Selling my house on Daft with no Auctioneer. Pro's V Con's

lotusm

Hello Lads,

I am putting up own home for Sale next week. Say I get a free valuation on the house from the auctioneer. I see I can list the property on Daft website myself (pretty easy) just wondering has anyone ever done this before and actually make a sale. Would potential buyers be put of if they see its the owner selling it and not the auctioneer ? Obviously there would be no fees but what else ?

Any feed back much appreciated:)

TheDriver

Did it in 2011-2012 and sold.
So you do save yourself a fortune in fees. Also you get to control the sale of the house i.e. photos, viewings. I found showing people around my (former) home was far more positive as people could ask questions that i knew the answer to as opposed to vague answers from EAs. It also cut out tyre kickers because they couldn't bluff the owner.
The only con was that there is no deposit because you don't have the legal capacity that EA would have. However deposits mean nothing anyway because they can be reclaimed at any time prior to contracts.
Only I agreed a sale, the solicitors do the fighting.

You MUST be realistic about price though as there was someone on here last year who was selling their own house but thought it was worth a fortune. You should also be able to price it based on property price register or similar things on daft.

highgiant1985

lotusm wrote: »

Hello Lads,

I am putting up own home for Sale next week. Say I get a free valuation on the house from the auctioneer. I see I can list the property on Daft website myself (pretty easy) just wondering has anyone ever done this before and actually make a sale. Would potential buyers be put of if they see its the owner selling it and not the auctioneer ? Obviously there would be no fees but what else ?

Any feed back much appreciated:)

edit: the driver answered my question above which was about deposits... damn my taking so long to type!

lotusm

Thanks Driver, how did do on haggling on the price . had you a few bidding against each other etc

Pawwed Rig

Cons - the estate agent is used to dealing with purchasers and knows the tricks to get more cash from them. If you have 2 or more people bidding this is not relevant but where there is only 1 bidder you have to know how to maximise the sale price.
You have to be able to get within the estate agents fee of the max sale price for this to work

D3PO

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

Cons - the estate agent is used to dealing with purchasers and knows the tricks to get more cash from them. If you have 2 or more people bidding this is not relevant but where there is only 1 bidder you have to know how to maximise the sale price.

I completely disagree. If you value your house at say 250k somebody bids 240k and is the only bidder you don't need EA bullsh1t to try and get the other 10k.

You can either accept the reduced offer or you can tell the person offering it no and negotiate an improved offer. You don't have to make up phantom bidders etc to do this.

Obviously Im commenting on correctly valued houses and non unrealistic sellers who quite frankly wont sell with or without an EA anyway.

Penguino

I would put it on Myhome before Daft, people use Daft for lettings and myhome for sales

There are a few documents you will need to send onto solicitors, you will need to hold the deposit (which is completely refundable if the deal falls through), purchasers may be wary of handing over a sizable deposit directly to the seller

What prices have you been quote from EA & what is the approx value of the house?

D3PO

Penguino wrote: »

I would put it on Myhome before Daft, people use Daft for lettings and myhome for sales

Firstly you cant put anything on myhome if your not an EA. Secondly people do use daft for sales. This misnomer that myhome have a monopoly on sales is just that.

There are a few documents you will need to send onto solicitors, you will need to hold the deposit (which is completely refundable if the deal falls through), purchasers may be wary of handing over a sizable deposit directly to the seller

What prices have you been quote from EA & what is the approx value of the house?

.

murphaph

You might get more people genuinely interested if they know they don't have to endure endless EA bullsh!t when making their bids. If only everyone would move to selling themselves (their properties I mean!) on the net we could dispense with parasitic EA's who really only serve to take a cut in most cases.

Ray Palmer

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

Cons - the estate agent is used to dealing with purchasers and knows the tricks to get more cash from them. If you have 2 or more people bidding this is not relevant but where there is only 1 bidder you have to know how to maximise the sale price.
You have to be able to get within the estate agents fee of the max sale price for this to work

I don't really think they actually have legitimate "tricks" other than lying which isn't legitimate.

Pawwed Rig

Ray Palmer wrote: »

I don't really think they actually have legitimate "tricks" other than lying which isn't legitimate.

I am not saying they do and I am definitely not here to represent EA's. Just adding a few cons to the pros on this thread.
Another advantage of an agent is that people often go directly to their offices when viewing properties. An agent may also have people he knows are interested in a similar property that are currently actively viewing with mortgage approval.

Boom__Boom

In terms of advice I would say the most important thing you can do is get a good experienced solicitor, ideally one who has handled house sales without an estate agent previously.

Also it might be worth your while getting in touch with estate agents and asking them what exactly they would if you hired them to sell your house.

If they can't sell you on the value of employing them to sell your house as opposed to doing the job yourself, you have to wonder about their overall selling ability.

Paddy Fields

Thanks to lotusm for this as we are in the same position. We put our house up for sale in March this year and our estate agent had all the spiel and we were seduced by his claim that they had mortgage-approved clients on their books and he said we would be done and dusted by July. Well we are still here and despite having the cast of Ben Hur traipsing through the house there is not one offer on the table. Someone used the term "tyre kicker" and I have been thinking if there is a property equivalent. I had 4 people last Wednesday and 6 on Saturday and I'm beginning to think they have nothing better to do and just fancy a nose around someone else's gaff.

There is spare land backing on to my house and my agent said some guy told him there were houses being built on it and he hadn't got an answer but I KNOW there are no plans to build on it. The owner of the land went bankrupt and cannot build or sell the plot. So some gob****e might have been telling other potential buyers that in future the garden might be overlooked by new housing/apartments. I'm beginning to think I might tell the agent to do one and I'll try and sell it myself.

Best of luck anyway lotsum.

Bigcheeze

The two main cons are 1) the booking deposit. Obviously this is refundable, but having someone hand over 5-10k weeds out the time wasters, and 2) if there is competitive bidding, whatever about believing an EA, no one is going to believe the owner if they tell them someone else has outbid them. A lot of value can be lost on 2).

Gloomtastic!

Can't your solicitor hold the deposit?

R0C

Bigcheeze wrote: »

, and 2) if there is competitive bidding, whatever about believing an EA, no one is going to believe the owner if they tell them someone else has outbid them. A lot of value can be lost on 2).

I'd believe the owner a lot quicker than the EA.

The way I see it, the EA is very experienced in lying and inventing phantom bids where the owner is less likely to risk playing dodgy games when it's his own personal house.

If the EA loses the sale, he has a much smaller financial loss than if the owner upsets a potential buyer.

OP, I would be far more interested in a house sold by the owner than an EA. There are many houses for sale in my locality which I have not viewed purely because of a certain EA handling them. And I know several other people who feel exactly the same.

But realistic valuing and sale price is a must.

D3PO

Bigcheeze wrote: »

if there is competitive bidding, whatever about believing an EA, no one is going to believe the owner if they tell them someone else has outbid them. A lot of value can be lost on 2).

not a valid point in my book. If somebody has outbid them and they decide not to up their bid who cares as the seller you have an interested party and it only takes one interested party to make a sale.

You have set an asking price you don't need a bidding war. If the price is asking or above it then you should be accepting and selling as that's what you set out to achieve.

If the higher bid is below asking then again you accept it or you negotiate.

I don't see how people cant grasp the notion of telling somebody who bids under asking that your not willing to sell at that price and ask them to up their offer to X.

Why people think you have to trick people into bidding higher is beyond me as is the notion of people "bidding against themselves" a sale of any kind is very straightforward, just because a vendor wont accept your offer and asks you to up it that does not mean you are bidding against yourself that's negotiation plain and simple.

EA's only use phantom bidders because frankly most of them have no skills in negotiation at all so its the only way they can get a client a higher bid.

If you are a competent negotiator then there is zero added value in an EA.

TheDriver

I didn't have much of a bidding war because the reality is that if it is priced correctly, then people don't come in with silly offers (although I had one but they knew they were chancing their arm and we had a laugh about it). I am also put off looking at certain houses at moment because of one EA and everyone knows they are probably lying through their teeth.
One thing you must be though is a showman..........you can be quasimodo showing people around the house with a candle so maybe a friend can do the showing if you are uncomfortable about it. Also remember don't highlight bad points e.g. here is the leak in the roof! However don't lie either e.g. do the pipes freeze etc. I told the truth and they appreciated that.
One EA had 3 houses for sale in my estate so you have to question which one he pushes. However mine sold and only 1 of his..........
LAstly, if you don't try it, then who knows!
P.S> Don't forget the sign in the garden, that generated some interest.

D3PO

TheDriver wrote: »

I
LAstly, if you don't try it, then who knows!

This is the key point right here. Unless you need a fast sale why wouldn't you try it ? If it doesn't work out for you its easy to employ an EA after a few months.

If you don't try you will never know.

TheDriver

i think if people are putting offers in on houses through EAs, we should have a list of common phrases
1) if you come up a bit more, then the house is yours (why can't it be mine now)
2) Theres another bidder conveniently within reach of you (phantom bidder)
3) The seller is looking for some more (the seller isn't even told about this bid)
4) That bid probably won't work (let the seller say no to it so I can move on.....)

Its amazing if you are willing to walk away from a bid quickly, the EA will usually be on the phone unless there actually is another bidder.....

Dr Turk Turkelton

I have just bought a new house.Took two years top find the right one.I probably looked at about five before I found the right one.
Two of the houses were shown by the owners and to be honest I didn't feel one but comfortable walking round with the owners.Also didn't like the Idea of negotiating with the owners as they would have had a completely different idea of house worth than I.
One of the houses is still for sale a year later at 60k less than original price.

D3PO

Cuchulainn1. wrote: »

didn't like the Idea of negotiating with the owners as they would have had a completely different idea of house worth than I.
.

What are you going on about ? An owner selling sets an asking price you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know what they value the house at before you view it. No different to how they would value it with an EA onboard.

This has zero relevence to any argument about weather an EA should be used to sell or not.

As for not feeling comfortable about viewing with the house owner I don't understand this at all. If your selling your house yourself you have to accept that viewers wont like things about it and will pass comment.

Who cares, your not showing it to get an ego boost or to prevent your feelings being hurt your trying to sell it and if you cant get beyond your emotional attachment then you shouldn't be showing it yourself.

Private sellers for the most part will be aware of this so therefore there is no reason to feel uncomfortable viewing a property with an owner.

brian ireland

Sold a house last week seller to buyer no estate agents involved. Cost €1500 solicitors fees for me. Painless.

D3PO

brian ireland wrote: »

Sold a house last week seller to buyer no estate agents involved. Cost €1500 solicitors fees for me. Painless.

and saved a decent chunk in EA fees too. Jobs a gud un. Well done.

Dr Turk Turkelton

D3PO wrote: »

What are you going on about ? An owner selling sets an asking price you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know what they value the house at before you view it. No different to how they would value it with an EA onboard.

This has zero relevence to any argument about weather an EA should be used to sell or not.

As for not feeling comfortable about viewing with the house owner I don't understand this at all. If your selling your house yourself you have to accept that viewers wont like things about it and will pass comment.

Who cares, your not showing it to get an ego boost or to prevent your feelings being hurt your trying to sell it and if you cant get beyond your emotional attachment then you shouldn't be showing it yourself.

Private sellers for the most part will be aware of this so therefore there is no reason to feel uncomfortable viewing a property with an owner.

What I am "going on about"as you so eloquently put it is my personal experience which is I believe what the OP wanted.

brian ireland

Sold a house last week seller to buyer no estate agents involved. Cost €1500 solicitors fees for me. Painless.

TheDriver

Cuchulainn1. wrote: »

I have just bought a new house.Took two years top find the right one.I probably looked at about five before I found the right one.
Two of the houses were shown by the owners and to be honest I didn't feel one but comfortable walking round with the owners.Also didn't like the Idea of negotiating with the owners as they would have had a completely different idea of house worth than I.
One of the houses is still for sale a year later at 60k less than original price.

bit like EAs, some are realistic, some are not. However if you are realistic about the price, then it should sell.
It is a key point though about showing people around, you must show them and then let them loose.......

Dr Turk Turkelton

TheDriver wrote: »

bit like EAs, some are realistic, some are not. However if you are realistic about the price, then it should sell.
It is a key point though about showing people around, you must show them and then let them loose.......

Tbh I didn't even feel comfortable walking throughtheir house with them downstairs.

In relation to EA's I dealt with two of them.One had obviously never worked in the business outside of the Celtic Tiger and was terrible.
The other one was brilliant and knew exactly what we were looking for.
As we were out of the country for most of this year she contacted us when the sort of house we were looking for came up before it even went on the market.A long weekend at home and it was ours.

Got the keys last week but still abroad so havent spent a night in the place yet!

D3PO

Cuchulainn1. wrote: »

Tbh I didn't even feel comfortable walking throughtheir house with them downstairs.

There is no logical reason for this though. Why didn't you feel comfortable ?

Its a genuine point I understand it and there are a certain percentage of people that would probably be likewise but there is no rational logic behind it except your ingrained fear in dealing with an owner rather than EA.

I think EA's are useless and a waste of money but there's one thing I cannot deny their brainwashing of people that makes sellers and buyers feel like they are out of their comfortzone by not dealing with them is a stroke of genius.

Outside of Guinness's market of Arthurs day its probably the best marketing framework I know of.

pwurple

Cuchulainn1. wrote: »

Tbh I didn't even feel comfortable walking throughtheir house with them downstairs.

We got this a bit. Some people were not comfortable. We advertised without EA. People were very surprised we were advertising it ourselves, so some of the time I actually didn't say I was the owner, I was wearing work attire anyway, so they assumed I was an EA.

We were sale agreed twice. Deposit was held by solicitor. 1st time the person's mortgage fell through, second time the deposit never showed up, and they just evaporated.

I had gotten fed up of doing the viewings and dealing with Joe Public at this stage, so we engaged an EA.


We also purchased without EA once. I found it handy to be able to ask questions and get answers without having to wait for EA to ask vendor and get back to us.