Private Sale

Truly2

Has anybody sold a house privately and what has their experience been? I am being caught up between two agents and I am getting very tired of their in fighting. I am a genuine person and think that perhaps I am more than capable of conducting this myself with the help of a good solicitor. Any comments.

SmashedAvacado

You need access to buyers to sell a property
Do you have a network of buyers?

if not, then you will need to produce web details etc.

Would it not be better to try one of the online agents to let them produce details and advertise, with you conducting viewings?

hazyjo

Is it you selling your property, and do you have a buyer? You will still have to pay the EA(s) but of course you can liaise with the buyer instead of them, although obviously some buyers might prefer to deal with the EA (I would!).


PS just seen reply above so it's obviously not clear who the 'two agents' are - can you clarify. Not sure if you're wanting to sell (why are two agents fighting?) or if you have a buyer.

Tom99

I sold a house with a £3.50 Ad in the local paper once but these days you would need to get it on Rightmove.

Davesnave

We once sold a house with no ad anywhere, just the local grapevine, but we had it valued by several agents first. Nowadays, we'd have used Rightmove sold prices as a guide, because it was location, rather than uniqueness, which made it an easy sale.

With that sort of house and a good local network, private selling may be straightforward, provided you also have the temperament to deal with people and cope with things going wrong. We felt our first buyer was flakey, so we lined up someone else, who took over when our suspicions were proved correct.

At that time, we also bought privately from friends. It was a buoyant time, economically speaking, but things would have been different a few years down the line.

Are we at a time like that now, and have you a pool of ready buyers to draw upon? These are the key questions. It doesn't seem like it to me, either at a national level, or locally, if your two agents haven't already flogged the place!

eddddy

Truly2 wrote: »

Has anybody sold a house privately and what has their experience been?

Do you mean the process of finding a buyer?
Or the process of getting from offer to completion?
Or both?

I can think of two examples of people I know doing 'private sales'.

In one case, both buyer and seller were capable, rational, reasonable people - and it all went fine.

In the other case, the seller was clueless (and a bit irrational) and so the sale fell apart, with buyer and seller shouting at each other on the phone.

(It all seemed to be because of misconceptions about buying and selling. Had a competent EA been involved, I suspect the sale would have happened without any problem).

Truly2 wrote: »

I am being caught up between two agents and I am getting very tired of their in fighting.

In what way?

Truly2

Thank you all for your quite sensible responses. I again appear to have a buyer but should this one fall through I will be looking to proceed on a private basis. Thanks again.

G_M

There ar online 'agents' who will get you on Rightmove for a fixed fee. Most need paying (usually upfront) just for that service whether a sale results or not, but they are infinately cheaper than traditional EAs.


Usually it's up to you then to field enquiries, set up and conduct viewings etc though some will do some of that too.


Buyers can be more wary - so you may get fewer enquiries. I've responded to such ads and found the lack of an EA to ring makes the whole viewing process more difficult so I avoid those properties unless hey are exactly what I want.