Selling Property Privately

Chaz

Curious - What are the pros / cons of selling property privately? Is it doable? Is there an element of risk?

What do estate agents normally charge for selling residential property?

Jo King

If you have to ask the question you probably should not do it.
That being said a bad agent is worse than no agent. A good agent can do the following.
1. Accurately value the property. Most owners are too optimistic.
2. Devise an appropriate marketing strategy. They know where the enquiries are likely to come from and who will be interested.
3. Show the property and engage with purchasers. It is difficult for an owner to accept criticism of his property without snapping back. It is also important to weed out messers and time-wasters.
4. Negotiate a price. Great care is needed not to put off a potential purchaser and also to know when to bring the bidding to a close.
5. Accept a deposit. Most purchasers are happier to pay a deposit to an agent.
6. Deal with solicitors after the sale starts. Sometimes agents have to ring solicitors to keep the pressure up.
Agents charge a percentage fee which varies with location. Lower in cities, lower for more expensive properties. About 2% would be typical.

loyatemu

unless you live in a town where there is only 1 estate agent, you should be able to get one for a lot less than 2%.

We paid 1% on our last sale and we had a couple of estate agents quote us 0.8%

jdivision

2 per cent is way off. ARound 1 per cent plus Vat is the norm.

Chaz

Thanks for the info - will consider the options.

tHE vAGGABOND

One word of warning, I have been looking at buying for a while now..

I have looked at several places which were being sold privately - and every single one was always a total mess when I looked at them, and one of them had not told the existing Tennant's that he was selling and they were all having their dinner etc

Also none of them had any kind of print out/brochure about the place. You don't need a full color jobbie, but a print out with dimensions and assets of the place/locality would be a great touch...

So if you do go privately - you have to act somewhat professionally

Gareth37

jdivision wrote:

2 per cent is way off. ARound 1 per cent plus Vat is the norm.

Wrong. 2% is the norm I would say with 1.5% also popular. Sherry Fitzgerald are Ireland's largest and charge 2%.


You pay Sherry F €8000 for selling a €400000 property + €500 to €900 = €9750 on average.

Now, that would buy you a lot of private ads in your local paper that would stand out a lot more than a slot in a crappy agent's add.

You can go on Self Sell, Private Seller and Sell It Yourself for a few hundred euro an get a sign from them.

I think the day for estate agents is truly gone. All they are is hair gelled, liers, scammers, spoofers etc. For what they do, which is extremely little (post your house on the Internet, stick a sign up and answer interested buyers questions) they are extremely expensive. Also, in the current market they are more inetrrested in general in selling property developers' houses.

office

Hi Chaz

Gareth37 has mentioned privateseller.ie already but if it helps we have gotten the following feedback from clients about the benefits of selling privately. The feedback is from both sellers and buyers who have sold and bought privately.

The top 5 most frequently listed benefits of selling privately have been
The Benefits of Selling Privately


• The most obvious advantage to selling privately is the savings you make on commission.
On an average house price of 300,000 euro where the commission charged is 1 ½% plus vat you will save over 5,000 euro by selling your home yourself. The higher the value of your home or the higher the commissions charged (3% in parts of the country) the more you have to save.

• The seller is in control of the entire process.
As a private seller you can show your home as often as you like. You have no other home to focus on selling, except your own. You have control over how your home is presented for a viewing as you can take the time to light the fire, turn on the lights, light candles, play background music, or perfume the kitchen with coffee or lavender, all of which creates an impression on your potential buyer. You are in control of all bids that come in and of any negotiations you may wish to make around the sale agreement.

• Selling your home yourself means that your home is being shown and sold by the expert.
Who better to provide an informed viewing of your home than you, the owner, the person who can highlight specific attractions and benefits of your home and also of your neighbourhood?

• A private seller may sell more quickly.
If you are in a hurry to sell quickly, as a private seller you may choose to price more competitively. Because you are saving thousands on commission you may decide to use some of that saving to reduce the price of your property so it sells more quickly, while still making the same (or more) profit as selling at a higher price through an auctioneer.

• Buyers are attracted to private sellers.
Dealing directly with the seller appeals to buyers because they can build a trust relationship with the seller. The entire communication process is faster as the buyer is not dependent on a third party to deliver and return bids or negotiation messages. The buyer is not at the mercy of a third party to represent his interest to the seller or to negotiate objectively and solely for him. These are just some of the benefits of selling privately.

In response to some of the other comments , you should certainly engage a solicitor as you would if you were selling through an auctioneer. Don't be afraid of negotiating a fee with your solicitor and ignore those looking for 1% plus of the value of your property. Any deposit should be paid through your solicitor who will write up your sales contract which should protect you and the deposit in the event of a sale falling through or failing to close by a certain date.

Re the state of houses being sold privately, not all are like that. We advise all our clients on the presentation of their property for sale. Statistics in the US where over 30% of properties are sold privately show that the best return you get in terms of better sales price is for cleaning and de-cluttering. It doesn't cost much to do either of these things so a bit of time and effort is definitely worth it in order to compete better with other competing houses on the market.

You might find it interesting to know that a recent report by Reuters in the UK highlighted the fact that private sellers are selling at faster rates than those going through an auctioneer.

To sell privately you need the basics of a listing on a busy website to advertise to the 80% of buyers who search for their properties online, a for-sale board to advertise to the 40-60% of the market that will generate.

There is lots of advice to be had about pricing your property and getting it sold. Selling privately is not rocket science. With the savings to be made its worth having a go isn't it?

jenny47

HI, i found there were more Pros than cons when selling privately, i recently sold my house privately on eMoove, i didnt try any other sites, but i found i had no problems usng this one, and it was fairly simple and easy to use.

They are also doing a free listing with HotProperty.com at the moment aswel which is a bonus!

I recomend trying the site, just have a look and see what you think, it is definatly worth trying though!

http://www.emoove.com

Jenny

jdivision

Gareth37 wrote:

Wrong. 2% is the norm I would say with 1.5% also popular. Sherry Fitzgerald are Ireland's largest and charge 2%.

From The Irish Times on May 25:
The National Consumer Agency (NCA) yesterday criticised the decision by leading estate agent Sherry FitzGerald to increase the fees it charges for selling houses by 50 per cent. Paul Cullen , Consumer Affairs Correspondent, reports.
Sherry FitzGerald confirmed yesterday an increase in fees charged by its outlets in Dublin and Cork. The average increase from 1 per cent to 1.5 per cent of sale price will add €2,000 to the cost of selling a €400,000 house.

Chaz

Thanks, lots of good info to consider.