How to Sell Your Property Without An Agent

When most people are thinking about selling their house, they make their first and only port of call to their local estate agent. This is because they believe that estate agents are best placed to do this job and in return earn a commission.

This of course does not involve situations where seller had to sell the property fast
or had financial worries or, worst, had repossession looming . In other words, he was to sell the property through normal sale channels, and could afford to wait for a couple of months.

But the only problem was that agents charged a bundle starting at 3% + tax in UK. On a £150,000 property this could easily be almost £5300 to the seller.

But that is before such times when agents kept the ‘trade secrets’ to themselves. But now the situation is reversed. With the advent of Internet, it is possible to organise the sale of your house privately and treat yourself with the savings.

Now a days, the major advantage people list in deciding to deal with agents is their ability to find and deal with buyers. There is not any more to it, is there?

I do not think that agents are far more superior than the rest of us in their dealings. Are you good with people? If yes then that advantage should be taken care of. People buy from people. In fact some estate agents can be quite difficult to deal with too.

One thing that goes against agents is that hardly take time or effort to learn about your house. They are happy to assist you with trading an asset worth hundreds of thousands without spending enough time to learn why this house is better than, say the one down the street. Ask them – more experience they are, more convincing excuse they will come up with. The one not based on relative merit but waffle. How can they justify charging thousands in commission?

Here is a true story of what happened to a close associate. He decided to sell his house. He spoke to a few agents and decided to go with one. The agent came around to look at the house for valuation. Then he took a For Sale board out of his car and put it out side the house.

While walking in the street, a potential buyer saw the board and called the agent. Agent promptly called the seller, asked for a suitable time for the buyer to come to take a look. At appointed time, buyer went to view the house, without the agent. Sell did all the ‘charm’ bit. Then buyer went to see the house twice again, after calling the buyer direct. During these visits he discussed the offer, which was accepted. The house was sold soon after.

Agent could never make it to the property during all this time. Buyer never met the agent. But agent duly sent an invoice to the seller for his commission. Not bad work if you can get it. Seller was not looking to sell the property fast but that is what he got, without trying.

There are many such stories where agents hardly did much to earn their money. And many continue to do so.

So do not think that you do not know that an estate agent knows, or you cannot find out. Here is the fact: estate agents have an upper hand because buyers often make them their first port of call. But buyers also know that buying privately will be much cheaper than via an agent because some one has to pay their fee.

Here are some ground rules to sell your property privately:
- Advertise your property in local papers

- Advertise your property on property websites. They may include the sites where agents themselves advertise. Advertising there will cost you a fraction than what agents charge.

- Look for a private buyer

- Look for some one who can offer you to sell him your property fast for cash.

Look around you and you will see where buyers hang around. You will find them looking for a property in the relevant section of local paper. You will find them searching on search engines, on property websites or forums.

Finally, be ready to be surprised how many people will call you as long as you are willing to sell the property at market price. If you are prepared to offer them a discount by splitting the savings from estate agents, they may even shock you with their speed of decision making.

By: Gary Sherman
Credit:www.superfeature.com