How to sell your house without an estate agent


It is becoming ever more increasingly difficult to sell a house on the open market through either your local estate agent or even through one of the new online estate agency methods.

Over the past 12 months, we have seen some areas of London which were very flying high 18 months ago, now struggling to sell their stock.

With more and more new methods to sell your property coming to the market, why are sales still slowing down? and what options are available to sell? Online agents offer a new method of selling your property. With this method, you will sell the property to an ‘estate agent’ that is based online as opposed to being based in an office.

What are the benefits of this? Well, you can sell your property for a fraction of the cost.

Fees to sell through an estate agent can range from 2-4% + VAT. Whereas online agent prices can range from £100-£1000 + VAT.

So with these cheap prices why aren’t houses selling at a rapid rate through online agents? According to Dax from Home House Buyers “It seems that people are struggling with creating traction from right move alone. Houses are sitting on the market for 12 months plus.”

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Valuing your house

There are many ways that you can value your house without using an estate agent. Most people tend to use Zoopla, which is fine, however, it does tend to just work as a means average algorithm.

You can look at net house prices and right move sold prices to see what similar houses in and around your property have gone for in recent times. Try and pick houses that have sold within the last year and that were of similar size and condition. This should give you a clear idea of how much your property could achieve.

Depending on which route you are looking to sell will depend on whether you are to spend money to get your house up to marketing standard. If you are going to try and market your house through an online agent you may want to try and make your house as neutral as possible.

Can you sell your house yourself?

The simple answer is yes. Selling your house without an estate agent is possible. You can look to list your property yourself or look to sell through an auction house or sell to a sell house fast company.

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Selling your property yourself

You can look to sell your property by using an online agent. This way, you will have access to RightMove and Zoopla and your property will be visible online. We have had a look and have found that you can list your property for as little as £99 + Vat. Sounds too good to be true? Well, it all will depend on your negotiating skills.

You will have to book in your own viewings, manage your appointments, negotiate your offer, take your own property photos and then progress the sale.

So, it will all depend on how much spare time you have and what your skills are like as an agent. You could save thousands, but you could also leave yourself short if you are inexperienced in negotiating.

Selling through an Auction House

Auctions have been becoming more and more popular over recent years with the rise of programs such as Homes Under the Hammer. But is this an effective way to sell your house without an estate agent? From our experience, if your house is a project and buyers can see a potential profit then it can sell under the gavel.

The auction house will normally charge you a listing fee whether the property sells or not and alongside that you will be asked to set a low ‘Guide Price’. A guide is a price that your property will appear for sale.

The auctioneer will normally advise that your property is listed 20-30% below value, so if your property doesn’t sell then you could have tarnished your properties value. Also, if your property doesn’t sell then you will stay have to pay the auction fees.

Selling it through a sell house fast company

What is a sell house fast company? Well, it’s selling your property directly to a company where they will buy your property within a few weeks. They will normally offer to pay cash and cover all the fees (such as solicitors and survey cost). As they are buying the property direct you will normally avoid and estate agency fee. So what are the cons of using this type of service? Well, you will normally be asked to accept an offer of between 15-20% below market value in order for them to be able to buy it.