does selling or letting property privatly work?

[property net]

im looking into the private property market and am just wondering if a property can sale just as well privately as throw an estate agent?

ive been looking into a local site Derbyshire-Properties
they say that you can advertise your home for just £19 for 3 months

great if it works!

[sqftmag]

It's always easier to piggy-back on somebody else's marketing. If a buyer goes into an agent to look at houses he/she will view an array of options. Selling privately means that you may miss out on an audience searching for a broad range of options.

Moreover, this is about economies of scale. One person can achieve far less than a group of people banding together. Thus it is with advertising spend. One seller can achieve far less than an agent using an advertising budget pooled from various sellers.

Additionally time-scale comes into play. If you can afford to wait longer for your house to sell the private route may suit you. However, agents report that fewer offers are being made on properties. In this climate, I'd stick to traditional routes to market.
Good luck!

[cadavari]

Yes, it does work. You should try it. I do not like using estate agents. They have no incentive to sell your property for more, only to sell more properties.

[Contracts4Trade]

A few months ago I sold a property in Wales.

There were several in my area all similar in style and priced at very closely.

I went into an agent with the most properties in my street and offered him 1,000 pound bonus if he sold my house first. They put it at the top end of their price scale and I had viewings almost every day for a week before it sold. Most of the others are still for sale now.

The moral of the story is to incentivise your agent, they usually charge between 1.5% to 2%. I had made over 125k profit on the house in 6 years, but I needed it sold quickly.

I would look for the agent with the most boards in your street and apprach him. That way the buyer will see choice, but the agent will lean towards your property because he will get a nice bonus. You will also find the agent can´t do enough to help, a bit like tipping the waiter when you arrive rather then when you leave the restaurant.

[cadavari]

Yeah, you had to offer him a nice bonus in order for him to do his job! Anyway, I don't have anything against estate agents.

[Contracts4Trade]

Originally Posted by cadavari

Yeah, you had to offer him a nice bonus in order for him to do his job! Anyway, I don't have anything against estate agents.

No, I offered him a bonus to sell my house before someone elses house.

I don´t expect an agent to do any more than list my property and bring a client from time to time.

The agent commits to costs and work in anticipation of being paid. Try asking your butcher if you can eat the meat on Sunday and pay him on Monday.

Anyhow, without the incentive, another house, which was better than mine would have sold to the buyers. It was the agents silver tongue that ended in my gain and my neighbours loss. I thought it served them right for parking thier van over my gate-way for 3 years.

[dave99]

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It works in Hurghada Egypt for me - but its not very easy.
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[jessicatam]

I think it depends on the quality of the housing market in the area. In the North East, private sales seem to be doing quite well at the moment (I think everyone is scrambling to move because of the house price scares that are always in the news), but I have a friend in the Midlands who simply cannot find serious buyers off his own back.

I'm not sure about letting, though.

[sha-sl]

No, I don't think so it is possible. As you need to take some chances to do for this. As of now you can buy propertys in UK , because the prices are down and you can sell them when the prices are up. You can only do this if you are looking for an long-term investiment.

[jessicatam]

You make a good point, Sha-sl. I had read the post as asking if a currently owned property could be sold on the private market, instead of paying a fortune to get someone else to sell the house for you. On re-reading the original post, that hadn't been explicitly stated anywhere. I'm not sure now is the time to be doing short term investment either...