Have you ever sold a house yourself (no agents)?

[cambsmills]

I know that the housing market is in a fragile state, but I am seriously wondering what estate agents do for their money (at the moment potentially 3k of my cash).

Been for sale for 9 months, dropped by 24k (house is now at £125,950, so hardly expensive) Click here to view. Since putting it up for sale, hubby has a new better-paid job and commutes 110 miles a day, 6 days a week, so really need to go now. The petrol costs are swallowing up the pay rise, so can't save up for a deposit to rent nearer to where he works and daren't risk not being able to secure tenants for our house as couldn't afford both houses.

As far as I can see, all they do is draw up and send out house details, advertise on the internet and in their windows and ring you up when someone wants to come round. We do the viewings, so the actual 'selling' is done by us. I can do all that for a lot less money.

So, has anyone any experience of doing it?

[bluebedouin]

I sold a flat in Portland (Dorset) by advertising in the local paper & cards in shop windows.I had about four enquiries the first day then nothing.Out of the four only two came to view.One was a builder who immediately said he wanted it.The other was a young couple just starting out who could only get a mortgage for £40,000.the price I'd advertised was 45k.
I'd decided that I would leave the adverts for a week & then choose from the "candidates".The builder rang every day offering the full price & I explained the situation & that I'd phone him at the end of the week.He still kept phoning.Needless to say he didn't get the flat!Even if he'd been the only candidate,he still wouldn't have got it.
I'd paid £24,000 a year before so was happy with the couple having it.Obviously this was during the property boom of the eighties.
I think buyers choose estate agents as a first port of call but,the few pounds it costs to advertise in a local paper beats their fees hands down.A home made sign outside would also attract passing trade.


I would imagine my old flat would be worth a fortune now with the olympic sailing being held in the harbour!

[shezz]

I really think estate agents rip you off, i would advertise it yourself, as blue says, net, shops even newspapers, if you get a buyer that way then just hand it over to the solicitors.

all estate agents do it advertise it then show people around it, cant think of anything else

[shezz]

Read this cambs, hope you get some good ideas from it

http://property.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle2030546.ece

[cambsmills]

Shezz, I get an error message on that link.

[penny291]

We sold an house ourselves, put notice in window and was going to advertise in paper but sold it within a week, word of mouth, a friend mentioned it to a friend etc

[11thEagle]

You can sell it yourself on Proprtyladder (I think thats what it's called) who will advertise your house on thier website and you can buy things like marketing boards rtc all for a flat rate.

Warning though there was a house on the market in the street behind mine that give or take was probably in the same state mine was when i bought it (I ended up completely redecorating ours before we moved in). When we moved in it was at £130k a year ago (3 bed terrace) it finally sold a couple of months ago for 97K. Now an estate agent dont do an awfull lot ( I Know i was one briefly) BUT they do have a database of people looking to buy in the area and also advertise on the larger websites people look on (ie rightmove).

You having to do your own look arounds in disgracefull though!

[cambsmills]

We bought in 2007 so have lost on this house, but am not too bothered. The money isn't important, my husband's health is and I know how tired he is come the end of the week.

[11thEagle]

Depends on what you want if you want a (reletivly) quick sale then stay with an agent if not then go down the route of selling it yourself.

Another option is try telling your agent you are going to take it off the market with them and try someone else and see what they say, they MIGHT be willing to go in with another agent without raising thier fees. depens on how busy things are at the moment!

[Rubysafira]

I sold my house all by myself and had no intention of going through a realtor. My sis and hubby ended up buying it but I was originally going to sell it to a total stranger which still would have been easy to do.