Barriers to marketing your own property?

homeman

Hi all,

I've been holding my property in London for 5 years and thinking about selling it. I'm a first time seller, so new to the process.

I'm interested to know, what are the barriers and concerns to marketing your own property to sell it? I tend to be quite an involved person - so I don't like the idea of being dependent on someone else like an agent doing it for me.

Am I being overly naïve - or is this something that other sellers have done or are thinking of doing and could point me the right way (or tell me not to bother trying at all!?).

Thanks,
Phil

I_have_spoken

AFAIK you can buy a flagboard kit for £30 and stick on ad on Gumtree for £0.

However to reach 99% of potential buyers you need to use Rightmove which only accepts ads from EAs. YOu could use a online EA for £300ish up-front, they'll send a freelance photographer bur expect you'll do all viewings.

Conveyancing you can do yourself, but expect the buyer's conveyancer to add a risk premium on the price as they're dealing with an amateur.

PasturesNew

You can get onto RM without going through an agent, quite a few sites provide that as a service if you advertise on their site nowadays.

You might be exposing yourself to criminals, as there's no trace they came to your home or who they are; an EA can help to filter these out. You might, in such circumstances, give away "too much information". e.g. say a burglar came, they could check out your security and you might say "we're going away for a week next week ...." and he'd put your name in his diary

A good agent also actively chases various parties (solicitors etc) throughout the sale as they have a vested interest in the sale completing - and they have a relationship with all those professionals so will get 'closer to the truth' if there might be issues.

There's nothing stopping you selling it yourself though if you're available for viewings, competent at writing the description/taking the photos and feel safe showing strangers round.

ethank

Some sales come from EA's having lots of people who are looking on their books. If you stick a board in your garden you rely on the person seeing that, or it going on Rightmove and someone viewing it online.

Once sold the EA will do sales progression calls - chasing everyone up. Well worth the cost!

I spent probably three hours a week on the phone at one point chasing stuff. I would probably have had to take days off work if I did it all myself!

Yorkie1

I_have_spoken wrote: »

AFAIK you can buy a flagboard kit for £30 and stick on ad on Gumtree for £0.

However to reach 99% of potential buyers you need to use Rightmove which only accepts ads from EAs. YOu could use a online EA for £300ish up-front, they'll send a freelance photographer bur expect you'll do all viewings.

Conveyancing you can do yourself, but expect the buyer's conveyancer to add a risk premium on the price as they're dealing with an amateur.

If you have a mortgage, then you will either have to use a conveyancer, or you'll have to pay off your mortgage BEFORE you receive any money from the buyer.

Halle71

This is an anecdotal story and our area is particularly volatile at the moment but I really believe they can get the best price with the least hassle if you get a good one.

We had our house valued but now our daughter is at school we were undecided about moving. Then we found a house that was within budget, near our school and, while little price difference to ours it was a better postcode and in the catchment of a great secondary school.

It was being marketed by an online agent (not much diffrent to doing it yourself) for £500k which seemed low for the street but they were lagging behind the market a bit as they had just dumped their first buyer. Before we saw it we called our EA to ask how quickly we could get under offer if we decided to go for it.
Then we saw it and it turned out that the photos were better than reality and our house was better.

I've just found out that our EA approached them, convinced them to remarked it and it achieved £590k shortly after we saw it.

Another local house was on at £520 and achieved £559k at sealed bids - I don't think many private vendors would have the balls to go to sealed bids....

And, as someone else has pointed out, they really do take care of a lot of the chasing up/phone calls and generally push the sale forwards.

googler

The main barrier will be lack of exposure.

Without an agent, you can't get onto the main E&W property portal - Rightmove.

Your local agent will have an office on your local high street. People looking to move into your area will call into this agent's office, will see your property in their window, will be recommended to your property by the agent, even if yours wasn't the one they asked about.

On your own, you'll essentially be invisible to anyone looking as per the above.

LADYXXMACBETH

I wouldn't buy from a seller without an EA. For some reason it always makes me slightly nervous and I'd be concerned it might be a scam!

hazyjo

Consider online agents. They do all the usual stuff apart from viewings. I think you also need to decide your property's value too. If London and likely to sell fast, that's the route I'd take. Fraction of the cost of an EA.

Jx

cattie

Every property I have sold has been to somebody registered with a local ea looking for a property similar to mine & in the right price band. To me they have been worth every penny of the commission they have earned as I've achieved quick sales.

Buying from a vendor who isn't marketing through an ea wouldn't appeal to me. I don't think I'd be able to take them seriously if they were not willing to commit to selling in the more usual way via an agent.

Also, ea's can often be a very important & vital link between vendor & buyers solicitors, checking out any hold ups & making sure everything proceeds speedily to conclusion.