Topic ID 2267
Has anyone tried selling their house themselves? Via a website or however. I had the Estate agents around and they want 1-1.5% and I am not sure they are value for money.
Reply ID 31403
quote:Estate Agents are not value for money in their costs - I recently bought a new home and sold one with the same agent. The House went on the market and we bought it - a few pictures, no viewings as the vendor did that, ad in the Mercury. From that 2 x 1.5% on 2 properties and I don't know if the person buying mine used them aswell.
Originally posted by bikeman
Has anyone tried selling their house themselves? Via a website or however. I had the Estate agents around and they want 1-1.5% and I am not sure they are value for money.
Reply ID 31407
quote:How come you were charged a commission for buying a property?
Originally posted by Tiggerquote:Estate Agents are not value for money in their costs - I recently bought a new home and sold one with the same agent. The House went on the market and we bought it - a few pictures, no viewings as the vendor did that, ad in the Mercury. From that 2 x 1.5% on 2 properties and I don't know if the person buying mine used them aswell.
Originally posted by bikeman
Has anyone tried selling their house themselves? Via a website or however. I had the Estate agents around and they want 1-1.5% and I am not sure they are value for money.
Reply ID 31413
We sold a house ourselves around ten years ago and it worked really well (it was in London). It cost us around £1 in stamps (before the age of email and internet) and we had one "viewing day", then we had a firm offer several weeks later. I would definitely do that again.
Reply ID 31414
quote:How did you advertise it? Local Newspaper?
Originally posted by mangrovian
We sold a house ourselves around ten years ago and it worked really well (it was in London). It cost us around £1 in stamps (before the age of email and internet) and we had one "viewing day", then we had a firm offer several weeks later. I would definitely do that again.
Reply ID 31416
quote:I wasn't - I was charged commission on the property I sold and so was the guy who sold my current property, hence the 2 x 1.5% If the person theat bought mine used them to sell aswell that would be 3 x 1.5% so basically a lot of money for old rope.
Originally posted by azzzaquote:How come you were charged a commission for buying a property?
Originally posted by Tiggerquote:Estate Agents are not value for money in their costs - I recently bought a new home and sold one with the same agent. The House went on the market and we bought it - a few pictures, no viewings as the vendor did that, ad in the Mercury. From that 2 x 1.5% on 2 properties and I don't know if the person buying mine used them aswell.
Originally posted by bikeman
Has anyone tried selling their house themselves? Via a website or however. I had the Estate agents around and they want 1-1.5% and I am not sure they are value for money.
Reply ID 31423
To advertise the house we sold privately, we actually made out own "For Sale" board, which had our telephone number on it. The house was in the catchment area of good primary and secondary schools and lots of people used to walk past every day. We weren't in a tearing hurry to sell, but would probably have placed an ad in the local paper if we hadn't had any interest.
Reply ID 31426
I bought my house privately. We drove around the area we were interested in and there was a home-made For Sale sign up. The vendor had typed up the description and added some photos to hand out to anyone that knocked.
Reply ID 31433
My experience with two of Hertfords "leading" Estate agents was simply terrible. Cowboys would be an understatement. I will never used an Estate Agent again. The only thing they are contracted to do is market the property. Well I can place an advert in the paper too. The industry is shooting itself in the foot. The public know they are being ripped off, and the internet is going to give them an alternative. We are already seeing a big shift away from traditional estate agents. Thank heavens. I think the Mercury should introduce a private house sale section, much like advertising a car. If they don't the internet will beat them to it.
Reply ID 31434
I've bought two houses in my lifetime and in both cases the estate agents were nothing short of disgraceful in their behaviour. If I ever sold I would seriously consider selling privately.
Reply ID 31435
Useful links from BBC News: [url="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6172846.stm"]Can you beat the estate agent?[/url] "Property prices are continuing to boom, but house sellers are increasingly reluctant to pay an estate agent a percentage of their house's value... newer and cheaper ways of selling your home are springing up" [url="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6172846.stm"]Can to curb bad estate agents[/url] "Details have been published of the government's plans to give people more protection from bad estate agents."
Reply ID 31437
I bought my current house privately after trying to arrange a viewing through the estate agents. I was told the house was off the market, so justwent round and asked them to ring me if they decided to sell. I was shown round 15 mins later and then put an offer in the next day. You instantly have more room for bargaining as the seller doesnt have to pay agency fees. I will never use an estate agent as out of the 20 or so houses I saw, I got shown round once by an agent. *IN MY OPINION* they do zero for their money. There's an agency in London who think they're god's gift and charge 3% sinle agency or 5% joint. Rip off
Reply ID 31440
How do you get the property valued?
Reply ID 31441
The whole industry needs a bit of a kick. Regulation has hit virtually every other aspect of the housing market, but estate agents still have a code of practice that is not a legal requirement. They don't even need to sign up to this code if they don't want to! I'm a mortgage broker and have to be regulated by the FSA (I don't charge a fee and use a panel of 115 lenders) so I have some inside knowledge, but the worst incident I've come accross was an estate agent that would't pass on an offer to a vendor unless the mortgage was arranged through them. Quite astonishing, but unfortunately nothing illegal as the agents are not formally regulated.
Reply ID 31442
quote:Try http://www.upmystreet.com or call in a valuer if you have an unusual property. You could even ask an estate agent. There's no need to take their advice or sign up with them?!
Originally posted by Ewoowar
How do you get the property valued?
Reply ID 31443
Getting the property valued isn't usually too much of a problem. Upmystreet can be helpful, as already suggested. We did actually invite two agents round to value it, before we had decided to go it alone. We came to the conclusion that we wouldn't trust either of them to be able to sell a sack of spuds, let alone a property. All they could do was be critical and negative. We ended up selling the house for £5000 more than either of them valued the property at,and this was in 1994, when the property market was quite stagnant.
Reply ID 31469
quote:Does upmystreet.com actually give you a value for your particular house? I cant seem to find this on that site - only recent sales in your area. This requires registering and you can get better info of this site without registering.... http://www.upmystreet.com
Originally posted by David Yatesquote:Try http://www.upmystreet.com or call in a valuer if you have an unusual property. You could even ask an estate agent. There's no need to take their advice or sign up with them?!
Originally posted by Ewoowar
How do you get the property valued?
Reply ID 31470
I have been waiting for someone to say that they have had agents come round to value houses before going it alone. How many wasted valuations do you think Estate Agents have to do before getting an assignment?? No, I am not an estate agent and no I do not have a problem with people trying to sell their house on there own, but I do feel that wasting a "professionals" time purely for your own benefit its wrong.
Reply ID 31471
You could always wait until they post a flyer unsolicited through your door offering you a free valuation. I seem to get those at least once a month, often more frequently.
Reply ID 31473
quote:All houses will sell for what somebody else is willing to pay and what the seller is willing to accept. An estate agent could say £200,000, but if you want £210,000 then you can put it on the market for £210,000 - if it sells for £210,000 then it was obviously worth it and the Estate Agent was wrong! All you have is a difference of opinion. Estate agents use pointers like upmystreet.com in the same way that a car salesman uses Glasses Guide to work out what your car is worth. You would do the same if you advertised your car for sale. I get asked to quote for mortgages and re-mortgages all the time when people are just 'fishing'. It is part of my job as an independent broker. If provide a professional and accurate service, then maybe, even people who are information seeking will tell their friends about the quality of my service or come back and actually use me the next time around. I'm sure that Estate Agents view this in the same way.
Originally posted by Victor Meldrew
I have been waiting for someone to say that they have had agents come round to value houses before going it alone. How many wasted valuations do you think Estate Agents have to do before getting an assignment?? No, I am not an estate agent and no I do not have a problem with people trying to sell their house on there own, but I do feel that wasting a "professionals" time purely for your own benefit its wrong.
Reply ID 31474
quote:Surely in offering to do free valuations they are hoping to sell their services to the vendor in the process? If they don't succeed in doing so then it's their problem. In the natural progression of these things local Estate Agents will conspire so that none of them offer free valuations. However, if not all of them agree to this, they are stuffed by the greed and stupidity of their own kind. They also offer free valuations because they need to know what houses are possibly coming onto the market. In a popular area like Hertford they will have a list of potential buyers and this might persuade the potential vendor to use their services.
Originally posted by Victor Meldrew
I have been waiting for someone to say that they have had agents come round to value houses before going it alone. How many wasted valuations do you think Estate Agents have to do before getting an assignment?? No, I am not an estate agent and no I do not have a problem with people trying to sell their house on there own, but I do feel that wasting a "professionals" time purely for your own benefit its wrong.
Reply ID 31476
quote:I welling up. No valuautions are wasted. They are an opportunity for the sales person to enter the home of the customer and sell themselves and the estate agency they work for. If they can impress the customer more than the other estate agents then they are more likely to secure the property and a potential sale. Even if the customer is purely looking for a valuation and does not intend to sell at that time then the opportunity still exists to impress them. Unfortunately if the customer has 3 estate agents value their property the chances are that 2 of them may lose out, but even then the customer may wish to engage all 3.
Originally posted by Victor Meldrew
I have been waiting for someone to say that they have had agents come round to value houses before going it alone. How many wasted valuations do you think Estate Agents have to do before getting an assignment?? No, I am not an estate agent and no I do not have a problem with people trying to sell their house on there own, but I do feel that wasting a "professionals" time purely for your own benefit its wrong.
Reply ID 31477
quote:Professionals? What sort of qualifications are we talking here?
Originally posted by Victor Meldrew
I have been waiting for someone to say that they have had agents come round to value houses before going it alone. How many wasted valuations do you think Estate Agents have to do before getting an assignment?? No, I am not an estate agent and no I do not have a problem with people trying to sell their house on there own, but I do feel that wasting a "professionals" time purely for your own benefit its wrong.
Reply ID 31479
I understand that it is human nature and good sense to shop around for the best service and price, but you can pretty much guarentee that there are people out there that have Estate agents value their house purely as back up their own estimation. When I brought my house I used a broker and I also looked direct at a few deals, I did find a couple of lenders that were cheaper, so I told the broker he would have to match the deal if he wanted my business. He did. Regarding house pricing, obviously its easy to see what the house down the road went for and judge your property on that basis, but lets face it the majority of the older houses in Hertford are very quirky and unique in the way they have been renovated. In my view its the job of the estate agent to give the valuation based on the particular house not what next door went for. For example, I brought my house for x in June, I have since decorated (some of it) am about to put Hardwood flooring down, tarted up the drive, will be landscaping the garden in the spring and will eventually be extending. At present I have an idea what most 2 bed 2 reception cottages are selling for, but after all of the work I have/will be doing, my guestimate may be 10-20k out, the agent (hopefully) would be able to give me that info. But at the end of the day, a house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. (or getting in a bidding war for, these days!)
Reply ID 31480
quote:You may have noticed that professionals was in inverted commas Steve.
Originally posted by Stevequote:Professionals? What sort of qualifications are we talking here?
Originally posted by Victor Meldrew
I have been waiting for someone to say that they have had agents come round to value houses before going it alone. How many wasted valuations do you think Estate Agents have to do before getting an assignment?? No, I am not an estate agent and no I do not have a problem with people trying to sell their house on there own, but I do feel that wasting a "professionals" time purely for your own benefit its wrong.
Reply ID 31483
Support your local estate agents!! Yes in the current climate we could all probably sell houses ourselves, but where's the backing for local retailers and service providers? It's only a few days since there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth over the loss of Methvens, even though you could easily buy the same books much cheaper elsewhere. Think of all the empty estate agent shops - there are simply aren't enough charities to fill them. I don't expect this to go down well.
Reply ID 31484
quote:Sorry I disagree. For instance, an individual decides to sell their home, they have a vague idea of what it is worth, but want to make certain. they invite 3 agents round to value the property, then on the basis of what they have been told, market the property themselves. Sorry, but I would call that wasting the time of 3 people.
Originally posted by Ewoowarquote:I welling up. No valuautions are wasted. They are an opportunity for the sales person to enter the home of the customer and sell themselves and the estate agency they work for. If they can impress the customer more than the other estate agents then they are more likely to secure the property and a potential sale. Even if the customer is purely looking for a valuation and does not intend to sell at that time then the opportunity still exists to impress them. Unfortunately if the customer has 3 estate agents value their property the chances are that 2 of them may lose out, but even then the customer may wish to engage all 3.
Originally posted by Victor Meldrew
I have been waiting for someone to say that they have had agents come round to value houses before going it alone. How many wasted valuations do you think Estate Agents have to do before getting an assignment?? No, I am not an estate agent and no I do not have a problem with people trying to sell their house on there own, but I do feel that wasting a "professionals" time purely for your own benefit its wrong.
Reply ID 31485
quote:I see it differently. The customer has invited 3 experienced sales people into their home who failed to impress them enough to convince them that using their services would be better than going alone. Sounds like there are serious issues with their training, performance or the service offered by them and the estate agencies they represent.
Originally posted by Victor Meldrewquote:Sorry I disagree. For instance, an individual decides to sell their home, they have a vague idea of what it is worth, but want to make certain. they invite 3 agents round to value the property, then on the basis of what they have been told, market the property themselves. Sorry, but I would call that wasting the time of 3 people.
Originally posted by Stevequote:Professionals? What sort of qualifications are we talking here?
Originally posted by Victor Meldrew
I have been waiting for someone to say that they have had agents come round to value houses before going it alone. How many wasted valuations do you think Estate Agents have to do before getting an assignment?? No, I am not an estate agent and no I do not have a problem with people trying to sell their house on there own, but I do feel that wasting a "professionals" time purely for your own benefit its wrong.
Reply ID 31487
quote:Herbert - stop being a Herbert. Booksellers are warm fuzzy. Estate Agents aren't. Nobody lamented the passing of GA in Fore Street, even though that is a big unit.
Originally posted by Herbert Lemons
Support your local estate agents!! Yes in the current climate we could all probably sell houses ourselves, but where's the backing for local retailers and service providers? It's only a few days since there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth over the loss of Methvens, even though you could easily buy the same books much cheaper elsewhere. Think of all the empty estate agent shops - there are simply aren't enough charities to fill them. I don't expect this to go down well.
Reply ID 31489
Yes, that could also be the case, but you seem to have forgotten the fact that in my example the vendor had already decided to sell the property themselves. I paid £318 to have my car serviced last week, at the weekend I saw a book in Halfords that explained how to do it myself. The Car itself doesn't seem to be running any different to before, so how can I guarantee I got a good service?
Reply ID 31492
quote:Isn't servicing preventative? If it cost that much, it's either a v.expensive marque, or you had an oil change, wipers replaced etc. which is all maintenance and prevention. Yes, you could have done it yourself, but when you consider the net saving after buying all the parts and spending time on it, you'd probably rather pay someone else to do it. If you've had the car professionally serviced, you can take action if it later turns out it wasn't done properly. The same with Estate Agents - you are paying someone else to have the potential hassle with solicitors etc,. and can take action if they don't do what they are contracted to do. But car maintenance done badly could be life-threatening, with house sales this is unlikely. The potential saving on a private house sale outweighs the risk and hassle factor.
Originally posted by Victor Meldrew
Yes, that could also be the case, but you seem to have forgotten the fact that in my example the vendor had already decided to sell the property themselves. I paid £318 to have my car serviced last week, at the weekend I saw a book in Halfords that explained how to do it myself. The Car itself doesn't seem to be running any different to before, so how can I guarantee I got a good service?
Reply ID 31494
quote:No you didn't. You said, "For instance, an individual decides to sell their home, they have a vague idea of what it is worth, but want to make certain. they invite 3 agents round to value the property, then on the basis of what they have been told, market the property themselves." From that I assumed your sellers had merely decided to sell their home and wanted to know it's value. Then on the basis of what they had been told, which in my understanding included the the entire sales pitch covering the services offered by the estate agent as well as the valuation, they decided to market the property themselves. And this is still how I see it. The estate agent agrees to visit a property in the full knowledge that the customer has other options. They can choose other estate agents, they can go it alone or they can change their mind and not sell at all. The estate agent has the ability to influence the customer. I don't understand the analogy regarding the servicing of your car. It would only be similar to someone selling their house using an estate agent, finding a book on how to do it themselves and then wondering if they could have done it. A better analogy using your car would be if you had got 3 mechanics round to your car to quote for the service and then decided to do it yourself. But does anybody do that?
Originally posted by Victor Meldrew
Yes, that could also be the case, but you seem to have forgotten the fact that in my example the vendor had already decided to sell the property themselves. I paid £318 to have my car serviced last week, at the weekend I saw a book in Halfords that explained how to do it myself. The Car itself doesn't seem to be running any different to before, so how can I guarantee I got a good service?
Reply ID 31495
1) Estate Agents here are relatively cheap. On the continent they try and charge 6% and when i was trying to buy a place it was also buyer pays. 2) When I bought my current house, the arrogence of the agency we had to use was staggering. I would rather walk barefoot over hot coals and broken glass than use them should we ever need to move again. 3) They do seem genuinely surprised if one turns around and lets them have a taste of their own medicine (as I had to). Maybe more people should have a go back. 4) Letting Agents are worse.
Reply ID 31498
It was a tongue in cheek answer. My real gripe is time wasters, I don't think that everyone that sells privately is a time waster, but I do think that there is a number that do. Re the car, not a top marque, don't think I had an oil change, no new parts and it was still a shoddy service and I had to take it back a week later. Charlatans the lot of them.
Reply ID 31499
I'm sure people do get quotes for work on their car then do it themselves. Everybody has a different idea of how much they are prepared to pay someone else to do something they can do themselves. If you had 3 cleaners round all quoting £25 an hour, you'd probably do it yourself. Unless you are earning more than that yourself, and havn't got time to do it. Why don't they ask for a flat fee instead of a percentage? As I see it they do exactly the same amount of work whether the property costs £1m or £75k. With Estate Agents, the amount of commission they ask for is not commensurate with what they do.
Reply ID 31501
quote:What did you do for point 3?
Originally posted by carlos fandango
1) Estate Agents here are relatively cheap. On the continent they try and charge 6% and when i was trying to buy a place it was also buyer pays. 2) When I bought my current house, the arrogence of the agency we had to use was staggering. I would rather walk barefoot over hot coals and broken glass than use them should we ever need to move again. 3) They do seem genuinely surprised if one turns around and lets them have a taste of their own medicine (as I had to). Maybe more people should have a go back. 4) Letting Agents are worse.
Reply ID 31503
quote:Perhaps, I should have used the word example rather than instance, I brought my house from Shepherds
Originally posted by Ewoowarquote:No you didn't. You said, "For instance, an individual decides to sell their home, they have a vague idea of what it is worth, but want to make certain. they invite 3 agents round to value the property, then on the basis of what they have been told, market the property themselves." From that I assumed your sellers had merely decided to sell their home and wanted to know it's value. Then on the basis of what they had been told, which in my understanding included the the entire sales pitch covering the services offered by the estate agent as well as the valuation, they decided to market the property themselves. And this is still how I see it. The estate agent agrees to visit a property in the full knowledge that the customer has other options. They can choose other estate agents, they can go it alone or they can change their mind and not sell at all. The estate agent has the ability to influence the customer. I don't understand the analogy regarding the servicing of your car. It would only be similar to someone selling their house using an estate agent, finding a book on how to do it themselves and then wondering if they could have done it. A better analogy using your car would be if you had got 3 mechanics round to your car to quote for the service and then decided to do it yourself. But does anybody do that?
Originally posted by Victor Meldrew
Yes, that could also be the case, but you seem to have forgotten the fact that in my example the vendor had already decided to sell the property themselves. I paid £318 to have my car serviced last week, at the weekend I saw a book in Halfords that explained how to do it myself. The Car itself doesn't seem to be running any different to before, so how can I guarantee I got a good service?
Reply ID 31505
quote:Perhaps the number of sales is so low that the % commission has to be high to make the agency viable.
Originally posted by nora batty
With Estate Agents, the amount of commission they ask for is not commensurate with what they do.
Reply ID 31513
I gave them my full "Ugly American" style speech about customer service and about who was paying his bill. Full page adverts taken out in the local press may have been mentioned also.
Reply ID 31520
quote:Apologies Victor [B)]
Originally posted by Victor Meldrewquote:You may have noticed that professionals was in inverted commas Steve.
Originally posted by Stevequote:Professionals? What sort of qualifications are we talking here?
Originally posted by Victor Meldrew
I have been waiting for someone to say that they have had agents come round to value houses before going it alone. How many wasted valuations do you think Estate Agents have to do before getting an assignment?? No, I am not an estate agent and no I do not have a problem with people trying to sell their house on there own, but I do feel that wasting a "professionals" time purely for your own benefit its wrong.
Reply ID 31526
quote:They do do more work for more expensive houses.. Probably not enough more to make it worth the extra fee i admit though.. But at the end of the day it's the same as many other things. why is council tax so much for expensive houses? is it because they generate more waste? they'd have you believe so, but no; it's because they can pay more, they have more money. simple!
Originally posted by Ewoowarquote:Perhaps the number of sales is so low that the % commission has to be high to make the agency viable.
Originally posted by nora batty
With Estate Agents, the amount of commission they ask for is not commensurate with what they do.
Reply ID 31530
Sorry Herbert, but I would much rather see them all shut down and we revert to private adverts. We don't need agents to sell our cars, so why our houses? Reap what you sow could never be more applicable. Estate Agents are hated because so may people have been on the back end of their dodgy dealings. Regardless of codes and promises, many of them do deals with property developers at the expense of the seller they are contracted to. They hide off the good properties on many occasions, and they manipulate the prices to suit themselves. Then they avoid tax wherever possible. Its amazing the discounts I've been offered for cash in hand. I've used four agents in Hertford over the years and I've only had one clean deal.
Reply ID 31534
quote:Pots and kettles [;)]
Originally posted by Dude
I've used four agents in Hertford over the years and I've only had one clean deal.
Reply ID 31535
Don't get me started on Estate Agents... We've sold our (lower end of the market) property and had 4 valuations prior to this. 3 came within £5K of each other. The fourth (which shall remain nameless as I don't want Admin to shout!) estate agent was extremely rude and obnoxious, valued the house at £25K under the lowest of the other Agents, and has a reputation apparently for putting houses on cheaply so they sell and thus get a greater volume going through. Although they get commission, what the individual agent will earn on a £30K margin is peanuts, so it appears to be worth their while to undervalue...
Reply ID 31538
Goes back to my earlier point. A house is worth what it sells for and what the vendor is happy accepting. You can go with ANY estate agent and tell them what YOU want the offer price to be. They may disagree, but after all it's your house and you have to agree to any offer. They can refuse to take the business, but I doubt that they would! If you get no viewings or offers, then you have probably over-valued. However it is possible that the agents can be wrong too... House price is simply an opinion. When you get to £5m properties the valuations can be wildly different (£500k +/-) I have seen the lenders valuer say a property is only worth £4.5m and they buyer not get his mortgage, but the house then sold to a 'cash' buyer for £5.5m. So who's opinion is right? I don't see that undervaluing a house would get any agent more business, although a correct valuation with an early sale is a completely different matter.
Reply ID 31548
I have sold a place privately before but that was to a neighbour who someone told me they wanted a garden flat. There is no more hassle involved without an estate agent, less I’d say. What prompted me to ask this originally is that I have had my place valued by an estate agent and they valued it at what I thought it was marketable at. When I considered the commission and I would be paying would be between £3000-5000, I was shocked. OK my property has gone up by 25% since I bought it but why should the estate agent get an extra 25%? I’d also like to say the car service analogy is nonsense as you get ripped of far more by estate agents[}:)] than mechanics.
Reply ID 31583
quote:What about a "professional" wasting my time purely for their own benefit? An eye for an eye. Don't feel bad for them They don't feel bad for you.
Originally posted by Victor Meldrew
I have been waiting for someone to say that they have had agents come round to value houses before going it alone. How many wasted valuations do you think Estate Agents have to do before getting an assignment?? No, I am not an estate agent and no I do not have a problem with people trying to sell their house on there own, but I do feel that wasting a "professionals" time purely for your own benefit its wrong.
Reply ID 31585
quote:Actually, most of the continent are able to make whatever they like on top of what you want. My family have owned an estate agents for years. One member now works in Spain as an estate agent. Someone will come to him to sell a property - he will say he wants 200,000 Euros for it. If the agent gets 250k then he gets to keep 50k. If he gets 200k he makes nothing. And you thought UK agents were dodgy!
Originally posted by carlos fandango
1) Estate Agents here are relatively cheap. On the continent they try and charge 6% and when i was trying to buy a place it was also buyer pays.
Reply ID 31587
As with all service providers, you need to consider what actual value they are adding. With estate agents, they are only really adding extra marketing power. They have potential purchasers on their books from all over the country and people from outside the area will initially look for estate agents in the town for properties meeting their specification. Added to the local buyers they attract, they could argue that that alone is enough justification for their fee. If you can find prospective buyers yourself, understand the processes and are comfortable with the nitty gritty of agreeing the sale price, then why bother with an estate agent? Of course, if estate agents were regulated by the FSA (or similar), then we would have recourse if we used them and something went wrong.