Selling a house without using fan estate agent...

[Poppiesway]

Has anyone sold a house without the use of an estate agent?
A friend recently sold theirs via Facebook!! Doing their own pictures and asking people to share the post. It was sold in a day.
I've been looking at purplebricks etc and they really do seem to be better than using an estate agent. I would begrudge paying them a percentage if I could sell it myself..

So I was wondering if anyone has done this themselves ? Any hints? Tips? Or advice...

Thankyou

[lalalonglegs]

I've never sold one myself but I did the viewings for a flat I sold recently (long story) and I hated it. People were so rude and stupid - late/didn't turn up/just wanted to come inside because they'd always really been interested in that block of flats/said jaw-droppingly idiotic things. I wouldn't say I don't begrudge paying estate agents but I have a grudging admiration for their ability to put up with so many half wits and time wasters...

[ingeniousidiot]

Yes, sold my flat and my house without an estate agent. This was 15+ years agol. They don't actually do anything and charge a ridiculous fee, and I really don't know how much longer they'll exist.

HOWEVER, in both cases I had a buyer already interested, although I know somebody who sold via their own newspaper ad.

[MummaGiles]

I've heard terrible things about purplebricks, mostly on MN. Might be worth a search.

[Poppiesway]

There's tipoli (I think that's what it's called) the Sarah beeny site too.. I'll have a search of threads in here.
I guess that's how right move helps by letting people have a snout with out booking a viewing just to have a nose!!
I might try the sell in FB until I can get the epc sorted and approach an estate agent again. Although since they've valued the house they've not left me alone.. I've blocked a couple of them on my phone already.

[lalalonglegs]

The easy group (easyJet, easyBus, easyCar etc) has started easyProperty which offers to sell houses for very small (comparatively small, I suppose) fee. It might be worth investigating?

[Dobbylugs]

We have just used HouseSimple to sell. They sent professional photographer round and it went on right move. They also take the calls for you for viewings and offers but you show the people round. Whole thing was easy and we just paid an upfront fee. Fraction of the cost of an estate agent. This is the second time in 5 years we have sold using an online company and I found it much more straightforward than using an estate agent.

[GreenGoblin0]

we have just bought a house through purplebricks. They were terrible. they do the absolute bare minimum. fine perhaps if you have a straightforward purchase with no chain but you have no way of knowing that when you sell. post making our offer we had one conversation with the agent and that was it. the agent never answered his phone and the next we spoke to him was to collect our keys from him when we completed. he just handed them over from his car window! the vendor and I had to all of the chasing. I could go on and on but the bottom line is you get what you pay for and our sale very nearly fell through partly because of incorrect information given by the purplebricks agent and their total lack of input into pushing the sale through.

[GreenGoblin0]

also to add, in the last two weeks I was having almost daily phone calls with the vendor to try to get things sorted. so keep this in mind if you don't want to have to deal with your buyer directly then don't go through purplebricks.

[Fingeronthebutton]

I bought my first house through an add in the paper. When I went to view the one I have now, the EA was so late I said to the vendors " could you like to go ahead without the EA" They said ok. Everyone happy and a few £££ better off.

[Imknackeredzzz]

Estate agents "dont actually do anything?!" What an ignorant post

I work for an independent agency and we work extremely hard. We have a designated sales progressor who manages over 100 files and has pulled more sales back from the brink of collapse than I care to remember!

Try getting into an 8 link chain and managing it yourself.

God the ignorance from some people is astonishing

[HelloItsMeAgain]

I think I agree with Imknackered. Am not a big fan of estate agents in their sales patter (trying to get you to instruct them not their competitors, they interesting house descriptions) but tbh I would have not have been without them during the conveyancing process. Some (like in any profession) are crap. Some can be amazing. Check out reviews if you can, talk to neighbours who have sold. Don't just go for the best price or cheapest fees. I found here very enlightening: www.rateragent.co.uk/

[Tirfarthoin]

We sold our house without an estate agent earlier this year. It sold within a week of sticking a sign in the hedge, we didn't go online and didn't even have photos.
We got the asking price too. I wouldn't say it was stress free but nothing we couldn't handle with the help of a very good solicitor.

[Tirfarthoin]

This was not in an area where the housing market is going nuts but it was a nice part of suburbia

[Luckystar1]

My DH and I are both property lawyers so it's safe to say that on a day to day basis we have a lot of contact with agents and generally don't hold them in high regard.

However when we sold our house, we were absolutely blown away by just how much our agents did for us, they were excellent. I don't think that I would've liked to undertake what they did on my own.

[ingeniousidiot]

I'm not disputing that you go to work and do stuff, only that the stuff you do can be done by the buyer/seller and their legal agents. The fact that people can and do buy and sell without an agent proves this.

When people didn't have telephones, mobiles, cheap digital photography, easy advertising and the ability to google everything, estate agents were needed to introduce buyer to seller - it was the only way to do it.

Times change, things move on.