Would you ditch a high street estate agent in favour of selling your house online yourself? Here’s Sarah Beeny, presenter of Channel 4’s ‘How to Sell Your Home’, asking whether online estate agents are right for you.
Some people take to selling online like a duck to water, but others seem lost without a traditional high street agent. Which camp do you sit in?
Putting you in control
Saving money is one of the main attractions of using an online estate agent, with a one-off fee of around £600 rather than paying a percentage of the total value of the property.
You can also manage your sale any time of night or day. Online estate agents generally offer dedicated sale managers, to guide you through the process and assist you in your sale, but these are at the end of a telephone. So if you prefer dealing with an estate agent face to face, a traditional high street agent could be better for you.
You’ve also got more control over the process, which can be a positive or a negative. Nobody will push you into a price you’re not comfortable with and you get the choice of when it’s convenient to show buyers around. However, this may seem daunting to some. Some sellers can severely out-price their homes making it difficult for them to attract potential buyers. But with the help of a local agent or their online agent, they can ask for advice on price for those are struggling.
Sell your home in your own words
You know your home better than anyone but you may not see it objectively, so if you’re going online, get a friend around to help you highlight the key selling points – both in the written description and when you show prospective buyers around.
You need to make your home look the part. Make sure it looks lived in, but not cluttered. Make the best of empty or wasted spaces. And celebrate what’s unusual or unique about your home too – if you price it right, you’ll find a buyer.
Saying ‘I did that’!
Selling your own home is extremely satisfying and once you get the bug for it you may never want to go back to the high street. In fact you may wonder why you were ever prepared to pay a huge commission to high street agents once you realise that it’s possible to seal the deal yourself.
Would you be willing to sell your home using an online estate agent, or will you continue to sell through traditional high street agents?
Which? Conversation provides guest spots to external contributors. This is Sarah Beeny, property expert, Channel 4 presenter and founder of online estate agent Tepilo.com. All opinions expressed here are Sarah’s own, not necessarily those of Which?.
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