bridiej

Now I've made up my mind to keep the move to Oz quiet from the viewers / buyers (thanks everyone for your input!) I was wondering if there are people out there who have marketed their own houses, bypasing estate agents altogether and, if so, what the results were like.

bridiej

Anyone?

Larissa

We tried it Bridie but we're still getting emails asking us if the sale 9 months on. We had a couple or so (memory not so good) people come round to see the house but the photos made our house look bigger (dimensions were given) so they weren't interested. We also advertised in local shops but all we got were nosey blighters who wasted our time. The agents seemed better at following things through, we went joint and it seemed to make them pull their weight more.
Good luck, maybe try all your options?
Larissa

bridiej

Thanks Larissa

walaj

Ok I will give you an answer, although we have not tried it yet - what we will try is that our house is close by to the main offices (and some of their other offices) of a large company. We have contacts within the comany and will try using their internet internal advertising to see if there is any interest. I not putting much hope on this suceeding, so will then use the necessary evil, also know as estate agents

spottydog

I'm trying it aws well as with an agent. Had one viewer so far via Houseladder.co.uk, nothing from the other sites

Larissa

Note that if you do both (self & agent) you must record details of who *you* introduce to the house, otherwise the agent may try and get commission. We had someone interested who approached us, then went to an agent... they didn't make a firm offer so it didn't become complicated.
Record times of phonecalls/emails, first and last names, where they saw your ad and you should be OK.
It helps if you pinch the agents measurements and then you can use them in your ads

bridiej

Good point!

Already got the measurements as we kept the details from when we bought our house, just got to do new pics.

Joanne

Will be interested in this outcome to, been considering this option, but not sure on success and we wont probably have much time to mess around. Will need it to sell ASAP.

Why, being nosey, is it best to keep quiet about move to Oz from viewers/buyers? Im probably being really thick and overlooking the obvious? Sorry if I am

Jo

bridiej

No, not being thick!

The consensus seemed to be that if you tell them they may lower their offer prior to exchange.

See thread here: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=307373

baconmaster

We did it and ot an offer after 24 hours, but they couldn't find a buyer so used an agents. Try private ads first, could save loads, helps if you can get good posters and you get lots of people passing your house

ahoy

we advertised for 6 weeks with mypropertyforsale and in our local papers. had 30 viewers but it has to be said a lot of them were hobbyists. we have an unusual 16th century cottage and we had lots of cash buyers, second homers from the south which at the time seemed great. you know, cash buyers. on reflection i think that sort of buyer just has too much to choose from and can afford to treat it as a hobby. after 6 weeks and a request to pay the bond, we selected an agent. only had 5 viewers in another 4 weeks from the agent but one of them is going ahead and should ..... no i'm not going to even say it.

i think it depends on the type of property you have. i'm not sure britain is really ready for private house sales. wouldn't it be great if you could persuade someone with a house just like yours down the road to put theirs on the market for £30,000 more than yours, just to make yours look like a good buy!

bridiej

Already got that, neighbour been on market for a year now and will be over £40K more