Where to advertise house for sale without using estate agent?

stormCat99

Hi,

We are about to put our house on the market, and have some estate agents coming round this week for valuations.

However, we want to keep our options open, and would like to consider not using an estate agent, and putting our house details up on one of those websites which charge you a minimal fee, rather than a %age of your sale fee.

Problem is, I don't know of any. We could just search the web, but I want to make sure that if we were to use such a site, that it was one that was reasonably well advertised and well viewed, otherwise it would be a waste of money.

Can anyone recommend anywhere?

Thanks.

PS we're in the North West if that makes any difference.

stormCat99

Just bumping up as not had any replies...

Doozergirl

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=355659

We were talking about it yesterday

courtjester

With a little research on Google, you can find the sites that are busiest /well used and well established relatively easily.

The professional ones charge £100-£150 and include advertising on some of the major property databases. Cheaper sites (or worse free sites) will offer much less in the way of value and exposure for their listings. As in most things, you get what you pay for.

Try googling for "sell my house" or "sell my house privately" for the main contenders - ignore the 'sponsored results' these are just ads - the main results on the left side will give you a better indication of thoses services worth consideration.

You have to use a professional service if you want to avoid conflict with an estate agents contract, so definitely avoid the cheaper ones if you plan to use both private ads and an agent.

spunkeyrich

its that ex estate agent again....doohhhhh (me i mean)

I sopose its the agents fault for advertising a free valuation to get a foot in the door so that people can use thier expertise to help sell a home privatly.

Gotto say though until the web is used thoughrougly by purchasers you may not get the coverage you need to sell for best price. If you had difficulty finding a site, i assume home hunters will have difficulty finding a site too.

consider that if you pay 100-150 quid 'up front fees' what do they do. stick a couple of photoes in a web site then, as they have already been paid, forget about it. You have paid for the service that you expect. If you get a buyer then superb, but thats just the beginning of the transaction, how do you know you got the best price out of a buyer that may have gone up by a couple of grand?

Its not difficult being an Estate Agent but there is alot more to it than meets the eye. The main advantage for the customer is that an Agewnt only gets paid by results so if they dont sell and see it though to completion, they dont get any money.

If you want to sell privatley and use an Agent make sure you tell that agent beforehand, some agents have in thier contracts that if a buyer is intoduced while they are sole agent, they will charge you. Others say that if you have a for sale board it is classed as an intoduction to your property should you sell to someone.

Try and see how it goes though, if you got £100/150 you may save alot of money. But bear in mind the stress and aggro it may cause you :-)

rich

Doozergirl

spunkeyrich wrote:

I sopose its the agents fault for advertising a free valuation to get a foot in the door so that people can use thier expertise to help sell a home privatly.

It's also the agent's job to give enough of a decent sales pitch to convince someone to use them, not just give a valuation.

spunkeyrich wrote:

consider that if you pay 100-150 quid 'up front fees' what do they do. stick a couple of photoes in a web site then, as they have already been paid, forget about it.

I take it you haven't actually used an online estate agent then?

I do have to admit to getting slightly wound up by your comments on this and I apologise because I know I'm going to come across like I'm being rude but I don't believe in knocking something until you've tried it. I haven't tried it, but I'm hearing enough success stories to know it isn't a complete waste of time. Some websites are better than others, I'm positive, but that's what the question is about, isn't it?

Some of the online agents do operate on a no sale, no fee basis, but you do pay higher fees. It's afact that when you pay on a no sale, no fee basis, you're paying for every idiot FTB that couldn't get a mortgage, every vendor that thought they'd see what they could get for their house and each instruction that the EA got by overvaluing a house which was never going to sell. Why not price your house sensibly and pay £400 for doing things the right way.

spunkeyrich

I like healthy discussions doover every opinion is great to add the pot. sorry if i wound you up. it seems Estate agents or ex estate agents that try and justify thier service is like a red rag to a bull :-)

No I have never tried an online agent and i am glad there have been successes to report. All ive got is experience of 3 or so years ago where i was an agent for many years and believe that to get the maxium price, you need maximum coverage. Nearly all agents nowdays use the internet but not all purchasers use the internet. (hope that sounds right) However things might have changed and yes there should be a website developed with appropiate advice and marketing where people will think to visit as a first stop for looking for a place. But I am not so sure there is one just yet.

Often an owner would tell me they would accept an offer at say £100,000 but i would do my heardest to persuade a buyer to exceed this, as an agent works for the owner not the buyer. That allowed me to justify my fees and made my customers feel that i had worked for them.

anyway, hope you are successfull in whatever you do.

rich

courtjester

spunkeyrich wrote:

its that ex estate agent again....doohhhhh (me i mean)
If you want to sell privatley and use an Agent make sure you tell that agent beforehand, some agents have in thier contracts that if a buyer is intoduced while they are sole agent, they will charge you. Others say that if you have a for sale board it is classed as an intoduction to your property should you sell to someone.

I disagree with some of your points, but a forum is after all about different opinions.... however must correct you on these quoted points:

(1) If an agent states in their sole agency contract that they will charge commission even where a private buyer is found, they are in breach of the law as this is a misrepresentation of their contract. The Estate Agents Act 1979 clearly defines "Sole Agency" and agents are obliged to use the legal definition in their contracts - which does NOT permit an agent to charge commission unless THEY introduce the buyer. So if a PRIVATE buyer is found independently by the vendor, the agent CANNOT charge commission under a Sole Agency contract. The definition you give would only apply if the contract was represented as a *Sole Selling Rights* contract.

If the agent alters the legal definition but still calls it a Sole Agency contract, even though it is not, this should be reported to Trading Standards and /or the OFT as a breach of the law. Such altered terms would be unenforceable.

(2) "Others say that if you have a for sale sign, this is classed as an introduction... " - just who are you referring to as 'saying' this? Any estate agent would have to *prove* that they introduced a buyer if they wish to claim their commission under the contract terms. An agent cannot merely assume that by placing a for sale sign outside of their client's property, that this simple act gives them 'ownership' over any buyer, even if he /she does NOT come via the agent (although of course there are plenty of agents out there lazy enough to make such claims).

If a buyer comes to the vendor's door and says "I see from the sign that your house is for sale...", I entirely agree that even if that buyer had not contacted the agent first, the presence of the agent's sign was the dominant introduction and any vendor should then pass the buyer's details to the agent to ensure proper registration and pay commission on the sale to that buyer.

However, any other form of contact (say via private advertising or discussions at work) is outside of the sole agency terms and hence the presence of the agents sign at the property is irrelevant.

In general, I would expect that to prove an 'introduction', the agent cannot glibly refer to 'must have come through our for sale sign...' or 'must have come from our newspaper advertising...". That is not *proof* of introduction, that is just convenient assumption. If a sale goes through without the agent being aware of the identity of the buyer, it is most likely that the agent has not brought about the sale by any involvement on their part.

To legally claim ownership of the buyer introduced, the agent should be registering the buyers details and show a record of viewing arrangements and negotiations between their client and the buyer.

It takes honesty on the part of the vendor too of course, but agents have to accept that they are working under a contract and are bound by that contract. Too many agents like to bend the rules (possibly because they don't actually understand the rules) and try and imply that they have rights over clients that their contract doesn't give them. The worst cases are often the biggest names who think they are big enough to make up the law to suit themselves.

Doozergirl

Well, to continue healthy debate

spunkeyrich wrote:

It seems Estate agents or ex estate agents that try and justify thier service is like a red rag to a bull :-)

My point is not that estate agents are bad and I know that most do their job adequately! But fact is that no agent is as motivated to sell a house as much as the seller

The point I am trying to make is that is Money Saving Expert(!) and that the correct answer for you on a post like this should be making available your experience as an estate agent to show people the best way to sell a house, whichever way they want to go about it. iyswim?

spunkeyrich wrote:

Nearly all agents nowdays use the internet but not all purchasers use the internet. (hope that sounds right) However things might have changed and yes there should be a website developed with appropiate advice and marketing where people will think to visit as a first stop for looking for a place. But I am not so sure there is one just yet.

I agree entirely, but it's something like 85% of homebuyers looking on the internet now and I think without a shadow of a doubt that the website with appropriate marketing is https://www.rightmove.co.uk and that this is the place that any vendor should be looking to tap in to.

spunkeyrich wrote:

Often an owner would tell me they would accept an offer at say £100,000 but i would do my heardest to persuade a buyer to exceed this, as an agent works for the owner not the buyer. That allowed me to justify my fees and made my customers feel that i had worked for them.

My entire experience is that the agent works for themselves and that trying to eek a few extra grand would not stand in the way of an actual sale. However, I commend you for trying your hardest to get the best price. But rather than simply suggesting they use an EA who knows what they are doing, you can be encouraging posters on this board on how to go about doing best research into establishing the market value for their property; That stands for people using EAs too!

spunkeyrich, I know you've got bags of experience to bring to the board and I've already seen plenty of evidence in your posts to support that , I'd just really like to you buy in to the whole idea of saving money and encouraging people to do that . That's what wound me up - it's the fact that I know you have better advice to give.

:kisses3:

spunkeyrich

just trying to put the point accross that selling privatly is not a guarentee of saving money in the long run. and as you say this web site is all about saving money.

If i have indicated that, which it does look I have then accept my appologies.

rich

Madmel

Whilst I have no experience of using any websites to sell our last house, all I did was shove a home-typed A4 notice in the front window downstairs. I had had EAs round the previous year so I knew what it was worth, and we got almost our asking price with no EA fees to pay.

We lived on a 12 year old estate with a mixture of housing, close to several large employers and really well-placed for public transport & the motorway network. People used to drive along the road looking for EA boards or home-made notices and sometimes put letters through doors asking if you were thinking of selling. I know this approach won't work for everyone, but it was fine for us and saved us almost £5k in EA fees + VAT :rotfl: