Selling without Estate Agent

Slithery · 23 October 2017 at 2:35PM

ThePants999 wrote: »

Then there's a pretty good chance your asking price was too low and you missed out on thousands.

Possibly, but the sale price was 30% higher than when we bought it a year earlier.

Surrey_EA · 23 October 2017 at 2:39PM

TheGame21 wrote: »

Has anyone got any experience of selling a house without an estate agent? We are thinking of doing this however just wanted to see how the process went for anyone who has been in a similar position?

A lot will depend on the type of property you are selling, and the market conditions where the property is located.

I would say that finding a buyer is frequently the easy bit, getting from the point where a price is agreed to completion day can be the hard part.

The question to ask yourself is, will an EA be able to find a buyer who is prepared to pay more than the cost of the EAs fees for the house than you are yourself?

Davesnave · 23 October 2017 at 3:11PM

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

Most people only look on Rightmove these days, so unless you can get your house on there without an agent, you'll be missing most of your potential buyers I'd have thought.

I understand it's impossible to put a house on any of the major portals without an agent of some kind.

The internet has changed the whole ball game. Back in the day when I advertised my house inside a regional hospital, the local paper scarcely had a wider catchment than it did. The paper was the main place that people looked for houses.

Individuals as well as agents advertised houses in the paper then, so a private sale was nothing unusual. Now, it's less usual and even a trifle 'odd.'

Realopinion · 23 October 2017 at 3:21PM

Pros:

1. You can save on the cost of agent fees

2. You get to market your own property (do your own viewings as no one knows your home as much as you do)

3. You home is more secure - no issues during viewings when you aren't there

Cons:

1. Buyers and sellers can create non-binding verbal agreements which would normally flow through their solicitors

2. You may be inexperienced selling your own home.

3. You can't list on Rightmove or Zoopla

There's quite a bit to think about but hope the above helps.

eddddy · 23 October 2017 at 3:44PM

Realopinion wrote: »

I've written about this recently but here are some pros and cons I thought of:

<snip>

It sounds like you might be doing a comparison of 'online' EAs versus 'high street' EAs.

The OP wants to sell their property with no EA at all.

fromtheshires · 23 October 2017 at 4:00PM

I can only see this working through someone wanting to sell, someone wanting to buy in the area and them having a mutual friend. Without this, I cant think of anywhere to get suitable screen space to advertise

Once a price as been agreed, its as simple as passing it to the solicitors to deal with like normal and no EA telling porkies to both parties

Realopinion · 23 October 2017 at 4:10PM

fromtheshires wrote: »

Once a price as been agreed, its as simple as passing it to the solicitors to deal with like normal and no EA telling porkies to both parties

I can see what you mean as estate agents can get a bad reputation for bad practices, however they can serve a purpose as buyers and sellers talking between each other can cause problems - although it can be a good thing.

I think there is an issue where they agree certain things between them, don't agree it through their solicitor and then one party is left upset if what was agreed isn't the case.

Worth thinking about.

Realopinion · 23 October 2017 at 4:13PM

eddddy wrote: »

It sounds like you might be doing a comparison of 'online' EAs versus 'high street' EAs.

The OP wants to sell their property with no EA at all.

I amended my post when I re-read the question but there are similarities to think about as in theory, most online agents aren't physically there after you find a buyer so the seller and the buyer are left to get on with it.

Surrey_EA · 23 October 2017 at 4:14PM

fromtheshires wrote: »

Once a price as been agreed, its as simple as passing it to the solicitors to deal with like normal and no EA telling porkies to both parties

Do people genuinely think this is what happens?

What possible purpose does it serve?

There's a great many sales that wouldn't go through to completion if there wasn't a half-decent agent involved to keep things moving along.

I am by no means disputing that there are some fairly rubbish EAs out there, but they're part of a minority, albeit a larger minority than ideal!

Most solicitors have too many cases on at any one time, 150 ongoing files is quite normal, and don't have enough time to be chasing people up all day. Most buyers and sellers go through the process so infrequently that they haven't got a great idea what they should be doing.

It is not as simple as you are suggesting.

Hedgehog99 · 23 October 2017 at 4:22PM

Thrugelmir wrote: »

How do people buy something that they don't know is for sale?

It has been know for would-be buyers to leaflet the street(s) of their choice asking if anyone's thinking of selling. They hope that someone selling privately would ask a bit less since they're not paying EA fees, and that they might get first dibs at houses not yet on the market (like Phil & Kirsty seem to be able to!).

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Selling without Estate Agent

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