Estate Agents - Selling Your House

[Admin]

Do you think Estate Agents are good value for money.  

Would you rather sell your own home?

Vote here!

[FirstTimeBuyerGuru]

The debate of whether estate agents are worth the money has been a long standing debate. It really boils down to whether a seller has the time to arrange viewings and get personally involved in the selling process. However, there's a very good argument for not using them...and that's financial! With rates at between 1 and 3% you could save thousands of pounds buy going it alone.

[Philofacts]

With the internet it is easier than ever before to sell you home yourself.
Estate Agents arrange viewings with you anyway and you have top be in etc etc
- if potential buyers do this you are just cutting out the middle man!

[FirstTimeBuyerGuru]

The other thing is, and this won't suit everybody, but the seller and owner can sit down with a cup of tea and actually agree on a price rather than this longwinded back and forth between the estate agent, buyer and vendor. Also, the estate agent isn't necessarily going to have the answer to questions that only the vendor would know.

[Philofacts]

A very good point.
The "offer tennis" of home buying and selling can be done there and then and you will KNOW it is genuine
and not just the Estate Agent trying to play both ends of against the middle.

[The Brickkicker]

I actually started up an estate agency business  years ago ....I had it for a number of years

I had houses of my own to sell and thought I could do it better than the existing agents ....that bit was true

but I couldnt make money ...and keep my morals intact ...the back handed / underhanded world of estate agencies put me off them for good

fortunatly I bought the premises and made more on the buiding than I did in 3 years of being an estate agent.

I would always advertise privately first now

You cant be ethical and be an estate agent!

[The Prophet]

There is now the selling online alternative too.
This was not an option years ago.
Most Estate Agents just put the details in their window and with Rightmove or Findaproperty and wait for a sale to get their 2.5%.
Why people dont do that themselves is a mystery to me.

[Cardiff]

You would think it was a lot easier to do it yourself now, but theres got to be a lot of hard work involved and how much people trust your valuations etc.

People keep saying its easier because of being online, but are there actually any sites out there where you can sell your house privately?

[Philofacts]

You can advertise your house for free on this forum!
In addition,  myhouseadvert.co.uk  can arrange for individuals to advertise their homes on rightmove and other online property sites.

If the valuation is not right, people will not buy.
In addition mortgage valuation will also show if a home is over valued by the current owner.

Most Estate Agents do now is advertise online anyway!