Tepilo Review

Tepilo Review – Founded by property developer and Channel 4 TV presenter Sarah Beeny, Tepilo has quickly gained a strong reputation for good service at a low fee. Originally founded as a free self-service property listing site, it’s since made the move to becoming a full-fledged online estate agent.

At A Glance:

As one of the better known online estate agents around, mostly thanks to the backing of TV personality Sarah Beeny, Tepilo has a decent reputation in the industry.

Here’s how they perform in the most important areas:

• Potential to save around £5,000 in fees over high street agents
• Full online management puts you in complete control
• On average, 98% of people achieve their last advertised sales price
• 90% of their customers rated them as ‘Great’ or ‘Excellent’
• A typical Tepilo customer finds a buyer in under 60 days

Reasonable statistics so far from Tepilo, but how do they perform when you examine their service in more detail? Let’s take a look…

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How Much Does Tepilo Cost?

Tepilo buck the trend of many online-only agents by offering three packages with varying prices. The cheapest is £645 and is designed for people who already have photographs and a floorplan and just need to get their home on the market. It includes everything from the middle package, apart from photographs and floorplans.

The middle package is priced at £895 and is the most comparable to the standard prices of other online agents as it includes the following:

• Professional photography
• Floorplans
• Listings on Rightmove, Zoopla, and more
• Sarah Beeny ‘For Sale’ board
• Dedicated local expert
• Professional mortgage advice
• Online viewing schedule
• Legal set-up including ‘Memorandum of Sale’
• Personal support through to completion
• Online platform to manage everything

The most expensive package is priced at £1,295 and includes all of the above, plus premium listing upgrades on both Rightmove and Zoopla as well as what they call the ‘Sarah Beeny Accelerator Package’. In essence, this is simply an additional upgrade on Rightmove to bump your property to the top of the search results for a week. It also includes extra exposure on the Tepilo weekly email and social media channels.

Whether it’s worth the additional £400 is debatable. We would only recommend going with the most expensive package if you are in a genuine hurry to sell your property. Otherwise, the middle package will probably suit you just fine.

Occasionally Tepilo do release coupon codes, when one is available you’ll find it on our Tepilo voucher code page.

Tepilo Add-Ons:

When conducting our Tepilo review, we found the following added extras were available:

• Rightmove Premium Listing Upgrade (£125)
• Zoopla Premium Listing Upgrade (£125)
• Sarah Beeny Accelerator Package (£250)
• Energy Performance Certificate (£90)
• Virtual Tour Creation (£90)
• Unlimited Hosted Viewings (£360)

The above prices were all correct at the time of writing but we advise you check the Tepilo website for the latest pricing and available add-ons.

Generally, we would say that these add-ons are priced slightly higher than average when comparing to some of the other online estate agents available. As an example, most other online estate agents that offer unlimited hosted viewings price it around the £295 mark.

However, our Tepilo review has found they are one of the few online agents to offer a virtual tour as an optional extra. We know that some buyers value virtual tours when house hunting so this could be £90 well-spent if you want to maximise your sales potential.

Whilst these are all ‘optional’ extras, you cannot legally sell your home without an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) so this might not be as ‘optional’ as it first appears. However, if your home has had one issued in the last 10 years it should still be valid and you won’t need to buy a new one.

You can check if your property has a valid EPC at the EPC Register.

How Selling With Tepilo Works:

Regardless of whether you need photographs and a floorplan producing for your property, a local Tepilo agent will still need to visit your property to ‘verify’ the details you provide. This means you may as well take advantage of the free valuation service Tepilo offer to ensure you advertise your property for sale at the right price.

To instruct Tepilo to sell your property, you’ll need to choose, and pay for, one of the three packages available. There is a buy now, pay later option which gives you the chance to pay upon completion, or in 10 months time, whichever comes soonest.

Once the payment is arranged your advert goes live and you let Tepilo know when you are available for viewings. They handle the collection of feedback from viewers and pass that on to you. Once an offer is received, the Tepilo team will check the buyer is in a position to proceed.

The Tepilo team then communicate with all parties and keep you up to date on the whole process just like a normal estate agent would. Once the sale has completed you can sit back and enjoy a well-deserved glass of wine with the money you have saved!

So, Is Tepilo Any Good?

Our Tepilo review has found that Tepilo are an online estate agent with a few key differences over other agents. Firstly, they are one of the few to offer a cheaper package for people who already have photographs and floorplans, perhaps from a previous attempt to sell.

Secondly, they are also one of the few online agents to offer a virtual tour as an optional add-on. Sure, the price isn’t cheap at £90, but at least it’s available, and it is known that some buyers are more likely to book a viewing if they can view a virtual tour first.

Well-known TV presenter, Sarah Beeny, hasn’t just founded the company – she has put her name and face all over it. That means her reputation is at stake and that has led to a really good level of service that is evident from the many 5-star ratings on independent review sites such as TrustPilot.

Tepilo TV Advert:

Negatives Of Tepilo:

The biggest negative our Tepilo review has found is that there are only ‘pay-up-front’ options available. Sure, the payment can be deferred for 10 months but it will still need paying regardless of whether you successfully sell your property or not. The pay later option also comes with the caveat that you must use Tepilo’s recommended conveyancer or pay an additional £360.

This isn’t particularly uncommon amongst online agents and it’s part of the reason they can offer such low fees. However, it would be nice if Tepilo made this clearer earlier in the process. It would also help if they offered a ‘no sale, no fee’ option to reduce the risk and closer match the service of a traditional estate agent.

Finally, you should keep in mind that whilst the cheapest package looks pretty cheap at £645, you don’t get photographs and floorplans included. If you need these then you’ll have to pay at least £895 for the middle package, which is then more expensive than several other online estate agents.

A Short History Of Tepilo:

Sarah Beeny is a well-known property developer and TV presenter. She is best-known for presenting several Channel 4 property shows, including; Property Ladder, Property Snakes and Ladders, Britain’s Best Homes, and Beeny’s Restoration Nightmare.

In 2009 Sarah turned her hand to online property sales, launching Tepilo as a website where homeowners could sell their properties for free. This could be done without the need for an estate agent. Think of it as an eBay for the property market.

However, in 2013, Tepilo relaunched it’s service and became a full-service online estate agent. This more closely matched the likes of House Network who were already building up good reputations in the industry.

The switch to becoming an online estate agent was at least partly driven by the fact most buyers use portals such as Rightmove to find properties. Since you can only list properties on Rightmove if you are a registered estate agent, it made it the natural progression for Tepilo.

Tepilo Review – Summary:

Overall, our Tepilo review has found Tepilo to be a strong contender for your online estate agent of choice. Sellers who already have photographs and floorplans ready will like the fact there is a cheaper package tailored just towards them.

Those who like the idea of a having a virtual tour on their property listing will like the fact that it’s available as an added extra. However, some caution should be exercised in regards to pricing. This is because the standard package, and several of the add-ons, are a little more expensive than comparable online estate agents.

The fact that Sarah Beeny has put her name to the company should tell you how important maintaining a good reputation is for Tepilo. It doesn’t just affect the company but could also affect Sarah’s own television career if a raft of negative reviews came in.

Thankfully, that doesn’t appear to be the case, Tepilo has an excellent 5-star rating on TrustPilot, showing that many customers are extremely happy with the service they have received. We, therefore, have no hesitation in recommending Tepilo, albeit there are some cheaper options elsewhere.

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