not using estate agent to sell house

midlifecrisis

anyone done this and have positive or negative experiences and potential pitfalls?

Iamnobody

Can't speak for not using one but have a positive comment for using one.

We have recently been through the process and as soon as we found our new house the agent selling ours got stuck into that estate agent on our behalf, explained we had sold ours, were in a short chain and were good for the mortgage etc.

I'm not saying he influenced anything but it felt like he did...

Secondly if there are any complications the EA sorts it and do all the ringing round and make things happen.

midlifecrisis

that's good to hear it worked for you. last house I sold was 11 yrs ago, we got a good deal equal to less than 0.5% of sale value. but the house we bought wasn't through an EA. im tempted to just get them to value it then market it myself

thomasross20

Lot of money in fees. Fixed percentage is crazy. There are alternatives these days - one guy in my office bypassed agents and had only good things to say. Any paid like £200 or so!!

capo4th

1.5% for taking some photos picking a price out of thin air and loading the details to the Internet is a shed load of cash.

thomasross20

Yep.

richardhomer

capo4th;620277" said:

1.5% for taking some photos picking a price out of thin air and loading the details to the Internet is a shed load of cash.

Wrong!

What you should be employing is expertise - knowing the right buyers, understanding what makes your house appealing to the local market, able to handle negotiations in a manner that maintains the buyers goodwill - yet extracting the best possible offer for you, pro-actively progressing the sale via mortgage providers, solicitors and other agents in the chain, etc....

A 'good' agent will get you a higher price, in a shorter time-scale than selling it yourself.

A bad agent is as you describe.

If a seller chooses a bad agent, they probably haven't researched their options properly.

rawk100

Just in the middle of selling, renting and buying houses and my estate agent has done a good job. We ended up "selling" our house three times due to various buyer shenanigans and they sorted stuff out quickly. They handled all the viewings which on some days were upto four a day, many when we had to be at work. However they did undervalue our house as it went for a lot more than the asking price.

If you have time on your hands and good organisation skills then you could probably do things yourself, especially if your house is desirable and sells without much effort.

chillidoggy

I've never really understood the percentage of sale thing, apart from making the estate agent more cash for doing the same work. I can't believe for one minute that they do any more work to sell a £200,000 house than a £400,000 one. The cost of moving is already high, and they do no more than a car dealer does.

My take on the process, is they overprice your house and advertise it for sale in a big fanfare of "new instruction" etc, in the hope that's some twat will fall for it, then you get a flurry of viewings of people who're thinking your house must be special as its so highly priced. After a while, viewings drop off and you have to reduce the price to something that is more sensible in the hope it sells. 

Estate agents have had a bad rep for as long as I can remember, and I think those are some of the reasons. When I come to sell, I'll be looking elsewhere because with the advent of the Internet, I'm simply not prepared to pay their fees.

Iamnobody

richardhomer;620297" said:

[quote="capo4th;620277"]1.5% for taking some photos picking a price out of thin air and loading the details to the Internet is a shed load of cash.

Wrong!

What you should be employing is expertise - knowing the right buyers, understanding what makes your house appealing to the local market, able to handle negotiations in a manner that maintains the buyers goodwill - yet extracting the best possible offer for you, pro-actively progressing the sale via mortgage providers, solicitors and other agents in the chain, etc....

A 'good' agent will get you a higher price, in a shorter time-scale than selling it yourself.

A bad agent is as you describe.

If a seller chooses a bad agent, they probably haven't researched their options properly.[/quote]

Agreed. And you can find estate agents that will sell at a fixed cost or much less than 1.5%.

With hindsight I'd beat them down to something like £1250 - £1500 inc VAT fixed cost.

But we payed .75% of the asking price...

Flink_Poyd

Try searching for FSBO For Sale By Owner or something like do I need an estate agent. There are plenty of sites around like emoov, purplebricks etc which will give you an idea whether using an online, DIY or traditional service will work for you. There's no reason why you can't do it yourself, the info is out there, it comes down to how much time you can set aside to do it and how much money you might save by investing that time.

Estate Agents are no longer necessary, it's like PPI and claims management companies, they offer a service of convenience for a fee

boogieman

Don't forget that 1.5% will then have 20% VAT added to it. (And our local ones all quote 1.75 plus VAT.) One of the reasons we decided not to move was the thought of paying an estate agency nearly £20k. Houses round here usually shift in a fortnight so £10k a week is a nice little earner. No wonder there's three estate agencies in the small parade of shops round the corner.

Iamnobody

EA's have to make hay while the sun shines...

Iamnobody

Iamnobody;620470" said:

[quote="boogieman;620438"]Don't forget that 1.5% will then have 20% VAT added to it. (And our local ones all quote 1.75 plus VAT.) One of the reasons we decided not to move was the thought of paying an estate agency nearly £20k. Houses round here usually shift in a fortnight so £10k a week is a nice little earner. No wonder there's three estate agencies in the small parade of shops round the corner.

I'd guess most fretboarders don't live in houses worth between one and two million though so possibly not a good example?

Either that or your maths is shite...

As I said above I'd forget percentages and negotiate a fixed fee that you would be happy to pay. Obviously it's still relative to the value of the house but £20k! I can see why you wouldn't want to pay those fees.

EDIT: Although if you are based in London that's probably about right.

[/quote]

rocktron

I sold a house owned by an elderly family friend who passed away in 2013.

At first, the house was registered exclusively with a local Estate Agents. This was a house in West London, and they quoted £8000 in fees, but that figure was likely to go up to £10,000, or more. They did the usual things, of taking pictures and advertising the property, erecting a For Sale notice board outside the property, and showing prospective buyers around. However, they did not manage to find a buyer.

One day, I had house clearers in to empty the property, and a neighbour living a few doors away asked what I was doing there. When I told her that the oldboy had passed away and I was getting the property ready for sale, she said that she has a friend who was gazumped on a property in the same street, and her friend may be interested. She phoned her friend on her mobile, and later that day her friend came around to view the property and offered to buy it at the asking price straight away.

I had to inform the appointed Estate Agents that a buyer was found and they should remove the property from their advertisement displays. The, funny thing is that they placed their own Sold advertisement board in front of the property. I drove past the property several times and saw the Sold sign still there 4 months after the property was sold.

I was lucky. Two brothers had recently set up their law office in the local High Street, and promised to give me a good deal if I gave them the conveyancing job. The younger brother handled the case and did a fantastic job. I was kept informed every step of the way, and IIRC, the keys were handed over to the new owners within 4 weeks. However, the initial agreed fee of £800 went up to over £1100, due to several phone calls and e-mail communication, because the buyers solicitors were using delaying tactics, and were extremely slow. Also, I had requested that the conveyancing be expedited. 

I don't know how the www.rightmove.co.uk works, but I think that you may be able to advertise a property privately there for a fee.  

For quick conveyancing, get all your property documents ready. You must have an energy performance certificate (EPC) for your property. 

NOTE: If you are looking to dispose of furniture: I was told by the house clearers that they were not permitted to sell used furniture which did not have a fire rating, even though they looked in pristine condition. Any such furniture had to be dumped.    .        . 

boogieman

Iamnobody;620504" said:

I'd guess most fretboarders don't live in houses worth between one and two million though so possibly not a good example?

Either that or your maths is shite...

As I said above I'd forget percentages and negotiate a fixed fee that you would be happy to pay. Obviously it's still relative to the value of the house but £20k! I can see why you wouldn't want to pay those fees.

EDIT: Although if you are based in London that's probably about right.

Yeah, quite possible my maths is shite, but that's the figure the agents came up with. Actually that seems closer to 2.5% plus vat. I wonder if that was for doing it multi-agency and the 1.75 was for single agency? Whatever it's still a hell of a lot of dough and I certainly ain't paying them.

I live in Surrey, estate agents dream, nothing is anything close to what I'd call "cheap" round here. And before anyone starts sending me begging letters, it's not my house: my wife already owned it when we met.

chillidoggy

And what's all this "multi-agency" cobblers all about?

Sassafras

I'm sure a good estate agent can help you in the tricky business of house buying/selling but most of them look about 12 years old and wear cheap, flashy, shiny suits and don't know anything apart from what's written on the house details sheet.

Along my parade of shops there are 6 estate agents, 1 tesco express, 2 or 3 hair dressers and a nail bar. Not one butcher, greengrocer, hardware store or any other useful shops. I'd happily wipe out all the estate agencies if it meant we could have some decent shops in their place.

boogieman

chillidoggy;620589" said:

And what's all this "multi-agency" cobblers all about?

If you go with just one agent, rather than a load of them to shift the house quicker, they'll do you a discounted rate. Well that's what they claim anyway.

mellowsun

In a fast moving market the house will sell itself, it's when the market is slow and/or prices are falling that a good agent is worthwhile.

They'll also weed out time wasters and those not able to proceed.

'Undervaluing' a house in a rising market can be a good strategy as it generates interest and the final sale price may end up exceeding a higher, initial valuation.

There are plenty of houses sitting on the market with no interest because the asking price is too high and buyers don't want to offend the seller with a more 'realistic' offer.

Loads of reductions on rightmove atm even in London because some sellers and agents are pricing unrealistically.

midlifecrisis

If I use an agent I would offer no more than 1500 inc vat maybe less fuck all this 1% bollocks. May do it myself. .I understand I need an epc certificate about 50quid. Private people can't advertise on zoopla or rightmovr but you can go on other sites that can for about 150. Will give it a go