How to Sell Your House without an Estate Agent
Most people automatically hire an estate agent to sell their home. However with fees reaching into the thousands, even for modestly priced homes, it is understandable that some people would decide to use other methods.
In reality there is no legal requirement to sell your home via an estate agent. If you want to save money there are a variety of other methods by which you can advertise and sell your house.
Going online
There are lots of ways to sell your home online. For example there are websites that allow you to list your property for sale for a small fee. Some people even consider selling their properties on eBay; a bidding war can push the price up in this case, although it is best to use a reserve in every case. Alternatively the site also provides classified ads. These allow you to set a firm price rather than allowing bidding. Others have created dedicated websites for selling their homes, with mixed results.
Using classified ads
There is nothing to stop you taking out classified ads in newspapers in your local area. Of course you would need to take out large ads with photos to have any real impact, and you’d need to take out several of them in different papers as well. There is always the downside that people may not trust such an ad, preferring instead to buy from an estate agent.
Advertising in newspaper shop windows
A quick and cheap way to garner attention is to buy a number of adverts in newsagents’ shop windows. You would need to purchase an ad in every newsagent’s window in your local area for this to stand a chance of working. While these are cheap they do not necessarily put your ads in front of the right audience. Lots of people don’t check these ads at all, and arguably those that do won’t be looking there to see if there are any houses for sale.
Promoting your sale on social media sites
Social media is a great way to get your message out in front of a wide audience. If you choose your messages carefully — focusing on certain keywords relevant to your sale and your target audience — you can reach people who might be interested in finding out more. However it can be tricky to target your message and ensure it doesn’t get lost in a sea of updates or tweets posted by other people.
Self advertising
Most of us have probably seen self made adverts displayed in the windows of houses now and again. ‘House for sale,’ they proclaim, along with a price and a phone number. This is the most obvious way of advertising a property via your own methods, since people will be able to see the house from the outside. If they are interested they can phone or knock on the door for more information and to arrange a viewing at a convenient time.
Which method is best?
It is not necessarily the method you choose that is important; rather it is the question of whether these methods work. Many people automatically head for an estate agent when they think of buying a new property; few would think to look on Twitter or look in their local paper for independently placed adverts.
Thus you have to consider whether going it alone is the right option. It may seem like a good way to save money — and this is one of the main advantages to doing it — but you won’t have the expertise and visibility an estate agent has.
Tom Craven Property offer a convenient and alternative solution to selling your house by making you an offer to buy your house fast for cash.
