By selling your property privately you can also look forward to:

• Taking control of your sale (being in the driving seat)
• Receiving direct and immediate feedback on all aspects of your sale
• Not having to rely on the word of your Agent for updates (there will be no Chinese whispers, brush-off’s, excuses or lies)
• Knowing that your sale is receiving the attention it deserves
• Probably achieving the highest possible sale price

That last point deserves a fuller explanation. You see, for many Estate Agents, a sale is a sale. They get paid no matter what price is finally agreed.

The harsh reality of estate agency is that the effort involved in negotiating an extra £5,000 -£10,000 for you will only and an extra £100 – £200 on to the estate agent’s bill.

It’s not much of an incentive for an Estate Agent to go the extra mile and fight for your best price once an adequate offer has been presented.

The recent bestseller by Steven J. Levitt (winner of the “John Bates Clark Medal”, awarded to the best American economist under 40) on modern economics called Freakonomics has even shown scientific proof of this.

Why isn’t Everyone Selling their Homes Privately?

This is a good question. Our experiences tell us that:

• Most people just assume that using an Estate Agent is the easiest thing to do.
• Some simply don’t have the confidence to take responsibility for their own sale
• Some are frustrated by the lack of sound private property selling advice.
• Some believe that the salesmanship of an Estate Agent will secure them a better price.

If you're deciding whether to sell your home on your own, here's a much overlooked property truism about salesmanship that's worth bearing in mind:

Even if an Estate Agent convinces a buyer to overpay for a property, the buyer's
mortgage valuation always stops the sale from going through at an inflated price!

When a mortgage lender's valuation does not confirm a buyer's offer, it's immediately obvious to everyone that the house is overvalued. Nobody likes to overpay!

The most common result of a "down-valuation" is that your buyer's mortgage application is refused.

Refused mortgage application = No sale + A waste of your time!

There's nothing for you to do but lower your price because otherwise buyers will keep dropping-out at the mortgage valuation stage.