Following the successful media articles, which you may or may not have seen. We at Life Insurance Cover have had a look at what they do.

How is Strike Free?

It could be argued as innovation or forcing the housing market to adapt from the dark ages of having house descriptions in the window. We are all aware of the large platforms who combine the local houses for sale including Rightmove and Zoopla. The next tier below these are the hybrid estate agents in which Strike resides, along with Purple Bricks and Yopa. However whilst Purple Bricks and Yopa still charge a fee for their service. Strike has gone out on their own and wiped the house selling cost down to £0.

Whilst we wait to see if their competitors follow suit and save sellers £1000’s in costs. One thing we can take away from Strike is that it’s a radical change to how some are able to sell their homes.

Free & Estate Agent in the same sentence?

Would an estate agent give away something for free? Especially the main income of a selling fee. Which Strike had previously charged for alongside their competitors? In short that is exactly what they are doing. By using their free service you are able to take control of the sales process instead of waiting on “high street” estate agents.

On the face of it, it makes no sense at all, and suggests that it is not a sustainable business. At Life Insurance Cover we break it down to a few simple questions:

Is it free?

Yes if you are lucky enough to live in their catchment area.

How big is their hybrid area?

Prior to the rebrand Strike used to offer their sale service nationwide, however if you live in the postcode areas below, you can use their hybrid service.

BB, BD, BL, CA, CH1- 4, CH25 – 34, CH41 – 49, CH60 – 66, CH70, CH88, CH99, CW, DG, DH, DL, DN, FY, HD, HG, HU, HX, IM, L, LA, LN, LS, M, NE, NG18 – 24, NG34, OL, PE10 – 12, PE20 – 25, PR, S, SK, SR, ST7 – 8, SY13 – 14, TD, TS, WA, WF, WN, YO.

Will Strike go national?

At the moment it appears that they are focusing on their core areas as detailed above, however if it’s a successful model. We can assume that they will expand.

What do you get for free?

6 months marketing on Rightmove, Zoopla

Photograghs

Floorplan

Negotiation

For sale sign

In-person valuation

13 weeks Sole Agency contract

Which you can agree is a large amount of what your local agent would do, but instead of £1000’s in costs.

Is There A Downside?

There is one downside to the services offered by Strike, which unfortunately will impact some house sellers in the UK.

At Life Insurance Cover we have been through the entire website and found that.

Strike currently only sell properties in England.

If your home is located in any other country in the UK, I’m sorry, but at the moment Strike cannot offer their services. For those in England, the proximity of your property will dictate what kind of service Strike has available for you:

Hybrid service limited to specific locations in England

Newcastle

Leeds

Liverpool

Manchester

Sheffield

Virtual service available in England

If you don’t qualify for the hybrid service by living in the catchment area, you can still qualify for their “virtual” service, which is available to the rest of England, and actually, still includes a lot of the many of the options available in the hybrid service. These include having your property marketed on Rightmove & Zoopla to generate enquiries.

However, if you’re looking for the support of a local agent to conduct an in-person valuation and/or provide hosted viewings (which is an optional paid add-on), then the virtual service isn’t going help in your search for a buyer.

How Is Strike Free?

If like the general population and have the question.

If its free what’s wrong with it?

Instead of staying the course of most estate agencies, Strike has decided to be move the goal posts in favour of the seller/buyer instead of charging a fixed fee. Strike are transparent in the statement that they make money by providing upgraded services and additional products including:

Upgrading Rightmove ads

Energy Performance Certificates

Hosted Viewing Services

Conveyancing Services

Moving services

Mortgage brokering

Strike are very open and transparent about additional products as detailed on their website:

“We recommend useful services when you need them – such as mortgage, conveyancing and insurance advice. There’s no obligation, but if you use one of our partners we get a commission, which we are upfront about from the start.”

The also go on to say, there is NO obligation to buy any of their add-on services.

At Life Insurance Cover, we encourage everyone to shop around for conveyancing, mortgage brokers. Just to ensure that you get the best deal available.

Ready to use Strike’s free service work?

Get a valuation: If you qualify for their Hybrid service, you’ll be able to schedule an agent to conduct an in-person valuation through their online calendar. Everyone else will be provided with an online valuation/report.

There is 100% no obligations to use their service after a valuation is conducted.

Instruct Strike to sell your home: Instruct Strike to sell your home. Your property will then be marketed for sale for 6 months on the UK’s biggest property portals, including Rightmove & Zoopla.

Manage your listing: Once your advert is live you’ll be able to manage everything via Strike’s online dashboard, including your viewings schedule and any offers made.

More About Strike

Sam Mitchell, chief executive officer at Strike, said: “As Housesimple, we set out to shake up the estate agent industry last year, becoming the first estate agent in the UK to sell homes for free.

“Now it’s time to go even further. Estate agents are notoriously inflexible. Strike’s mission is to make moving easy. We offer our customers an intuitive, digital experience that’s safe, hassle-free and puts them in control. We have friendly experts supporting you at every step and of course, a jargon-free and straight-talking culture.”

Strike has created a simple, new way to buy and sell through an app and hub. The new service also allows customers to:

Control the entire process from your phone

Manage adverts before they go live directly from the app

Manage adverts, viewings and offers from our new Strike Hub

Accept, reject and propose new times for viewing requests

Message buyers or sellers directly once they’ve booked a viewing or made an offer

Using Strike and avoiding estate agent fees could save sellers over £3,600 in commission, based on the national average house price*. In the last 12 months alone, Housesimple sellers in Yorkshire, North West and Nottingham saved a total of £11.4 million in fees.

It is worth pointing out that they do have many positive reviews on TrustPilot, with a current rating of 4.7 (out of 5).

Have you used Strike’s free service?

If so, let us know through the usual social media channels.