Estate Agent Pros.

Estate Agent Cons

Doing it Yourself

Values Property for you

May give an unrealistic value just to get your business. Then they drop it later on.

You can establish the value yourself using our easy valuing your home guide and tools. You can pay a local surveyor a modest fee (£25 plus) for a realistic valuation. Or you can get free valuations from local agents if you decide to market your home through them aswell as doing it yourself.

Gives an objective, experienced opinion on any improvements you should make to sell the property, from painting the gate to painting the front room magnolia

Anyone can become an Estate Agent. There are no qualifications. So they may not be any good at this - even if they pretend to be.

Ask friends for an objective opinion. Or read our easy guide to preparing your home for sale

Prepares property description, takes good photos, takes measurement of the rooms

This ain't as difficult as it sounds. Once you've seen one set of property details you've seen them all

You can do it yourself with the help of our guides. Or modify and even improve on your agents' details.

Advertising the property in local papers. This is a plus. They will have a page of properties in the property section

This is not guaranteed. There;'s only so much space on their advert page. If you have to insist on it, it will be very difficult to control their campaign over, say, a several weeks. Basically you have very little control over where they advertise

You could advertise yourself -though it will probably go in the back of the paper. However over 70% of people search on the internet. It's easier for them to find exactly what they want re rooms/ price etc. And they will quickly see your property.

Has High Street Shop. Will advertise in their window

This is not guaranteed. Again there is only so much space. You would have to insist on it. They would be unlikely to keep it in the window for as long as you wanted.

You could put up a simple advert / flyer in your local shops etc.

Supply a For Sale board

Might not supply one for weeks - if ever.

Big deal. You can quickly get one from us for only £24.95

Already has a list of buyer enquiries they could match to your property.

While this is a plus, amazingly this is not guaranteed. Despite it being a simple admin procedure it seems some agents may not be able to manage it.

Convenience. Can conduct unattended viewings

Don't necessarily do this and may not show up - as a result of simple inefficiency that agents are renowned for. This will seriously put off potential buyers. Also they may not be as good as you at describing the best features.

If you are stuck at work then most other people are too. So evening or weekend viewings are the norm. Otherwise you could revert to friends, relatives, neighbours. Or if you are using an agent anyway you could strike a deal with them to do the viewing. - in writing! eg a quick email.

Deals with offers and negotiates the sale. They are professionals and do it all the time

They often don't get back to people. They are not available or responsive. They are dealing with many other properties. Buyers will usually be looking at more than one property and will be desperate to get an offer accepted asap...

Negotiating is not as difficult as it may sound. Our simple guide teaches all you need to know. And you will be unlikely not to respond promptly to interest from buyers. To sell a property takes a lot of to'ing and fro'ing. Otherwise it can get bogged down and the buyer goes elsewhere