Is there a way of selling a house 'quietly'?

[BeautifulMaudOHara]

We are considering selling and don't want to put the house on the open market, mainly as we don't want nosy neighbours booking viewings, which is likely given the location and the type of house.

Is there such a thing as a quiet sale with the property not on Rightmove etc?

[situatedknowledge]

We considered it with our last move for the same reason. Savills assured us they could be as discrete as possible, but in the end we went with the local solicitors (Scotland, and not a Rightmove area anyway) and just got the solicitor to weed out the waste of timers. Only one got through in the end, and they were vile. I'd have happily just showed them round if they'd just said they only wanted a look. When we've asked about doing that in England, the estate agents were really reluctant.

[LuckySantangelo1]

Yes my neighbour did this. She didn't have it marketed online at all, no for sale sign. Just details showing in the window of the EA and the estate agents sent details out to the people on their books.

[JaneAustinAllegro]

we did this - not even anything in the window of the agent. They went to people who they thought woudl like it. First one through the door bought. People get a bit of a giddy high when they think they're getting something exclusive / pre or off market

[GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER]

I would have thought that most people do their initial looking online nowadays, so if you don't have it there wouldn't that put you at a disadvantage? Having said that, a lot will depend on how sought-after the area and type of house are. In some areas I know agents will have a waiting list of clients wanting X type of house in Y area.

Of course I am nosy, but I often check online sites to see what's for sale locally, and how much it's going for (not to mention nethouseprices later to see how much it actually sold for!) even though I'm not buying or selling ATM, but I certainly wouldn't book a viewing just for a good old nose. The photos and floor plan are usually enough.😀

[whois]

I would probably think there was somehting wrong, like issues with the neighbours if a house wasn't being activly marketed.

[BeautifulMaudOHara]

Thank you for these replies, I have spoken to a local property search agent in the past and they market houses off line so maybe I'll speak to her.

[BeautifulMaudOHara]

There's no neighbour issue, it's very detached

[CodyKing]

It means your estate agent will actively seek buyers for you - worth a try

Ask - how many people do you have looking for this type of house etc

[AlpacaLypse]

IME a fair number of more expensive, desirable properties never make it onto the main books, as the poshest agents will have a list of interested wealthy cash buyers.

[Want2bSupermum]

It depends on the type of property. For anything north of £2 million in the north west I think it's pointless to advertise online. People in that sort of budget need to be preapproved before viewing. With London id think about £10 million and above would be offline.

[Queenbean]

Is this because you have an enormous house or you're famous?

In which case, YABVVVVU not to give us a sneaky look!

[PippaFawcett]

We got offered the chance to view a house before it went on RightMove etc as we were on the EA's list of people looking in a sought after area. We went along and didn't buy it but it is certainly possible.

[PropertyWidow]

Use a finding agent. I'm assuming it's of a higher value? That's what we do. Then only people serious and on their books already will be informed. You can pre-screen viewers with some too.

[BluePitchFork]

the house we bought was only on the ea books.
we were shown it because we asked to view a similar house in the area that was advertised.

[BeautifulMaudOHara]

Thank you, this is helpful everyone

No link no way!

[HopeArden]

I was really surprised to discover that the whole history of a house (purchase prices and dates etc) are available online. I don't ever recall anyone asking me if I want that info to be available to any nosy person who looks.

[gladisgood]

I think most of the big agents in your area will have a list of buyers they know are looking for a certain type of property.
I'm looking for an equestrian property - so if anything came up near me, they wouldn't need to market it, unless the seller wanted to!

[BeautifulMaudOHara]

Quite, hopearden!

[Nepotism]

HopeArden I know someone who's managed to get the info removed from the Land Registry site which is where Zoopla and co get their info. I'm dying to ask how she did it but then she'll know I've been nosing!

[scarlets]

My estate agent friend is selling a household-name sportsperson's house in that way ie targeting interested parties who can afford it (and they must prove affordability before viewing rather than at the offer stage). If your house is relatively expensive I'm sure that an agent would sell it quietly for you given that the commission would be substantial.

[Want2bSupermum]

glad where in the country are you? I know someone thinking about selling. Ménage and stables plus a couple of acres. The stables are heated (yes the stables are better than the house IMO) and has proper storage area plus bathroom and washing machine.

[LuckySantangelo1]

HopeArden it's public information & has been since 1990. You can't opt out of having it accessible.

[AnonymousBird]

OP - We sold silently - we had exchanged contracts before anyone knew other than PIL's (and that's only because we chose to tell them). Kids sworn to secrecy and to their credit, they stuck to it!

Our agent simply made a few calls, first viewing bought it, so we didn't have trails of people coming and going to tip off neighbours that something was going on.

It was fabulous and made the whole things SO much less stressful because no one was asking about how it was going.

Oh, and we negotiated a MUCH lower percentage fee by the way as they had no marketing costs and we all knew they wouldn't have to do a huge amount to get it sold. We just needed access them to make a few calls, which they did. They were still well remunerated for what was involved!

[Panicmode1]

If you are in a desirable area, and the house is a bit special, find out who the local, well respected buying agents are - they are always keen for off market deals, and you may not even need to pay any EA fees at all as the buyer will pay the buying agent a % of the purchase price.

[AnotherPrickInTheWall]

Most of my neighbours do this, it is not in any way unusual nowadays,