Nowadays, an increasing number of people are considering selling their houses privately, rather than engaging an estate agent. For a greatly reduced fee, saving many thousands of pounds, online companies are constantly growing the number of properties that they’re selling on behalf of homeowners. This trend is supported by the connectivity of the Internet, which means that finding potential buyers is just as successful privately as working through an agent.
What is the difference between online and traditional agent sales?
When you consider what an estate agent will do, all of these features can be handled by an online company. Estate agents, when you listed your home with them, would arrange to visit your home to look at the details and to take pictures. An online company is also happy to give you a free valuation of your home and some will also be involved in assisting with photos and drawing up floor plans. In other situations, you may be happy to do this yourself, and will save money.
An estate agent would then put ads into various periodicals and look through their database for people wanting a home like yours. An online business will immediately post your details onto multiple sites directed towards people wanting to purchase property – probably the exact same sites used by your estate agent. Once people respond, you can either elect to handle the traffic yourself (usually through email unless you’ve provided a phone number) or the online company can vet these for you – exactly as an estate agent would do.
Arranging for viewing
Again, both traditional estate agents and online companies would need to consult with you to schedule viewing times. With agents, you’re often involved in viewings anyway, but these would be entirely your responsibility with an online company. Most people say they prefer to discuss their own home with future buyers anyway. Thereafter, just like with an agent, an online business can negotiate with a prospective buyer and can introduce a solicitor to handle the legalities. The real difference between the two thus boils down to price. The online company can save you up to 85% of sales fees, and that’s truly something to consider.