Selling house without estate agents...

Annie_Fanny

Hey all

Was wondering if any of you had ever bought or sold a house without the use of estate agents and if you had any advice?

Has anyone any experience of http://www.houseladder.co.uk/welcome.aspx ?

We are in the process of looking to put our house on the market and the rates quoted by estate agents range from £1500 +VAT and £2250 +VAT. I'd rather have that cash in my pocket obviously as sometimes you wonder what they actually do for that money and whether you could do it yourself!

Any thoughts?

Annie

wymondham

If I were selling I'd certainly try without an estate agent first, as they perform the smallest part of the selling process, but take one of the biggest chunk's, and any bod can be one... give it a go, you've got nothing to lose if you're willing and able to do the work yourself..

sukey13

If you are having a go at selling yourself I would definitely invest in a board to put outside your house and advertise in your local paper.

alanobrien

We tried it some years ago but that was before broadband was common so it was not terribly sucessful. The market has changed a lot since then and web access is now much more commonplace so i wont hesitate to have another go when the time comes.

Dont forget their are a lot of free to list property for sale directories you can put your property on, list here; http://www.ahomeofmyown.co.uk/

I would be inclided to make my own property web page and link it to the free listing sites - cant hurt and the price is right. Good luck to you.

JillD_2

I sold without an agent a few years ago but it was very easy because a work colleague expressed an interest in buying the house when I said I was selling, I didnt have to market it all. It was really nice not payig out for an agent thougha dnseeing that chunk of money diappear. Geta feling so I would recommend you give it a go anyway. You willstill have the lawyears dealing with all the tricky stff anyway. Good luck

poppyolivia

I sold my last house private and got loads of viewers and that was with only putting it in the local paper. It came out Tuesday and at 9.00 that morning I had a call for a viewing. It followed on like that. I would defo try it out.

saxy1

Try doing a google search for - sell my house privately.

Dithering_Dad

I think it'd be well worth trying to sell without the estate agent as they do very little for the fee. They put a board up, which you can easily and cheaply do with a bit of cheap wood from B&Q, some paint and some stencils. They advertise in the paper, which again you could do and finally they provide a shop window, which you could replicate by using the internet.

When I bought my last house I didn't visit a single estate agent's shop - I just did a google search for houses for sale in the village I wanted to move to.

With between £1500 +VAT and £2250 +VAT you could have the world's best for sale sign, take out weeks of full page spreads in your local paper and get your house advertised on the 'tinterweb.

Lotta_Littlies

I think there are several threads about this on the House Buying, Renting, Selling and Property Prices board. I put my experience on a thread there last year so might be worth doing a search on that forum.

Lotta

freebird65

I did it in 2004 and saved myself a whopping £5,700 in estate agent's fees. It cost me just £99 to advertise on propertybroker.com and they took lovely pics and put up a For Sale board. I actually sold it by word of mouth - told absolutely everyone I was selling and a lady I used to chat to on the train in the morning's told her friend ........and a bit of phone calling myself, an excellent solicitor and no misunderstandings due to useless EA's meant it all went nicely!

Do it!!!

efrieze

I bought a flat 6 years ago through loot (loot.com online but i guess it was in the paper too)! Not sure what made me look there, but I went to see the property and agreed to buy it and to be honest, I never really noticed that I didn't have the use of an estate agent. It was easy always dealing directly with the seller. Hope that helps.