If You’re Selling Your Home – The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Using An Estate Agent

Love them or hate them, estate agents are a vital part of the property market, with this industry pumping millions of pounds into the economy and allowing millions of home owners to sell up and move on. Although the emergence of private sales websites has increased in the past five years, there are still many reasons to use a good estate agent, but as with most things in life, you can also find reasons why you should do things on your own.



Below, we look at the biggest advantages and disadvantages when it comes to deciding whether to use an estate agent or go it alone with a private sale.



Advantages



Advertising – Most estate agents offer you the chance to go into local papers, have a selling sheet in their front window and of course you get the big For Sale sign that outside of your home. If you were to do all of this independently it would probably end up costing a fortune, which means that advertising opportunities is one of the biggest plus points when selling your home through an estate agency.



Experience – If the estate agent has been established for sometime, they can provide a wealth of experience that you would be mad to not listen to. Things like how to make your home more attractive, professional photographs and just general advice when it comes to getting your house sold and allowing you to move on. They can also help with the next purchase as well, which relieves a little bit of pressure when moving onto another home immediately.



Mailing List / Exposure – Once again, an established estate agent will have a large mailing list and database of people looking for homes that fit your location and budget. This means that as soon as you put your home on the market, the agent should be contacting all of the matched sales, which can often lead to immediate interest which money could simply just not buy if you were doing things on you own.



Disadvantages



Fees – One of the biggest disadvantages of using an estate agent for most home sellers is the fees that you will need to pay if the estate agent successfully sells your property. Fees range from 1% - 2.5% depending on the location and agent, which means if you sold your house for £200,000, the agent who sold your home would stand to pocket anywhere between £2,000 - £4,000, depending the on their sales percentage that you agree upon listing.



Competition – Unless the agent you decide to sell with is extremely poor at getting new listings or extremely successful and therefore has no other properties on their books, you will be facing competition from all of the other sellers on those estate agents books. This means that when the potential buyer walks into the office, they will have a much bigger choice to consider than just your home, which can mean they will look elsewhere or your home might get lost in the "pile".



Restrictions – When you sign the contract with any agent to sell your home, you will normally get the best deal if you go single agency, which means that as long as you only list your home with that agent, the fees will be lower. If you go multi agency, you will normally find the fees are higher and sometimes the original agent will also demand a fee as well. This can limit you in terms of where your property is advertised and possibly restrict the amount of potential buyers you have access to.



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