opinions please on selling privately, or through an estate agent...

cammysmum

so, we were about to put our house on the market with a local EA when we were contacted by a couple looking for a house just like ours. They came to view a few times, and eventually they put in a decent offer (albeit £5000 below the home report valuation)

now, I want to take this offer for the following reason: we won't have to pay the estate agents fees, I won't have the hassle of keeping the house constantly tidy which is very hard with 3 dc's under 6, I won't have the stream of viewers traipsing through...also, the potetial buyers have already sold their house so have the cash ready - no mortgage hassles.

dh wants to try to squeeze £4000 more out of them, claiming that if we out it on the market we may get more than the valuation. I don't think we would, as our house is valued at the limit before the stamp duty tax goes up.

WWYD? and if you agree with me, how do I persuade dh to accept? BTW, he's in the military and has just deployed for the next 6 months, so I'll be doing everything without him here.

TIA

Sammy85_2

If you go with an EA and get asking price then you'll still lose a good chunk of that in their fees, probably bringing you back down to around the price this couple have offered you. You most likely wont get a buyer in such a good position again, or if you do, they arent going to offer you full asking anyway because of their position.

If you want to get a few more £k's out of them then by all means try, but you may lose them and then end up back at square one. You've already done the legwork, all you have to do is accept it and appoint a solicitor.

I would just point all that out to your OH, not much else you can do to persuade him really.

Squish_21

I'd snap that offer up and save on the fee's.

timmyt

estate agents pay their own way by squeezing more from a buyer than you could...people always forget that when saying how much agents charge...do remember that they waste so much time and money from the deals no one hears about where the sellers changed their minds. high fees average out.

david29dpo

A bird in the hand..........

Nosht

Grab it now.

N.

Richard_Webster

so, we were about to put our house on the market with a local EA when we were contacted by a couple looking for a house just like ours. They came to view a few times, and eventually they put in a decent offer (albeit £5000 below the home report valuation)

Sounds as if it is best to go with them and save the agents fees - but ask lots of questions to make sure they can proceed. Have they a buyer for their own property? Have they got a mortgage arranged? Who with? (If it is a lender you have never heard of then there's a possibility they have dodgy credit and will get turned down.) Do their buyers have a mortgage offer and if they are selling, have they got a buyer, etc, etc?

sunshinetours

If the offer is sound (see Richard's excellent points above) then bearing in mind I assume you have been valued at £250k and you have been offered £245k with no agents fees at around say 1% - 1.5% +VAT to come off, i would take the offer.

I struggle to believe that any agent is going to be able to get you just over £250k so you end up better off because as you say the stamp duty really means you would need to be around £270k + to avoid being in that 1% / 3% area for offers

Good luck

googler

As said above, the chances of selling at 'just' over £250k are remote, to say the least....

LE3

timmyt wrote: »

estate agents pay their own way by squeezing more from a buyer than you could...

Not necessarily. Some of us buyers are smarter than that

timmyt

LE3 wrote: »

Not necessarily. Some of us buyers are smarter than that

good luck with the negotiations