Selling a house would you use and estate agent?

gingerdad

We are just thinking of selling our house, most estate agents round here want to charge 1 1/2 - 2% to sell the house. Would anyone reccmond doing it DIY, is it fairly straight forward?

GD

Ian_W

I think if you ask yourself where you'll look first for the house you're going to buy when you move, you might actually answer - local EAs. So if you're thinking that so, probably, are most of your potential buyers. Next place is probably the local property press and/or internet.

If you want to try privately I don't think the process itself is that difficult, it's making sure potential buyers know about your house that is. Ads in the local property papers are a start, if you think your buyers are likely to be local think of anywhere else you could advertise.

There are several sites where you can advertise on low cost on the net. These are not recommendations just 2 I've come across https://www.thelittlehousecompany.co.uk and https://www.houseweb.co.uk - unfortunately you can't get on the most popular property search facility RightMove unless you're on with an EA.

Personally I think you're likely to sell quicker with an EA but you only need to attract one person to get a sale.

Woby_Tide

if you have a well presented place that is a 'standard' style property then private/internet may well work. If it's not in good condition or unusual enough ot need an agent to get people through the door go with that.

I have to disagree with Ian a bit though, I think nowadays about 80% of buyers start searching on the net first(i.e. rightmove, fish4homes), teh problem with going private is you don't often get onto these sites and i think that leaves you dead in the water. There seem to be a few new startup agents that do internet only with call centres but you get your ad on the main portals(we've used one company recently in our area and in the process we have been tapped up by another one who is in process of starting up and taken us on for free). We've 'sold' twice in 14 days since we went on, once at £5k off asking price, one offer at full asking but not able to proceed yet. Both offers still on table when we find somewhere at moment

Ian_W

Hi Woby,
Long time, no disagree!:D No harm in having two different views, perhaps mine is a bit old fashioned.:rolleyes:

You can certainly get on fish4, assertahome and some of the other portals with these internet sites where you upload your own details and description but there was a guy posted on a similar thread a few months back who said RM won't accept properties except from EA's. Went on to say his was an online EA who could post on RM because they prepared details, took photos, provided a board etc just no high st presence and, of course cheaper.

Woby_Tide

it might be Rightmove tha is agent only, I think we have a private ad on another site that was scheduled to go on fish4 but they quoted 6 weeks lead time as they only do a couple a week unless you 'contribute' to them. That may explain the loopholes on a few agencies

(I forgot to add that our 2 offers weren't 93% of the asking price so am a bit worried that I've destroyed the equilibrium in PropertyMagnates world and may have deliberately undermined the UK housing market, should I ask them to lower their offers?)

Ian_W

Woby_Tide wrote:

(I forgot to add that our 2 offers weren't 93% of the asking price so am a bit worried that I've destroyed the equilibrium in PropertyMagnates world and may have deliberately undermined the UK housing market, should I ask them to lower their offers?)

It will undoubtably lead to a property price crash if you don't:eek: , so be a good chap and offer then some dosh back. :rotfl:

MortgageMamma

a friend of mine is currently developing a website aimed at northern england where buyers can sell their property privately.

Its not launched yet but wen is it I'll let you all know.

ians1

I think EAs are a rip-off and have been for years. Its only because of the internet that they are being forced to lower their fees and re-think their game.

Put you house on lots of the many many free sites (just do a google for free uk house sales websites).

Once you have written your ad its easy to paste it into the various sites.

We sold our house recently by advertising on the web for free. It was sold within 5 days.

Its just an ad, once EAs have put an ad up and a seller/buyer contact each other then the rest is actually done by a solicitor, so why pay EAs when ads can be free on the web?

Ian.

Canucklehead

Good morning: We sold our home through https://www.housenetwork.co.uk :your property is listed on Rightmove...we received excellent service and would highly recommend using them..as I have said here in the past we saved a lot of cash through this route.

Good luck.

MOLLYBRUSH

I've got one of my houses on at the mo with an internet agency. I can tell you who it is if you want to pm me. The reason I am trying this is that a friend of mine sold an investment property of hers this way. I have to say though that I have had very little interest actually on the net - two enquiries - when it was free, but I made the decision to buy a package (approx £120) and got a board to put up on Friday. I have had two viewings from the picture only on the net, and one viewing and another person stopped me and asked about it since the board went up on Friday.

I think what you need to weigh up is: Is it a standard, easy to sell property and will the board be seen by plenty of people. In my case the property is in an area which is very popular and there are properties around there on sale with Estate Agents, so my board will get seen. Also timescale. Do you need to sell it quickly or can you try this method and see? That's what I am doing. If I can sell and save myself £5K+ then great, if not then I will consider having to go to an EA. HTH

dander

I tried it, but it didn't work for me. I put my property on the net and after 3 months I'd had one viewing!

I found estate agents a far more sure-fire reliable way of getting the details seen by the people who were serious buyers. Same flat, same price, but EA got 5 viewings in the first weekend. I don't begrudge them a penny of their fee - they worked hard to get the offer and they were invaluable with progressing the sale through to the end.