Selling without Estate Agents?

dinofabio

Hi All,

Has anyone tried selling their own home and how successful were you?

The last time I sold a house (10years ago), I vowed that I'd never use an estate agent again if I could help it. The communication was awful, people were always unavailable / out of the office, never returned calls etc etc I constantly had to cajole them into any sort of activity. When the house was eventually sold, it was job done, feet up time as far as they were concerned, and they never really got involved until the sale went through and I promptly received a large bill for the services they (never) provided.

So this time I was thinking of trying to sell without estate agents, doing everything online. Once I had a buyer, we could just swop solicitors details and let them get on with it (which is what happened last time). Photos, room sizes, house description, valuation etc are not a problem. That's the easy part.

So, how do I successfully market the house to get punters through the door. Does anyone or had experience of any online house selling websites? Any recommendations?

What are the potential pitfalls?

Am I mad to even consider not using estate agents?

I know it’s difficult selling at the moment, but I’m in no rush if it’ll save me £4000/£5000.

freddielaker

We tried to sell our house 3 years ago ourselves and got no where fast, although i do agree makes you made as hell to cough up thousands to estate agents.

azkaban420

Hi,

People use Estate Agents because of the exposure the house gets. These days everyone uses RightMove to buy so your house would have to be on there to be in with a chance, unless you were lucky enough to find someone through putting, say, an add in the paper. There are some online agencies that use Rightmove, that are a lot cheaper than agents but you'd have to do most of the legwork for it (viewings etc). If you're prepared to do this anyway, maybe that's the middle-ground you need?

Good luck,

Az

flora48

I was always asked to do viewings by the EA even though I had specifically asked for accompanied viewings as I lived 50 miles away. They gave all sorts of excuses, usually that no-one was available to do it. In fact one viewing did not take place at all because the EA was unavailable. Of course they were available to receive their payment of a few grand!!
I am tempted to try an online agent just to get onto Rightmove, then sort the viewings ourselves.

dinofabio

azkaban420 wrote: »

Hi,

People use Estate Agents because of the exposure the house gets. These days everyone uses RightMove to buy so your house would have to be on there to be in with a chance, unless you were lucky enough to find someone through putting, say, an add in the paper. There are some online agencies that use Rightmove, that are a lot cheaper than agents but you'd have to do most of the legwork for it (viewings etc). If you're prepared to do this anyway, maybe that's the middle-ground you need?

Good luck,

Az

Thanks for the suggestion.

I did all the legwork before so that's not a problem. I'm comfortable doing the viewing and making appointments etc.

I'll have to go on Rightmove and see if I can find a suitable online agency.

mhs

I've just gone with House Network who put you on RM and other sites. They have done a great job with pictures and floorplan and are very responsive with queries and feedback. Too early to say how effective they will be with getting a buyer but so far I'm impressed which is more than I can say for the two lots of EAs I had until recently - they were dreadful.

nickj_2

sarah beeny has a website for people who want to sell or buy without e/a'shttp://www.tepilo.com

boots_babe

If it's any help, I can certainly recommend HouseNetwork (https://www.housenetwork.co.uk).

They are an estate agent and so advertise on Rightmove. They send someone out to measure up, do floorplans and 360 degree views, and draft a description.

They take calls and arrange viewings, and try to call for feedaback. But that's it. You have to show people around, and we also amended the wording to our own liking.

We agree with your thoughts, EAs don't do much for their money and our own experiences with them have been woeful. HouseNetwork did the job for us, we sold the house. But I wouldn't say they were suitable if you're not willing to do some work yourself.

You'd have to check current prices available, but when we did it they offered a choice of fixed fee upfront (£400) which is what we did, or a percentage on completion.

One thing I would say, they were by far - a million miles - better at taking photos than any other agent.

botchjob

the house we recently bought was a private sale and all i'd say it that it was a nightmare due to the fact that the vendor was totally passive and did not understand that they had a VERY active role to play in selling their house. Their inactivity was almost the cause of a long chain collapsing at the last minute because the pressure got to them and they went awol. It was only thanks to 2 good agents at either end, that the chain completed at all.

My advice is only to take this on if you are a cool headed, and very hands on sort and you're willing to see it through from start to finish without being emotionally involved. Agreeing the price is the easy bit. Seeing the sale through is where agents earn their money.

womble12345

You may save yourself 5k but maybe the reduced exposure will mean you get 10k less for the house?
I am selling at the moment, first agent did rightmove, zoopla, etc and got me 3 viewings in 3 months, switched to another agent who got me 12 viewings in the next 2 months. I dont know what they did but there is something that agents do to get footfall. I think people come into the branch to enquire about a certain property and the agent gets them toview a few other similar properties, if you go just online you wont get that.
I dislike EAs but I would still always use one.
When it comes to buying I would favour properties not marketed through agents as I couldoffer lower knowing that they hadnt had many viewings..... but i would want tooffer lower as i am sure agents have a bit to do with holding a chain together....

googler

nickj wrote: »

sarah beeny has a website for people who want to sell or buy without e/a's

Can I refer you to my post, currently #57 on p3 of this thread