Selling without an Estate Agent

frowner

sounds like more -ves than +ves for private/ online sale then. trouble is i can't find any agents offering less than 2% fee which is v.high.

socrates

frowner wrote: »

sounds like more -ves than +ves for private/ online sale then. trouble is i can't find any agents offering less than 2% fee which is v.high.

I really do not have a vested interest here - but this is what I think is happening.

When EA were selling properties like hot cakes and there was competition you could knock them down on commission.

Now there are less deals to be done but at the same time less competition - it is very possible that very localised agents have agreed to set their rates and not undercut each other.

We have to face facts the rates are between x and y - what they used to be is irrelevant.

For example I hear people saying they are happy they have fixed their mortgage @ 3.99% for the next 5 years. In reality that is almost 3.5% above base.

If you came on these boards a year or two ago and said you had a mortgage deal 3.5% above base people would have laughed you out of town. Now however its seen as the norm.

The costs surrounding buying and selling houses is increasing - however you can mitigate some of it by negotiating a good purchase at the other end.

I still believe in the 'good local agent'

BlameTheGame

How much do EA's actually pay to advertise on Rightmove, propertyfinder and findaproperty?

BlameTheGame

And why dont Rightmove and the rest allow sellers to sell privately?

Doozergirl

googler wrote: »

"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?

The reason for using House Network is to get it on Rightmove cheaply. I don't have the evidence anymore but acouple of years ago the prime way people found house was a combination of the internet and For Sale boards. Rightmove may not be widely used where you are but it certainly is the biggest property portal down here. Every single agent in my area uses it without exception.

House Network may not have many houses in a locality but each house will pop up on a rightmove search if it fits your criteria. That is how you match buyers and sellers - there's no more to it than processing the information - Mr x wants y - what meets that criteria? Houses sell themselves once you get in the door - no amount of sales speak will make someone love a house.

It depresses me when people with no experience of using House Network slate it via assumption. House Network send someone round to the house to take photos and measure up. There's nowt wrong with dealing with EAs remotely - the only time you usually see them is at valuation anyway - we have phones. When I used them last they didn't value property but you can do that yourself with proper research and also use high street EAs to provide valuations for you - gives them the opportunity to sell their services to you which is exactly what free valuations are for. I always take EA valuations with a pinch of salt and do my own research as well.

There is no denying that HN are not a high street agent but even if you paid for additional advertising yourself it wouldn't be as expensive as a high street agent.
House Network provides a no frills service but you often don't get much more with a high street agent.

googler

"It depresses me when people with no experience of using House Network slate it via assumption. "

I don't know if you mean me or not, but I judged it and commented upon it as any prospective customer would - by their sales pitch and the information they have on their website, compared with information available elsewhere. Is this unreasonable?

Yes, I agree I haven't used them, but then again; most of their prospective customers haven't either.

Doozergirl

googler wrote: »

"It depresses me when people with no experience of using House Network slate it via assumption. "

I don't know if you mean me or not, but I judged it and commented upon it as any prospective customer would - by their sales pitch and the information they have on their website, compared with information available elsewhere. Is this unreasonable?

Yes, I agree I haven't used them, but then again; most of their prospective customers haven't either.

Sorry, yes I did mean you when I quoted your post. It isn't unreasonable to have reservations but you're arguing perhaps a little too vigorously if you have no experience of these services and also making quite a lot of assumptions.

You need marketing coverage when selling, I agree. Getting the property onto the right property portals and a board outside is enough to sell many houses. If you can get your house in front of people and it fits their criteria they will view regardless of who is selling it.

Don't knock something too vigorously until you've tried it is all I'm saying. My decision to use House Network previously was heavily influenced by several successful experiences by posters on this board.

Don't expect a top class personal service for the price you pay; however the price you pay is very much in perspective - they're not attempting to sell you a premium service and what you do get is often much better value than the service that many traditional agents provide.

lovethymini

socrates wrote: »

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!

Totally agree with you, and thank you!
I saw that programme about selling without an EA - it was PANTS, had nothing to do with the subject and was of absolutely no use to watch, but then the only way it could have been any good was by showing how the people did it which would have meant showing all the websites etc...

EA 2 can't go below 1.5% so I will probably cancel them. They wouldn't give me a definitive answer regarding their commission fee which irritated me, just went into a big sales shpeel. You'd have thought that it was just as critical to offer a competitive commission rate now as ever before. (Plus I used to work for their surveyors' arm of the business years ago and hated it.)

lovethymini

frowner wrote: »

sounds like more -ves than +ves for private/ online sale then. trouble is i can't find any agents offering less than 2% fee which is v.high.

Re the 2% - have they seen your property?

I got the impression with our local agents that they were happier being flexible on the fee if they felt the property would be easy to sell.

I do know also that in my area, there's a surplus of buyers and a shortage of properties. With this in mind I am being open in my discussions with the EAs about what everyone is charging and that for us it will simply be down to cost.

lovethymini

BlameTheGame wrote: »

And why dont Rightmove and the rest allow sellers to sell privately?

Because they rely on EAs financially to subscribe and the EAs wouldn't like it if Rightmove also allowed private sellers?...