Estate agents - not needed

[dairyfairy21]

With the coverage you get on the internet, is there a need for Estate Agents when SELLING your home?

I understand using / affording a buying agent but if you want to sell.. this is what happened to me:

I sold my home myself -

Prior to this decision, for guidance I had an estate agent value my flat for 440k.

I used a small unheard of website that was free to use for 3 months AND they listed on rightmove but I had to do the pictures, floor plan, description, the pricing and I did the viewings.

I priced my flat at £600k and it sold within 3 months. In my case, the valuation from the agents would have lost me over 100k!

Going forward. Is there a need for anestate agent when selling? Especially with the coverage you get on TikTok / Instagram these days.

Personally, I'd much rather the sellers have the control and take the viewings.

No one knows your own home better than you.

I’m the opposite with viewings - I’d really rather leave it to someone else, and when we were buying I really hated being shown round by the owner.

Most people use estate agents to get their property on Rightmove as you can't list it there yourself (that's my understanding anyway). How did you get a website to do it for you for free when they have to pay Righmove to advertise property on there?

It sounds like it worked for you and it for others too. Using an estate agent does draw it's own admistrative benefits like them sorting out the listing, viewing etc, they also have access to clients who might be interested in your home. I'd say there are benefits to both, I think it's still a profession we need.

I dunno I was reluctant to even try to sell my apartment and Wards sold it in one day. Now moving to my dream house and all I had to do was take myself shopping for the day whilst they did viewings. I know this is rare though! We seemed to have a particularly good branch, all the staff had been fantastic.

I presume most people don’t know of this small, unheard-of website which lists a private seller’s property on Rightmove free of charge, which is the biggest drawback for most people. Can you share the details of this company? (And offer them the helpful feedback that they’re small and unheard-of and need better marketing and PR!)

Equally, for many people doing their own viewings is a time consuming and expensive commitment: it’s not viable if you have to take a morning or afternoon off work, or don’t want to spend your weekends waiting in at home. Plus as a buyer, I take what a seller says about what they want to sell with a pinch of salt, I don’t see it as a benefit especially.

But you used an estate agent to initially value your property and you don’t see a need for estate agents ?

We similarly used an EA to sell our last property and they sold it - at the price we wanted - within 24 hours. We had already moved 2 hours' drive away so couldn't have done the viewings ourselves if we'd wanted to (and we didn't - I hated doing that, years ago).

Fucking wish they could sell mine! We’ve had one viewing and two last minute cancellations since we signed up with them in February

Ita weird isn't it! If I'd read the ops post a year ago I'd have been more reluctant as I listed it then too and we went months without a drip of interest. I suppose it only takes one person buying it for it to sell quickly though, although I had a lot of viewings for all I know they may have all thought it was a hole and this one couple loved it haha

Love this! I don't know what I'd say to sell mine tbh it's very basic and just what you get on the tin

I think the opposite. I don’t need an agent to help me buy, I know what I want.

I’m not a salesperson though so I need an agent to help me sell and manage the sales process.

But that said I wouldn’t view a property that wasn’t listed on Rightmove or Zoopla, so that does require the seller has an agent.

I’m selling a house just now and not using an estate agent. I don’t see the point in paying them to do something I can do myself

We bought via Purplebricks and the vendor did all the upfront work - took pics and sent off measurements for a floor plan, did the viewings and we negotiated the price with him directly (something that made us so uncomfortable that I would never buy without a proper agent to do that with) so there wasn't an estate agent really, only a portal and a very unhelpful call centre.

When we sold, we had a very pro-active agent who only needed to do one viewing to agree a sale, but he then did all the to-ing and fro-ing, chased the chain, handled hiccups, followed up to make sure things were done when they were supposed to. It is not just the viewings, it is everything that they do after where they earn their fee.

@Sue152 @ComtesseDeSpair

It was a couple of years ago and I used a website called 99 Home for my flat in the UK.

For my Villa in Spain I didn't use anything other than a Facebook page I made, uploaded photos with Tags and buying agents found it for their clients / people searching for homes found via the tags.

If I ever have to go through the process again I think you've inspired me to look around before using agents! Thabk you:) tbh I didn't even know there was a choice.

I wouldn’t buy from someone without an EA.

So you used an estate agent (albeit one that offers a basic package where you do the photos and viewings) and then say that people don't need to use an estate agent

I sold using an online agent and the actually selling/showing people round was fine, but when things got complicated during the conveyancing process and buyers wanted money off for surveys etc it became a right pain in the arse having to do all the negotiating directly. Wouldn't do it again.

A good Estate Agent really earns their money AFTER an offer has been received.

It's often incredible stressful and a rocky road to get from offer to completion. The really really good ones will guide you, glue chains together of fix links, and save you a tonne of stress here (you'll still have stress - there will just be less of it).

If you do choose an EA, it's their sales progression process that you really want to be clear on,

99Home: Online Estate Agents 😂

What do you mean you understand using a buying agent?

Why would anybody use an estate agent when buying?

You use estate agents when selling.

I do partly believe that most houses will sell themselves; but they do need to be on Rightmove to do this, and and estate agent is only way to do this.

And I see so many Purple Bricks properties languishing on the market.

Estate agents charge in the region of 0.75% and I think that's reasonable. Don't understand why you wouldn't.

Some of the more established estate agents are able to sell your home before it has to even go on the usual websites though, they work through their list of clients. So yes they earn their money.

Fair point. Our last place wasn’t even advertised - it was sold before we had the photos done to someone the agent already knew was looking.

I agree.

i personally don’t /havent needed one to buy or sell and they have very little value add generally speaking