Selling Your Property - Private Sales

With the advent of the internet, more people have decided to side-step estate agents fees and market their homes themselves. As well as using property websites, you can advertise in your local press. As long as you can reach your target market, there is no reason why you should not choose this route and save potentially thousands of pounds worth of agency fees.

Property valuations are free, so get as many valuations as you can before deciding on a sale price. Research the market yourself as well to see what similar properties are achieving. Then set a realistic price with a little flexibility built in to give you room to negotiate. If you know that there is work to be done on the property then get some quotes so that you have an idea of what it would cost. You will have to bear this in mind when you set your price. Finally, it might be an idea to set your price a little high to begin with. You can always bring it down if you have no offers. If you need a quick sale, you can price it low to catch attention. In this case, you could lower the sale price by the amount you are saving by not using an estate agent. This could guarantee a quick sale whilst still achieving a good price.

You will need to compile your own property details, ensuring that any information that you give is accurate for your property. The Property Misdescriptions Act has strict limits on what you can and can’t say when compiling property information so make sure that any room dimensions that you give are wholly accurate. Put together a pack with photos for any interested parties.

When marketing your property, you will want to attract the most amount of exposure that you can. Firstly, tell everybody that your home is on the market. The quicker word spreads, the more likely you are to find a friend or a friend of a friend who is looking for a property that exactly matches yours. Find websites where you can advertise your home. Some will ask for a fee for advertising through them and some will let you advertise for free, but it will still be much cheaper than paying estate agents fees. You can post notices around the locality, perhaps arrange for an ‘open house’ where prospective buyers can all come to look around on a particular day. Advertise through the local press as well as the free ads papers and with a ‘For Sale’ board in front of your property.

Finally, you will need to make sure that you are easily contactable in order to arrange viewings and field queries. You will have to be available for the viewings and be prepared to head the negotiations yourself.

More Selling Your Property topics below:

• Estate Agents - what can you expect from an estate agent?
• Private Sales - avoiding expensive estate agents fees
• Viewings - what you should say, what you should answer and what you should ask.
• Offers - how can you tell when an offer is the highest you will get?
• Surveys - as a seller, what can you expect from the survey?
• Legal - what is involved with conveyancing for sellers?
• Financial - what can you expect to be paying for when you sell your property?
• Selling Pack's - how the government proposes to speed up the property buying process
• Moving - what you should organise in order to have as easy a move as possible.

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