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There are a number of advantages involved with selling your flat or house through an estate agent but also several prominent disadvantages. If you are not interested in using the services of an estate agent to sell your home, this guide outlines the three main alternative ways that you can explore with the hope of getting a competitive and speedy offer for your property.
- What’s the process involved with selling a home via an estate agent?
- Reasons why a homeowner may not want to sell with an estate agent
- What can I do instead of using an estate agent to sell my home?
- Alternative 1: Selling a property to a quick home buyer
- Alternative 2: Selling a property through an auctioneer
- Alternative 3: Selling a property without any assistance
- Alternatives to selling with an estate agent: frequent questions
What’s the process involved with selling a home via an estate agent?
There are many reasons why someone could be interested in selling their home, including needing to raise funds for a move overseas, wanting to upsize or downsize to their next dream property, having to deal with a divorce any many other explanations. Regardless of your reason for selling, as part of the process you will need to decide on how to find a buyer.
Typically, your choices are selling with an estate agent, selling to a quick home buyer, selling at a property auction or selling without any help. This guide will first walk you through the process of selling with an estate agent but then explain the many drawbacks of this option, before providing details on how the three other approaches work and may be better choices.
Estate agents are a traditional method for selling a leasehold or freehold property in the UK, as detailed on Wikipedia. They take on the bulk of the effort needed when selling a home, which helps to reduce the stress for homeowners.
First, an estate agent will create a listing that describes the main features of your house or flat and includes photographs of the interior and exterior. They will advertise this listing in their office, online and in local newspapers to get buyers interested. Estate agents will also schedule viewings that give people the chance to inspect your home in person before deciding whether to make an offer. And estate agents will hear serious offers, ideally taking one to completion.
If someone makes a legitimate offer to purchase your property, the estate agent will continue to reduce your workload because they will take the lead on working with your solicitor or other legal representative to get through to the final stages of exchanging contracts and paying you the proceeds.
Reasons why a homeowner may not want to sell with an estate agent
Although selling through an estate agent can help to reduce the amount of effort that you will need to put into finding a buyer for your home, there are potentially more cons than pros with selling this way, and it can be useful to know what these are before choosing a selling method.
Potential for sale to collapse – One unfortunate situation that can occur when selling with an estate agent is that someone makes an offer on your home that is genuine but then they later change their mind and cancel the offer, causing the sale to fall apart. This is something that they can legally do without facing any penalties so long as you have not yet exchanged contracts on the property. And it would extend your selling timeline further as you’d need to start over with seeking a buyer.
Taking a long time for selling – Many houses sold through an estate agent can take a long time to sell, as an article in The Telegraph notes. You will usually be looking at waiting at least many months to find a buyer this way, but possibly even more than a full year. Therefore, you should review some of the alternatives if one of your main goals is selling as fast as is feasible.
Having to pay commission – Another notable disadvantage of selling with an estate agent is that you will be required to pay them commission if they succeed in selling your home. This is deducted immediately from the sale proceeds and is usually charged within a range from 1.15 percent to 1.40 percent of your property’s eventual sale price, which will cause your total selling costs to rise. If you would like to avoid paying fees then you could consider selling to a zero-commission quick buyer.
Overstating the sale price – Estate agents can also use a sneaky trick when valuing your home, quoting a much higher potential sale price than they know you will be able to get. They do this so that you are convinced to sell your home through the estate agent and then they can profit from the commission that they will charge you once the property sells, even though it will likely do so at a lower price than their quote.
What can I do instead of using an estate agent to sell my home?
Due to the negative aspects of selling via an estate agent, you might not want to sell your home through an estate agent, and therefore you should consider the alternatives available to you. Typically, the three different methods are selling to a quick home buyer, selling at a property auction or selling on your own, and they all have their own unique steps involved.
Selling to a quick home buyer
This can be a very straightforward, no-stress and hassle-free way to sell a home without putting it on the market, combined with receiving a competitive and speedy offer.
Selling at a property auction
Any type of auction is a gamble about whether you’ll sell, and on top of that stress you will have to pay commission and potentially have a long wait before selling.
Selling on your own
As the title implies, this method puts the burden on you to handle every step of the selling process from beginning to end, although you can avoid fees this way.
The rest of this guide explains the process involved with all three selling approaches, and you should compare the details of each choice against your top priorities with selling – for example, your goal selling price, whether you can accept paying any fees, and how long you can wait to sell. This should help with guiding you toward the most suitable option for your needs.
Alternative 1: Selling a property to a quick home buyer
Alternative 2: Selling a property through an auctioneer
Selling at an auction is unpredictable because you might not get any bids on your home, which means that it remains unsold. If that happens then you would have to start again with trying to find a buyer for your property, which would extend the timeline much further.
Or you might just get a single bid on your house or flat at the reserve price, which is the lowest price at which you can accept selling the property. This bid would be considered a legally binding agreement to sell your home and the buyer could sue you to enforce the sale in the event that you try to walk away from it after the auction because you don’t like the price.
For that reason, you must endeavour to choose a reserve price that will produce a profit from the sale of your property, even after you have paid the auctioneer their fees. Usually, they will charge this fee at 2.5 percent of your property’s final sale price, and this will increase your net selling expenses because the commission is taken out of the eventual auction proceeds.
Some auctioneers might be willing to charge less than 2.5 percent, or to have the buyer pay a share of your costs, so it’s worth asking about this possibility. But just beware that auctioneers are not obliged to agree to either outcome and they may charge even more than 2.5 percent.
The commission pays for the auctioneer’s work in selling your home, which includes creating and marketing a listing for the property, hosting the auction and overseeing a successful sale.
You’ll auction your home either through the traditional method or the modern method, and if both are on offer then it may be personal preference for which one you’d like to choose.
The traditional method of auction involves advertising your listing for a certain number of weeks or longer and then hosting the auction on a set day and time, with the auctioneer hearing bids until they drop their gavel, at which time the top bid is the winner and buyer of your property.
The modern method of auction has your listing active for a set number of weeks or months, during which time people can place bids on it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The top bid at the time that the listing expires is deemed the winner and the person buying your home.
Should your property sell at the auction, the top bidder will have about a month to complete their actions needed to finalise the sale, such as signing the relevant legal documents. Although you might be able to find an auctioneer that is willing to set a shorter deadline, there are some companies that will give the buyer even more than a month, slowing a sale much further.
That adds to an already slow approach for selling your home because there will be a wait of many weeks or months at the start, after you decide to sell and before the auction happens. For those homeowners wanting a sale as fast as feasible, you should assess other options.
This is also not a great choice for those owners who want to sell their home privately because your property will have to be publicly advertised in order to try and generate interest from buyers ahead of the auction.
You may also have to agree to a number of viewings for potential bidders to see your home in person, so if viewings are something you want to avoid then you should consider some of the other options for selling. For example, selling to a quick buyer is a great way to not only sell your property privately but to also prevent having to be subject to a number of viewings.
Alternative 3: Selling a property without any assistance
A third way to sell your home is doing it on your own, as noted by Money Saving Expert. Essentially, this means the onus is on you to take care of everything needed in order to find a buyer.
This starts with putting together a listing for your property and then advertising it locally, hoping to generate some interest from buyers. Next, you will need to schedule viewings for anyone that requests them so that they can see your house or flat in person before choosing to make an offer. And finally, you’ll have to consider offers and take one to the exchange of contracts.
Many homeowners find all of this work to take up much of their time and to be very stress-inducing. That is why you should only really consider this way of selling a home if you have managed to sell a property on your own in the past, or there is a qualified family member or friend that is prepared to assist you at no cost with selling your property. Otherwise, you could be looking at a very slow process, possibly more than a year before you can sell.
Also, someone can make an offer but then cancel it, which they can do at no penalty if you have not already exchanged contracts. This will cause the sale to fall apart and add much more time to your selling schedule because you would have to begin again with looking for a buyer.
The only obvious benefit of this option for selling is that you would not have to pay an auctioneer or an estate agent any commission once your property sells, which lowers your expenses. But this saving may be wiped out by the funds you will have to spend on advertising your listing.
Instead of enduring the potential stress and long waiting time involved with selling on your own, you might want to think about selling to a no-fee quick home buyer such as LDN Properties. These companies will promise to not charge you commission when purchasing your home, and you’ll get the additional benefit of completing the sale within just a few short weeks.
Alternatives to selling with an estate agent: frequent questions
LDN Properties has provided a no-stress way to sell your home since 2003 and below we’re providing our answers to sellers’ top queries about selling to a quick buyer.
Your top questions when considering selling alternatives to an estate agent
The estate agent will first put together a listing that describes your home and features photographs of the exterior and interior, and then they will advertise this online, in local newspapers and in their office. They will organise viewings for people to tour your home and then hear offers from buyers, hopefully taking one to the exchange of contracts.
Yes, selling this way has a handful of benefits depending on your priorities with the sale of your property. Perhaps the most obvious advantage is that you would not have to put in much work to find a buyer because the estate agent will handle most of the required tasks. And in a few specific cases it can be possible to sell quickly and also get a good offer on your home.
One of the biggest drawbacks is that you would have to pay the estate agent commission if they are able to sell your home, and this would increase your expenses because the fee is deducted from the eventual sale proceeds. Another negative aspect is that selling this way can take a very long time and you might be waiting many months or longer before securing a buyer.
You could choose from three other approaches for selling, which are contacting LDN Properties or another quick home buyer, trying your luck with a property auctioneer or selling without any assistance from a third party. All three of these alternatives have their own advantages and disadvantages depending on your needs, for example how fast you would like to sell.
No, you can prevent having to pay any commission if you either decide to sell without any help or if you sell your home to a zero-fee quick buyer such as LDN Properties, so either option will reduce your selling expenses. But if you sell the property via an estate agent or at an auction then you will need to pay commission that will be subtracted from the final sale proceeds.
If your top aim with selling your home is finding a buyer as fast as possible, then you should contact a quick buying company like LDN Properties because their typical timeline for purchasing a home is just a handful of weeks. Selling at a property auction can take many months and selling on your own or via an estate agent may take more than a full year.
Yes, and if you want additional assurances then you can inquire whether a quick buyer belongs to a third party organisation known as The Property Ombudsman, which issues rules to guard owners from fraud in the industry, and all TPO members must commit to these policies, which should give you peace of mind when selling to a company that can prove its membership.
