Selling house without Estate Agent!!

miss_corerupted

Is this a good idea??????

in a few weeks i'm going to sell my house hoping to save the 1.5% fee (only 1 estate agent where i live so fee is fixed)

I was thinking of putting up posters in window of shopa and making a myspace page

HAs this worked for anyone else is it even a good idea??

Any advice gratefully received

thanks

saxy1

There has been a few threads on this subject, try doing a forum search.


Here is one to look at - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=569675&highlight=selling+house+without+estate+agent

Hope it helps :j

lynnexxxo

My firiend lived on a main road and sold her flat without an estate agent. She basically put huge signs in her window that you could see from the road - she got a good few viewers within weeks. However she feels, with hindsight that if she had went with an estate agent she'd probably got a better price - she found it difficult to negotiate a good price - i think most people don't want confrontation and on some level want everyone to like them, which makes it difficult when it comes to money.

Basically if you have enough people passing your house its worth putting signs up. Also, most people looking for a house are going to look online, how would they find your myspace page?

I bought my house privately, the sellers had put an add on s1homes.com. However I believe that had they went through an estate agent they could have got more money (which was great for us as we were right at the top of our budget and if it went for any more we could not have afforded it)

good luck

Canucklehead

Good morning: You could compromise and try an online estate agent with listings on Rightmove eg. Housenetwork...we've gone with their Option 1 three times now...all in cost less than £500 each time.

HTH

Canucklehead

miss_corerupted

thanks all, i hadn't thought about the neogationg point of view i'm really rubbish at things like that, i'll look into the rightmove thing housenetwork thing

drowningnotwaving_2

Definitely! We have never paid estate agent fees - sold one house privately and our last one we sold through Housenetwork.

It's always worth giving it a go - bear in mind that November is not a great time to put your house on the market, especially with the present economic climate, so if you can wait til the New Year it might be better. Depends on how desperate you are to move.

Give it time, and see what happens - the potential savings are huge. If you get desperate you could use a high street EA at a later date.

Considering the cost of EAs and the generally rubbish service that most of them give, it utterly amazes me that most people still use them - give the on line agents a go, what have you got to lose?!

Good luck!

Jue_xx

Oooh, the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 has just discussed this subject in the "Your Money or Your Life" slot (the slot often filled my our very own Martin Lewis!) If you go to the Radio 2 website and click on Listen Again, you'll be able to.. well, listen again!

There were some very mixed views on the subject.

courtjester

Heard the Jeremy Vine Radio 2 chat and it's a shame that they didn't actually stick to the subject "how you can sell a house privately" rather than digress off into the usual dull 'aren't estate agents awful' discussion and examples - with most of the end of the programme given over to Bolton-King of the NAEA defending agents reputation with the usual guff.

Of more concern were some of the (misleading) comments made suggesting that there are legal dangers lurking when dealing with private sellers - implying of course that the dangers of dealing with dodgy estate agents are minor in comparison - tell that to buyers who 'think' the agent is on their side...

Misleading comments made on the show:

(1)
Buyers dealing with a private vendor don't have the protection of the Property Misdescriptions Act (PMA)

Of course they don't, they don't need it - the PMA is a piece of legislation relating only to estate agents bad practices - if there is no agent, you don't need protection from what they might do !!

(2)
Private sellers can mislead buyers and misrepresent their property information with impunity, so buyers must rely on caveat emptor (buyer beware) - implying that none of this applies to estate agent sales.

Not true - although only estate agents are subject to the PMA (Property Misdescriptions Act), private sellers (AND estate agents) are still liable for misleading a buyer under the Sale of Goods Acts, Misrepresentation Act and other Consumer Protection legislation.

The PMA gives buyers NO RIGHTS of redress against an estate agent breaching its rules - it is a *criminal* law only, so buyers have to use the SAME *civil* laws as apply to private sellers if they wish to claim civil damages against an estate agent.

Buyers must be VERY wary of any property information supplied by an estate agent. An agent is under no duty to inform buyers of defects in the property - that's why you need a survey done. The agent's responsibility ends with not making incorrect statements about the property, but there is nothing illegal about an agent keeping quiet about defects.... so the principle of caveat emptor is just as valid (if not more so) when dealing with an estate agent.

*****

The views that mainly came across in the programme were that you need to be very careful before moving your home sale away from agents - the typical response to private selling that agents and their association like to come up with. This relies on the media approach to scaremongering and leading people to worry about something that isn't there. It also makes the assumption of course that agent led sales are perfect and that you need no protection from estate agent's activities.

Some would say that when the parties deal direct, often the information is clearer and better presented and the negotiations smoother with parties trusting each other better and less last minute problems arising. The vendor is probably better placed to market and promote their own property (accurately) than a disinterested agent who only wants to get on to the next commission bearing sale.

There is no evidence to the claim (often cited by estate agents with a vested interest) that you can't trust private sellers - why not? Are most people in this country inherently dishonest?

chocolatechipcookies

Just giving my opinion.

When I buy I will use an agent. I would be too worried about my money and the owner not knowing the law.

Badger_Lady

As an experiment, I competed against my Estate Agents to see who could sell my flat first, and I won!

The winning website was completely free - www.houseladder.co.uk on their bottom package - and listed my property on Fish4Homes, which is where the eventual buyer found me.

I also got viewings and enquiries from:
- Signs in the front window
- Adverts in the local paper
- eBay
- Adverts listed on my company's intranet / notice board
- My own website with full details of the house, directions, me (and why I was selling privately) and how to book a viewing.

I also wrote up my own "estate agent details", following the standard format with room dimensions / photos, and handed these out to viewers as well as offering to post out (though most people used email).

I sold for the maximum price I could expect (£125k, just on stamp duty limit) within 2 months. Two separate estate agents were useless in the same time, and lost my commission.

If you're worried, why not go for both? Make sure before you sign any contracts that you will be allowed to withdraw if you find a private buyer... and, if you don't like the offers that the EA brings in, you don't have to accept them. However, if it looks as though the EA is going to get you a better price, you won't mind swallowing their (1%?) fee.

Doozergirl

chocolatechipcookies wrote: »

Just giving my opinion.

When I buy I will use an agent. I would be too worried about my money and the owner not knowing the law.

Money and law is solicitor's job. No one is suggesting you don't use one of those :rolleyes:

No money passes through anyone's hands except the solicitor who pays all the bills. They deal with all the conveyancing law, the mortgage companies, everything.

An estate agent is used for marketing; for sale boards, advertsing, drawing up details, making sales calls, conducting viewings. If you are lucky, they might do some sales progression which involves phoning people and seeing where things are at after offer is accepted.

Really, who knows a house better than the vendor? The EA only ever passes on what they are told by the vendor anyway It's always for the buyer and their solicitor to ask the right questions.

House Network rocks. I actually give up on conventional EAs. Had enough. Really. Money for old rope.