Any decent ways of selling without agents

googler

sweetd wrote: »

it is interesting that there are no statistics to prove these points, still not convinced about this negotiation skill that JQ refers to, how exactly given all things equal would an EA manage to extract more money out of a buyer than a seller

No stats, only an opinion, but wouldn't you say that an EA, negotiating every day of the week for a number of years as a routine part of their day, is more likely to excel at this than a homeowner who hasn't sold in...5, 10, 15 or more years, and doesn't routinely negotiate as part of their day-to-day work?

Same as servicing your car - your local mechanic will whiz through your 10k service quicker than you could (even though you can do it yourself), because it's routine for them ....

How would the statistics be compiled, if at all? You'd need every agency in the land, or a good number of them, to report to someone to collate them. Who would pay for the collating? The agencies? One more item in the expenses column, then?

sweetd

ok so no statistics just opinions, the mechanic analogy is seriously flawed here as mechanics have true expertise, an EA does not, he will "negotiate" based on how much the seller is willing to sell for and how much the buyer is willing to pay, as for squeezing extra out of buyers when was the last time that a buy price exceeded the asking price? so all sellers pitch a little bit higher than asking price, all buyers will pitch lower and then the compromise will be based upon the level of desperation of either party, can't believe you think there is skill in EA in getting a better price,,,,,,, put it this way if the EA's were outlawed and all sellers and buyers had to register at one monopolistic internet site then the outcomes for all wouldn't be much different except there would be small fees......... best thing is for me to try and then laugh at the idea that super EA man could have "squeezed" more money out of buyer

JQ.

sweetd wrote: »

ok so no statistics just opinions, the mechanic analogy is seriously flawed here as mechanics have true expertise, an EA does not, he will "negotiate" based on how much the seller is willing to sell for and how much the buyer is willing to pay, as for squeezing extra out of buyers when was the last time that a buy price exceeded the asking price? so all sellers pitch a little bit higher than asking price, all buyers will pitch lower and then the compromise will be based upon the level of desperation of either party, can't believe you think there is skill in EA in getting a better price,,,,,,, put it this way if the EA's were outlawed and all sellers and buyers had to register at one monopolistic internet site then the outcomes for all wouldn't be much different except there would be small fees......... best thing is for me to try and then laugh at the idea that super EA man could have "squeezed" more money out of buyer

Many many businesses spend many many £000's of pounds training their sales forces to be better negotiators. Negotiating is a skill and one which is rewarded handsomely in the business world, not just Estate Agency.

Out of interest, how many houses have you bought and sold?

hcb42

I grill estate agents before selection on their skills...given a fee might be anything like £6K plus VAT to me, I want the one who can negotiate and maximise my sale price, and demonstrates their grip on the sales cycle.

If I wanted to save £5K+ VAT I would do it myself, but I would probably lose 2-3 times that by not getting the footfall and by not having that experienced negotiator acting for me.

sweetd

"probably" not get as much as EA would ......... you don't know then, I am not sure you are taking my point about you being involved in negotiation anyway........ you are just using them to communicate between someone who is offering and you with a minimum price in mind.......... you sounnd like EAs yourselves......... bit like people who blame the football agents for "inflated" wages in football - the wages are a function of their skill at a particular point in time...... no matter how "great" the agent is in negotiation if he is representing a footballer who is championship quality then he will not get premiership price similarly the footballer with premiership skills will know how much he is worth through the market, the middle men are not adding a lot of value

JQ.

JQ. wrote: »

Out of interest, how many houses have you bought and sold?

You asked for opinions and people gave them, based on personal experiences. What personal experience do you have of buying and selling property?

If you want to use an internet site - go for it, nobody's stopping you. But just be aware using the cheapest service does not always produce the best value - and that's what this site is about.


ps, your example of football agents is a truly awfull one. The reason footballers get paid such rediculous sums these days is because of agents getting greedier and greedier. They keep negotiating higher and higher packages and use the press, PR agencies and Twitter to leak ficticious stories, applying pressure to clubs. Rooney leaving Man Utd being a prime example. Or are you suggesting that Wayne could have negotiated exactly the same package had he not been professionally represented? :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

sweetd

JQ thanks for giving me the go ahead for advertising without EA's...... nice of you

The footballing analogy is sound, the football club gets the player for the market price, Wayne Rooney is much much better than Chris Turner for Sunderland so no matter if or how many agents involved then Rooney will always get much more, but by same token in that market he will be commanding next to nothing in his late thirties or before if he has injury, it has nothing to do with greed or agencies, Rooney could have negotiated direct to get his pay rise, he was well aware of how keen Man U were on keeping him. Rooney is so rich that he can't be bothered to do it himself. If Chris Turner used best agent in the world he could never get as much as Rooney, it is called a market and we all play in it each day. Now with houses we look around see what our houses are worth or being advertised for and we have minimum price in our mind as does the potential buyer so all we need is an internet site that links all buyers and sellers together and what I am suggesting is that if this existed then the market would operate perfectly - houses of certain specs in a given location would go within a given range the a key variable being the level of desperation of the seller and buyer - there may be some wizardry at the top end or unusual market of mansions and so on but for us regular folks there is a market and we shouldn't need EA's to inform us about this or get us a better price - the idea that they can get a significantly higher price for a terraced property in a particular area of a northern town is absurd, can you imagine EBay introducing middle men to "negotiate" for the advertised goods and services to get their customers better deals. Absurd yet so many believe in some mystical powers of EA, mark my words they will not survive

googler

You appear to have ignored the main question from JQ, which was;

"What personal experience do you have of buying and selling property?"

googler

sweetd wrote: »

....mark my words they will not survive

...and the reason we should mark your words is what, exactly....? (referring back to JQ's question)

sweetd

googler, 15 houses to date, I ignored the question as it is irrelevant in the search for the truth about whether there is still a need for EA in the internet world, I think not, many of you think they have mystical "can get you more than the market" powers, I asked for facts and figures and no-one has them, here is the question, if they were banned and replaced by the internet after a while do you think someone would invent them (ignore the argument about non internet savvy people)