Free property advertising

h_roberts

What exactly does courtjester mean by “…a free service which has no effective means of marketing your property”?
What is the difference between an estate agent — who takes piccies, measures rooms, writes flowery blurb, sticks an ad in the paper, posts a listing on the web, then sits back and points people in roughly the right direction whilst counting up the potential fee of several thousands — and myself who takes piccies, measures rooms, writes flowery blurb, sticks an ad in the paper, posts a listing on the web, then actively chases up every lead immediately, and weeds out potential buyers from the electronic and physical gawpers, etc, etc. Which EAs do NOT do.
Why should I pay for a so-called professional EA service which I can perform better for FREE? And take advantage of whatever FREE advertising is going!
Where’s the extra ‘marketing’ from a site that charges?
I accept that replacing an EA with just a ‘free’ ad is a retrograde step, but hell, I want to SELL my house, not just ‘have it sold’ for me.
Rant over. I remain stubbornly unconvinced of the ‘second class’ slant applied to the free sites.

courtjester

I think you misunderstood my post - I entirely agree with your comments about estate agents and the fact that most people with half an ounce of common sense are quite capable of selling their own home themselves with a little effort.

My point is why cripple your self-marketing by choosing a free internet service, just because it's free. It costs money to advertise property, even on the internet. A free service is not going to have the marketing reach or performance of a paid-for service. There is a reason most of these sites are free, it's generally because they are start-ups with no public profile trying to claw their way into the market. If they are not charging you for the service, they don't have the means or brand that an established commercial service has to put your property in front of a large audience of buyers.

I have seen the comment so often about 'trying' a free internet site for a while and when it doesn't work go back to an agent. That is not to say that the internet is not effective with home selling, indeed it is, but you have to select your service carefully to make the most of the potential.

Being on the internet is not the same as being SEEN on the internet - which makes the difference in finding a buyer or not finding a buyer (or rather a buyer finding your property online). You may get lucky, but it is unlikely that you would get anywhere near the level of exposure on a freebie service that you would with a paid for internet site - which uses the budget to expand it's profile and pay for access to services like Google.

When you look at the most successful commercial property sites, they still only charge £100-£200 for access to exceptional advertising exposure and marketing tools for private sellers so the cost is insignificant compared to agents commission.

mrmoneybags_2

Try https://www.netmovers.net. I found it before Xmas and a pal ultimately sold his house through it. There are several thousand properties on it BUT there is a £99 +VAT registration fee. That's all. Cheap at the price compared with estate agents.

Sellamyhouse

https://www.ourpropertymove.co.uk is normally £249 but is free for 30 days and we sold during the 30 days so we didn't have to pay nothing they also asked if we'd have our picture taken for a newspaper article in our local area promoting the service and we made £50. I'm a star!