O/T Selling house

[colinz]

I know estate agents get a bad rap but they are well worth the money imo. A local independent agent will be best and some in this area are charging as little as 0.75%. 1% is still a very fair rate when you think about it. Real Estate Agents in the USA can charge 6%

(Down here it is 4% but can taper off to 2% once a certain price is hit.)

Why do you want to sell the house ? It could be the same reason why nobody want's to buy it. As Margaret Thatcher once said "You can't buck a market"

 

[Chicken Run]

Price!

 

[Spanish Seagulls]

Why don't you try using the private selling route or something like Purple Bricks. Get a few free valuations then market it via the usual channels eg Right Move. If it sells all well and good with minimal cost. If you don't swing your bat, you can't score any runs.

I just sold a house in Weymouth using a good local Estate Agent (Domvs) who sold it within a week! They have clients registered with interest in their area which is a good headstart, I know this isn't always the case, but Purple Bricks just play the numbers game to make money. They don't have an incentive, cheap yes but you can do anything they can do yourself.

 

[Mr Bridger]

Agree about purple bricks, I had them round a house I'm selling at the moment and I'm getting 24k more than they valued it at. It doesn't matter if your selling for £50k or £1m they get the same figure , so the only incentive they have a to under value and shift it quick. I spent money on mine to refurb it and believe I got a premium as everything was done, so potential buyers could move straight in. I contacted local estate agents whilst this was in progress and played them off against each other to beat each other's fees. I didn't sign any contract with them, but they started ringing me up asking if they can bring prospective buyers round to view.
The first person to see it made two offers which I refused , then eventually accepted their third offer, a 24k increase on purple bricks valuation.

 

[mikeyjh]

I just sold a house in Weymouth using a good local Estate Agent (Domvs) who sold it within a week! They have clients registered with interest in their area which is a good headstart, I know this isn't always the case, but Purple Bricks just play the numbers game to make money. They don't have an incentive, cheap yes but you can do anything they can do yourself.

Apart from getting it on to Rightmove/Zoopla - But yes, I entirely agree, that's exactly what happened when we sold end of last year. We never even put it on the open market as we weren't bothered by a quick sale and the local agent sold it....

 

[mikeyjh]

Or use several local agents to give you a rough idea on price?

Am personally aware of several sales done without any agent involved other than providing valuations.

If a property has a buyer out there, they will be found via the likes of Right Move in my experience. Most people when looking will use such media as a first port of call, rather than pop in the local estate agent and sign up on a mailing list.

Frankly, I think it all depends on what you're selling and what your expectations are, horses for courses you may say! If you're struggling to get the right viewers through the door, I'm not sure how an online agent is going to help. As others have said though, price is your main variable.

 

[tubby]

I have just sold a property in an area that was not quite what we thought and although it took 8 months we got the price that we wanted. If you're not in a hurry to sell just be patient.

 

[Chicken Run]

I have just sold a property in an area that was not quite what we thought and although it took 8 months we got the price that we wanted. If you're not in a hurry to sell just be patient.

8 months! How many different agents did you go through to complete that journey?

 

[tubby]

stayed with the same 2 agents.