Can I sell my house without an estate agent?

Property prices are rising, that’s good news but the estate agent’s commission is rising too leaving less money in your pocket. So why not sell or let without an estate agent?

“I don’t have enough time to manage it” is the most common reason why people think that they must have an estate agent to manage the property buying or letting process. However with the aid of today’s internet and mobile technologies, it’s easier than ever to sell or let your property without an estate agent.”

Well, you might think is it possible to sell or let without an estate agent? This article will guide you about the same.

With the advancement of internet and mobile technologies, now a day’s, buyers search property online and call the estate agents whichever property they like. Hence it does not matter if you sell or let through an estate agent or do it yourself!!

For the landlord, key steps of standard property buying and letting process are listed below. Let’s see what you can or can’t do it without an estate agent.

Typically you start your process by identifying 2-3 estate agents and call them for valuation. After negotiation, you then sign a contract with the selected agent. The following list shows all the key steps you follow till you sell your property and handover the keys.

If you notice, out of 13 steps, seller has to execute 9 steps. Even if you consider the process only upto accepting the offer, seller has to execute 5 out of 9 steps. Do you think you should spend thousands on estate agent’s commission and still do more than 50% of the work yourself?

With the aid of the incredible power of social media for advertising, in-built google map and chatting system, it will mean your property doesn’t have to wait long for its new owner!

Why you should consider selling or letting your property private

Estate agency fee is one of the major contributors to the cost of selling a house.

Did you know…?

• The average property price in London is now £580,000 (and rising)
• The typical London estate agency charges 2% fees for selling that property.
• Often VAT is placed on top of that fee – something to bear in mind when considering the cost of buying a house.
• That’s a whopping £11,000!

Renting a property? the average rental price in London is £1,600, some agents charge 12% fees on a let-only basis. That’s almost £2,300 taken away from your rental income per year.

Typically estate agent’s fee constitutes around 52% of the total cost, followed by mortgage repayment costs, which is approximately 25% and the conveyancing costs at 12%. Find out more details on the cost of selling house here.

Calculate how much you can save if you sell or let your house private

We understand that property prices and estate agent’s fees will differ from area to area. Use our simple calculator as a guide to estimate how much you can save if you use RealEstate Talk app.

Most common questions

How can I do the valuation of my property

First step would be to assess the property prices for similar properties in your area. You can get this information for FREE on land registry website. Here you can search the data on various parameters such as street, postcode, property type, whether freehold or leasehold etc. You can see details of all the properties matching your search criteria. This will give you fair idea on how much your house is worth. You can also do some price research on popular property websites such as Rightmove, Zoopla, OnTheMarket etc.

But that’s just a general guideline. Each property might be of different value depending the condition of the same. For this you can approach a RICS approved surveyors. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS); is a professional body promoting and enforcing the highest international standards, in the valuation, management and development of: Land ; Real estate ; Construction ;and Infrastructure.

They are qualified professionals who can provide you a written report on valuation of your property. Of course they will charge some fee. You can browse list of RICS surveyors on their website and approach them for valuation. Many approved RICS surveyors would have their own website. Open Google Maps and type in “RICS surveyors near me” and you will get plenty of them.

How to get EPC Certificate, Photos and Floor plans

Next step would be to have an EPC certificate. It is a legal requirement to have a valid Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) when a property is sold, rented or constructed. You must be aware that it’s a legal requirement to have a valid Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) when a property is sold, rented or constructed. Hence you must get an approved Domestic Energy Assessor to produce the EPC certificate. Typically, it provides information about a property’s energy use and typical energy costs.

Now you may think how can I get EPC certificate for my property. For that, you need to first find the domestic energy assessor in your area. This can be easily done by visiting EPC Register website. Here you will find not only a registered domestic assessor in your area, but also the EPC certificate ratings of other properties in your area for FREE. Alternatively, you can search on Google Maps with “EPC providers near me” to get nearest service provider. A standard EPC certificate should not cost you more than £60 to £120.

Typically for photographs and having a good floor plan, estate agent hire professionals. Having good quality photos and a floor plan greatly increases your chances of selling your property. You can get some excellent quality photos from your phone itself, and you can also engage professional architects, interior designers, CAD technicians and more, if you need to include CAD drawing. This can be done through the app itself! You can find any of these services online too, here are few of them:

• Focal Agent
• Photo Plan
• Elements Property

How can I do the marketing my property

Once you have all the required information, you can start start advertising and marketing your property.

This is where RealEstate Talk mobile app is useful, and its completely FREE! Register yourself and create the property advert. You can directly take property pictures from your mobile camera or upload it from the gallery. Likewise upload a floor plan, then provide all the details such as number of utilities and rooms, and make a small payment for your advert, which is a fixed fee irrespective of your property price and there are no hidden costs. Watch this video on how easy it is to create a property advert in RealEstate Talk.

Once you post the advert and make the payment, it will undergo the approval process to ensure that it is up to the standards. Once approved, your property will be visible on the in-built map for all the prospective buyers.

How RealEstateTalk will raise awareness of my property

Your property AD needs to be in front of as many prospective buyers as possible so that it generates good interest. We will promote your AD in various different ways

RealEstate Talk uses extensive social media campaigns to market your property. It has an in-built chat system which you can use to reach out to prospective buyers and other property related service providers. Unlike WhatsApp, where a person’s mobile number is required to chat, you can start chatting with other registered users of the app without knowing their mobile or email address.

The prospective buyers can search and shortlist your property, request a viewing and make an offer. As a seller, you will receive notifications of emails and chat messages, when someone either sends you a message, requests a viewing or makes an offer. You can accept, reject or re-schedule a viewing and start chatting with them. You can even see a list of people who shortlisted your property, as you can reach out to them via chat messages.

RealEstate Talk mobile app has all the required features which you can use to sell or let your property directly to the buyer without an estate agent. This will save you money worth thousands. So Why not Download it now and give it a try!!

So in a nutshell, it’s not that difficult to sell or let your property without an estate agent. You can save thousands if you sell or let private. So why not give it a try?