To not use an estate agent?

[AltasCloud]

I'm looking to sell ASAP but can't decide whether to employ a traditional estate agent or just buy a really basic online 'package' to get advertised on Rightmove but manage the viewings myself.

I know what the house is worth, so don't need appraisals. I'm also a qualified photographer so I'd rather do the photos myself.

The question is, would you prefer viewing the house with an estate agent, or the owner?

The owner was present when I viewed this house and we swapped emails, which proved really helpful and we completed in 6 weeks thanks to our communication.

So I don't drip feed - I let out other property I have, I manage all the admin etc myself so I'm used to doing viewings. So to me it's not a big deal if the owner is there or whatever, and I'm not emotionally invested in the property at all.

But...for most people, is it a bit awkward to have the owner present?

I often wonder why people don't question estate agency fees more. I suspect it's because people who don't know much about the sector think they do a lot more than they actually do.

You're paying out of your nose for someone to make phone calls for you and chase the people who actually do the difficult part.

If you think they are interested in anything other than getting their commission in by the end of the month then more fool you.

There is absolutely no necessity at all for an estate agent within a transaction, in fact I've often seen matters proceed a lot smoother without them. They are a 'middle man', nothing more.

They are a 'middle man', nothing more.

That's my experience as a buyer, completely.

With my house purchases, the EA have been no use whatsoever and made things worse.

Aside from that, I've been on dozens of viewings and not once was an EA able to answer all my questions; really simple stuff too.

I think if I'm present then any prospective buyers would at least have honest answers from me and they can have my contact details.

It's definitely a first time buyer property; either that or a buy to let investment.

I've never sold before so it's interesting to have the replies, thank you!

We bought our house directly from the owners. We both saved money on fees.

When viewing other houses we were shown around by the owners 95% of the time, so I'm not sure what those estate agents were doing for their fees

I can only think that people who think agents don’t do anything have had very simple sales with short or non existent chains.

I disagree, but having experienced nightmare sales and ridiculous chains, I haven't seen any value added by the EA.

They do tell you they have lists of buyers waiting- if true, the same buyers will be refreshing rightmove for any new property every hour.

They do tell you they make the sale - most buyers are not that stupid that they buy a house because the EA describe it in fantasy language.

They do tell you they secure the chain and progess the chain - they do absolutely nothing, are neither trained nor allowed to be involved. Anyone can make a phone call to chase things up, and it's at bank or solicitor level that things get stuck.

EA are great to do the viewings for you, and to blame when something goes wrong, that's pretty much it.

Our estate agents have moved the chain on, hassled recalcitrant solicitors and, on one notable occasion, told the CF who tried to gazunder us the day before exchange to piss off. Worth every penny. They prove their worth after an offer’s been accepted.

I hate being shown round by the owner. You have to make polite noises while they show you round. I'm also unlikely to give my feedback when the owner asks for fear of offending them. If the house is outstanding then that's a different story, I'll sing it's praises.

I'm not too keen on purple bricks agents. I find they act like key holders and you don't get much information out of them

I think the fact that they don't really do anything of much value is the reason why people don't often complain about them.

It's easy to blame 'slow' solicitors when all you have to do is dial a number and ask them where they are up to. It's not so easy to please evrty client when you are the 'slow' solicitor having to do the actual work (and on 100s of files), staying until 9pm every night so that you can update the estate agent when they start picking their phone up again at 9am. Everything is out of the estate agents hands and it makes them blameless I guess.

@lboogy that is exactly what they are, and they're terrible at that! I heard that a house local to me on with PB had a 'viewing'. Actually, they were casing the joint and stole the car keys and subsequently the car!

Wouldn't trust them with a barge pole!

PB aren't the only online estate agents... We used Emoove (disclaimer: this was nearly 4 years ago), and were very happy with them. We paid a flat fee and our property was listed on Rightmove, Zoopla and one other site that I can't remember. As part of our package they sent someone to do photos and measure for a floorplan.

We wrote the info to go with the pictures and did all of the viewings (Emoove, co-ordinated the bookings, we gave them a list of dates/times and they booked people in then let us know who was coming and when).

Our house sold quickly - in 5 days, at over asking price, but this was in London and like I say nearly 4 years ago, the market has changed now.

Our vendors estate agents on the other hand were awful. They told outright lies to us (and we later found out to the vendors too) and couldn't answer any of our questions. They were also pretty rubbish at chasing the vendors/ their solicitors. Oh and the crowning glory was that on completion day we went to collect the keys from the estate agents at the time given by them and the person who had them wasn't there, he'd gone out for lunch (taking our keys with him - why?!?) and we had to wait nearly 45 mins for him to get back.