Estate agents have long been the bane of home sellers who are wary of the value of service that they, the estate agents, offer. With the proliferation of the internet (it is estimated that eighty nine percent of buyers use the internet when conducting their initial searches) and the myriad of property search engines available online it comes as no surprise that you can now sell your home yourself, cutting out the middle man - and their charges!
There are many websites dedicated to bring the private home selling market together and it is thought that last year fifty thousand homeowners sold their property privately. These sites will charge you a one off fee to advertise on their site (your property will also be featured on all the leading property search engines as well).
Selling your home privately seems to have more benefits than going through an agent, most notably the massive monetary savings that can be made from not paying the estate agents commission charges; private home selling websites point out that it is usually the home owner who sells their property as more often than not the seller ends up showing potential buyers around their property with the estate agents simply supplying possible buyers for the seller – something that the internet can now do for you.
It is possible to do both, advertising with an estate agent as well as doing it yourself, without suffering any financial penalties. This can happen so long as your contract with the estate agent specifies that they are the sole agent rather than the sole selling agent. The sole agent means that they will market your property but if you find a buyer yourself you will not have to pay their fees, a sole selling agent means that if you find a buyer yourself you will still have to pay their fees. One plus point is that the estate agent will give you a market valuation for your property – something that you’d have to work out yourself otherwise.
The one thing you will need to do before you sell is to get a
mortgage for the new property you will be buying. This of course is possible to do yourself via the internet which will also cut out the need for a
mortgage broker and thus saving yourself even more!
James Quinton is a writer based in the UK. He has had articles published worldwide. Compare
mortgages rates online.
