Do you need to use an estate agent?

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I am thinking of selling my house, and the estate agent will charge €6k, the solicitor €2k to sell, and another €2k to buy a different property. I don't want to say anything disrespectful about estate agents, so I will admit to saying that I don't know how hard their task may be nor how time consuming it is. But €6k does seem like a lot of money to sell a house, so I have been thinking about putting a 'For Sale' sign up at the front of my house which is in an estate and also putting one up at the main road. Is there success stories of people selling houses by themselves? Any advice on this matter?
 
Yes and No! I sold a property in Cork City recently (centre city pad) using the SellIt Yourself website (provide sign and pointer board) and a web presence for 200E approx. Had an estate agent the year before you was a waste of space (big est. company) but sold it myself no problem (ad on Daft.ie also) - saved 6k - yeah

Now selling my own home in Dundrum D14 (3 bed semi) and not so much luck - same process but about to hand over to an EA as haven't had the same number of calls / viewings and want to get things going

Ultimately it seems that it depends on where you are. My advice is to spend the 200E on doing it yourself for 4-5 weeks. You hopefully will be lucky by flushing out a buyer in that time (also using daft.ie). If you do you'll have saved yourself a lot of money (assuming your negotiation skills are decent). If no joy, then hand over to the EA and you're only down the 200E for a try. If there are other properties in the estate for sale then remember all the work other EAs will be doing to get people to come see them will benefit your house (any genuine interested party will see you r sign and make an appt. to see yours too)

Best of luck with it
 
Hi,

There is a similar thread to this one. I think as people said on that thread if you were a buyer you could be put off by the vendor selling it directly. An EA is a neutral person and not personally attached to the property where as you are and people have different tastes and can voice this to the EA whereas not to you - of if they do you might take it the wrong way. I have mine up for sale and am glad I have an EA showing as people I think can relax more and I think you can get more feedback from people through the EA. Best of luck.
 
daddycool said:
Yes and No! I sold a property in Cork City recently (centre city pad) using the SellIt Yourself website (provide sign and pointer board) and a web presence for 200E approx. Had an estate agent the year before you was a waste of space (big est. company) but sold it myself no problem (ad on Daft.ie also) - saved 6k - yeah

Now selling my own home in Dundrum D14 (3 bed semi) and not so much luck - same process but about to hand over to an EA as haven't had the same number of calls / viewings and want to get things going
Click to expand...

Couldn't that be more to do with the market in general than the sales method used? Just a thought.
 
Hi all,

Thanks for your replies.

Hi gcooke,

1.8%. The house is valued at €240,000.

€240,000 x 0.018 = €4,320
€4,320 x 1.21 = €5,227.2 VAT
€5,227.2 + €650 = €5,877.2
 
Hi all,

Thanks for your replies.

Hi gcooke,

1.8%. The house is valued at €240,000.

€240,000 x 0.018 = €4,320
€4,320 x 1.21 = €5,227.2 VAT
€5,227.2 + €650 = €5,877.2
Click to expand...

Try 1%+vat and you will notice aseriously different price. Was that your own quote or did an EA give it to you?
 
Hi MrMan

€240,000 x 0.01 = €2,400
€2,400 x 1.21 = €2,904

That is serioulsy different alright. The quote was from one of the best know estate agents in Ireland. Are estate agents difficult to bargain with? Do you think that I would have a fair chance of success if I went back to the estate agent and asserted myself and looked for a better percentage?
 
Definitely go back and look for better value, they may not budge, but you are not obliged to use them either. Best known is not always best service. Regarding your chance of success, it is your house he earns nothing from you without it, you can use someone else and if that doesn't work out you can then go back to that agent when all else fails. If you decide to sell on your own, you should realise that your lack of bargaining experience will count against you when it comes to getting the optimum price.
 
Just sold ourselves and I'm shocked at how little an estate agent does. The hard part is getting the place spottless for each and every viewing, if estate agents did that for you I'd be tempted. The estate agent doesn't care too much about every 5k so I don't know how much their fabulous negotiating skills come into play but on bigger somes they probably do have some welly. Though I think you get less messers selling yourself, people find it harder to act the maggot when they are face to face with the person selling.
 
Hi Eamonn123456,

1.8%. The house is valued at €240,000.

€240,000 x 0.018 = €4,320
€4,320 x 1.21 = €5,227.2 VAT at 1.21%
€5,227.2 + €650 = €5,877.2 Advertisement costs

The €650 is for initial advertising costs and is payable in advance and is non refundable. The advertisements are for both a local paper and also nationwide.
 
Probably not much use to the O/P as this company is Dublin based but might be of interest to others www.lexproperty.ie They offer Estate Agency and Legal for one overall fee of 1% of the sale price plus VAT.

Sounds like a good deal, but conflict of interest springs to mind.

I have no connection and know nothing about them.
 
The €650 is for initial advertising costs and is payable in advance and is non refundable. The advertisements are for both a local paper and also nationwide.
Click to expand...

Definitely wouldn't accept that, you should only pay for what you advertise. If you feel EA@s are a waste of time the only way to prove it is to go it yourself. The only question that you will have to answer if you do sell will be 'would an EA have gotten more?'.
 
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