Not all house sales have to use an estate agent. In fact, the constantly connected Internet age has made it easier than ever to sell your home without involving an estate agent.
And that’s good news since the substantial rise in house prices over the last few decades have meant estate agents have become more expensive. The ‘percentage of sale’ pricing model many estate agents use is starting to look increasingly costly and outdated.
So, if you want to ditch the estate agent and have a go at selling your property yourself, here are five steps you should follow to have the best chance of selling successfully.
Step 1: Value Your Home
The importance of this cannot be underestimated. Get the price of your property wrong and you’ll either fail to get a single enquiry or, worse still, end up accepting an offer way below the true value of your home.
Thankfully, there are a number of free tools you can use online to gain an accurate valuation for your home. Sites such as Zoopla provide realms of data about sold prices in your area and even an estimate of the current value of your home.
Some estate agents also offer instant online valuation tools, too, though you’ll likely have to enter a few personal details before the value of your property is revealed.
Another option would be to instruct a chartered surveyor to conduct a valuation survey. This will usually cost you somewhere around £200, but it’s one of the most accurate ways to discover the price your property may be worth.
Just remember, any valuation is simply a guide. Your property is only worth what someone will pay for it. With that in mind, it’s often best to start with a higher price and gradually reduce until you find the level that starts to generate serious interest.
Step 2: Create Your Property Listing
Once you know how much a fair price for your property would be, it’s time to start creating your property listing.
For this, you’ll need to first have a good tidy and declutter to make your home as well-presented as possible.
Then, get the camera out and start snapping!
Taking photos from the corners of rooms tend to work best. You may also benefit from using a wide-angle lens to make the rooms look as large as possible. Many people will decide whether to view a property purely based on the photographs so it’s worth spending a little time and money to get it right.
You’ll also need to measure each room and write an engaging property description that gets across the important features of your home.
Step 3: List Your Home For Sale
Now you’ve completed the important groundwork, it’s time to get your property on the market.
Unfortunately, major property portals such as Rightmove only allow you to list a property for sale on their site if you are an estate agent. That means you’ll need to find other methods to market your property.
The good news is that there are some property portals that do allow listings from individuals, not just estate agents.
In fact, you can use our very own property listing service to get your home on the market. Best of all, it’s 100% free so there is absolutely nothing to lose.
Step 4: Promote Your Property Listing
Just because your property is listed on a portal, now isn’t the time to sit back and relax.
To get the best results, you need to be actively promoting your listing to get it in front of as many house hunters as possible. So, take to social media and get the word out that your home is up for sale. Ask your friends and family if they can help you out by sharing the listing too.
You’ll be surprised at how effective sharing on sites such as Facebook and Twitter can be once you get a few people joining in.
Step 5: Act Like An Estate Agent
Finally, while you may not be using an estate agent, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t act like one.
When offers start to come in, it’s important that you are as professional and prompt as you would want an estate agent to be. That means it’s worth brushing up on a few terms commonly used in the industry and taking the time to learn the process you need to go through after accepting an offer.
Most importantly of all, don’t be afraid to regularly follow-up with your buyer and the solicitors involved in the transaction once you’ve accepted an offer. This is an important step to ensuring the sale reaches a successful conclusion.
Of course, if this all sounds too much like hard work, selling with an estate agent is still an option. In fact, with online estate agents pushing the price of selling down with their fixed-fee model, it’s never been cheaper to sell through a professional service.
Just ensure you check out online estate agent reviews before you dive in so you can be sure you’re using a reputable agent that provides everything you need.
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