Selling without an Estate Agent

M.Holloway

My Grandad is selling his home and the current Estate Agent is utterly useless and lazy. And as it stands we [the family] are doing far more work than him.

Considering he is expecting almost 8k for doing basically naff all this is pretty poor.

How hard would it be to market this home ourselves?

And also which property portals are the best to list our home on.

We have a HIP and have a Conveyancing solicitor ready to go.

BrixMorta

I guess the agent wont earn a penny if he is unsuccessful. Try another agent. Try WOW property there as cheap as chips. £999 from memory.

googler

Why did he pick the current agent in the first place?

M.Holloway

Current agent because they were local.

And I wasn't aware estate agents charged fixed rates. £999 on an 800k house...I can't imagine that estate agent would work particularly hard...or even be any good!

googler

Yes, the EA will only get his £8k if the house actually sells, not before - so that won't be 'naff all', it'll be a successful sale.....

Have you sat down and had an honest heart-to-heart talk with the current EA? Outlined what you think he's doing wrong, or failing to do?

M.Holloway

googler wrote: »

Yes, the EA will only get his £8k if the house actually sells, not before - so that won't be 'naff all', it'll be a successful sale.....

Have you sat down and had an honest heart-to-heart talk with the current EA? Outlined what you think he's doing wrong, or failing to do?

Multiple times. All we seem to do is correct his mistakes. Doing his job for him. So what we're left thinking is this c*nt doesn't deserve any money if we're doing all the work.

wymondham

That's the way it is... Estate agents do the least work, with the least training in a house purchase/sale, yet charge the most. I feel sorry for solicitors/conveyancers - at least they have to be trained to a minimum standard....

If you can avoid estate agents then you'll save yourself considerable sums, with just a little bit more work than normal....

timmyt

on an £800k house you are best having an Agent. I would think something is up not having an Agent for that value!

And don't forget, Agents pay their own way, as they are expert at squeezing every penny from a buyer and so often pay their own fee in the process.

an internet agent for that sort of property is just weird, and you will not get best price.

internet agent for the low value stuff perhaps, if all you care about is Rightmove exposure and not in any sort of rush.

princessamy86

M.Holloway wrote: »

Multiple times. All we seem to do is correct his mistakes. Doing his job for him. So what we're left thinking is this c*nt doesn't deserve any money if we're doing all the work.

Ouch-language! Have you thought about changing to a different agent? Maybe they will be better for you.

M.Holloway

timmyt wrote: »

on an £800k house you are best having an Agent. I would think something is up not having an Agent for that value!

And don't forget, Agents pay their own way, as they are expert at squeezing every penny from a buyer and so often pay their own fee in the process.

an internet agent for that sort of property is just weird, and you will not get best price.

internet agent for the low value stuff perhaps, if all you care about is Rightmove exposure and not in any sort of rush.

Yes I realise that.

Back to the original question. Does anyone here know how I could sell and market this property WITHOUT an estate agent. i.e. by ourselves.

There are four of us, all of whom are competent and willing.

So does anyone know the the best places to market a home online?

And where would be best to promote the sale of this property?

As we already have a conveyancing solicitor in place the actual HARD WORK will be take care of.

princessamy86

Well, you will need some sort of internet coverage. If your area is an area where rightmove is predominantly used for searching for property, you'll need to go with someone like house network, lots of threads on that if you have a search, or I think there are some internet only "agents" where you pay a fixed fee to be listed on rightmove/other property portals and then you handle all the viewings calls etc.

One thing I would flag up is whether or not you are comfortable negotiating with people, either face to face or on the phone. I think at £800k you really do need good internet coverage, on rightmove if possible. You need pictures, floorplans and a decent description, and you may find, as timmyt pointed out, that people are a bit wary of the reasons behind you selling a house in this price range using an internet listing which is generally more prevalent for lower value houses. I'm not saying it's unheard of, but it is unusual and may put people off. Can you say specifically what your agent has/hasn't done that has annoyed you so much?