Best way to Sell?

teddysmum

Why not try just putting printed For Sale poster in the window ? It will cost nothing and, in the case of my late father's bungalow, brought in two viewers the second of which offered the asking price.


A builder bought next door to us from an estate agent,but he has his own posters, advertising For Sale after complete refurbishment.

agrinnall

Seanymph wrote: »

I know that the woman off the television whose name escapes me has an online service...

I think you mean Sarah Beeny, no idea if her online service is any good, I'm not sure that I've ever seen anyone mention that they've used it. I very much doubt if she'll come round to your house to take photos and advise on how to make it look nicer though.

Seanymph

Well we went purple bricks, and have cancelled them.

Booked the valuation online - got a lovely email - tried to phone the number, mobile, of the agent. Three times over 9 days, left messages every time. no callback.

Called the 0800 number - got hung up on.

Called back, the assistant explained that agent wasn't on holiday or away, so they would leave him an answerphone message. He never called back, nor did they.

So we've cancelled it.

I'd rather pay more money and talk to a person!

aniahill

I planned to use an online EA but we used a local estate agent in the end because our mortgage advisor (who is also a friend of a friend) recommended one. It will cost us £1800 on a £197000 sale because the recommendation got us a discount.

I don't think online or traditional made any difference to us in terms of selling - it went on the market on Thursday afternoon and I'd accepted the third offer by noon on the Friday and we'd had 4 viewings, so it was a case of luck, price, location, whatever. I would say, however that we wouldn't have been able to be there at 9.30 - 10.30 on a Friday morning to show those people around.

If think it is in a good eye-catching condition so you can get loads of people to look and take time off work, or have an open day on a Saturday, that's the only way I would do it if I weren't living there.

glasgowdan

We sold ours with House Simple. It was overall a very good experience. Their office were on the phone to us regularly to ask how things were, how the service was, anything they could do etc. We sold in 5 days. They charged £400 which was payable after completion.

Their sub contractor photographer took excellent pictures (link http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-57984551.html )

I would recommend.

student100

One of the big draws for me of a traditional estate agent was that until you exchange contracts you don't have to pay them a penny. So if they are rubbish you can just cancel and move to another agent. Whereas the online ones make you pay the fee upfront.

For our house sale recently I invited four local independents/small regional chains to come and visit. We got a range of valuations: £180-190k, £195k, £200k and one, the most local agent, a family owned firm with only one branch, said he thought it would sell very quickly for £195k, and possibly as high as £209,500, but may take longer to sell. But he also said there would be no harm in listing at the higher price for a couple of weeks, and if there was no interest, dropping the price.

Until I spoke to him I was always of the opinion that I would disregard any flattery from the estate agent with the highest valuation and pick a price somewhere in the middle. But talking to this guy it seemed like he knew his stuff, and he didn't pressure us at all, so we decided to list with him at £209,500. Within a week we had 5 viewings booked on the Sunday, and by the Monday morning we had two offers of full asking price. I took the decision to accept one rather than try to get them to go to a higher best and final offer.

So, any of the agents we chose could have sold the property, and no doubt an online agent could have too. But they might not have got the same price for us. We're currently conveyancing, so fingers crossed it will go through, but so far it looks like the knowledgeable local agent has earned us at least an extra £9,500 through his market knowledge, which I'd say is well worth the fee. And if it does fall through, well, he hasn't cost us a penny.

Mizenberg

I am not dealing with them directly, but from my own experience/findings with Tepilo, the one marketed by Sarah Beeny, I would say to avoid them.

Our vendor bought through them in Mid March. We found out last week that they had done nothing to progress the sale. NOTHING. in 2 months! Absolutely shocking.

The vendor is now having to probably rent the property, rather than buy it, to meet the completion date of 1/7. The rental being arranged directly with the vendor of that property. Because they can't get through to anyone at Tepilo.

One of th EA's in the chain did get through, but it took him half an hour.

AVOID.

Surrey_EA

In many cases that I deal with finding a buyer is the easy bit.

Managing the process from acceptance of offer to completion is often where the challenge lies. If you have a well organised buyer and a decent solicitor then you may find the process relatively simple, but if there are several obstacles to overcome then that is where a good EA can make the difference.

Part of the trick is finding a decent EA in the first place!