Selling without an Estate Agent

geoffky

i have been looking for a house for two years and not once have i gone in a ea..i use rightmove and houseladder to look...maybe next year i will buy...

confused31_2

geoffky wrote: »

i have been looking for a house for two years and not once have i gone in a ea..i use rightmove and houseladder to look...maybe next year i will buy...

same here, i just dont see the need and i suspect most buyers do not step foot into a local estate agents.

p00hsticks

confused31 wrote: »

remember most buyers like sellers do not like estate agents.

Is this true ? I confess that I was thinking of putting in an offer on a house being marketed directly by the owner, I'd knock an extra couple of grand off of my offer price to take account of the fact that the seller wasn't incurring estate agents costs.

googler

I think you have gone of track a little here, the topic was selling your house yourself without a agent, i said earlier, my opinion if you can get on right move then i think you have has good at a chance as any local estate agent, which i still believe.

However you can not sell your house yourself and get it on right move, but the next cheapest way to get right move coverage is the housenetwork, or without a up front fee use wow.

I think I'm on track - you're writing about the benefits of WOW and Rightmove, I'm commenting on WOW's apparent track record. You picked WOW to get you on Rightmove, and even with their properties on Rightmove, Globrix and the other sites that WOW mentions on their homepage, each of their individual agents sells one property every 5 months.

Local estate agents it was reported a few months back were selling one property a month, so do the maths depending on how many agents they have they are not doing great either.
One property a month per agency is a better sales rate than one every five months per agent.

I would never use a local estate agent again, but thats my opinion and when i look at houses, i look on right move, if i see a house i like i would call the number at the side of the house and arrange a viewing, and thats what most people will do.

If your house is priced right and its on right move you will sell it, i dont care whether you are with a local agent, online agent or doing it yourself.

Not in my area - only 1/6th of the available housing stock is on Rightmove, the vast majority is on the 'traditional' or 'local' agents' websites, and most of what's on Rightmove is duplicates of some of these agents' stock that they've put on Rightmove for 'extra' exposure rather than primary exposure. I don't believe people in my area tend to pay any attention to Rightmove.

Tell me what a local estate agent does, that any online agent doesnt, infact tell me why a buyer would not buy through a online agent?

An online agent just does internet exposure. Nothing beyond that. A local or traditional agent does the internet exposure plus all the other stuff. Matching buyers to sellers, other advertising, etc etc

confused31_2

googler wrote: »

A local or traditional agent does the internet exposure plus all the other stuff. Matching buyers to sellers, other advertising, etc etc

that tells me a lot and all other stuff, dont make me laugh:D

Oh local estate agents do this and that, you sound like vicky pollard.

You are so silly :rotfl:Im sure a buyer can match themselves to a property, the last thing i want is some pumped up estate agent telling me they have got a lovely property for me to look at, its like when you go into a electrical showroom and the desperate salesperson directs you to the product the retailers are desperate to get rid off, tell you it will do everything you want it to do , until you get home and find out you have been sold a dud.

Anyway in futue if i want to sell my property, i will be doing it myself:p

Infact if i was selling now i would put it on with housenetwork for 295 pound and also pay 50 pound to get it advertised in the local papers, and if a buyer thinks they can get the house a couple of thousand pounds cheaper because they are private sellers, then let them offer that, the sellers the only one who will accept the offer if they dont the buyer doesnt get the house.

I for one would never offer less for a house that was being sold privately, i would offer what i think the house is worth to me.

frowner

I am considering using house network but my husband thinks a traditional ea is the way to go. does anyone have any good stories of using them or advice. many thanks in advance.

googler

"Nationwide coverage but with agents in Manchester | Birmingham | London | Surrey | Yorkshire " says their homepage.....

Are you in or near any of these cities? If not, it looks as though you won't have a local agent, and are likely to be dealing with them remotely by e-mail or phone. Is this how you want to sell your home?

House network is a website. They put their properties on another website; Rightmove, and possibly some others. I don't see anything to suggest that they'll do ANY other promotion for your home other than on these websites. It looks as though they don't even visit your home to value it, using a number of AVMs (Automated Valuation Models).....

A good traditional agent in your locale will provide a service that includes internet exposure, possibly on Rightmove, but will also provide the non-internet aspects of service that are missing from housenetwork. Is anyone in housenetwork, when your house is listed there, likely to say (as a local agent might)

"Oh, last week I met Mrs X, and she asked me to look out for something just like this - she'd be an ideal buyer for it"

No, it'll go on the website and that'll be it.

Will your property get any high-street exposure or any other kind of non-internet exposure through housenetwork? Doesn't look like it.

Lastly, look on the property search on housenetwork; look at the number of properties in your area. From these numbers, do you think housenetwork will be the FIRST place people will look if they're looking for a house in your area?
I'm in Scotland, and they have NO properties for sale in the whole of Scotland. Not one. On that basis alone, I wouldn't use them, because I don't think anyone will look there if they're looking for a property in Scotland.

In the whole of the North-East, they have 35 listed. That doesn't strike me as a lot, given the size of the area. Which part of the country are you in?

frowner

thanks for your reply. we are are near stratford-upon-avon, warwickshire.

lovethymini

I've spent a bit of time on Zoopla - anyone seen it?

You can "claim" your home, and add a "tempt me" price for others to see what you'd consider selling for. You can also upload a few photos of your property, and add a bit of information too.

So anyway what I've done now is

- I've put a "tempt me" price and one photo so far on Zoopla; (free)
- A friend who works for a really big local company is putting an advert on their intranet (free)
- I've gone into town to get commission fees from all the local estate agents. (This turned out to be a very short trip, we used to have 6 estate agents and now we have just 2!)

As much as I really like the idea of selling without an EA, I haven't found any websites with adequate exposure. When I started looking for a our next home I didn't think to look at any of those private sale websites. I saw lots of property on Fleabay though!

EA number 1 wants 1.5% plus vat, so we'll see what EA number 2 says when they come to see us on Thursday....

socrates

lovethymini wrote: »

I've spent a bit of time on Zoopla - anyone seen it?

You can "claim" your home, and add a "tempt me" price for others to see what you'd consider selling for. You can also upload a few photos of your property, and add a bit of information too.

So anyway what I've done now is

- I've put a "tempt me" price and one photo so far on Zoopla; (free)
- A friend who works for a really big local company is putting an advert on their intranet (free)
- I've gone into town to get commission fees from all the local estate agents. (This turned out to be a very short trip, we used to have 6 estate agents and now we have just 2!)

As much as I really like the idea of selling without an EA, I haven't found any websites with adequate exposure. When I started looking for a our next home I didn't think to look at any of those private sale websites. I saw lots of property on Fleabay though!

EA number 1 wants 1.5% plus vat, so we'll see what EA number 2 says when they come to see us on Thursday....

I think the outcome is indicative of what MOST people were telling you - these websites are too 'hit and miss'

Its not like ebay or kelkoo where you know exactly what you want and all that matters is the price - not where you buy it from.

A property purchase is a much more intricate deal and most large deals have 'middle men' they act as buffer when negotiations get sticky - its much easier to lose a deal when dealing directly as stubborness (is that even a word) can take over.

I see these programmes on the telly - where they try to sell their homes without agents. Generally they tell them how to make their homes more presentable for sale and they end up going back to the agents anyway.

Certain people will not use a mortgage advisor, will not use an agent etc.

I wonder if they have actually sold their property?


Good luck with your sale!