to have the permission of the individual involved and provide some kind of proof that it is a genuine past client of theirs.
We strongly encourage all our readers to ask to speak to a past client.
4. Express Estate Agency: Online Presence
In this section, we’ll discuss what the public thinks of Express Estate Agency and what online reviews the company has received.
Keep in mind that online reviews can be easily faked.
It works both ways.
The company in charge might hire fake review writers to write positive reviews. Or on the other hand, their competitors might hire fake review writers to write negative reviews and tarnish the said company’s reputation.
Also, social media followers can be artificially inflated. That’s why we deem this section as purely anecdotal.
Nonetheless, we use trained researchers with a sceptical eye to go through Express Estate Agency’s social media presence and online reviews.
Customer reviews
- Google Reviews – 4.1 stars from 2971 reviews
- Trustpilot Reviews – 4.3 stars from 3990 reviews
- Reviews.co.uk – 4.3 stars from 6 reviews
While the average star rating is impressive for Express Estate Agency, there are still a significant number of low scoring reviews where customers have been less than satisfied with the service provided. You should make sure that you read these as well as the favourable reviews to get a balanced picture.
According to their own website, 93% of Express Estate Agency customers recommend their services.
Express Estate Agency also claim to be ‘The Number One Estate Agent in the UK’ based on the Review Centre, which rates them as 4.4/5 based on 1790 reviews. 69% of reviews on this site are five star, with 7.8% one star reviews.
Domain Rating
- Domain Rating (DR) – 72 / 100
- Search Traffic – 5,000 unique visitors per month
Social media presence
- Facebook – 6600 Likes; 6400 Followers
- LinkedIn – 664 Followers
- Twitter (X) – 508 Following 494 Followers
Media Mentions
- N/A
TV Channel Features
- N/A
We didn’t find anything suspicious with Express Estate Agency’ social media and online presence, nor with their customer reviews.
We also didn’t find anything suspicious with their domain rating and backlink profile nor their unique monthly search traffic.
The Final Verdict
Express Estate Agency offers a genuinely different approach to selling your home. They have many of the advantages of both high street and online estate agents combined into a single service. This appears to be highly successful and has resulted in both impressive sales figures and many positive reviews.
We thoroughly examined the strengths and weaknesses of Express Estate Agency, user experience (UX), customer service and overall online presence.
Express Estate Agency are members of TPO and they are registered with the ICO. They are also registered with Trading Standards and operate a Client Money Protection scheme.
They have excellent 24/7 customer service via a freephone number, although several reviews report that it can be hard to get in touch with them once the initial contact has been made. They also publish an impressive customer charter explaining what you can expect from the company.
Express Estate Agency appear to be fully GDPR compliant and they have a clear complaints procedure outlining both internal processes and external complaints via the Property Ombudsman.
We will be continuously updating this review as we do with all of our other content. If Express Estate Agency decide to alter, amend or modify something, then we’ll make sure to adjust our critique and score accordingly.
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Compare Companies
Express Estate Agency is just one of the many fast home-buying companies in the UK.
In order to make sure you choose the right one, it’s best if you compare them all.
Look at their strengths & weaknesses, their pros & cons and make an informed decision.
It’s essential to know you’re in safe hands, that’s why we’re here to help.
Use our company comparison table to find a reliable and trustworthy service, and decide whether expediting the sale of your property is the right thing for you.
Content Updates
This review is being constantly screened by our investigator team and will be corrected in line with the emergence of new evidence.
If a company contacts us with a genuine and verifiable piece of information which supports their cause, then we’ll immediately redact the review and point to the new information.
On the other hand, if we discover that a company which we’ve previously praised for a certain industry trait, starts to dabble in dodgy practices, we’ll also redact the review immediately.
We’ll point to our new findings and we’ll adjust the table metrics and scores accordingly.
For this reason, make sure to take notice of the ‘last updated’ date at the top of this page.
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