Should I sell my house privately or use an estate agent? 30 Mar 2022
Sell Privately vs Estate Agent

We’re seeing more and more sellers ask, ‘do I really need an estate agent?’. Afterall, people can now manage their finances via an app, order groceries with the click of a button and book an overseas holiday from the comfort of their own home. Technology has reshaped our daily lives, and this extends to the world of buying and selling property, so in this week’s blog we compare the differences between selling your home privately and using an estate agent.
Establish an Asking Price
Once you’ve decided it’s time to sell your property, your first step is deciding how much you will sell your home for. You may head over to one of the free online valuation websites to help you gauge an asking price, but it’s important to remember that this figure should be used as a guide. These tools use recently sold property prices and factors such as the number of bedrooms your home has, to get to this price and often don’t capture the bigger picture – perhaps you’ve recently renovated, or your home has a large garden unlike any others on your street?
If you sell with an estate agent like Grisdales, we’ll start off by coming out to take look around your home to gain a full understanding of what your property has to offer. We’ll then combine local property data with our knowledge and experience to arrive at an accurate and realistic asking price. We’ll also take into account your onward move plans and begin to put a strategy in place for making your move work for you.
At this stage you should bear in mind that you obviously don’t want to sell your home for less than it’s worth but pricing it too high can also run the risk of not achieving a sale at all.
Advertising Your Home

If you’re selling your home privately, you’ll now begin to think about how you’ll get the word out that your home is for sale and consider what information potential buyers would want. Many head over to the internet to post online and include a DIY brochure that includes pictures and room sizes. Others may add a listing to their local newspaper or put a sign in their window to catch passer-by’s attention.
In comparison, we have an abundance of marketing tools and techniques at our disposal. We produce lifestyle-focused brochures which feature appealing room descriptions and photographs to attract our buyers’ attention. Your property will then be listed on Rightmove, the leading property platform that most buyers initially head to when starting their property search, alongside our dedicated website and social media channels. Once we’ve erected a prominent for sale board, Grisdales will also send out a property alert to our database of thousands of potential buyers, notifying them that your home is on the market and inviting them to book a viewing.
Carrying Out Viewings

Next up is viewings which can be a time-consuming job in itself! Do you decide to accept every viewing request? What information do you need from the viewer? What do you do when people come to look around your home? And don’t forget to ensure your house is presentable to allow you to showcase it in the best light.
After 25 years in estate agency, we understand that your time is valuable. We get to know your potential buyers from the get-to to establish whether they would be proceedable in buying your home, should they wish to make an offer further down the line. Afterall, it’s better to have 10 quality viewings from realistic buyers than 30 from those who have no real plans to make an offer.
Many of our viewings are also carried out by our professional team who are highly skilled in conducting viewings and will be on hand to answer any questions about your home and the local area. Afterwards, we’ll be sure to check in with those who looked around your property and gather some valuable viewing feedback.
Negotiating an Offer
At this point, you may have received an offer for your property. It may be less than your asking price or you may have two interested parties and you must use your own negotiation skills to reach the stage of accepting an offer.

It’s here that the skills and expertise of an Estate Agent can be invaluable. One of our main aims is to achieve the best price for you and we do this by nurturing and negotiating offers. We’ll also consider the buyers circumstances and check that they’re in the best position to proceed with the sale all the while fitting in with your plans – helping to reduce the chance of the sale falling through later down the line.
Conveyancing
Congratulations on accepting an offer! Here you’ll need to plan how you’ll formally accept your offer, instruct your solicitor or conveyancing team and gather the documentation that’s needed to sell your home. Don’t forget that a sale isn’t legally binding until contracts have exchanged which can be a lengthy process in itself – you may need to regularly allocate time to check in on the progress of your sale with your legal team.
53,856 sales collapsing, in less than three months of 2022
During the initial stages of putting your home on the market, Grisdales will have offered you guidance on how best to prepare for your sale before coming to the market, including instructing a solicitor and preparing the relevant documentation. When you accept an offer, we’ll issue the required paperwork to all parties involved in the sale including your solicitor.
Upon exchange of contracts, our in-house sales progression system will kick in, helping to progress your sale through the conveyancing process efficiently and as quickly as possible by regularly reviewing the progress of your sale. Our skills and expertise can come in handy when any complications arise, or your sale is tricky – such as a flying freehold on your home
Did you know that the industry average of a property reaching completion is just 66%? That means out of 100 home sales, 44 fall-through which costs the seller on average £2,899 in fees for things such as legal costs. Our sales progression system and the skills of our team mean Grisdales Estate Agents average completion rate is an impressive 79%!
Completion

Once your property has completed, you’ll make plans to hand over keys and funds from your sale will be paid to you by your solicitor. Many of our buyers allocate the hand over to us and it’s only upon completion that our fees are paid, usually by your legal team before remaining funds from the sale are sent to you.
Should I sell my house privately or use an estate agent?
Selling your home is known as one of life’s most stressful events. Listing privately takes time, dedication, patience, and great negotiation skills to name a few!
Our aim is to achieve a speedy and efficient sale that fits in with your property plans, all the while achieving the best price. We’re here to guide, support, market and manage your property sale to ensure it gets from listing right through to completion.
For many, the biggest selling point is the financial savings on agency fees when selling privately. Ensure you look at the bigger picture – while you can save on initial costs, consider the sale price an estate agent can achieve (often over the asking price!), the implications of how long the sale takes and the skills an agent uses to get a property to the completion stage against fall through costs – on average £2,899.
Our recent sales:
Lingfell Ave, Cockermouth
+£6,000 asking price
Sold in 6 days
George St, Maryport
+24% asking price
Sold in 2 weeks
Bannatyne Dr, Workington
+6% asking price
Sold in 7 days
If you like some advice on selling your home, are thinking about moving or want to know more about this week’s blog topic, our team are on hand to help. Get in touch by giving us a call or completing the form below. If you’re ready to book a property valuation CLICK HERE.