paulr

My retired mum wants to sell her house. She doesn't live in it atm, but the thought of selling it herself (with my help) came up.

Is it a good idea
More hassle than its worth
Anyone tried it
Do you genuinely save money, or a false economy

paulr

What sort of savings did you make?

fatscoobfella1

iTrader: (1)

You do save the estate agent fee...

Which as said is usually a % of house sale price..

Lot of estate agaents are selling houses at fixed prices now.. 2 in my local area selling at £995 all in,with no dependency on price..

Cant get around the solicitors though..

what would scooby do

yes you can

wagrain

With my last house I arranged an open day. Took out 1/4 page ads in all the local papers, had my daughter and her friends do me a mail drop, had signs up for a couple of weeks before hand etc.

Had loads of time wasters wanting a nosey, but ended up with 3 offers. Within a month we exchanged contracts!!!!

coolangatta

Yes, sold my last two UK properties myself.
Just had ads in local press, free ads in local shop/post office window and also free property sales paper (free paper, had to pay to advertise).
No probs except people turning up without notice. Sold within a few weeks each occasion.

David Lock

Who would be showing people around as you may not want your mum to be exposed to this?

Do you have a pretty realistic value for the place?

Can you borrow a website that would host piccies and details?

I wouldn't do it personally but above posters have done, so who am I to comment?

I guess you could test the market with a couple of ads to see if you get any bites? Good luck. dl

paulr

I have NTL webspace for pics and details. I was thinking of buying a domain that is the address so they remember it.

Good idea about advert in local shops.

Who does the negotiating, and are there any legal issues regarding the description of the house.

paulr

Can you pretend to be interested in selling it with an estate agent,get a valuation, then do it yourself ?

The house is worth 70k (ish) btw. Two bedroomed terrace in Cleethorpes.

PaulC72

get an agent round to value it, then don't sign up

The only legal issue I can see would be the misrepresentation of descriptions including room sizes.

David Lock

You, on behalf of your mum, do the negotiation but she will have to sign things if it gets serious. Just plaster SUBJECT TO CONTRACT on anything you write and you should be safe enough.

You must be reasonably accurate with any description and don't be tempted to exaggerate. Don't say "Immaculately Presented" if it's blindingly obvious that it could do with a coat of paint. If in doubt don't say anything. Make sure measurements are correct.

Have you investigated HIPS regulations to see if they apply?

I wouldn't get involved with agents to start with as you could come unstuck. As I posted earlier I don't think it's worth the hassle - but it's your funeral as they say dl

David Lock

Is it empty at the moment and looking a bit "tired"?

If so clear out as much clutter as you can and a few tins of magnolia on the walls and white on the ceilings will make a big difference.

If there are any threadbare carpets then I would get some cheapish neutral colour contract carpets. Won't cost too much. Keep heating on for a couple of hours to keep out the damp. And cut the grass. My apologies if you know all this already.

Everyone hates Estate Agents generally but the point is that one may have someone on their books that is looking for what you have to offer and that may just be worth their fee. dl

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

David's advice is very sound. When we sold our last house we gave every room a quick make-over. We repainted everything, removed all the clutter, chucked a load of scented candles around, threw in a few scatter cushions and well placed throws, positioned a few ornaments, hung some arty pictures, lit the fire, put the heating on and sold it in four days for full asking It took a couple of weeks to get it ship shape and only cost a few hundred quid

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

If the house is 'only' worth around £70K I would consider advertising it in the local papers as an 'investment opportunity' - could probably still get some wannabe BTL landlords interested.

AllanB

I sold my flat myself after realising the sales ability of so called estate agents was proving inadequate. No knowledge of property and areas and could not make free money seem attractive. This was proved by the only viewings they got offers from where the ones I did myself apart from one !

As I had copies of estate agents add from when it first went on the markert no HIPs pack needed, we used the same solicitor, abiet different people and it process was very smooth and saved a good chunk of cash which I passed most back to the buyer as an incentive to get completed quickly.

I really did wonder to the value of estate agents only 1 out of about 10 showed any degree of competence but then only minimal. Best thing about estate agents is the adds they stick in the papers showing off your property but so much of that can be done online now anyway.

Do some good pre-preparation about the areas, know the schools, and local ameneties and its not too hard.


AllanB



AllanB

David Lock

Interesting AllanB (both of you )

But if you had already got an agent involved they can get a bit nasty if you do it yourself as well or so I am told.

And I wonder if things have changed a bit as one would expect agents to be fighting for business in the current property climate. dl

paulr

Thanks for the advice.

SunnySideUp

Sold my house privately 22 years ago - simplicity itself.

But, I sold through an agent in 1994 when the markets were as tough as they are now - worth doing then.

Get agents in, get a price from each, select the middle price and put a board outside ..... adverts didn't work with me, but a FOR SALE Board got 3 people outbidding each other.

You not only save Estate Agent Fees - but you save VAT on those Fees.

al4x1

Or go inbetween and go for this mob

Hatched Online Estate Agents, Sell Your House Online With Hatched.co.uk Estate Agents & Save 1000's - Sell Your House With An Estate Agents Online - Hatched.co.uk, The New Way To Sell Your House With The Nationwide Estate Agents Online. Over 60 Mill

you do most of the work but they do the advertising including getting it on rightmove. In the market today when stuff is hard to sell you have to rely on luck and advertising. As said make sure its as presentable as possible and go for it

angrynorth

Selling your house on your own is OK, until you get complicated chains and tricky buyers who have cottoned onto trends like gazundering.

Personally I would go for one of the new hybrid style agents, like hatched as al4x1 mentioned or BrightSale.

The latter, BrightSale handles everything except for viewings, they also let you see everything that is going on, including how many hits your property has had, completion management updates and a few other things, it even lets you read their notes and viewer feedback so you can see what they are saying about you.

Personally I can't stand tradtional estate agents, so any alternatives are welcome.

A final point as David Lock says is to double check your contract with your agent (if you do have one) things are tight for them at the moment so many have locked down their contracts and they will chase you for a fee if they can, even if they don't sell it.