To not put house sale on rightmove/Zoopla etc

[cookadoodle]

Basically I’ve told estate agent I don’t want house on rightmove as would like discreet sale. The EA is saying they will find it difficult to sell without it but said they’ll try but they don’t think they’ll find anyone.

AIBU to say that surely the whole point of an EA is to find me someone to buy my house and if that’s through their books and finding potential purchasers that could still be possible? Honestly I don’t know, perhaps I’m a bit old! I’m now thinking of turning to purple bricks or something rather than pay a huge fee for just putting it on rightmove.

[WitchesWeb]

So you don't want the EA to put it on line, but you are thinking of using Purple Bricks who are online based.

[astoundedgoat]

The development where we are right now is HUGELY in demand and has been for many years, and local agents who are known to sell here DO have waiting lists for the big flats, so if I was selling this flat it would not need to go on rightmove - it would sell without advertising. In fact I spoke to an agent about it a couple of weeks ago (because want to upgrade within the development) and he nearly fell off the sofa and had two people ready to view it that weekend ALREADY, because they were on the waiting list.

However. That is massively unusual.

If your house, OP, is in a prestige or sought after location (this doesn't have to mean £££££), find out what agents usually do the selling in it and ask if they have a waiting list or people they know to be interested already.

If it's a normal house in a normal area with a normal housing market, Rightmove is how properties are sold. You can opt not to have photos online. People will either assume that it's a repossession/terrifying fixer-upper or that it's wall-to-wall clown dolls, and you might have fewer enquiries, but it might be a chance you don't mind taking.

[ALemonyPea]

I agree with your EA.

You're being hypocritical though as Purple Bricks are an online only EA, yet you don't want your EA to advertise online. Weird.

[chipsandgin]

Unless someone on their waiting list of prospective buyers happens to want your house then you’ll be unlikely to sell, even if they do you’d be likely to get a higher offer in a wider marketplace.

EA’s do have lists though - last year my parents were looking to move back to our area. We went round to register interest with the agents in town with the aim of being told when new properties were coming on the market before they go public. One agent said he had his ‘main list’ of people in a position to buy (with cash or an agreed sale in place) then his sub list, they would get details of new properties about to come on the market only after the ‘main list’ - the ‘sub list’ was for prospective buyers whose houses were on the market but hadn’t sold yet. If you didn’t meet either list criteria then he wouldn’t take your details! It is a very sought after area though - If the housing market here takes a turn though he may stop being so smug..

So - presuming you live somewhere popular to buy, there are people desperate for a house like yours to come up in your road, you have an appealing house at a fair price & the EA’s do have a list & you do sell to someone on that list then great...but otherwise you will just have to wait for that one person to walk past the EA’s window when they just happen to be looking for a house that meets your houses description! As it has been many years since that was how house hunting worked I can understand your EA’s confusion.

I know a couple of local agents - here - they will send the details out of a house coming on the market to the list they have of people looking for houses in your price range...then (within a day or two if there is no interest) put it on rightmove, always in that order to minimise marketing costs. Some houses are sold ‘off market’ - usually the ones in the very popular roads/next to the school etc.

However Rightmove is firmly established as the main marketing channel these days & is the one the 99% of buyers will be using. Also it is the only way Purple Bricks market
houses, so if it being on there is what you object to they wouldn’t be for you!

Why do you want to sell your house ‘discreetly’? My parents are in their 80’s & in the end last year sold & bought with agents using rightmove, I don’t think age is a barrier!

[MimiSunshine]

You can have a discreet advert on rightmove. Friends did this, had it online for a week or two with just a description and location as the agents assured them it would sell quickly and they had lists of people clamouring for their type of house.

Their house sold very quickly before it was fully live but if your house is a fairly big standard 3 bed 70s built semi surrounded by other bog standard 3 bed 70s built semi with a few on the market, then it’s unlikely people will be banging down your door without doing everything you can to sell it

[chocolateworshipper]

Purple Bricks are useless

[chipsandgin]

😂 at ‘wall to wall clown dolls’ - I’ve actually been to a house with the living room with every surface covered in china dolls sat side by side, hundreds of them (& the room otherwise unused & kept ‘for best’ whilst using the smaller reception room for everyday!?). Terrifying stuff!

[nornironrock]

Yeah, try and sell something by hiding it from prospective buyers.

That'll work.

Not that the OP appears to be involved after their initial post. Perhaps has hidden the thread.

[ViserionTheDragon]

YABU.

[elfofftheshelf]

There is an agent in my area who specialises in high end property, the majority of which never have a for sale sign or are listed on RightMove etc. It's a much more bespoke service, but at the end of the day, if you want to reach the widest market to sell your home, you have to treat it as a business transaction and market it as such.

[NotACleverName]

Unless one of your rooms is a dedicated BDSM room/meth lab etc I’m not seeing the issue with having your house online.

[Thewindsofchange]

We've bought three times and none of these we found on Rightmove (even though I love looking on there). First time we were walking past and saw a board outside. Second time we went round all agents in the area we were moving to and asked what they had within our brief/budget.
Third time we'd registered with agents (we'd sold and needed to find somewhere) and were told about several properties before they actually went on the market. One of which we bought. One agent actually told us that, for what we were looking for, most sold before they were openly marketed to people who they knew were looking for that type of property.
So it can happen but it depends on your area and whether your property is desirable. Otherwise you may struggle. Also this (third one) was last year when properties were moving quickly. Things have slowed down considerably.

[Hissy]

Depends on your reasoning, I know agents that offer discreet services, it's doable, but you need to find the right kind of agent for the right kind of market.

[Witchofzog]

Purple Bricks advertise all their properties on right move anyway

[Livingloving]

Yes was also going to mention it’s a dodgy market at the moment depending on where you are.

[GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER]

I'm more than a bit old, OP, and I've always looked online first since such sites were available. You can check location, floor plan, room sizes, etc. without wasting anyone's time.

IMO the days of,people registering with EAs and then waiting to hear of anything suitable are long gone. People mostly look online first, and then contact whichever EA it is.

[LagerthaTheShieldMaiden]

Whatever you decide, don't use Purple Bricks. I deal with them an awful lot through work and they are terrible. We can never get hold of the "local agents" to book viewings and when we do they are unprofessional.

[VanGoghsDog]

I'd say it depends.

The last house I sold never went on RM, in fact the EA never even wrote the details up. I chose them because they were marketing a house over the road and I saw they had about six viewings on one day, only one could buy it so I assumed they could contact the other five and offer them the viewing after mind, which is what they did and one bought mine. And I negotiated a reduced fee of .9% as s result.

If you have other similar properties nearby, go with an agent who is dealing with them.

A friend of mine recently bought a new house, I asked her to send me the RM link so I could nose around, and she said it never made it onto RM as the EA had told her about it as soon as he took the instruction.

So, it does happen. But I'd say it's a very long shot.

[headinhands]

I have no idea how someone would advertise something discretely?

[WhatToDoAboutWailmerGoneRogue]

YABVU. Estate agents don’t have “books” anymore because everyone buys their house through the internet. Nobody pops into an estate agent to give them their details; that would be pointless.

[BarbaraofSevillle]

I suppose the OPs request would only work if they have the type of house that appeals to big spenders looking for something bespoke.

There's probably a specialist estate agent service, priced accordingly, where they do still keep lists of specialist requirements, so they can match buyers and sellers.

If she's selling a 3 bed semi in the suburbs, not so much.

[Megan2018]

Estate Agents can do a discrete listing on Rightmove without a photo of the house - but only works if you are in an area with high demand.

We viewed a few houses that were listed like that - done when sellers were testing the market usually. It doesn't work if you are in an area that is struggling to sell - but you can easily sell like that if you are in an area with more demand than supply.

They put something like "Coming Soon" and a brief description of house with no photos and a guide price.

[DancingForTheDog]

We used Purple Bricks for our move last year and they were excellent. Saved us a fortune. I suppose it does depend on how good your local agent is. Ours had 30 years' experience of working for other EAs and was really proactive, helpful and professional. Conversely we've used high street previously and have received very poor service.

[Megan2018]

Oh - and Purple bricks are horrific to deal with IME. They cover such a huge area and had no idea about our village or how to describe it - their only knowledge came from a sold house price list for the first part of our postcode (which covers a huge rural area including some rough ex mining villages where property is dirt cheap and some uber pricey market towns with London commuters). Their valuation was out by £100k.

We used a traditional agent and sold within 3 weeks and only paid 0.75% commission. Just shop about for a good deal!

[Lemondrizzlecake1]

If a house was't on rightmove/zoopla when we were looking we wouldn't have seen it. People don't go peering through estate agents windows anymore. If you want to sell your house you need to advertise it for sale where people can find it easily.

Even if you didn't put it on rightmove to sell once your house does sell it will go on rightmove in the sold section with the price it sold for, the only way I think you avoid this is if you sell direct to your buyers. If you go through your estate agent you can't do this as they'll have introduced your buyer to you.