Selling your house WITHOT an estate agent

[Chichiboo]

Has anyone had success of selling their house on their own ie without an estate agent? If so how did you find it what did you do thanks x

[ytytyt]

Not done it myself but parents bought and sold three houses this way - but this was some time ago. Once a price has been agreed and lawyers appointed in theory it should proceed with few problems. The advantage of having an estate agent is that you have someone who understands the process and there is someone to shout at if it goes wrong. They can potentially get you a higher price I guess.

If I was contemplating it now I would go for something like Purple Bricks or similar so that you will get on to rightmove and other websites where most people start looking.

Other than that it depends on your attitutde to showing people around and how much time you have etc. There is nothing that estate agents do that you cant do yourself as long as you have the time and inclination.

[ytytyt]

Also buyers might feel better working with an estate agent rather than the owner - its someone who they can feel better able to ask questions of etc rather than taling directly to the owner

[Lelliebellieboo]

We almost bought a house through a FB selling group, and I know a few people locally also did the same - essentially saying "this is what I'm looking for, does anyone know anything available". I know two people where it worked very well - they saved the estate agency fees.

The house we ended up buying was through Purple Bricks. I cannot shout enough that they were HORRENDOUS to deal with as a buyer. They were unprofessional, lazy, didn't know anything - at one point I resorted to emailing them to ask if they were actively trying to cause the entire chain to collapse and their response was to genuinely ask me what the address was of the property that THEY were marketing. I cannot stress enough how awful they are to deal with.

We had so many problems with the purchase because there was no one there to communicate with us at all. Literally the only thing that kept me sane was the thought that our vendors had been motivated enough to instruct an EA, therefore, they must have wanted to move. I think if we had had the same issues and it had been through the FB group via a private seller, I would have queried whether the seller genuinely wanted to move because they hadn't even been bothered to instruct an EA....

My EA was crap at selling my house, but their after sales support was phenomenal. They constantly kept our buyer updated, they constantly chased Purple Bricks to try and get some movement, and they did everything possible to ensure that the chain remained in tact. Based on my experience, EAs should do more PR around the fact that you pay them for their post-sales activity, not just to be listed on RightMove

[LuluLefevre]

It can work well. But it really depends on the personalities involved. People behave extraordinarily- you are taking the brunt of that with no agent to mediate and drive the sale for you. It’s hard to express how stressful it can be negotiating directly over constantly changing dates with your buyer, and the rest of the chain (if there is one). Conversations about problems with the property or renegotiations based on a survey can get heated. Having sold privately before I said I’d never do it again - I’m happy to pay the agent to do all that and be there to find me a new buyer if it all goes tits up. It’s hard to put a value on peace of mind.

[LuluLefevre]

” My EA was crap at selling my house, but their after sales support was phenomenal. They constantly kept our buyer updated, they constantly chased Purple Bricks to try and get some movement, and they did everything possible to ensure that the chain remained in tact. Based on my experience, EAs should do more PR around the fact that you pay them for their post-sales activity, not just to be listed on RightMove”

[LuluLefevre]

The above 100% - it’s the after sales you are paying for. Getting it over the line is the hard bit!

[TinaYouFatLard]

I’ve seen a new website called Vencasa which claims to remove the EA and associated fees. Might be worth looking at.

[Cheesepuff1]

I've used purple bricks several times and they were fine, as the second the offer was accepted you end up dealing directly with the seller / buyer and don't need any input from the estate agent anyway. as long as the seller/buyer are proactive I never found any use for the EA

[umbel]

I do t know how helpful this is because my experience was from the other side of this. We bought our last house from a vendor who had no estate agent. They literally had a board in the garden that we spotted as we drove past. It was hard to negotiate a price face to face and when it came down to the wire just before completion and things got pressured, it was awful - I recall the vendor ringing me at the eleventh hour and threatening to pull out because our buyers had not signed their contracts before going on holiday and had then got stuck because of a natural disaster. He screamed and yelled and swore at me and I ended up crying and begging. Horrible. He came after me, not our solicitor. I’m not sure I’d buy like that again.

[Georgist]

@LuluLefevre

The above 100% - it’s the after sales you are paying for. Getting it over the line is the hard bit!

In my experience they don't do much to help post sales.

Estate agents are useful for listing online, attempting to sell to buyers on their books, conducting viewings, obtaining feedback and negotiating the price.

I think probably the hardest part of being an agent is getting a listing in the first place.

[LuluLefevre]

@Georgist - you've either had bad agents or easy sales.

I've sold privately, and tried once (and failed) to buy privately, and got the (psychological) scars. Our current sale (through an agent) has been extremely painful and I'm only relieved I haven't had to deal direct with the buyers, the last of whom ended up seeming somewhat unhinged. The agent has taken the brunt of their tempers and held everything together by keeping on top of solicitors, then fixed the chain when the original buyers walked.

Never again!

[Georgist]

[quote LuluLefevre]@Georgist - you've either had bad agents or easy sales.

I've sold privately, and tried once (and failed) to buy privately, and got the (psychological) scars. Our current sale (through an agent) has been extremely painful and I'm only relieved I haven't had to deal direct with the buyers, the last of whom ended up seeming somewhat unhinged. The agent has taken the brunt of their tempers and held everything together by keeping on top of solicitors, then fixed the chain when the original buyers walked.

Never again![/quote]
I think I've had fairly typical agents. They work very hard to get listings, quite hard to get sales, then occasionally a bit of work post-sale.

[earsup]

Yes, we did it...mum inherited a house with a sitting tenant....who refused all repairs over 50 years so house was a wreck....tenant moved out so we put a big notice in windows and front garden....we were swamped with enquiries....it went to sealed bids and got a good price...a builder bought it and did it up but lost money on the deal as he tried to sell it just as prices crashed previously.....we did get a lot of idiots tho who offered us silly money...e.g. 100k and house sold for 400k !

[terriblyangryattimes]

Yes we just did this earlier this year. You have to produce a Memorandum of Sale yourself (easy enough to find a template online) and be aware that it's you doing all the chasing of the buyer, their solicitor and so on. Honestly I'm not sure whw the estate agent who was managing the house we purchased did for our vendor! We communicated via text or call with the vendor directly and when I arrived to pick the keys up after completion they didn't even have a set 🤪

[Sandrine1982]

We are selling to our local Authority without an agent. Maybe try to find out if your LA are buying? Some of them pay close to market price...

[LadyDancealot]

I’ve sold three times privately and each went through without a hitch. The solicitors took over comms and there didn’t seem to be any gap that an agent would have filled.

[Mrsjamin]

It's likely that:

• you won't have as many viewings
• you won't have as many offers
• offers are likely to be lower
• your sale is likely not to complete

If you get a decent estate agent, you'll be more likely to sell more quickly, for a better price, and that the sale will complete successfully. There's no way I'd do a private sale unless I already knew I had a buyer. I'd also not buy a house unless it was up with a reputable estate agent. There's just too many things to go wrong otherwise.

[Muchtoomuchtodo]

A friend of mine (1) had wanted to buy on our road for ages.
Another friend (2) was selling and mentioned to be before she put it in the market with an estate agent. She’d had 3 agents round and agreed what the asking price was going to be.
I mentioned to friend 2 that friend 1 was likely to be very interested and she agreed to a viewing.
Friend 1 loved it and offered the asking price which was accepted. Both appointed their own solicitors and the sale went through smoothly.
Friend 2 saved the estate agent fees and donated them to a charity of her choice.

[Piapea]

We used an online company called 99 homes, who, for a fee of £99 listed the house with rightmove and other sites. It was super easy, we received a lot of interest and there was a bit of a bidding war between two buyers in the end. We went with a first time buyer with a bigger deposit as we thought it would be an easier process overall. Everything went smoothly and I would recommend doing it this way if there is not much of a chain to consider. If it's looking like there will be a chain, I think an EA could be invaluable in chasing up and making sure everyone completes.