With 70% of potential home buyers looking online to find property and with estate agents charging up to 4% in sales commissions, more and more people are starting to consider selling their property privately.

In this article we'll examine why you should think about selling your property yourself rather than using an estate agent to do it for you.

Estate Agents Charge Hefty Sales Commissions

Estate agents usually charge a sales commission of between 1.5% to 4%, plus VAT.

This means that on a £150,000 property where the sales commission is 2.5% you would have to pay £3,750 sales commission plus £656 in VAT. If you sell your property privately, you don't have to pay any sales commission.

You Don't Need an Estate Agent to Value Your Property

Valuations carried out by estate agents are not recognised by insurance companies as a basis for building insurance rates. This is because all estate agents rely on when they make valuations is experience based on what similar properties in the area have been sold for.

Furthermore, estate agents often value properties at a lower amount than they are actually worth so that they can close the sale more easily and receive their sales commission sooner.

Instead of using an estate agent to value your property, you would be better of using a qualified surveyor whose valuation would be recognised by insurance companies and who doesn't have a vested interest in the asking price that you choose.

Estate Agents are Notoriously Disreputable

There have been some cases where estate agents have been punished by the Office of Fair Trading for conning their clients leading to them losing thousands of pounds.

Estate Agents Act in Their Own Interests

Ultimately estate agents are only really interested in making their sales commission which means that they might try and persuade a vendor to accept an offer that he or she doesn't really want to, simply to secure the commission.

There is Another Option- Sell your Property Privately

By advertising your property on private sales sites you can sell your home and save thousands of pounds in sales commissions and the stress of managing estate agents.