Selling property – estate agents vs doing it yourself

If you’re selling a property, you may be considering how you want to do it. How much help do you need, and what sort of support would that involve? Do you want to make use of an estate agent’s services or sell it yourself?

Using estate agents

Signing up with an estate agent is perhaps the more traditional route. They can usually help you with the following:

• Preparations for the sale
  For example, measuring the rooms and arranging for professional photography to attract interest from potential buyers
• Market research and pricing
  Agents are likely to have existing knowledge of your neighbourhood and the housing market. This includes knowledge of price levels for your type of property and the area it’s in. They can use this knowledge to recommend a realistic selling price.
• Marketing and sales
  They list the property for you, and could already have a list of potential buyers that they’ve been in contact with. They’ll vet these prospective purchasers so that you only deal with the ones who are serious about buying your property. Estate agents also typically have the relevant skills for negotiating counter-offers on your behalf.
• The paperwork
  Some estate agents will also liaise with conveyancers and/or solicitors on your behalf.

Selling the property yourself

On the other hand, you may be interested in selling your property on your own. You could do this offline, such as by placing an advertisement in a print newspaper or spreading the news through word of mouth. However, people can also list their property online on their own nowadays, without the help of a traditional estate agent.

By selling online, you could:

• Save on fees
  Estate agents usually charge more on commission than it costs for you to register with an online listing website. However, bear in mind that these online sites often offer additional services too, which could increase your costs.
• Pick the services that you need
  These are typically services that an estate agent may provide, ranging from photographing the property to liaising with conveyancers. Using a sell-it-yourself website could give you the flexibility to choose which services you want to pay for.

The main differences between estate agents and selling it yourself

Choosing whether to sell your property through an estate agent or doing it yourself essentially involves deciding how much you want to spend in terms of cost and your own time. An estate agent can help to take the burden off you when it comes to the bulk of the tasks involved. On the other hand, putting it up for sale yourself would take up more of your time, but could be cheaper overall.