Best Private Sales Website - SO

lynzpower

Hi all

Ive been umming & ahhing for a while adn the time has now come for us to sell up.

A quick word with one estate agent is saying 2% possibly a bit of movement. As Im selling shared ownership and obviously I dont get an contriburtion from the Housing association for their share of it, Im again considering private selling

Any thoughts on houseladder, halfapercent or little house co?

Have you sold via private selingwebsite? What did you use? Any tips?

feesh

We used housenetwork.co.uk, because they were the only ones who use Rightmove etc to advertise and they have been amazing! We dealt directly with the owner all the way through it, and the communication and service has been top-notch.

It went up on Rightmove and within 2 hours we had our first viewing arranged, and he made a very acceptable offer, despite there being stiff competition in the area including similar properties on at lower prices. I think they charge £200, plus another £250 or so if you sell.

jonnydoe

Thanks Feesh,

I've been looking around for something like this for ages. All the other private companies I've found don't advertise on rightmove (where most people look).

Quoted £467.65 which isn't bad at all compared to what I would pay at 1.5%!

Anyone had experience of the other places like little house company as they only charge bout £100.. saving even more money..

JD

Oh and thanks Lynz for raising this!

lynzpower

Im looking at halfapercent at the mo. I love the site, very professional indeed, although yes, not the cheapest option. they have rightmove, fish4, finaaproperty and possibly prime location as well i think. Still trying to fathom how much half a percent actually is :rolleyes:

Feesh any idea how long the vendor had the place on for before you bought?

lynzpower

Incidentally, the little house company is offering 8% cash back through Quidco
housenetwork offers 15 %
myproperty for sale offers 15%
houseweb offers 10%

if anyones interested!!! :T

feesh

lynzpower wrote:

Feesh any idea how long the vendor had the place on for before you bought?

Oops, bit of a misunderstanding - we didn't BUY through housenetwork. When I say we dealt with the owner, I meant the owner of Housenetwork - he even came round to take our pics, although he does have a small call centre as well.

We sold (very, very bloody quickly!!!) through them. Although we did look at some of their places for sale locally but they all sold within days of going on the market too - we were too indecisive and missed out!! We ended up buying through a local EA instead.

They are a small, very well-run company, but I don't know if it will still be the same in a couple of years as they get a bit bigger!

lynzpower

Ah understood now thanks very much

Where abouts are you based? For the owner of them to pop round :T Sounds likea great service

jonnydoe

Housenetwork are based in Romford Essex and look pretty legit... I'm seriously considering them. They advertise on rightmove and are a member of the national association of estate agents (NAEA)

£467.65 instead of thousands to another EA is pretty massive savings! Now so far on this site for me it's been a matter of saving a few quid here and there, Feesh should win the prize for best post imo for saving me potentially thousands!

Come on people, one of the biggest savings you can make is by saving on estate agent fees surely this deserves to be a sticky?? Forget watered down milk and free sugar samples this WILL save you £1000's.(If you are selling a house that is)


Cheers
JD

jonnydoe

£397.50 with 15% quidco

lynzpower

I agree with you Jonnydoe, Looking at housenetwork myself, looks the best out of the "private selling" ones, although I do have a soft spot for half a percent, but thats 1500 more. Not sure I can justify it, might give housenetwork a stab first. My local EA is stating 2% + vat, so on a roungh valuation i would be paying circa 5k. Not really moneysaving!

Feesh, yoiu say very very quickly, could you tell me how long you mean? days, weeks? And an idea where you are.

JonnyDoe theres loads of info on this on the sticky at the top- but some of it is rather old-in fact theres a post from me in Feb saying Im thinking of selling privately - haha & Im still here deciding

Im going on in September to avoid some hideous early redemption figure from the Abbey. Plus that gives me a bit of time to tickle up the garden and do a few other little bits & pieces.

One thing that bothers me is that Im in a secured block, and Im not alllowed a for sale sign- but I guess being on rightmove will make this less of an issue- I think

courtjester

Just to be clear, housenetwork, halfapercent etc., are NOT private sales websites - they are stripped down *estate agents*. This is very important if you are already using an existing estate agent.

If you use an online estate agent you CANNOT use a traditional estate agent alongside as this would be a breach of your agent's contract.

Their fees compare very well with high street agents because they don't offer local expertise, but this leaves you with the need to check your own pricing and conduct your own viewings. They will get you listed on Rightmove because Rightmove only accept listings from estate agents - at least until their shareholders like Halifax and Connells wake up and start complaining about 'cheap' online estate agents in the way they did about private sales websites and get them banned from using 'their' website as well.

The (better) private sales websites charging £100-£150 are for those that want to do the whole thing themselves (take photographs, draft listings and deal with buyers direct) and save even more money by just paying for the pure advertising element.

One of the advantages of the private sales (advertising) websites is that if you choose one of the professional ones, you can use this advertising to bolster an existing agent's marketing and potentially save your agent's commission entirely if the house is sold privately - a sole agency agreement does not prevent you from advertising privately (using a non-agent private sale website or your own newspaper ad).

Free or very cheap property websites are rarely worth considering as these have no funding to market a property effectively.