Selling a house would you use and estate agent?

Jorgan_2

Hi gingerdad, I am an EA, wanted to get that out of the way so I can't be accused of being biased.

The most important thing I think you need to consider in this, is yourself. Are you the sort of person who enjoys doing things 'hands on'? If you like or have experience of dealing with the public, are comfortable discussing finances etc then there is no reason why you shouldn't have a go yourself. If the thought of talking finances, doing viewings, talking on the phone to strangers, fills you with horror, then you need an estate agent.

Also find out what media works best in your area. If there are only one or two agents on a site like Rightmove, chances are people in your area don't use it, so you may not gain by trying to advertise on that site. Who owns the local property paper, in most areas it will be the local paper, but in some it could be the EA's who own the paper, they may not accept adverts from private sellers. Do your research before deciding which route to take.

courtjester

MOLLYBRUSH wrote:

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.
HTH

A perfect example of you only get what you pay for - free ad website, no interest, buy a decent paid package and bang, suddenly there are enquiries and viewings. It *is* possible to sell property using a free service if you get lucky, but people should really ask themselves what they expect to get for free and why paying for a service might actually make the results more effective.

I think too many people 'try out' internet property advertising by using just a free or cheap site and then complain that it doesn't work, when effectively they have made that result a self-fulfilling prophesy. Also, advertising is a self-sell system, so that means you have to do some of the work that an agent would otherwise do - including researching price and monitoring and adapting the marketing to respond to interest levels as you go. Agents do actually do something for their money, so private advertisers shouldn't expect to sell a house simply by flexing a credit card and sitting on their bottom - it's not rocket science, but you need to be a bit pro-active and work at preparing the content accurately for the advertising. You also need to choose the advertising carefully to get the best impact.

So it's not for everyone, but the potential savings selling a house online privately, for not a huge amount of effort, are well worth it.

mr_fishbulb

ians1 wrote:

I think EAs are a rip-off and have been for years.

Even though they were a rip off years ago, they are even more of a rip-off now.

Some houses are worth over 100% more than they were 5 years ago. If EAs keep their %age fees the same, they would still get twice as much comission on those properties than they did 5 years ago. What extra work do they have to do? They put houses on websites.

Jorgan_2

mr_fishbulb wrote:

What extra work do they have to do? They put houses on websites.

Advertising on websites costs money, as do virtual tours, floorplans etc. The house selling public are getting a lot more than they did 5 -10 yrs ago when all the agent had was a set of (usually badly) photo copied black & white details.

MORPH3US

When myself and my GF were looking for a house, we looked on the internet, in Estate Agents and also just drove round looking for For Sale signs.

Most of the time, we would drive round, see a sign and then ring the Estate Agents from there rater than see it in the Estate Agents window. So rather than it being the very expensive newspaper ads etc that EA's use (which is a lot of what you are paying for) attracting us to the house, it was nothing that couldn't be done with a piece of chipboard and a marker pen (although it would be better done nicely)

One of the main reasons we drove round was because we weren't from this area but had been renting there for 6 months. We were unsure which areas were nice so the best way is to drive round and see for yourself.

I would suggest to the OP that you make your own sign up, stick it up outside your house and see what happens. Of course take advantage of any freebie internet advertising you can too!!

Good luck

M

mr_fishbulb

Jorgan wrote:

Advertising on websites costs money, as do virtual tours, floorplans etc. The house selling public are getting a lot more than they did 5 -10 yrs ago when all the agent had was a set of (usually badly) photo copied black & white details.

What will happen if price houses crash? Will EAs have to put their fees up to cover all the additional costs?

Jorgan_2

mr_fishbulb wrote:

What will happen if price houses crash? Will EAs have to put their fees up to cover all the additional costs?

Possibly, a couple of years ago when houses were selling in hours & days, agents cut their fees, there wasn't the advertising overheads involved. When I started in this business in the early 1990's the fees were around 2% sole & 3% multi, now they tend to be 1-1.5% sole & 2-2.5% multi.

gingerdad

Thanks for the replys. our house is a standard 1930's 3 bed semi, in the south lakes. i am happy talking to strangers, even sorting out our own board and advertising in the paper, i'm happy to pay for a service but i don't see why i should part for 4k when i could advertise for a year in the local paper for that every week. I have also noticed recently a company called brightermove has started up in Kendal with a fixed price to sell.

All our local agents are on rightmove, but i have had very mixed feelings about dealing with any of them. we have a good solicitor so may go down the diy route for a few weeks.

Regards

GD

gingerdad

Just to add i have managed to get the EA down to .75% now, that seems closer to what we want to pay

Regards

GD

Lotta_Littlies

How long did it take for them to carry out the visit to take the photographs of your home and to list your property with the various sites?

Lotta

Canucklehead wrote:

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.