[Closed] Selling your own house without an Estate Agent

Yeah, I bought mine without estate agents I'm in Scotland though. Felt good to avoid the fees. Can't help but feel I won out of it though.

I would have thought you'd be better employing an agent given the current market. You'd be getting much more for it on the open market..

I'd at least get a few round for a comparison on valuations.

Estate Agent marketplace has evolved a lot in the last five years with the principal aim being to get the property on Rightmove. As such you'll find various 'online' providers who will offer cut down services and preferable fee structures that may save you a load of headache without the high costs. Have a read of this (dated 2020) but I'm sure there are loads of similar articles - https://www.which.co.uk/money/mortgages-and-property/home-movers/selling-a-house/online-estate-agents-ar2jr0g705uu

Get some valuations and quotes.

Locally there's a lot of competition and agents are only charging 0.5%, but I know that's not the case in all areas.

If someone will give you a price you are happy with, it's easy to sell without an agent. I did it when I sold my last place.

But can you market it yourself, field queries and facilitate viewings?

I nearly sold a property privately as I didn't want to pay an agent. I just put a sign up, anyway, local buyers know all the issues so I accepted what I was happy getting. Then the buyer disappeared so I gave it to agent, he sold it for quite a lot more and I didn't have to do anything.

The issues the locals knew about were the lack of sun and a fairly busy road. The later buyer was from out of town and didn't even ask about the sun, or the road for that matter.

Yes I can sort all the viewings etc and marketing seems to be almost irrelevant as the bush telegraph seems to throw plenty of people expressing interest.

I sold mine to a man in the pub. Can you negotiate? If so, crack on see if your get any action, if not then take it to an agent.

Can I negotiate? I got a parking clamp taken off for free once!

We bought our house without an agent (used one to sell the old house). We agreed a price with the owner informally and then both instructed solicitors to get on with it at agreed price. Usual few weeks of solicitors and banks doing their thing (or procrastinating their usual fashion) then all went through.

It does potentially limit the pool of buyers if it doesn't go on rightmove / zoopla / whatever and agents can find better prices but equally sometimes do deals with people 'in the trade' to get them good deals not you the seller. If you're happy with the price you can get then it works fine provided your solicitor get on with it (agents can do a lot of chasing lazy legals).

We bought our house without an agent (used one to sell the old house). We agreed a price with the owner informally and then both instructed solicitors to get on with it at agreed price. Usual few weeks of solicitors and banks doing their thing (or procrastinating their usual fashion) then all went through.

Same here, private sale.

Yes I can sort all the viewings etc and marketing seems to be almost irrelevant as the bush telegraph seems to throw plenty of people expressing interest.

Those are people all hoping for a bargain! At the very least they hope if you save £2k fees they'll pay £2k less - more likely they think if you don't list through an agent they have clear run to give you an offer below current market craziness.

Its a small bungalow in a popular Devon village.

I'd not be surprised if some of them suggest it would be better to sell to a local so it doesn't become yet another holiday home ruining the character of the village. There is of course some merit in that - but not financially!

We’d thought about keeping it but its just to far for the family to really use it on a regular basis.

Do you have a plan for the cash? If not then renting it could actually be a better way to make money. A friend sold a property they inherited. 10 yrs later they said it was the biggest mistake they made - kids are now an age where that sort of holiday would suit them better, AirBnB would have made it easy, Nest and similar tech would have made remote monitoring simple... they couldn't afford to buy in back now...

We've just sold my MIL's house (probate).

Don't underestimate how long it'll take to get the probate sorted as they've changed the .systems'...

Based on our experience, the legal issues far outweighed any estate agent issues.

its just to far for the family to really use it on a regular basis.

If it's too far away for you, how are you going to handle viewings?

Coming back to the interest from locals - when we sold my MiL's house last year (in a popular Derbyshire village) loads of locals expressed interest before it went on the market as they could see us clearing it out over a few months. When it went on the market not a single one came to view and it went for a lot more than we thought.

They were all after it cheap as they thought just knowing my late MiL for years entitled them to a hefty discount.

Sold our first house using the for sale section of my then works Intranet.

Its not that hard - especially if its easy to value. Ours was a 2 bed terrace with loads around on the market so very easy to establish what it was worth. The buyer had put a bid in on one on an a nearby rd but ours was a bit nicer. One viewing done by me and the price agreed was the asking price. It was a classic first time buyer house so we didn't get to deep in to ability to complete - that is a big factor for higher up the food chain.

Thanks people, you've raised some really interesting points. So a couple of responses that might clarify things.
Had some valuations done and daughter works for a national company that collates housing data so we know we're in the right ballpark.
With regard to viewings I'll stay there as I can work remotely and there are trusted/capable friends who are willing and able to step in if I can't be there.
The village is lovely but (not on the sea or a tourist trap) it appears that its locals moving in from the surrounding the areas. It has the potential to be a retirement or first time buyer house in region of £280/£290k and similar houses have only been on for a week.
There are mixed messages for probate timescales at the moment (from a solicitor friend and others who have had to go through the process recently) with 4 months to 3 weeks quoted. As mum's finances were simple and I'm the only beneficiary I'm hopeful.
I think we'll give it a go and at the slightest sign of difficulty go down the traditional route.
What to do with the money is a huge question - coke and hookers obviously. We had considered renting it out/ABA etc as well but have come to the conclusion that we will probably get rental property near us just for convenience.

To be honest - in the current market its worth getting an agent. They will likely charge you 3 or 4 grand. But in this market I would expect them to be able to sell it for that much more than you can, i.e you might accept £290k or less but they will have 2 or 3 people on the books who would go up to £295. So that is the fee covered. You just give them the keys and let them get on with it. And they will be much better at filtering out those who can't see it through.

Yes I can sort all the viewings etc and marketing seems to be almost irrelevant as the bush telegraph seems to throw plenty of people expressing interest.

They will want it cheap

Add 15% to the going rate and expect to be haggled down. They'll hate you but you aren't going back