Do I really need an agent to sell my house?

[Saracen]

Totally new to all this, so I'm ready to be told I'm wrong!

I'm considering selling without an agent, or using an online agent who offers minimal services. This isn't just because I'm a cheapskate - though I absolutely am! - but it seems to me that an EA would actually get in the way rather than being helpful. Here's my situation:

No chain, house empty and ready to sell. There's no great hurry, so I guess if it isn't selling I could instruct an agent later.

I live locally and have time to do viewings at short notice at almost any time. I expect buyers would rather talk to the seller directly if possible. I've had the house for 25 years, so I know the house and area well.

House is nothing special, not a period property. Nobody is going to fall in love with it, but there's little to dislike either. The only obvious drawback is that it's on the main road. Decent area, not the worst or the best. So I can't see that it needs marketing beyond professional photos, floorplan and good description on Rightmove and Zoopla. Its main selling points are easy to grasp from a listing: handy location, garage plus additional parking, excellent bus service to major nearby employers, bigger than many 2 bed houses.

It's a "starter house", among the cheapest available in the area (you can buy flats cheaper, but not houses). There's a shortage of such houses at this size and price point here. Everything is 3+ beds, whereas this is a modest sized 2-bed suitable for a small family. So I think the interest will be there.

Admittedly there are a couple of plus points which can best be appreciated on viewing: first it's perfectly functional, newly decorated, and needs absolutely nothing done before you move in; second, it's bigger than it appears from the kerbside.

Am I missing something? What does an agent have to offer in this situation?

The only thing I can think of is that I imagine an EA is quite good at sussing out how proceedable a prospective buyer is. Have they arranged a mortgage in principle, what's the state of their chain, how long should I hang in waiting after an agreed sale if the buyer struggles to complete on the sale of their own house. I don't have the experience to know what sort of delays are to be expected.

Any thoughts would be most welcome!

From memory (although it may have changed) you can't add properties to right move unless you are an agent and RM is the only place I looked when searching for a house to buy.

Also, I didn't like any where the owner did the viewings as I felt pressure to say nice things about the property and didn't feel I could properly poke around it. But then I hate going into small shops/market stalls as I feel bad if I don't buy anything, so that may just be my personality

Personally I hate doing first viewings with owners instead of EAs, and I avoid online agents as I’ve heard so many horror stories about them.

Thanks! Yes, I think you have to use an agent of some sort to get onto Rightmove, but there are online agents who will facilitate listings and do very little else, so it's almost like having no agent at all. They make their money by offering add-ons such as photography - which I do want, and am open to using their photographer.

I agree with you about having the owner hovering over you! I could wait outside pottering in the garden or sit in the conservatory while they have a good look without me underfoot. There are no personal possessions or anything likely to be damaged, so I don't have to follow them around. I am actually quite emotionally detached from the property, since I moved out years ago and we've been renting it out.

It's true, I can well imagine some people would prefer to do a viewing with an agent. I've been reading the reviews of online agents and it seems to me that if I am getting minimal service from them then there's a limit to how much harm they can do! For instance, they can't fail to pass on enquiries if the enquiries are being sent straight to me anyway...

They can do harm by putting off buyers from even viewing your house.

We viewed lots of houses recently and found the owner being there very offputting, in some cases irritating as they kept jumping in with facts we neither wanted to know nor were a priority for us! I avoided the ones listed with online agents as booking viewings became more stressful, particularly when you thought you were booking with an agent and it was the owner. Some online ones book you in to view in groups as they are so overstretched following redundancy rounds.

Yes this is the issue I have with owners - that and feeling unable to nose in cupboards.

personally we didn't even consider properties with online agents or direct sellers.

a good local agent is worth it ime.

I generally prefer being shown around by the owner. I've been looking around a lot of houses over the past year and so many of the EAs don't know the house at all, haven't even stepped inside it before. Also don't know anything about the area.

I don't mind booking with an online agent either, as the ones I've used you just pick your preferred time online.

However, I've never bought a house via an online agent, so I don't know if that's where they fall down.

BTW, I did my own photos when I sold my last house, as I wasn't very impressed with the EAs.

I totally see your point BUT

1. Most people dislike dealing direct with the owner - its just awkward & hard to be upfront

2. one a price is agreed a good estate agent will be progressing everything in the background to ensure the sale actually goes through, chasing up buyers who are being too laid back with their solicitors etc, getting to the route cause of delays.

There are companies like Purple Bricks that do the estate agent bit for a set fee but in my experience after the price is agreed everything falls apart & they are more hassle than they are worth

@Saracen
We have just sold an empty 2 bed house on an estate. We had rented it out. It’s taken 6 months and a lot of effort by the agent to keep it getting views. It was competitively priced and nothing wrong with it. It’s been a lot of effort! So you don’t pay the agent merely for viewings. You pay them for communication between the parties involved. We are actually very pleased with the agent!

These days, owners rarely do viewings. When dd was buying a flat we had a guy selling via Purple Bricks do a big sell. On a tiny London flat! He personally designed the kitchen apparently. It was smaller then a shoe box! Just rubbish really. So I would pay an agent and price sensibly. Search out a good one!

I have sold without an agent, to someone in the village who heard we were thinking of moving and approached us .

It was okay. The main problem was that when the buyer started being a bit of an idiot about timing and actually putting down the deposit, it was more difficult to deal with, as we knew them and it was a small village. With an agent ( at least one who is competent, which is by no means all) we could have told them to sort it out. I think we ended up involving our solicitor more, which may have made it more expensive.

I think the main problem is reaching your potential buyers. The local newspaper etc doesn’t exist anymore….do Facebook stand in for them?

Personally, I wouldn’t bother looking at most houses with the online only agents, it shouts meanie to me and that makes me wonder what else has been skimped on. A near neighbour has had her house on for ages with first one and then the other main online agents, and she is frankly a bit batty .

DH tells me that one of them is in serious financial trouble and scouting for rescue funds, as well.

You may as well try it. But I’d avoid purple bricks like the plague. We used them to sell our flat last year and they were utterly awful.

We’re now buying via a traditional agent and so far they have been very helpful.

It might not apply to you but a friend had a 4 bed house in the catchment of a much sought after primary school. She just paid £5 to put an advert in the school newsletter. It went home in bookbags on the Friday, she had a confirmed sale by the Sunday afternoon.

I sold via Facebook local group (village), no issues

The house we are in now was up with yopa. It was an absolute pain in the arse! They were slow, didn't reply to phone calls, struggled to set up a second viewing, all over crap. The house was empty, owner had died 12m earlier. Family weren't local. When we finally got to moving day, yopa ghosted us! We couldn't get the keys! Fortunately a neighbour had a key! They rang 4 days later saying he had hurt his foot! Was unbelievable! We made them pay for new locks due to knowing others had keys that hadn't been handed in.

We would never buy from an online agent again. I know we had a particularly bad experience but I warn others too of how they can be.

Confirmed sale? She got an offer by Sunday. Far from certain until exchange of contract via the parties’ solicitors. She (presumably) has seen no evidence that the offer people have the money. She’ll also have to abide by KYC rules, identity checks and the law re money laundering so she knows their source of funds.

A good agent would have made sure that he/she had seen the buyers were serious and had the necessary finance in place (mortgage offer letter and proof their house was on the market or bank account prints if cash buyers) and evidence of legitimate source of funds.

After a nightmarish experience with a local estate agent (we caught them out in various lies to both us and to potential buyers and they tried to emotionally manipulate me on several occasions) we decided we could do better ourselves, so we sacked the estate agent and paid £100 to an online agent to simply get our house listed on RM and Zoopla. We took the photos, did the floor plan and wrote the description ourselves. All viewings were booked through the online portal and we obviously did the viewings ourselves too. Yes, it was a little bit of hassle, but not too much and it saved us an absolute fortune (£15k or something like that). We would 100% do it again.

MadeInChorley Sorry, I wasn't being clear, this was a few years ago. They agreed an offer on the Sunday, nobody else viewed the house, they sorted it out with their respective solicitors etc and the family who moved in are still there. They were friends of friends of the owner so not random strangers.

Thank you for your concern though.

An agent doesn't just 'sell' (as in, market and get an offer). They are responsible for the entire process, right until completion. Which can involve chasing your buyers, chasing solicitors, etc, Entire chains have been held together by sheer agent grit.
There are bad agents yes but a good one is worth their weight in gold.
Me personally I wouldn't go for a private sale unless it was considerably cheaper and/or I knew the vendors personally.

Thanks for all views and experiences! I appreciate it. Sounds like nearly all of you who have been buyers dislike viewings conducted by sellers, and many of those who have worked with online agents have had hassle with it.

We used an online agent who were pretty rubbish (poor photos, inaccurate details on Rightmove, viewers complained about difficulty of using online system to arrange viewings) but it was a nice house in a popular area so it didn’t really matter and we negotiated directly with our buyers and agreed a price.

And that’s when the wheels came off.

Our buyers’ buyers were first timers and behaved very badly. Their online conveyancers went AWOL. Our online agent went AWOL.

Fortunately, our vendors had used a proper estate agent and she was absolutely brilliant. If it hadn’t been for her, the whole thing would have collapsed. She talked to everyone, chivvied everyone along. She definitely earned her fee (which no one else except our vendors paid!)

When we sell next, I’m going to use them. And pay for it, this time.

I will never, never, never use an online agent again. It was so stressful.

I agree, we wanted to view a property with Yopa, booked it all online, they cancelled it whilst we were travelling to the appointment, just cancelled, no reason, no apology, no offer of an appointment on another date. Appallingly bad service. I would avoid them and PB.

We paid a lot of money when we sold our home to a local agent, who weren’t fantastic by any means, but they did sell our house, did a few viewings, negotiated for us, keep an eye on the chain, it’s just a necessary evil, if you are serious about moving. Should we move again, I would choose a local estate agent.

I think in your particular case an online estate agent could work, though I wouldn't normally recommend them. But your house is empty and you have availability to do the viewings yourself so that could work.
Make sure you choose one that will list on Rightmove and provide a floor plan - pay for professional photos.

And understand that there will be no after sales service at all so you will be the one dealing with the buyers afterwards even if things get messy or nasty like they try to lower the price after survey for example.