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3 Best Tips to Sell Your Property Without an Agent

When anyone needed to sell their property, they went to an estate agent. This has been the historic norm. This is how people believed is the only way to sell their house efficiently.

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.

The only problem is that estate agents can charge £5000 (or more) for very little work, if any at all that most people are capable of doing themselves. Most agents charge in the region of 3% plus govt taxes.

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.

Many people believe that agents are trained to handle the buyer better. They know how to find the buyer to start with, then handle them well to get to the desired conclusion of selling the property and getting you the cash.

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.

Next day a potential buyer saw the board, phoned the agent to make an appointment. Agent called the seller and then phoned back the buyer with time he should visit the property. Buyer went to see the house but agent did not turn up. Seller showed around the house. Buyer went back twice more to view the house without the agent. He also discussed the offer with the seller and ended up buying the house.

During all this, estate agent never accompany the buyer. In fact buyer never saw him, and spoke to him a few times. But agent still pocketed a few thousand pounds for his ‘troubles’ Seller was not looking to sell the property fast but that is what he got, without trying.

I know of many such stories. From this I know that many agents do not do enough to earn their money, unlike the most of us.

Do agents know some thing that you do not? There are only two advantages that agents enjoy above you – where to find a buyer and how to handle him or her. In fact, handling a buyer is not much of a big issue because many also want to deal with sellers directly – that way they can buy the property cheaply by sharing the savings by cutting out the agent.

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

- Find websites and advertise your property there

- Search for a private buyer. They are easier to find then you think.

- Look for some one who you can sell the property to for cash in weeks .

Think of places where buyers hang around – it could be your local paper’s property section or they could be searching on Internet or property 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.