Your Total Guide To property

Everything You Need to Know About Selling Your Home Online

More and more of us are shying away from the traditional methods of selling a home and opting instead to go rogue, selling property online and reaping the rewards of minimal fees and being able to do everything at your own pace.

If you’ve been typing ‘sell house fast’ into Google, looking for new ways of getting that property off your hands, then here’s everything you need to know about selling your home online.

It’s a much cheaper option

Most online sellers don’t have their hand out for fees in the thousands – estate agents usually take between 1% to 3.5% of the final sale - when selling your home. In fact, you can either opt for a cash buy service that can turn a sale around in just three days or go for a company that offers packages for around £400. These usually include photos and viewing arrangements, basically everything a traditional estate agent offers but for a fraction of the cost.

You will have to do some legwork

This all depends on who you decided to work with to sell your home but you might find that you will have to take your own high quality images, arrange viewings and set the price of your property. This is great if you want to have complete control of your sale and someone to support you with legal side of things.

However, you need to ensure you are comfortable enough to show people around your home and negotiate on prices instead of passing such responsibilities over to an agent, or you could find yourself in an awkward situation.

You have more freedom

Estate agents usually dictate what goes into a listing, what images are taken and sometimes when viewings take place but when selling your home online you can make these decisions and tailor your listing to how you wish to present your property. After all, you’ve lived there so you know what its redeeming features are and what attracted you to buy it - which will more than likely inspire others to as well.

You might miss out on local knowledge

While you’re saving lots of money you might be missing out on the local knowledge an estate agent has to offer when it comes to valuing your property and how to present it to buyers.

It’s important you do your research

When selling your property online you might have to set an asking price, so it’s best that you do some detailed research and try not to aim too high with your valuation. Look around the local area at what similar properties are selling for and base your estimated price on that. Find out what makes it unique and ensure you factor this into your value. Property prices are expected to rise by around 4.5% this year alone, so bear this in mind if you are selling in 2016.

You won’t have to pay fees, even if your sale falls through

Estate agents are cheeky when it comes to property sales and yes, while they might work hard to get a sale to the final stages, if it falls through they still get paid unless you’ve signed a ‘no sale no fee’ agreement.

However, online property sellers will more than likely list your property again for free or ask for a small reinstruction charge – which will be much less than the thousands that the local estate agent is insisting on.