nick smith wrote:
Thinking of selling my house, D-I-Y, i.e. without the agent / fees.

Anyone here done this and have any tips, mainly "where to advertise"
?


All this from having sold a house myself -- in Dublin 15 years ago;
trouble free. But, like second-hand car sales, it greatly depends on
the area -- some places, I guess away from major centres of population,
an estate agent may be essential.

Find out where (newspapers + ?) the estate agents advertise houses in
your price range. That's all. If there is no clear cut choice, that may
again point to the requirement for an estate agent. If you are going to
be at the phone only for certain times, advertise those times.

Timing may be important. You have a bit of a window now until a few
weeks before the school holidays. Then things go quiet until a week
after the schools open in Sept. Of course all depends on the demand.
Some houses / streets sell themselves as soon as they go on the market.

As regards filtering dreamers from real buyers, even with an estate
agent you'll probably have to do that yourself anyway. You should plan
some line of conversation to get out of them their current housing and
financial circumstances.

Arrange viewing times and write then down (is 20 minutes per viewer
enough?).

Important. Have photocopies of a nicely prepared description + photo --
see estate agents handouts -- ready for everyone. Apart from anything,
it saves a lot of question answering and follow-up telephone calls.

Again depending on area, you'll get the odd family whose Sunday
afternoon hobby is to visit houses for sale. If large families arrive,
it does to have a second person on the premises.

You might find the exercise somewhat unpleasant, but my experience was
vastly preferable to (recent) dealings with estate agents (as I've
often admitted, I'm now too lazy for any sort of d.i.y).

(I'm sure this is a faq; and there must be loads of guides on the web?)

Good luck,

Jon C.