Selling House Privately

Beachview_2

Dan-Dan wrote: »

you forgot to mention the negatives Adam....

Exactly, I soon changed my mind when I found out about the negatives. At least with a high street agent, if you have any problem, you can always go into their office to complain. No chance with online agents, they can just ignore your emails, and palm you off on the phone. The online agents get your money straight away,so don't care if the house never sells. At least the high street agent has an incentive to sell the house or they won't get their money.

richardw

Any business that has long term investment needs satisfied customers, online EAs included.

dpccrc6

:TThank you for this post it is very useful as we are just about to start this process ourselves.

pmlindyloo wrote: »

There are bound to be lots of differing views on using online estate agents versus high street EAs.

So, just my opinion!

We sold our house through Housenetwork in two weeks. They were professional (excellent photos and good write up), easy to contact and everything went very smoothly.

However, it was in a very sought after location so think it would have gone very quickly whichever route we took.

I did not want to pay huge estate agents fees for doing what I consider to be very little. I also dislike the 'patter' of EAs who are usually commission based and are not always totally honest with prospective customers.

We liked Housenetwork because basically they do not 'sell' your property. They act like an intermediary for your sale - no personal involvement. They take the photos , write up the desciption, stick it on Rightmove (a must for me) and then deal with potential viewers and then the offers. They do not do valuations (easily dealt with by getting 3 free quotes from high street EAs and doing your own research.)

Of course it can go 'belly up' and there are people who do not want to be involved in selling their house. They want it taken out of their hands with the EAs doing the viewings and dealing with the potential buyers.

Basically you need to decide if you are willing to be proactive in the sale, do the viewings yourself and consider how desirable your property is,whether it will, in fact, sell itself because of the location/other factor.

There is nothing to stop you trying an online EA like Housenetwork and then after a while putting it on with a high street EA if you have no success/are unhappy with the service.

Good luck!

jkgray

Housenetwork.com 5% discount code

Pjdgitrgfl

Windsorcastle

I have just marketed my house through House Network this week. High st EAs were quoting me £4000 for sale of a 200k property. I bought a package with HN for £645 & VAT, to include EPC, premium listings on the main 4 portals, including Rightmove and Zoopla, etc.

Only negative so far has been that EA who came to do the photos etc, was also meant to do the EPC but told me when he arrived that he wasn't able to and someone else would have to come out. This was annoying because I have tenants there and wanted to avoid additional inconvenience to them, which is why I wanted all done in one visit. He also didn't bring the For Sale board and said it would be posted - again annoying - why don't their field agents have a supply of boards to take out?

HOWEVER, since that not very promising start, I have been really impressed so far. The photos taken were really good, my property details were all ready for me to review within 24 hours, and look really professional, as does the brochure and virtual tour. Went live on the partner sites within another 24 hours and premium listings look really good too.

Great thing is that I can go on any time and jiggle my photos around or tweak things here and there. Very quick to respond to queries. Best of all, had 4 viewings booked within 24 hours of going live so that's brilliant! Also, the girls in the office used their loaf to book the appointments around the same time for convenience.

All in all, really happy with HN so far. If anyone wants to try them, my discount code is OGGGSKLRPP - you will get 10% discount on any package, I get 5% back.

I will post again once things have progressed further to give a final verdict but so far they are doing everything a trad EA does for less than a quarter of the cost. What's not to like??:T

TangoFiver

A cheap way of getting your property online (RM, Zoopla etc) is probably with http://www.visum-sales.co.uk/ at an initial fee of £75+vat for the first month then £29+vat a month thereafter, with no tie-in.

That's all you get though, is the right to put your advert on the main portals. You would have to take the photos, do the write-up, viewings etc.

Might be a cheap way to do it if you're confident your property will sell relatively quickly...

biscuit.lover

Just reading every bit of info I can on these forums as I am selling my house (it's nearly ready).
Here is my two-penneth worth:
As I am selling I am also buying, on that note I now have spoken to most of the well known EA around, checked all the internet sites (which is where I have found every house I wanted to view anyway).
The service I have received in general was appalling, apart from one EA the rest didn't give a fig. Probably because they work for the man and not themselves (my opinion).
I almost contacted one of the people selling and told them how bad the particular EA was, but hey I didn't. I also made arrangements to view the property with the other advertised agent (which was only advertised on the net and not on the board outside the property, and as it happens these are the "only decent" ones I referred to earlier).
I am going to push my house myself, preparing a portfolio instead of a couple of bits of paper, and advertise it locally, and at everyone I knows place of work
I will probably use one of the internet vendors eg The Little House Company (don't know if I'm allowed to say that) to get it on Zoopla etc and I will be happy to pay them just to do that.
It's down to personal preference but the EA I have viewed property's with either have nothing to say or talk rubbish (pretend you are moving back from a different area and ask them what the area the property you are viewing is like).
Ultimately you are buying the location, bricks and mortar as long as they are sound, and will be paying extra for the rest.

jkgray

jkgray wrote: »

Housenetwork.com 5% discount code

Pjdgitrgfl

We have just sold using House network for the full asking price.

My discount code is above. All discount codes give the same 5% discount despite others claiming to the contrary.