SELLING HOME? DO YOU NEED AN ESTATE AGENT?

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO THE DIY ROUTE

Selling your home is extremely expensive: solicitor's fees, searches, surveys, taxes, documents, and Estate Agent's cut.

The reason why I have wanted to focus this post on non-traditional estate agents, is to give everybody the opportunity of a more informed choice when it comes to selling properties. The high street estate agent route is well known and of easy access to everybody, and it is also the route that gives the most support. However, since another category is becoming more and more prominent I am keen on focusing my attention on this option, which is available for anybody, albeit a little daunting for most. 

Estate agents have a great deal of work in the business: they help you understand your home, they understand the market you are about to face, they take pictures, they (sometimes) offer suggestions on how to improve the space, they invest time and resources in dealing with enquiries, they show potential buyers around, and they speak to them and your solicitor on your behalf. They ultimately market your space and make selling it possible, plus they take lots of hassle off your hands and head - I have great respect for their job and I fully understand their point of veiw.

However, there is another way of selling your assets, and it is with the help of another category of estate agents: the online ones. Naturally this means that all the work that a high street estate agent would do for you, you will have to make an effort against, and you need to know what you are doing. But it is not an impossible task and it will save you enough money to refurb a kitchen or a bathroom. 

Let's see how the process works and what are its advantages.

Prior to embarking on the adventure of selling a property, I would suggest visiting  citizensadvice.org.uk and select the region you belong to (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales) as each region will have their own routes and procedures. Typing 'selling home' within the search area will give you an idea of which pitfall to watch out for, and what areas you need to gain un understanding of, if you are not already familiar with the process.

Next step is being able to advertise on one or two of the major properties portals. Zoopla and Rightmove, are, at the moment the ones to aim at. On the Market, which was gaining some space in the past have lately fallen out of favour (at least have been so far, thought things change quickly within this trade, so I always suggest checking before committing) mostly due to some of their advertising restrictions. Selling without advertising on these platforms, will dramatically restrict your audience and therefore your pool of potential buyers, plus it is proven that advertising within other platforms such as, for example, gumtree, has been proven to attract a less reliable audience, and for this reasons I would discourage anybody to consider it.

In order to get onto any of these portals you need to go through an estate agent (online or not) as they do not currently cater for private listings.

First of all you can chose in amongst a list of online estate agents (below you will find quite an extensive list of some available on the market at the time I am writing). They have different pricing and different offers, some more flexible than others and a little time spent on their website will give you an understanding of what is on offer, though I always suggest giving their customer service a call, to be sure that what you understand from their website is exactly what they mean.

Before you list your property you will need to understand its market value, for the current marked in your specific area. Again you can do this by yourself, for example by using nethouseprices.com (http://nethouseprices.com/information/instant-house-valuation) to get an idea of its current market value. You will not need to register, but the website will ask you for your details including your phone number and email address, as well as your name and property address. Once you enter these details (and click a few options off so that you are not entering their email list) you will be returned with a page similar to this which will give you a range within which your property value sits:

nethouseprice search return

and below this a list of prices of recently sold properties in the area. Clicking on any of this will give you a list of sold prices for each property, with dates and ultimately a trend.

nethouseprice recent sales value return

You can compare this with Zoopla (https://www.zoopla.co.uk/home-values/) which works in a similar way. Naturally this results is not tailored to the current state of your home but it is a good starting point.

Once you are or you could ask for your home to be valued by local estate agents. This is a free service and has the advantage of being bespoke, which means it takes into account the overall state of your property. I always suggest to get valuation from three different local estate agents. A little research will help you understand each estate valuation policy: some tend more than others to overvalue the property to attract perspective clients, other to keep the expectations a bit lower as lower prices might attract more buyers and therefore sell faster. Selling properties is always a balancing act and it is not always easy to understand where you stand.

As mentioned above, the packages offered by online estate agents are varied, so are the services offered. Services offered may only comprise the listing of the property, in which case you will have to take photographs, send them for the listing, then wait for the estate agent to put you in touch with perspective buyers (in this case you will need not only to show them around, but also to take care of the negotiation). Other online agents will offer more comprehensive packages which might include: photography, booking of viewings (though you will always be the one actually have showing the place to perspective buyers), and taking care of the negotiation.

Either way you will always need a floor-plan an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) and a solicitor to handle the paperwork.

Floorplans are time consuming but they can be made with the help of some packages including excel, homestyler, smartdraw, (some of them are free, some of them require some payment and/or flashplayer installation). I suggest homestyler as it is free, customisable and very intuitive.

As for EPC, prices typically start at £35, but a certificate for a large house in an expensive city could easily cost several times that. If you have had your property less than 10 years you should have the one from your purchase which will be still valid unless you have made some specific changes that have an impact on it (such as for example central heating or double glazing).

As for the solicitor, you could use an online comparason website (such as https://www.moneysupermarket.com/conveyancing/ or http://www.conveyancingcalculator.co.uk) to understand costs and services offered, bearing in mind that your solicitor does not have to be geographically close to you for it to work.

Housenerwork, Housesimple, Tepilo, Purple Bricks, Easyproperty, Emoov, Hatched, My online estate agent, Settled, Yopa, Doorsteps, are currently some of the online estate agents. Each of them will typically have a couple of packages to chose from and they will charge a fee which might vary from as little as £40 to a maximum of a few hundreds as a fixed fee.

The fee paid to an online agent will save you some money, and its amount will be known in advance, as opposite to the traditional estate agent fee which is always a percentage of the sale price, it is only defined once the sell has been completed, and is always set within the thousands. Beware though that the fee you pay to an online estate agent has a 'deadline', so it is only valid for a few months and will need to be renewed (as opposite to a high street estate which will market your place till it is sold), so it is important that you understand the terms and conditions and be aware that these fees will ultimately pile up should you be unable to sell within those deadlines.

From a professional point of view I can suggest that, to optimise selling on the DIY route successfully, you need to take every step possible so that your property enters the market with a slight advantage on the competition (i.e. other property on the market with similar specifications). Ensure it is presented at its best, make small repairs, declutter, make the most of its strength and downplay its weaknesses, arrange rooms to reflect market needs, style so that they appeal to a wide audience, learn the tricks of styling or ask some professional help. Even with the costs of home styling the overall expenses are much lower than the cut a high street estate agent will take.

Bullet point list:

• understand your market value
• check online agent terms and conditions and deadline
• do your own market research (target market)
• have your EPC ready
• have a floor-plan
• present your home at its best to ensure it sells within the timeline
• find a home styler in your area to help present your home
• have your photos ready
• show your home professionally
• find a solicitor
• enjoy your sale

Which route you wish to take to sell your home and make the most of it, is after all down to you. I personally believe that our assets should not be undervalued and undersold. High street Estate Agents have their role in the process and great experience which will ultimately be at your service if you decide to go with them.

I hope this article has helped you in making a more informed choice on which route to take. Please add a comment if you would like to know more, or if you have any questions.