Selling Your Home Through An Estate Agent Is The Best Way To Sell My House - Isn't It?
By Robert Heeley
Only a few years ago the estate agent was the one and only reliable
method of selling your house, today you have many more options and, subsequently,
the marketplace is a little bit more complicated.
In response to this change in market conditions many estate agents are
using very underhanded tactics to trick you into using them. Tricks such
as overvaluing your property to ensure you sign on with them. Remember,
an overvalued property DOES NOT SELL for that amount. In all likelihood
you will be stuck with the property for 6 months and when an offer does
come in it will be dramatically lower than what you expect. By this time
you will be desperate and the estate agent will suggest you go with the
offer. The agent gets their commission based on the real value of the
property whenever it sells; you will be the only person out of pocket.
What's worse, by marketing a property at an overvalued amount, you can
actually delay the sale further. Even when the price is finally reduced
to a more realistic level, buyers can be put off by the length of time
a property has been marketed for.
Further evidence of this can be seen by the campaign by the consumers
champion Which, http://www.which.net/moveit/index.html, for estate agents
to clean up their act.
An alternative option, which the agents will advise strongly against,
is a private sale to a cash funded investor.
These sales can be completed in days and with flexible completion dates
to suit requirements.
Let’s use an example to illustrate the advantages of NOT using
an estate agent and selling direct to an investor.
£160,000 Market value as suggested by an Estate Agent
-£11,200 Typical offer through an estate agent is 7% less
-£3,760 Approximate fee for the agent (2.5% + tax)
-£1,000 Solicitors fees
-£9,700 Average house sale takes 6 months (assume 5% APR)
-£9,700 Average discount secured on next property by being a cash
buyers
£126,640 Total real value of your home when you sell it.
As you can see there are a lot of hidden costs or lost opportunities
(i.e. not being a cash buyer of your next property) in selling a property
through the traditional methods of using an estate agent.
With investors they usually pay the solicitor’s fees and they
have cash ready to buy your home so there are no delays and, as long
as the offer is more than the figure above, you could actually be better
off selling for less money!
In fact, by being a cash buyer of your next home you could save even
more money.
So as, you could sell you’re home at £160,000 to a cash
buyer for 126,640, and be no worse off financially than by selling through
an agent.
What's more you would have saved yourself 6 months of hassle, stress
and worry. It is a well known adage that moving home is one of the most
stressful things that someone can do, so by simplifying some of the money
issues, can be a real emotional plus.
So, the next time you’re moving home, and an estate agent tells
you a private sale is a bad idea, or you just need to sell your home
quickly, think about the other options you have…that of the property
investor.
Written for for MPG Investments - THE Home Buyers. MPG Offer home buying
services to make sure that you can Sell Your House Fast. Written by R.
Heeley of Netcallidus Ltd - Seach Engine Optimisation services.
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