Could you save money by selling your home online?

Selling your home can be a very long winded, stressful, and expensive affair, and never more so than these days when the bottom has fallen out of the property market and finances are tighter than ever. Those looking to sell their homes at present face a number of hurdles. First is the fact that estate agents are reporting very poor sales figures, with the number of properties remaining unsold on estate agents’ books at the highest level of decades.

Second comes the fact that selling through an estate agent can be very expensive depending in the value of your home, and with finances so tight for many households few can afford to lose a large chunk of the money received on the sale of the property to an estate agent – a situation made even worse by the fact that many sellers are having to accept below asking price offers on their homes due to the current state of the housing market in the UK.

One report, however, has suggested that an effective alternative for those looking to sell their property, have more control over the sale of the property, and most importantly avoid extortionate estate agency fees if and when the property does sell is to try and sell the property online. For many being able to save potentially thousands of pounds on estate agents fees could help to make up some of the losses that have stemmed from house prices falling for eleven months in a row, which has wiped thousands of pounds off the average house price.

Estate agents often charge between two and three percent of the property value, and with house prices still high, despite the recent falls, this can amount to a lot of money for the average homeowner. It is thought that last year alone saw homeowners shell out around £6.5 billion in estate agent fees for selling their homes. Research shows that with estate agents reporting that business is slower than it has been in decades homeowners have little to lose, and potentially a lot to save, by opting to sell privately online.

One industry official said: ‘The agent doesn’t really need to be there. For marketing and negotiating the sale of the average £400,000 London home, estate agents would charge nearly £10,000 in needless commission. If you cut out the middle man you can save yourself thousands.’ He also said that many people assumed that selling privately would be a time consuming, difficult, and stressful process, but that much of this was based on misconceptions.

He said: ‘Going it alone can actually save you time. With our website you can create an advert from start to finish in under an hour – and it’s really simple. Estate agents are only expensive because they carry high overheads for things like high street offices, staff wages and running costs. We don’t have all that because we aim simply to put “person A” in touch with “person B”, eliminating the need for the expensive and unnecessary third party.’