Do I need an estate agent ?

PlaysNicely

:wave:

Long forgotten, I've sold twice without an Estate Agent ... once to a work colleague of my sister, who was looking for her first home (we were acquainted and got chatting about the fact I was thinking of selling) then a few years later, I sold my basement flat to the nephew of the lady who lived upstairs from me. I did the polite thing of letting her know in advance that I was planning on selling and she asked if I'd wait before signing up with an agent, to let her nephew look as it would suit him as he and his girlfriend were actively looking.

On both occasions I got at least two independent valuations so I was sure on price and each purchaser had a mortgage (and therefore valuation, survey etc) so we knew price was about right. I was also hyper-vigilant about research and local comparison which also helped and is much easier for you to do nowadays with Zoopla, RM etc.

I'd recommend is that if you have no agent, you make sure you get:

* At least 2 valuations (more preferably).
* As many different contact methods for your buyer as possible, eg: mobile, landline, work number, emails etc.
* Additionally, if you're not sure about them or want to separate the stress of a move from your everyday activities, get a cheap PAYG phone (number separate to your usual one) to use as your contact number with the buyer / solicitor etc.
* Make sure you're using a good solicitor (not a factory conveyancing company) as you'll need your solicitor as a team-mate, being pro-active in keeping close contact with the other side's solicitor as there'll be no EA for chasing up things.

In both cases I passed some of the EA costs saved by taking a lower offer from the buyers than I would have been able to take with EA fees and used the remainder in my own pot for next purchase. So, do look at your numbers too to see how it might benefit you.

In my experience, it was possible because I already had an 'introduction' to a buyer and each time from another person who knew them well.. I didn't need the agent for this bit and really didn't need one for any of the other bits arising. Possibly I was lucky that it was FTB each time and no chain behind, that might be something you want to consider if your 'someone' is relatively unknown to you (and there's no one who can vouch for them or their situation).

I also don't know your age or gender but in all cases and especially if you live alone and 'someone' is a relative stranger,I'd have a friend, relative or neighbour pop in to be there when 'someone' comes to view.

Good luck with your move, however it happens PN x

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

longforgotten wrote: »

ok I'm missing something here I know, but I've yet to hear of anyone who has put their house up for sale , with an Estate Agent, and got more than what they put it on the market for. This playing one prospective buyer against another I thought was gazumping.

Gazumping is when you agree a sale at a certain price, allow the buyer to proceed in paying out fees for mortgage, surveys etc and then, days or weeks down the line, turn round and accept a different higher offer.

Negotiation at the beginning is just..well, it's just the way you sell things.

eddddy

PlaysNicely wrote: »

Long forgotten, I've sold twice without an Estate Agent ...

Yes - if the buyer and/or seller know what they're doing, they are well organised, relatively rational and no 'challenges' arise - it can work well.


But I've also seen sales without an EA grind painfully to a halt - because nobody is 'chasing' the buyer and seller, and nobody is resolving the 'niggles' that arise.

Buying and selling is stressful - and I've also seen 'mole hills' turning into 'mountains', resulting in furious arguments between buyer and seller - because there is no EA acting as the 'middleman'.

But on balance, if your buyer seems like a rational, sensible person - it's probably worth giving it a go.

Phirefly

In our village, 75% of properties exchange hands privately with no EAs involved.

G_M

Phirefly wrote: »

In our village, 75% of properties exchange hands privately with no EAs involved.

Do you live in Royston Vasey?

eddddy

G_M wrote: »

Do you live in Royston Vasey?

Sounds more like Hogsmeade to me.

(Especially the bit about exchanging hands. Sounds dodgy.)

csgohan4

Phirefly wrote: »

In our village, 75% of properties exchange hands privately with no EAs involved.

I pity the EA who are there or want to set up shop there

agrinnall

longforgotten wrote: »

...I've yet to hear of anyone...

You need to listen a bit harder then. While it's not as common now as it used to be many properties sell for more than their asking price. Of the 4 properties I have sold 2 went for considerably more than their asking price (the first one, asking £71K, sold £117K), although they were in Scotland where it was always more common and it was before the financial crash.

Phirefly

Haha exchanging hands is perhaps not the most articulate turn of phrase

There's actually an EA in the village but they only have one of the 23 properties listed on Rightmove. 23 sounds quite a lot but of those, 6 are over a million and have been listed for over a year, (one's been on years), one is a commercial property and of the remaining 16, half have been on the market nearly a year, they're completely overpriced. For a house to make it to the open market in this village, the sellers usually have completely unrealistic price expectations. Most get bought and sold via word of mouth.

I thought the EA was exaggerating when he told me the 25% statistic but the sold listings on Rightmove are really telling, its fascinating to see which properties have changed hands under the radar. We stumbled across ours during an Open Gardens event....

Phirefly

But to be more helpful to the OP, I'd say go for it. EAs are just a fly in the ointment. I don't regret buying this way but I kind of wish I'd stipulated that all communication needed to take place via solicitors once the offer had been accepted. It's not been the end of the world though.