Selling a house privately : Mon Jun 01, 2015 5:37 pm  

I'm currently in the process of putting the wheels in motion to sell a house and I'm considering bypassing the estate agents and selling privately. I was wondering if anybody on here has had any previous experience selling their house privately, or had any advice they could offer.
I've done a little bit of research and it seems doable, and obviously is cheaper in the financial sense, but I thought it maybe a good idea to seek out some advice from people who may have "been there, done that".

Re: Selling a house privately : Mon Jun 01, 2015 7:36 pm  

Assuming that you're not doing all the legal work too then just stick a sign in your front garden with your phone number on it and prepare to be inconvenienced for a period of time lasting from weeks to years, you'll be relying on drive-pasts for marketing unless you're going to pay someone to advertise it (in which case use an estate agent) and it might work out well for you if its in a popular in-demand area, if its not then, well, enjoy the wait.

If you are even thinking of doing the legal work yourself then get a quote for a professional to do it, conveyancing is cheap and its barely worth taking the time to read up on it, its by far the smallest part of your bill for selling the house other than making a sign out of an old cardboard box so don't scrimp on this part, its not worth it.

Re: Selling a house privately : Tue Jun 02, 2015 10:25 am  

I'm already in the process of putting the sign up and no I shall not be doing the legal work myself - I've managed to get a decent quote from a solicitor.

It's a 3 bedroom semi not far from Garforth train station so I don't think I'll have any problems getting offers in, I've also considered an online estate agent, who charge between £300-£600 depending on what services you want them to carry out.

Re: Selling a house privately : Tue Jun 02, 2015 11:15 am  

The obvious question - to which you will never know the answer whether you use an agent or not - is, how much will you pocket, net, from the sale? E.g. you might pay £500 to an agent, but he might find you that buyer that will pay £600 more than anyone else, which buyer you might not have found?

Personally, I would say it would be worth using the services of an agent even if you did lose out a few hundred, as it would be worth it for them having to deal with the stream of knobheads and timewasters and no-hopers that you will otherwise have to field yourself.

Re: Selling a house privately : Tue Jun 02, 2015 11:21 am  

Sounds like you've got it covered, popular area, will attract drive-past viewings, as long as you're prepared for the slight inconvenience of having to deal with all of the enquiries yourself then go for it.

The trend these days seems to be for estate agents to be a bit more hands on than they were when we moved house seven years ago, back then they were no more than a window to advertise in, now most of the clients that my daughter handles at her employers tend to go for accompanied viewings and when a sale is agreed they have to follow each stage and negotiate between each of the participants a lot more than I remember - thats something that you'll have to keep on top of even though you have a solicitor "supposedly" doing the job for you.

Re: Selling a house privately : Tue Jun 02, 2015 4:12 pm  

JerryChicken wrote:

Sounds like you've got it covered, popular area, will attract drive-past viewings..

Not so many if he lives in a cul-de-sac

Re: Selling a house privately : Tue Jun 02, 2015 4:58 pm  

Montague Crescents nice

Re: Selling a house privately : Tue Jun 02, 2015 6:23 pm  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

Not so many if he lives in a cul-de-sac

Oh I don't know, Coronation St is a cul-de-sac but they've got a thriving grocers shop and newspaper shop at the far end of it.

Re: Selling a house privately : Tue Jun 02, 2015 9:38 pm  

JerryChicken wrote:

Oh I don't know, Coronation St is a cul-de-sac but they've got a thriving grocers shop and newspaper shop at the far end of it.

And the brand new and expensive Coronation Street set might be moving again soon because some daft twonk failed to notice the great big bloody metrolink track next door which means filming grinds to a halt every few minutes.