House Selling - Money Saving Tips

ginger_nuts

I will be buying a property soon as a 'first time buyer'. Do you have any tips??

I sold my last house 7 years ago to a first time buyer who was just over keen .She told me at the viewing her limit was £1000 over the asking price .Very silly girl .Guess what she ended up paying ...£1000 over the asking price and she couldnt haggle when the survey was done .So for all you first time buyers dont tell buyers or estate agents what you can afford .Remember the estate agent works for the seller not the buyer .

alanobrien

WEBSITES TO MARKET YOUR OWN HOME
So thinking of DOING IT MYSELF. Does anyone have experience of advertising their own house on one of the house selling websites where you pay a fixed sum and do the work yourself? eg houseweb.co.uk

I tried using the little house company and others over a period of about 6 months and got only one response which was not good then again it was just a terraced property and yes it was priced to sell.

I ended up selling through an agent which i negotiated a good deal with so i was happyish.

I still believe the internet sales sites are worth a punt, there are lots of free listing ones and some are only a few pounds.
Be warned the quality of these sites vary greatly then again so does the quality of high street agents so you don't have much to loose.

For anyone that's intersted most of the online for sale by owner sites have been reviewed here;

http://www.ahomeofmyown.co.uk/

This is where i have to declare some interest as it is my wifes "hobby" website. I hope it helps.

terrierlady

thanks for the feedback on this, we often read of various items and its nice to get the end results. well done to both estate agent and yourself remember it takes a good agent and a well presented home to sell in this present market.

sweven

Alan - congratulations to your wife on her excellent site - I've listed my house on all the free-to-advertise sites she mentions and will see what happens.

scot_girl

Help! I have been let down twicw at the last minute by potential buyers for my flat. I have another buyer and yet again assured by my estate agent that this time it will all be ok. Does anyone out there have any advice? I can't move on with my life until I can sell.

Victors_Bruvver

I think there is another site that looks & works even better then this one - sorry Alan, in the name of https://www.mypropertyforsale.co.uk. It does at least recognise the correct “formatting” of the UK regions. I have not fully tested mypropertyforsale.com, but on a couple of searches on Google it came up with their site.
Let’s hope more and more sellers (and buyers) use these cost effective sites - it is the difference to me of spending a 150 quid on a web advt and 3,500 smackers to the estate agent!

ffshooz

very helpful tips, gives me a lot more confidence as a first time seller
Thanks Alan

meredith_2

another private one is:

https://www.mydesres.com

They only deal with London however. You can also advertise rentals and flatshares there, and its free. Can't say fairer than that!

I've also heard they will also be advertising on fish4homes and propertyfinder in the next few weeks so can't imagine it will remain free for too long...

ahll

Hi,
I have just had my house valued this morining by the Halifax..I tried to negotiate their fee which I was told was 1.75%. She said she couldn't as she didn't have the power to do that and had been wrapped on the knuckles for doing it before. In the end she did offer to knock of 100 pounds of the total to make it a round 2500 !!

I have another Estate Agents coming around this afternoon. Can anyone give me some advice to get a better deal out of them ? Also shed any light why the first one was not willing to negoiate ? I am convinced my house it sell quite easily !

Thanks

TheDink

ahll wrote:

Hi,
I have just had my house valued this morining by the Halifax..I tried to negotiate their flee which I was told was 1.75%. She said she couldn't as she didn't have the power to do that and had been wrapped on the knuckles for doing it before. In the end she did offer to knock of 100 pounds of the total to make it a round 2500 !!

I have another Estate Agents coming around this afternoon. Can anyone give me some advice to get a better deal out of them ? Also shed any light why the first one was not willing to negoiate ? I am convinced my house it sell quite easily !

Thanks

From recent experience, some of the big chains are far less flexible on their fees.

You could try suggesting a sliding scale of fees (e.g. 1.75% if they get you the full asking price or above which is very unlikely in the current climate, dropping by 0.25% for each £5000 below asking price they achieve). Haart seemed quite amenable to doing this.

Alternatively try a smaller local agent who has a presence in your area. They can sometimes be cheaper, or offer fixed price fees which work out cheaper than a percentage rate.

You could also phone the manager of the Halifax branch and negotiate directly with them.

Good luck!