A recent study by the Office of fair Trading (OFT) indicates that a third of sellers believe that estate agents' fees offer poor value. However selling a home without an estate agent can save you thousands of pounds if you know what you are doing.
Using an online estate agent offers the ideal compromise, this way you can save a substantial amount of money whilst still having the same buyer coverage. An online estate agent will do everything that a high street agent will do, apart from accompanying the viewings. Most vendors, however, are happy to show people around themselves, as they know the house better than anyone else.
There are several online agents that you can choose from, in order to make sure that you select the best one you should ask the following questions:
- Will the property be marketed on all major UK property websites. 90% of buyers search for property on the internet, if you are not on the most visited portals you will be missing out on enquiries.
- Is the agent a member of the Ombudsman for Estate Agents Scheme, which means that they are governed by the Office for Fair Trading Code of Practice for Residential Agents.
- Does the agent advertise a telephone number. It is important that there is actually somebody at the end of the phone that you can talk to.
- Will the agent supply a For Sale board? It is amazing how much interest a board will create.
- Ask the agent to provide a list of there services, plus fees and charges (and which of the latter are payable even if they can't provide a buyer).
If your online property agent can provide you with an acceptable answer to each of these questions then the chances are that they will be able to offer the best value method of selling your house. For the money, their service is unrivaled.
The above article was written by Richard Tuck from the Online Estate Agent Turtle Homes. Experience a new way to sell your house and find a property online in the UK. We provide the same service that you would receive from a conventional high street estate agent but for a low fee. We are an ONLINE estate agent and we don't have expensive overheads such as high street rents and rates.
All you as the vendor need to do is to show prospective purchasers around your property and let us take care of everything else. For more information, please visit our web site at http://www.turtlehomes.co.uk
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