Selling property but requesting no advertising?

[birdseeder]

Am I silly for pondering this?

Basically, we attempted to go on market last year, que neighbours and local mums at school going ooh, I see you have gone on the market etc...basically the local grapevine.

So I was wondering about asking our former EA to put us back on their books but not going on Rightmove and Zoopla and just relying on them doing some legwork to recommend our property to anyone already looking for a property in area

I know this will potentially make selling process longer...

Has anyone else done similar?

Thanks!

Not sure if an estate agent would be keen. They are a business after all. People do request no for sale boards though.

They can do it but it seems like you arent actually interested in selling you dont want to advertise it.

It's not just a case of it taking longer, you may not get the best price. That would be my worry.

You can just not engage with anyone who asks about it? Just politely say you don't wish to discuss it?

You could try, but ultimately Rightmove and Zoopla get thousands of hits and searches so you'd have to go on there eventually if your agent doesn't have a buyer on their books. There are loads of people like me who are just quietly looking every day at Rightmove waiting for my perfect property to come up. I haven't registered at Tons of agents, so no one would know. You would be missing a massive chunk of potential buyers.

Don't worry about what anyone else thinks about your house. You can't keep it private once it's on the market so the sooner you get comfortable with that the sooner you'll sell your property. Good luck!

I def do want to sell, I just don't want everyone knowing our business. It was ridiculous last time.

I suppose my thinking is when we were buying, the EA would mention other properties us that we had potentially not seen etc

Depends on the area if houses sell fast then it’s worth doing, my friend selling hers under the radar, the London Borough she’s in its very popular.

Why is it such a big deal if people know you’re selling?

Not the point but does it really matter if people know you want to move house? Won’t it be weirder if suddenly you move and everyone says ooh I didn’t realise and you say yeah we didn’t want anyone to know so we kept it secret? I’d talk more about that then someone just regularly selling their house!

List as normal and if anyone asks about it just say,
"Hmm, I'm sorry I can't really discuss it, what with the Royal Family and stuff... I've probably said too much already. "

@Bluntness100

Why is it such a big deal if people know you’re selling?

It's not a big deal, but we are looking to relocate away from area. I am a private person.

If it’s not a big deal just put it on as normal.

Hi, thanks for your POVs, but I really I didn't ask for opinions on why I am considering it, more other people's experiences be it for or against.

I wouldn’t recommend it, you would really reduce your interest in the property and make it take longer to sell, potentially not getting asking price. You can however ask the agent not to put a board up outside, which might be a good compromise. Your neighbours wouldn’t then know unless they trawl the internet daily.

As a potential buyer, it would make me suspicious that there is an issue if the vendor was that secretive about selling the property tbh!

And as anyone who views the property may mention it to their friends, I think it would make your life a lot easier to reconcile yourself now to the fact that people will know you are selling your house. You could come up with a phrase to say if anyone asks you about it (oh I get so stressed about it I'd rather not talk about it) and change the subject.

I think you could request no for sale board, but if you don't go on Rightmove then I think you'll struggle to sell (unless your house is utterly amazing!)

Seems a strange thing to want to do. The point of advertising is to reach a larger number of buyers. The more interest in the property the more competition, the more bidders, the higher the price.

Do you really think it would be that interesting to people? Beyond the initial queries I’m sure people would lose interest quite quickly! All you have to do is fob them off with a ‘yes, on the market, no definite plans, just going to see what happens’.

Before RM & Zoopla people would register with agents but no one does that now, they see a property online and then enquire.

So you will have one agent telling people who have enquires about a different property about your house. Does that agent even have similar properties?

You are limiting your market massively and are unlikely to achieve the best price.

We sold that way. Not on purpose though! We had 2 viewings before it ‘launched’ from very motivated buyers that were already on the agents books and 1 offered full asking price so we accepted. Depends on your agent and the demand in your area really...

I won't comment on "why" but local grapevines can be very important when you come to sell. People to spread the word. As above, not all potential buyers are signed up with agents. I am actively looking but won't sell until I see something I'm interested in.

On the plus side this would rule out people who are just looking as the estate agent will only suggest it to those who are actively seeking to buy.

Also you are paying the EA, IMO Rightmove etc has made their job so much easier. What’s wrong with them having to work to earn their commission?!

@TokyoSushi

I think you could request no for sale board, but if you don't go on Rightmove then I think you'll struggle to sell (unless your house is utterly amazing!)

I agree with this!

How easily do you think your house will sell? Every house I've looked at has come via Rightmove, I just don't think EAs work like that as much any more, or at least not well in my experience, the houses they offered were always so inappropriate, clearly just trying to meet a marketing quota. If it's an in demand house and area I suppose anything will work! Our house wasn't in demand lol.

We opted to not have a for sale sign, but needed to be online really. When people asked we just vaguely said "just seeing what we can get".

I get where you are coming from, but I would say that houses with no advertising would take longer to sell.

Could you compromise and give the estate agents a couple of weeks to see if anyone on their books wants it before resorting to advertising it?

OP people really don't care that you're selling. They're just making conversation