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i. All your leads will - initially - have to come from Rightmove / Zoopla / OTM etc. You might be fine with this. It's difficult to tell how much this puts you at a disadvantage. EAs like to big up their 'applicant' lists. They might or might not be worth something.
ii. The one thing that turned me off when looking at PB / Yopla stuff was not being able to view it in the next couple of days at a time that was convenient to me. And I wouldn't return to a place once I got the feeling that the owner was being precious with their time. So be prepared to be available all day every day if you are doing self viewings.
iii. You'll probably have to negotiate yourself. Depends how comfortable you are with this.
iv. You'll need to conduct viewings like a normal EA would do, i.e. impersonally, coldly, impatiently. Anything else is weird. No tea / coffee sit down for a chat nonsense.
Will it put me in a bad place with an ongoing chain?
If you are with PB or Yopla, probably not. If you are with one of the more esoteric - 99 homes I'm looking at you - possibly.
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We did one viewing where the owner (and partner and child) were at the viewing and it was a pretty awkward and unpleasant experience (for me) at least.
I felt it was hard to have a good snoop and test/open things when the owner is hovering, and it makes you really rush when other occupiers (partner and child) drop what theyre doing to go stand in another room while you enter the room they were in.
Especially in covid times, we had taken anti bac wipes with us and we cleaned taps/handles etc that we touched and this was more difficult with the owner looming
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I also did a few viewings where the owner was present and it felt a bit weird. May be different if the owner is doing the viewing rather than just lurking/avoiding you.
You're relying on people actively looking at your place online and wanting to view it and then organising the viewing. Estate agents are (in theory) more likely to suggest viewings to clients and will get people viewing who wouldn't necessarily have viewed it just based on the online ad.
It's a tough one to call. In the scheme of things I reckon my estate agent earned their £5k but I've no idea whether I would have got the same price selling it myself.
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I've sold a flat and a house and did all the viewings for those. I think the majority of viewings I saw were with the owner, not an estate agent. Didn't really bother me either way.
There were a couple of houses we viewed and ultimately didn't buy in part because the seller was crazy and didn't have an estate agent or other professional on their side to tell them they were crazy. As an example we wanted to complete before school application date (which was ages away) but before the owner wanted to move out. They suggested we complete but they would continue to live in it for 3 months.
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@cjr
I've had a search but can't find anything. Has anyone on here sold a flat (in London) without an estate agent using Yopa, Iamtheagent.co.uk or similar?
I'm a photographer so I would do the pics anyway and based on two neighbour's recent sales and others currently on the market I have a very good idea of what the place is worth. It's also in a popular area.
From what I can see, the difference is about 5K in commission and I would have to do my own viewings. My partner and I work from home and I'm freelance so I don't think it would be a big issue. Is there something I'm missing? Will it put me in a bad place with an ongoing chain?