selling privately V estate agent

helen21_2

Hi All

A little advice on selling needed, please

Could anyone give me advice as to selling privately, or what estate agents charge to sell your house? Anyone had a good selling experience by doing it privately?

Thanks In Advance
Helen21

budgetflyer

I would class private sellers as "motivated". by that I would mean desperate and skint.
for the sake of 1 or 2 % I would definately get pros in to do the biz.
I dont know why ,whethere its marketing or pricing but in my area REMAX seem to shift houses so much quicker than the rest.

margaret_3

budgetflyer wrote:

I would class private sellers as "motivated". by that I would mean desperate and skint.
for the sake of 1 or 2 % I would definately get pros in to do the biz.
I dont know why ,whethere its marketing or pricing but in my area REMAX seem to shift houses so much quicker than the rest.

We live in a small rural area where Remax have only appeared about 4 months ago. On the other hand, the two established estate agents have been here for yonks. I was asked by a friend whether I would use Remax if I were selling up but I was unable to answer. Perhaps going by your post, she should consider them? I know that I shall when the time comes.
Margaret

mountainofdebt

I guess it depends very much on how quickly houses move where you live.

I know on the estate that I live on I would have objected to paying someone 1% or 2% for seling a house that was on the market for literally 4 hours.

John_M_Business

I think that good Estate Agents do earn their moneys' worth. They get more traffic to your door, weed out the tyre-kickers, provide a good buffer for price negotiations and can ensure that things go reasonably smoothly.

I'm just about to sell up, and if my flat is sold at the full asking price within 4 hours then FANTASTIC! What more could I ask for? Should I assume that the same enquiry would have come my way regardless?

bridiej

Probably depends how quick you want to move. If you're in no particular hurry then why not advertise yourself?

From my own personal past experience estate agents arent actually that good at weeding out "tyre kickers" and time wasters, in most cases expect the vendor to do the viewings and arent always brilliant at passing on information and feedback.

Good luck.

Spendless

Some of my friend experiences of EA have been that they've just relied on the weekly property guide coming out in the local paper This wasn't my experience but my EA was independant and very good.

He had far more contacts of his own than I could have got by privately advertising. He had the keys and did all the viewings as we didn't live there (all included in price).

The only thing was he didn't pick up when I sensed our original buyer was stalling, and she eventually pulled out claiming she had lost her job (no idea if true or not). To be fair though this was over the Xmas,New Year period and Mr Spendless was also putting the 'stalling' down to this.

The property sold again within a couple of weeks with more than one offer on it.

pin

Article about the subject on the Beeb:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4554717.stm

helen21_2

Hi All

A big thank you to you all for your advice. Me still pondering on what to do!!

Once Again Many Thanks
Helen21

kask

Guys, but for instance I do have a buyer for my house...it is my best friend. Is it reasonable for us to avoid Estate Agents and just get together our solicitors to do the business? I do not see what use EAs should have for me if I have a buyer...!??

ManAtHome

kask - you've answered your question, EAs are mainly there to get people through the door. If you've found a buyer and settled a price, you just need to get the legals sorted. Not too sure about flogging it to your best mate - hope nothing drops off in the next couple of years...

Good Luck.