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!

I think you’ll struggle to sell it without advertising on Zoopla etc

OP I can see where you’re coming from. I’m a very private person and people asking me about things and me feeling I have to justify things would make me feel uncomfortable. I’m dreading selling our house just because it’s part of me being laid bare online I suppose! These obviously may not be the reasons you wish to keep it private.

People saying that other people don’t care etc doesn’t help if this is how you feel about it.

I would say if you aren’t in a huge rush to sell there’s no harm in trying it the way you’re thinking of? It would be different if you desperately needed it sold.

It may end up becoming common knowledge anyway though just from people maybe viewing and telling others.

Well if it's a small place (sounds like it) then the buyer may well know one of those gossips and they still find out, even if the agent finds the buyer. Also the horse is sort of bolted as you've been on the market before - they all KNOW you want to leave the area .

Both DH and I private people, but if I was trying to move there is no way I would cut my nose off to spite my face and not have it advertised online.

Footfall in estate agents has reduced drastcally, and even more so during the pandemic. People don't often sign up with estate agents these days, unless they are moving to a completely new area. They usually just look online.

I think you are massively overthinking this and I really don't think people are as interested in you as you think they are. Although the cloak and dagger way you are going about trying to sell your house will garner more unhealthy interest because they will think you odd or have something to hide. (I speak from experience because I used to have a boss who was obsessively secretive. As a result he was talked about a lot)

A neighbour did this - although they were quite open to us and others on the street about it.
We happened to have the same agent round to value ours at the same time and he told us about it too. It was something to do with trying to achieve a high price (the agent said around £200k less would be more realistic). He got the price he wanted, but think it took 4-6 months to get the sale.