Selling Your Property Yourself: What Homeowners Need to Know

It’s quite possible – and legal – to handle the sale of your house or flat yourself. But here are a few ‘home truths’ about whether it’s a good idea.

DIY Selling Involves a LOT of Work

You’ll need to get your house or flat ready for sale. Then you’ll have to do all these tasks as well.

Value your property and determine an appropriate asking price.

Write an extensive description (ensuring that you include all the legally required material information) and take lots of professional-quality photographs.

Field questions, queries and viewing requests (perhaps at all hours).

Co-ordinate appointments and conduct viewings yourself (perhaps at all times of the day and evening).

Consider offers, evaluate them and undertake (possibly complex) negotiations with buyers.

Deal with all the admin and paperwork that’s involved yourself.

DIY Selling Involves Extensive Marketing

Exactly how are you going to find potential buyers?

You could try social media like Facebook and Instagram and make a ‘House for Sale’ sign. You could also advertise on local sites and in local papers.

However, all these methods have limited reach. They take time and aren’t necessarily free.

When you sell your home yourself, you won’t have a listing on the big property sales portals. These connect sellers with hundreds of thousands of potential buyers. You won’t be able to advertise on estate agents’ websites, in their window displays or have access to their registered buyer database.

After All That, You Might Not Get the Best Price

Getting the best price for your home depends on promoting it thoroughly, generating a lot of interest, attracting viewings and ideally several prospective buyers competing to buy it.

This is the best way to establish its true market value, too.

The risk of DIY selling is that you won’t be able to attract enough interest, viewings and keen buyers. And so, you won’t attract strong, competitive bids.

In summary, while – yes – you can sell your house yourself, it’s essential to be aware of the downsides.

If you are considering selling and would like to learn more about the many benefits of using a professional estate agent, please give us a call today.