How complicated is it to sell your own property by yourself? ie no agent?

whizzbang

I'm just wondering how difficult is it to sell you property by yourself with no agent? What are the steps involved? I guess you need the following, but what else?

1. Get valuation
2. Advertise the house for sale
3. Print up some brochures
4. Do viewings
5. Take bids
6. Choose a winner
7. Solicitor type work (what does this involve? does it have to be done by a solicitor?)
8. Get money
9. Hand over deeds and keys.
10. Run

What else is involved?

Thanks!

aniascor

You might run into problems when it comes to getting deposits from people. I personally wouldn't hand over a deposit to someone selling their own house, rather than handing it to an estate agent. The buyer has no guarantee they will get their deposit back if things don't work out.

whizzbang

aniascor wrote:

You might run into problems when it comes to getting deposits from people. I personally wouldn't hand over a deposit to someone selling their own house, rather than handing it to an estate agent. The buyer has no guarantee they will get their deposit back if things don't work out.

Interesting point, but what about an escrow agent? buyer gives deposit to Escrow, seller only gets it when the buyer orders the Escrow to release it to the seller. Unless one party is breaking the contract in which case I think the other gets it. I'd need to look it up some more.


Want circumstances can a buyer get their deposit back? In other markets deposits don't genenrally get refunded, do they in property?

delboy159

To be honest I wouldn't try to avoid the solicitor side of the deal. I know they are probably more overpaid for the work they do than the estate agents, but its dangerous to do things without one. Also the person buying from you would be advised be their solicitor not deal with you (I'd guess).

Also having a solicitor would get around the taking the deposit problem. Instruct their solicitor to pay your solicitor the deposit, everyone should be happy with that.

All in all your saving yourself the 1% (odd) on estate agents fees, but you still have to pay the legal...

Before you think I'm plugging the legal profession - I received a letter from the Law Society a few weeks ago informing me the solicitor that had looked after the purchase of my house 2 years ago, was closed down (due to improper conduct) and he had not paid the stamp duty to revenue and the ownership details have not been changed from the previous owner....

So I am very distrustful of the profession, but feel that it would be very difficult to get a house deal done without one....

whizzbang

delboy159 wrote:

All in all your saving yourself the 1% (odd) on estate agents fees, but you still have to pay the legal...

Thanks for the input, it's good advice. How much to solicitors usually charge for this stuff?

So I am very distrustful of the profession, but feel that it would be very difficult to get a house deal done without one....

Ouch! that's rough. I hope it works out for you. I'll bear that in mind!

paulocon

Just to re-iterate what delboy said there...

If you are thinking of doing the estate agent side of things yourself, then go ahead - I think a listing on daft is EUR99 or so and I know someone who is trying this out (without an agent) as we speak.

Having said that, I think if someone is looking to buy a house - the first place they will go is to an agency. You don't see many people selling their property themsleves although it is a practice more common in other coountries such as France.

As regards a solicitor, this is definitely a necessity. I would be pretty certain that the purchasing party would not deal with you without a solicitor. The solicitor is there as much for your own protection as anything else.

whizzbang

thanks paulocon, I don't actually have a house to sell, I'm really asking for a friend who is looking into it. I will let them know.

Thanks!

Lex Luthor

Whizzbang...I spotted this site on a flyer that came in my door the other day
for €390, you get started....
I think also it costs €120 for an ad on myhome.ie

http://www.privateseller.ie/catalog/index.php

Houses are selling on it, so it does work....I know I'll be going down this route in 12months time. Why pay an estate agent to sell soemthing that almost sells itself???

whizzbang

Lex Luthor wrote:

http://www.privateseller.ie/catalog/index.php

Houses are selling on it, so it does work....I know I'll be going down this route in 12months time. Why pay an estate agent to sell soemthing that almost sells itself???

thanks! thats just the sort of thing I was looking for! Cheers!

aniascor

whizzbang wrote:

Want circumstances can a buyer get their deposit back? In other markets deposits don't genenrally get refunded, do they in property?

The buyer can get their deposit (booking deposit I mean - usually about €5000, paid immediately when you go sale agreed) back right up until the day that the contracts are signed. This will probably be about 6 weeks (could be a lot longer as I discovered myself) after the house goes sale agreed. Both the vendor and the buyer can withdraw from the sale without penalty up until the contracts are signed. It is only once the contracts have been signed that the full deposit (10%) is paid over and the sale is legally binding. As far as I know the full deposit is paid over to the vendor's solicitor, not directly to the vendor or the estate agent, so that's not the one the buyer would be worried about losing. It's the booking deposit I would be wary of paying.

Although, as has been suggested here, if you arrange to have it paid through an escrow agent or through your solicitor there should be no problem.

antoinolachtnai

Why wouldn't you use an agent? I mean, for the sake of 1.2 percent or whatever it is, isn't it worth it if you might get 2 grand extra for your house, close a week or two quicker and save yourself having to deal with loads of phone calls?

DublinWriter

It's very easy, make sure you have a good solicitor, and the selling party have the same.

whizzbang

antoinolachtnai wrote:

Why wouldn't you use an agent?

I'll let this thread answer that http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054943746

Irish Wolf

As far as I'm aware, it's a requirement to have a solicitor involved in the conveyancy - perhaps some of the more legally minded boardsters can comment on this - this should give any buyers more confidence in handing over a deposit.

Make sure you shop around for a solicitor - when I bought my house I ended up paying 1.6% - but found out after the fact I could have got 1%. :mad:

antoinolachtnai

whizzbang wrote:

I'll let this thread answer that http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054943746

If that's your only basis, I would think again. Like it or not, estate agents are the people who have some idea who and where the potential buyers are. If they can root out even one extra potential buyer, they are probably worth the money. If you know someone who will buy your property, fair enough.

You could probably get away without a solicitor to sell a property, but if you are buying one as well you will need a solicitor anywa.

samo

I read elsewhere that private sellers cannot put their property on www.myhome.ie which in my mind anyway is where a good percentage of buyers these days first check for potential homes. Other than that, I know of a couple of people who sold their place through word of mouth and everything went very smoothly. As mentioned before, deposit was paid to their solicitor and everything proceeded exactly as it would through an estate agent (and probably better)

As for the solicitor, I'd say most people wouldnt have a clue about doing title searches, getting the deeds released from bank etc if existing mortgage, possible tax implications, contracts with conditions attached etc so seeing as solicitors fee's have come down alot if you check around - it would take a lot of the headache away for the sake of 2 grand.

whizzbang

samo wrote:

I read elsewhere that private sellers cannot put their property on www.myhome.ie which in my mind anyway is where a good percentage of buyers these days first check for potential homes. Other than that, I know of a couple of people who sold their place through word of mouth and everything went very smoothly. As mentioned before, deposit was paid to their solicitor and everything proceeded exactly as it would through an estate agent (and probably better)

I have seen self sales on daft.ie, not sure they are as popular as myhome.ie

but who knows what is going to happen to myhome.ie after they are sold?