Sell property without estate agent?

Eddie Peters

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Can I sell a property without using an estate agent? Advertise it on daft.ie or another site. Would this just require a solicitor to sign off on legal documents. Apologies if this is a ridiculous question but I honestly can't see the need to pay a percentage of the purchase price to an intermediary when I could easily do the job myself. Am I missing something?
 
No, not at all. If you have the time, go for it.

However, you will miss out on having someone to lie to prospective buyers and generally annoy them with childlike incompetence.

Why did God invent estate agents?
So hookers could have a profession to look down upon.
 
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Honestly looking for opinions. I'm planning to sell now and buy another property. Just wondering what's the point in paying an estate agent?
 
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Honestly looking for opinions. I'm planning to sell now and buy another property. Just wondering what's the point in paying an estate agent?
If you are fully satisfied the price is the best that can be obtained there is no need in my opinion to employ an estate agent. you should make extensive enquiries re recent sales. Please bear in mind you might be able to arrange a special fee with the estate agent.
 
Sold my last house with an EA without him even advertising it, house across the road sold and he went to the under-bidders and we got more then the price we were looking for.

You will need to be able to free yourself up for viewings etc so it is going to be time consuming and I assume you will incur costs if you post it on Daft or Myhome yourself
 
Maybe I'm too cynical, but I'd love to know the value that an EA can add to the sales process.

If properly advised by you
1. He can sift out the leg lifters/multi-viewers etc.
2. He can give you a real sale value on your house , not a, I heard Jimmy got X 000,s ,so I must get X 000,s.
3. With fee agreed ,you have passed sale process and all its narking over to him/her.
4. He /she knows how to sort out or deal with slippy customers.

ps . Nought wrong with a wee bit of cynicism !
 
If you have the time to devote to it you can certainly sell a house yourself.

1. He can sift out the leg lifters/multi-viewers etc.

Talk to these people, you never know what you might learn from them. And some of the multi-viewers will eventually buy somewhere

2. He can give you a real sale value on your house , not a, I heard Jimmy got X 000,s ,so I must get X 000,s.

For properties which are similar to a multitude of others, a three bed semi in xtown, or really any house with an address starting with a number, the PRSA website can make you as well informed about sale prices as any EA in a few minutes.

For rural houses where a similar house may not have sold nearby for some time this is more difficult. But if you ask yourself, what can I get in the area for €300k and the answer is lots of properties nicer than mime, then €300k is too much. You can educate yourself quickly, would an EA be better able to value a property, who knows. You can always ask a few EAs to come and look at the house and ask what they suggest as an asking price.

3. With fee agreed ,you have passed sale process and all its narking over to him/her.

True.

4. He /she knows how to sort out or deal with slippy customers.

What does this mean? They make an offer, you accept the offer, they pay a booking deposit, you send them a contract, they sign the contract. After that there is no slipping, up to that there is no commitment.
 
I have twice sold houses and been happy to pay an EA to do the leg work.

If you have time to so all the house viewings and take calls from prospective customers, then go ahead but a lot of people don't.
I had a full time job and two kids when I was selling our last house. There is no way I would have been able to do all the work involved
 
From my recollection, estate agents used to charge approx 1.5% of the sale price - that's a whopping €3,750 for a €250,000 house! At this stage, I am more concerned about the house appearance during a viewing and reckon that the money might be more constructively used in house redecoration/ leasing of furniture etc. I also think that it's a bit sad that many houses are in better condition when being sold than the time that they were lived in.
I've taken photos and composed a blurb for daft.ie. I plan to have an open viewing for a few hours two days next month. The property is a three-bed semi in an urban area so it's fairly easy to decide a guide price. BTW, I recently attended an open viewing of a property by an well-established estate agent and was surprised to find a young butler-type male show us around (somehow I suspect he would have preferred to have been elsewhere). I was contacted later and was advised that the property had a bid of €XXX. Very shortly after, I was informed (by text) that the asking price had since reduced. The property is still on the market.
I would really appreciate any advice on selling my property directly.
Cheers
 
Hear hear. I'd back you to do a better job than a spoofer in a shiny suit. I wonder what happened to the phantom bidder?
 
And isn't myhome.ie just for estate agents and you won't be able to advertise as a private sale
I'm not sure what is meant by this comment. I have previously advertised several times on daft.ie for house rentals which is very often used by estate agents (the cost was approx €47 a pop) and never had a problem. Just checked and daft.ie charges €299 for a standard house sale advert.
 
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I'm not sure what is meant by this comment. I have previously advertised several times on daft.ie for house rentals which is very often used by estate agents (the cost was approx €47 a pop) and never had a problem. Just checked and daft.ie charges €299 for a standard house sale advert.

You didn't advertise on myhome.ie though. You have to be an estate agent to put up an ad on that site.
 
I sold my house pre internet days myself. Made my own sign. The Estate Agent's signs on other for sale houses on my road were enough to attract viewers to my house.
 
From my recollection, estate agents used to charge approx 1.5% of the sale price - that's a whopping €3,750 for a €250,000 house! At this stage, I am more concerned about the house appearance during a viewing and reckon that the money might be more constructively used in house redecoration/ leasing of furniture etc.

An excellent point
 
Does anyone have any ideas of how to approach a solicitor regarding self-sale i.e. do I need to agree terms now wrt agreeing a cost for the job, taking a booking deposit etc.
 
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I sold an apt myself to the sitting tenant - the solicitor just took the booking deposit of 10%. If I was going the DAFT route of paying 299 I would be buying myself a new phone though. That way when its done you can turn it off. Vistaprint will knock you up a sign for a couple of hundred. Viewings are the same amount of hassle with or without an EA once you are happy to take the calls of interest yourself. Its all very doable.
 
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