Boost II

iTrader: (1)

Seems like they want anywhere in the region of £2500 - £4500 plus VAT to basically stick an add in the local rag and stick another on rightmove.co.uk. There are loads to choose from and people we speakto locally have horror stories about all of them - giving keys out to punters unaccompanied, leaving door unlocked for 2 weeks when nobody was in etc etc. Any we have used as buyers have shown no enthusiasm to any houses we have looked at and also often not had keys available to let us in etc. To be honest our house *should* more or less sell itself if we can get people looking. It is a new build on a pleasant estate in more or less mint condition so you either want that sort of thing and like it or you don't bother looking. Can't see really what the agent chavs are doing that deserves £5 k of my hard earned. Had 4 valuations and they were all more or less are the same and what we were expecting so that issue seems clear cut too. What does the smart man do to sell the house without having his pants pulled down

davegtt

Firstly a smart man shouldnt need to ask

Secondly do exactly what an estate agents would do. Advertise it yourself. get down the local rag and ask to place an advertisement stick a mobile number on it and away you go who needs a middle man?

Tiggs

Pic a firm that a friend neighbour has used and liked...pay about 1%

if all you want them to do is stick an add in the paper......do it yourself.

Account deleted by request

Such a short sighted view...most people seem to hold.

Don't you see the hidden costs an estate agent has like every other business, premises (rent/lease), cars, staff, printing and advertising, boards etc....same as any business it isn't as simple as just sticking an advert in the local rag.

Do what I do, get to know your agent...I sell a fair bit of property, always pay 1% (which isn't cheap where I am) and I get a top service...I also know they get top money for my houses.

Do you really think a home made for sale board and an 1 advert will give you exposure to the full market?????

chopper

Account deleted by request

P.s advice - Look for floor plans, quality photos, clear advertising in local paper (ie how many houses the agent has on a page), clarity of their website, position of office in town centre, how friendly are the staff to YOU?? Remember you could be a prospective buyer walking in and if you don't get treated properly nor will they.

chopper

angrynorth

Hang on about 5 weeks and email me

Seriously.

scoob_babe

Have you looked around your area to see which estate agents similar properties are using? When we sold the flat, we saw that most were being sold through 2 estate agents so we used one of them. Didn't have too many problems with them, they were worth the fee when I remember how much chasing around they did on our behalf when the our buyer's dopey solicitor wasn't advising properly!

Buckrogers

£4,000 to some wide boys in suits makes you want to chunder...

Sell it yourself. Put three of four good pictures on half of a page in the local rag (on property day), cost around £150. (My friend has done this 4/5 times now and has always sold the property.)

Speak to your solictor for advise on what else you will need to do, which is not a lot. The buyer has to do most of the work.

Good luck


Buck

Boost II

iTrader: (1)

Finding it hard to get them down to 1% - a few have said they won't even bother coming out to do a valuation if that's all I'll go for. Strange since there is loads of competition but they must be wise to people playing one off against another. Also these famous %ages seem to be excluding VAT which bumps it up again.

Are there any websites you can put your own property on. I remember a few years ago one was launched and there were news stories heralding the end of estate agents (sadly that never happened)

I just thought to begin with, pick any old one - but speaking to the neighbours is putting me off. The only one people are consistently recommending as being good is the one charging nearly 2 % and wont budge on it.

Advertising in the local rag myself i a sensible idea but the majority of properties near me are sold to people from outside the local area - internet is the way forward I think.

chris's scooby

I think there's a site linked to the Channel 4 website that allows private sellers to advertise there properties.

Go for an agent with good local advertising. If you pay peanuts you get monkeys..

gareth123

Sell it yourself. Don't give the parasitic turds any of your hardearned. Register the address as a domain, www.123StationRoad.com, or whatever, and put some good pictures up. Maybe a link to a little digital movie 'virtual tour'. Advertise the URL in the local paper. Much better than a grubby photocopy with splodges of hair gel on it.

CLSII

We haggled when we sold about 4 years ago. Sold the house for 179k. We got several reputable estate agents to value the house chose the best and put it to them that we would prefer to use them and asked what they could do discount wise. Cost £1000.

Ironically we found a buyer via someone we knew ourselves who then used our agent to purchase the house. I felt at the time we could have probably saved the £1000 but the buyer was much happier to deal with an agent.

When it's a sellers market I'd do it myself in future but when its a buyers market a good estate agent can make all the difference as we found out selling our first house. First agents didn't even get anyone to view our house in four months. Changed agency to a much better one and had 12 viewings and a sale within the month.

Huw Jorgan

If you choose an agent based on the lowest fee don't be surprised if you get crap service. Speak to the agents in your area to find out what level of service they offer. Do the agents expect you to do some or all of the viewings? Will you get constructive feedback after the viewings? How will the property be advertised? Is it going to be in an advert with 50 other houses or will it be in a clearer format? Will it be advertised every week & flogged to death or will it be advertised on a rotational basis of every couple of weeks so that it is kept fresh in the buying public's eye? Which web sites will it be going on & will there be virtual tours & floor plans? Is the agent a member of the NAEA or Ombudsman scheme, members of these joined schemes have a strict code of conduct by which they have to comply. Once a sale has been agreed, how often will the agent chase the progression of the sale? Is the agent offering No Sale No Fee terms, bear in mind that if they are, everything they do for you in terms of advertising, time spent on sales/chasing deals through etc is free of charge up until the exchange of contracts. Get the answers to these questions, then ask what fees they charge, then you can make a decision.

If the agent that is being recommended to you is the most expensive, what does this tell you? Quality service costs. Speak to the agent and see what timescale they think they can sell your house in, if they say 6-8 weeks see if they will agree to a reduction in fee if it takes longer to sell.

Diesel

Getting them down to 1% is very difficult - unless you are selling worth over £500k. I got one down to 1.25% but went with the 1.5% guy after basic research posing as a punter; also they didnt have any spotty yoof in suits at the office. They were proper experienced grown ups that spoke with confidence not bull**** - important if we are mentioning underpinning...

They are currently working hard for their generous £6k. In fact, much harder than any Audi dealer selling an RS4 for £55k and making the same amount

I had a new perspective after naking the above comparison...[and i'm tight]

D