SHOULD YOU TRY TO SELL YOUR PROPERTY YOURSELF, PRIVATELY?
There are various options available to you when you need to sell a property. You could:
- Use a local estate agency
- Use an online estate agency
- Use a ‘for sale by owner’ website
- Or simply do it yourself uterlising your personal network and with the likes of facebook/social media)
If you are going to use an agent and so incur cost, I would always suggest you use a local agent who has expert knowledge of the local market. The benefits of this are sometimes overlooked when people decide to market their property themselves or with online agents. I’ll write a blog on this another time.
So, back to the original question: Should you try to sell your property yourself, privately? The answer is both yes and no. It depends on you and what you are trying to achieve.
If you are happy for your property to be seen by only a small portion of the market, then the answer is yes.
If you’re happy for your property to potentially sell for less than it could, then the answer is yes (because you can only achieve maximum price if your property receives maximum market exposure)
If you have the time and ability to ‘successfully’ handle the whole process yourself, the answer is yes (but remember, finding a buyer is only 1/8th of the entire process)
Many people think they are saving money by doing it themselves, and in some cases they will but in most it will cost them both time and money. I recently helped a client who had been on the market with an online agency for over 12 months and paid them £360 upfront. I got involved and we sold the property for £20,000 over the £400,000 asking price after only 16 weeks. Yes the owner had to pay an estate agent £10,080 but they we’re almost £10,000 better off AND could move on… that sounds like a good deal to me.
I guess handling your own property sale is a little bit like handling your own divorce to save on lawyer fees!
If you are planning on doing it yourself, give me a shout first and I’ll give you my top do’s and don’ts.
All the best,
p.s. Would you like more impartial advice? Head on over to my FREE eGuides page by clicking here.
