Job done, flat sold, and £6,000 saved

Over the last five months, I have been blogging about my experience of selling my flat without an estate agent. In the last week, the sale completed

I started by choosing to advertise my flat on propertybroker.com, a private sale website that specialises in London and the home counties.

They were friendly, efficient and helpful. For £138 they came round to take photos of my place, erected a “for sale” board and uploaded my advert to their website and various property portals like propertyfinder.com and fish4homes.com.

All I had to do was write a description of my flat and decide on an asking price. The description was no problem as I still had the particulars from when I bought the place, although I made sure to remove all jargon and dubious superlatives. I already had a good idea what my flat was worth but I asked two local agents to come round to value it just to be sure.

Within a fortnight of the advert appearing three people had come round to view. I showed them round in the evening after work. The second person who looked at the place put in an offer and after some fraught negotiations we agreed a price, which, as it happens, was above the value given by one the agents that had visited the place.

Once we had agreed on a price, I found a solicitor online using reallymoving.com. An estate agent does not complete any legal work whatsoever – all I had to do was tell the solicitor I had agreed a price with a buyer and they sent me all the paperwork to fill out as usual.

The solicitor charged me just £300 and I had to do quite a bit of chasing to keep things moving along but other than that, they did a good job.

When all of the money from the sale was transferred to my account (and without having the estate agent's percentage deducted) I felt immense satisfaction at having so easily saved myself almost £6,000. This extra cash will go a long way to paying the stamp duty on the next place I buy.

Without doubt, the whole experience has further convinced me - if any convincing were needed - that estate agents are overpaid and that selling privately is far easier than any “property market professional” would ever admit.

Interestingly, shortly after I agreed the deal with my buyer, the “for sale” board with newly attached “sold” notice outside my house went missing.

At first, I thought it was propertybroker.com retrieving their property, although it seemed a little premature, so I called them. They told me they hadn’t touched it. Apparently, they have a real problem with local estate agents stealing their boards in an attempt to stop people from seeing that they can sell their homes privately. That says it all really.

To read the full story of how I sold my flat click here

Comments

[John Findlay]

All of which is very interesting, but could you really have sold this flat without any professional help? You did, after all, rely on estate agents' work for valuation and the particulars; is it unreasonable to expect that expertise to come at a price? We could argue about whether or not 6k is a fair price - but it's dishonest to claim you did it without professional advice. And your final paragraph is sloppy too - do you have any evidence an estate agent stole the sign?

[Daniel Rawley]

Do we have any evidence that Mr Findlay is not himself an estate agent? It is well known that less reputable agents steal the signs of their rivals and often place their own signs wherever they can get away with it.

[Susan Glinska]

Yes, that's quite funny. I remember the time when we suddenly had an estate agent's board placed outside our house, even though the property was not even on the market!

We rang the estate agents concerned, ponting out their error, and asking them to remove the board.

After another week, the board was still rooted outside our house. So we called again, offering to remove the board for them if they weren't prepared to do so themselves.

At which point, they threatened us with legal action if we touched their property. Nice people, estate agents.

So we reminded them that as their property was actually placed, unrequested and unwanted on our property, we'd happily see them in court. The board was removed that afternoon... Seems that estate agents do not appreciate that these things can work both ways.

On the more general point of the "value" of their service: surely, when you invite an estate agent into your home, they arrive as part of a free valuation service that they generally offer to all prospective sellers, in the hope that they will be engaged to sell the property?

If this was the case when Andrew Ellson was selling his flat, then in answer to Mr Findlay's point, the estate agents work will have been valued by them at precisely zero.

And is not utilising such a free service from estate agents no different from assessing the asking price of your own property by scouring the property ads in the local papers? It is just gathering information.

So there's no argument: £6,000 would never be a fair price for an estate agent's "service" in finding a buyer for a property.

[Ian S Mccarthy]

6,000 is cheap. Here in the US the agents charge 7 percent. 35,000 on a 500,000 property. They get away with it because of their monopoly over the Multiple Listing Service; the online listing of all properties for sale.

[john brown]

As a residential agent for 35 years my business has to allow for the blagger ( are you going to use the services of a professional agent? we ask -oh yes-we hear- } in the business day/evening with the costs which result. No problem with fair competition-
It would be easy to be more efficient therefore cheaper if the public did respect opinion and value, and put a price on the valuation/personal visit.
With websites offering evidence of past sales etc its now no secret as to market sales,but would-be sellers still are looking for reassurance . Thankfully in many cases clients value a good agent's advice/service, as they do their accountant/ doctor etc.
If the estate agent has a reputation and knowledge like any good professional "value" can be added. We actually do know what is happenning in the markets etc..who is around..but its an imperfect marketplace-open to all.{no qualification necessary..] Good businesses have to earn reputation and spend money on service and marketing.
Branding can be very helpful to reassure potential buyers and provide a quality presentation-Offices and people are expensive, but the service leads to clients gaining better sales price etc.
Perhaps its old fashioned but I think a charge would be best levied if its a simple FREE valuation-because its costing others in the chain to provide and lowering standards.
How- if you have to have this kind of competition it means that the sales person has to be commission lead to get the business{eat what you kill approach] and that leads to over valuations to encourage the seller to list with that agent. The old fashioned qualified valuer -takes 5 years to become a chartered surveyor is dead in this type of market-brought about by the circumstances your correspondent has endorsed, and the need to observe all the Professional rules.
So expect what you get.
on boards - theft its unusual we see our stolen boards rebranded usually by a privateer-paint out the name and tel no and add theirs.
There are many great people who do seek service and professional help, at the right price.They recognise quality and service.

Good to have choice in all markets - but its not fair to cost others if you never wanted the service anyway. I hope you give the £6k to Shelter..
Can the agent you asked to value send a bill..??

[Maggie Costello]

Estate agents get a lot of money for little work. If they cannot sell the property quickly they stop promoting and go for an easier sale. Their valuations are not always accurate, I had a 50% difference between two agents so why should I be charged for a wrong valuation.

[Marc]

How sure can you be so sure that you realised the maximum value of your flat?

In an earlier article, you say that you deliberately set the price low in order to attract viewers. In the event, you attracted only three viewers and took the offer of the second. There's no way of knowing, of course, but in my opinion there's a distinct possibility that you may have made more than enough to cover the agent's fee by assigning the house to a good agent who was able to put multiple buyers in contention with each other.