There are two ways that you can sell your property. One way is to use an estate agent and the other is to sell privately, which usually involves advertising on the internet. In this article we'll look at the two options to help you decide which one you'd rather take.
Using an Estate Agent to Sell Your Property
Selling a property with the help of an estate agent is the traditional route. In fact it is so established that many people don't even know that there is an alternative.
If you use an estate agent to help sell your property they will normally do the following things:
* Prepare the property particulars and photographs
* Promoting your property to potential buyers on their lists
* Arranging viewings with potential buyers
* Handling enquiries
* Helping to negotiate the offer price
However, Estate agents usually charge a hefty sales commission of between 1.5% to 4%, plus VAT.
This means that on a £250,000 property where the sales commission is 2.5% you would have to pay £6,250 sales commission plus £1,094 in VAT.
The other problem with using an estate agent is that ultimately they are only really interested in making their sales commission. This means that they might try and persuade you to accept an offer that you don't really want to, simply to secure the commission.
Selling Property Privately
An increasing number of people are starting to sell their property privately to avoid having to pay agents' sales commissions. And with 70% of people searching for property to buy online, this can make a lot of sense.
Many online private property sales sites are now offering similar services to estate agents (such as taking photographs, preparing an online advert for you and handling enquiries) without asking for a sales commission.
Selling property privately can save you thousands of pounds and the stress of working with an estate agent.
