Selling without an agent

[Singasongaday]

I am about to put my house on the market and wondered if there was a way of selling without using an agent. If anyone has done this successfully can you please tell me how you achieved it. Every penny counts at the moment and the agents I have spoken to regarding the sale have been wildly overpricing the house or down right pessimistic. Any advice gratefully received, including don’t do it!

I can't see it's likley you would save money overall if that's the main driver for trying to do it yourself. I would listen to the pessimistic agents as they are probably being more realistic. Better to try and negotiate down on the agents fees. A good agent will do a lot behind the scenes to get a sale through, otherwise they have wasted their time and money on it. My preference is always for the well established local agent.

A good agent will get you more for your home than their fees, so going with Strike or by yourself may be a false economy.

The best EA will price it low enough to get a lot of interest and hopefully bid the price up.

How will you market it if you sell privately? You won't be able to put your house on rightmove yourself so would need to use some form of agent to do this.

Do you understand the process of selling? Drafting a sales memo, checking someone can afford the property etc? Are you confident you can push a sale along with solicitors?

Yeah, don't do it. You need an agent to get the house to completion which is the harder bit than getting an offer.

If you think the agents are wildly overpricing the house or being overly pessimistic, remember that you don't have to accept their valuation. Maybe pick an amount you think is realistic based on other house sales in your road - somewhere between wildly optimistic and down right pessimistic and tell them that is the amount you want to market it at. They won't turn down the business even if they are doubtful.

Another vote for not doing it yourself. Apart from earning their fee by getting the best price, a good agent will vet prospective viewers to ensure they are able to proceed with the purchase, including checking their finances.

Adding to the chorus saying don't underestimate the extent to which a good agent can hold a sale together, keep it moving and ultimately get it over the line.

We sold without an estate agent but only because we sold to a family friend. We got 3 agents around to value the place then negotiated between ourselves. I know this can backfire in some cases but was smoothly done for us - maybe because we didn't have mortgages - but it saved us a few thousand. I wouldn't do it otherwise.

Sorry this isn’t the response you were looking for, OP. I am hearing figures of between 25-50% of sales collapsing at the moment. A good agent is really important to hold chains together.

Do not go with an online estate agent. Their post sales support are abysmal and honestly I can’t even get Strike on the bleeding phone to ask what the vendor’s moving position is before a viewing: it’s a call centre and every voicemail they leave me sounds like a 17 yo stoner and I can’t even understand their name. So. I am not viewing that house despite really liking it because I will have no part of a nightmare purchase.

Go with one of the pessimistic ones. They are the ones who are most clued up about the current market. Let them UNDER price your house versus recently sold ones. That’s how you get far more feet through the door and hopefully create a mini bidding war. Remember you always have the choice of refusing an offer if you think it’s too low.

And if the EA is trying to tie you into a contract of more than 8 weeks then they are a BAD EA, because they either lack the confidence to do the job or they think you are dumb enough to lock yourself in.

We're buying private now, we know owner but you do not need an estate agent. You do need good marketing so you need to think that out then you need a solicitor/ conveyancing.
Estate agents are massively over pricing in our area.

I would be using an agent but not an online agent to sell. Daughter was buying through online estate agent and it all fell through. She felt on her own when a problem came up, no support. Next house she purchased she was keen to use a traditional estate agent and when that started to fall apart the estate agent was instrumental in saving the chain from collapsing. You may find that it limits your buying pool if other people feel the same way. Think if it was a sellers market it might be a different
kettle of fish though.

Thank you, I’m taking everything on board and have arranged for two agents to come round this week with a view to getting the house on the market. Wish me luck!

Good Luck 🤞

EA's are working for you. If you want to price lower than their valuation then you instruct them to do so.

The only time an EA might refuse to take something on is if the vendor wanted to wildly overprice and not budge.

I sold my house without an estate agent. It was a village location though so not many houses coming up. Put the word out in the village that I wanted to sell. Had two sets of couples look around (children of older residents in the village) and got offers from both. Decided on the couple who was able to proceed quicker. Got the offer in writing together with name of instructed solicitor, and referred everything to my solicitor. Was really easy.

I had estate agents round to value beforehand so that I had a guide price. I ended up selling for a little less but I was happy with this given I didn’t have estate agent fees, photos, hassle with viewings.

I realise I got lucky but it can work.

Definitely do not use Purple Bricks, we had a horrible experience selling with them. I think an agent is worth it. We bought recently and I think it would have been so awkward if the sellers were doing the viewing

Have you looked at purple bricks, yopa, strike and similar online agents? They charge a flat listing fee, you do the work yourself. A lot cheaper than the percentage based models.

I have sold a house privately.

I advertised on Facebook and had tens of inboxes within the hour. I went through them and asked what position they were in. I then let one person have a viewing and they wanted to buy it! I got it valued by the estate agent the next day (without telling them my intentions) I then met the buyer in the middle and we were both happy. Smooth process. I had their mobile so we kept each other updated. They were FTB and the whole process was done in 7 weeks. Cut out the middle man and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

You wouldn’t hesitate to do it again even in the current market?

Not if you actually want to sell it.
Honestly the fact that you consider every agent you've spoken to be inaccurate re price is a red flag, they do this day in day out, use a range of tools/experience/ local knowledge of market to influence their pricing decisions. Are you similarly qualified?

Some do. Most don't. Good EA's and Bad EA's. Most of the EA's have no experience or knowledge of this type of market.

You only need to listen to EA's talking to understand that they realise they are making a big mistake listing properties at prices that are too high. See UK Property Market Stats Show on YT for more insights.

Instead of trying to do it yourself, take advantage of the highly competitive EA market, and negotiate a low commission rate and a short commitment - ideally a rolling 4 week notice period. EAs vary wildly in quality, IME, so it is important to be able to move on, if they are not being effective.

Hi there absolutely do it! I sold my house on Facebook no agent when I got divorced we had hefty mortgage exit fee to recover so decided to cut out the middle man - sold within 24 hours to first time buyers sale proceeded through in 10 weeks no problems I had the buyers direct number and would call them directly for any issues literally cuts out the to and from conversations that take forever through estate agents just make sure you have a good solicitor I think we saved around £5k which really helped good luck!

I have just sold without an agent. Used quicklister £99 to post on Rightmove and zoopla for 3 months. I did my own photos and wrote my own listing. You get an email portal via quicklister but manage own enquiries and viewings, and offers. I loved it! Would 100% recommend!

Probably the best time to sell without an agent is in a sellers market, or if you have a unique house like the village described by PP where you know there will be a number of buyers queuing up.

It's more of a buyers market now, with interest rates so high, and prices not increasing, in some cases decreasing, that you'd most likely require the value an agent can bring to your sale through introducing many genuine potential buyers and keeping the chain together as you progress to completion.