Selling property privately (successful holiday rental)
 

Hi all,
We 're planning to sell our apartment in Tavira and wondered if anyone has any advice on selling privately? I've had a (very) quick look and can't see (m)any sites offering the ability to sell privately. Does anyone know of any or any experience or advice?
<snipped the part that read as an advert>
All the best
N

Re: Selling property privately (successful holiday rental)
 

Of course it can be done and the magic google buzz word/term you need to search for is 'FSBO' (for sale by owner) - you will need great photos, someone to coordinate and supervise viewings and take calls day and night from people who these days think its OK to call anytime. You need to research available UK portals (Rightmove Zoopla, Prime Location et al) plus the European ones too in Ireland, Netherlands etc and negotiate marketing exposure and perhaps also put a for sale board on the property itself. There are quite a few upfront costs to subsidize but of course you could potentially save an agents fee.

In the UK you could do a campaign in your local town/city supermarket notice boards, try the local paper or even advertise in the Sunday newspapers or property sections of the national daily papers.

I am guessing that the reason it's not done more is because its neither easy, low cost or fun. Looking forward to hearing how you get on




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Re: Selling property privately (successful holiday rental)
 

Hi MrBife,

Thank you for your really comprehensive response. It strikes me that that the estate agents market has been disrupted in the UK but it has yet to reach Portugal (I'm guessing only a matter of time). I completely get your suggestions and, since I have good local support, it definitely is worth considering.

The fees that property selling professionals in Portugal charge are anachronistic, based on times when property was far cheaper and sold less often, as a non-resident, I would be happy to pay a fee if it was worth it but 5% on a $250k property to sell, sorry.

Re: Selling property privately (successful holiday rental)
 

So tell the agents the figure you want/expect and tell them they have to mark up by their commission - so 250 becomes 260 (because 4% is obtainable if you haggle) and tell them they have to promote at that or little more (say 269,950 to give a buyer 'wiggle room' and let them feel they got a deal by negotiating you down to 260.

If you are in the apartment anyway buy yourself a 'Vende-Se' / For Sale dual language.signboard (the Chinese shops sell them for a couple of euro) put your mobile number on it and see what happens, as an extra you could blow €10 by experimenting on a classified ad in one of the weekly Algarve journals - you may be surprised as I am told there are a lot of people looking right now in that area at that price break.

Re: Selling property privately (successful holiday rental)
 

The Portuguese, and especially the Algarve, Real Estate Market is fragmented linguistically.

If you really want to sell privately you should be looking to publish your property in the following languages -

English (for Ireland / Scandanavia)
Dutch
Portuguese
Spanish
French
Possibly Russian

We sold our house in Lagos to a Russian family.

Neither the agent nor neither of the solicitors spoke русский!

Luckily with a bit of help from Google Translate and the Russian who spoke a bit of English we completed the deal!

I would think that given the location of the property in Tavira, I would suspect the main potential buyers will be Irish, French, Scandinavian & Spanish.

You would probably need to advertise in national real estate sales websites.

In Portugal, you could try advertising on olx.pt

Be aware also of the legal documentation you will be required to produce, including a valid energy certificate.

Re: Selling property privately (successful holiday rental)
 

Some agents are starting to change.
A friend has just plisted with one who usually charges 3 % reduced because of the value if the property to 2 %.
Being mainly internet, social media etc based they say that they do not have the costs off the multi branch, heavily staffed agents.
But a low commission does not mean that they would be any better at getting a sale..

Re: Selling property privately (successful holiday rental)
 

Hi,
I would reccomend that you use ad boards like imovirtual, OLX and custo to advertise the sale of your apartment.
In fact, this will enable you to reach a broader audience that a signal.
The main con is that it can be more difficul to reach out to foreign buyers.

Re: Selling property privately (successful holiday rental)
 

Thanks everyone, really helpful (and interesting) replies

Re: Selling property privately (successful holiday rental)
 

Sites such as Idealista are bi-lingual and if you open it at the top it states clearly advertise your property for free :
https://www.idealista.pt/comprar-casas/tavira/

Casa Sapo does the same but in Portuguese :https://casa.sapo.pt/Classificados/I...optbu=1&step=1

Re: Selling property privately (successful holiday rental)
 

Thanks that's really useful. Unfortunately, in Tavira, it's been totally spammed by people selling in the convent (but arbitrarily placing the location markers across Tavira town!). I could see it being useful outside of busy areas. I'll give it a go though.

Re: Selling property privately (successful holiday rental)
 

Not just the Convent also the new-builds by Gran Plaza. The location marker is a personal choice , either you give the exact property location , probably worthwhile in your case, or leave it blank as most agents do to avoid people knocking on doors and cutting them out of the deal.

Re: Selling property privately (successful holiday rental)
 

Yes, of course, good point.
CasaSapo seems better in terms of quality of results. The interface needs some work but managed to filter results by selecting filters and then looking at map.
Food for thought!
Anyway, thanks very much for your suggestions.
T2+1 in Central Tavira with pool anyone? :-)

Re: Selling property privately (successful holiday rental)
 

In the UK we have a government website that lists the price of every property sold, does anyone know if there is a similar one in Portugal? I know there's the registo predial but from my research, I can't see that it actually allows search sold prices.

Thanks

Re: Selling property privately (successful holiday rental)
 

What's more important to you, selling the apartment or s saving on the commission.?
Agents are searching for new listings due to the level of sales .
We heard of a town house in Albufeira that food sitting 3 days of being listed., another within a few weeks..
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Re: Selling property privately (successful holiday rental)
 

Ideal scenario is best net return after any sale costs. To gauge what that might look like means getting a good idea of previous sold prices. We're in no immediate hurry though.
When you say level of sales, do you mean that the agents are keen to get properties on their books?